Continental Divide by Dyanne Davis

really wanted him to storm away from her either. Ah
hell! How about buying a girl a drink first? Tanya shook her
head.
    Dang, how did he think his announce was
going to go over with her? He couldn’t just decide that he wanted
her and that was that. And he was right, she didn’t come to
Pakistan for a poor relation. If Imran was deliberately screwing up
her chances with one of Hamid’s brothers she wasn’t going to take
him by default. If she did, how the heck was he ever going to
believe that she’d had a thing for him the moment she’d met him?
Imran has issues himself and getting a woman on the rebound
eventually would not set well with him. They both needed a moment
to regroup.
    A flutter began in her chest and worked its
way down. Her womb clenched and wetness filled her panties. Okay so
he was the only man in a long time to make her have that reaction.
No matter how handsome Hamid’s brothers were they had not made her
heart flutter.
    Tanya bounced around on the balls of her
feet for a few moments throwing shadow punches seeing each of them
connect with Imran’s head. Okay, so that the way he wanted to play
it, did he? She strutted back into the house and promptly went to
the portable DVD player she’d brought and popped in Cupid’s
Shuffle and started dancing. As the room turned to watch her
she laughed and put an extra wiggle in her step. She didn’t care if
none of them liked her. This was supposed to be a party and she was
going to party. She gave Imran a smirk and saw that Heaven was
watching her.
    She waved her hand toward her friend and in
a moment Heaven was beside her doing the cupid shuffle holding her
baby in her arms. Tanya laughed when Hamid came and joined in
taking the baby from Heaven. So it wasn’t just her that he didn’t
want holding the baby. Hamid didn’t even want the mother holding
his son. She ignored the frowns on the faces of Heaven’s in-laws
and wondered had Heaven never danced the entire time she'd been in
Pakistan. That was just wrong. She was going to have to teach her
friend how to have fun again. She wiggled over to Ali and grabbed
his hand, pulling him into the line, teaching him the moves,
smiling as he attempted to do the shuffle. She was surprised he
picked it up so quickly. Soon everyone in the room was doing the
shuffle, even Fatima and Imran.
    As Tanya kicked and turned her gaze met
Imran. She moved toward him. “I’m sorry for the things I said
outside, the way I acted. You’re right about my feelings for you,”
she whispered. “I don’t know if it’s fate or not, but I do want to
believe in it.”
    He smiled and for a long moment she was
still. It was as if the room had suddenly emptied out, as if they
were the only two people in the world. Her heart thudded and she
missed a step. ‘ Wow’ she couldn’t help thinking. She needed
to hurry and get home but she still had five weeks left. She didn’t
think she had five weeks of resolve in her. She didn’t know if
she’d be able to hold out if Imran wanted to push things. Heck, she
didn’t know if she wanted to hold out. There was no use in lying,
she was attracted to him. Wasn’t it just like her to fall for the
one member of Hamid’s family that didn’t have money?

    ***

    A breath of fresh air, a party girl, a gold
digger, a woman he’d made sure his family didn’t like and now what?
He was falling for her. He couldn’t keep his eyes from following
her movements. Was this truly fate, he wondered? Shouldn’t Tanya be
able to pursue her dreams of building homes for disadvantaged
children? It was a good thing. He thought also of her promise, her
family obligation to care for the children of her cousin should it
become necessary. Maybe he would not pursue her. Then she turned
and smiled and told him she was sorry, that she was attracted to
him. He smiled back wishing they were someplace a lot more private.
As he thought about his earlier notion of not pursing her, his
smile turned into a grin. Maybe