The Lioness Page 8

  “Touché!” he kissed her again. “Come on baby, lets’ go find that water fall. It makes me feel like a modern day explorer.”

  Rose climbed back up behind Ty on the big machine. “It’s still kinda primitive, rough bridges going across the river and jungle all around us.”

  “Good, that sounds fine. Hope not too many backpackers are there.”He turned over the dirt bike. “I want to make out.”

  Rose squeezed his waist as they moved on to the turn off. “Is that all you think of?”

  “Yup, I have to get all of you now, it will have to keep me going for those two weeks that we’re apart.”

  “Don’t even say it,” she said as she buried her face in his back.

  **********

  They stood behind one of the tiers of the waterfalls and looked out. Ty had his arms tight around Rose’s waist. He breathed in deep. He could smell her honeysuckle soap and the freshness of her. They were wet but surprisingly not cold.

  He let his hands caress her as he held her with her back to him. They had found no one near so he knew at the moment no one could see them really. God, he wished he could take her here but she was still very shy like that and in reality he wouldn’t want the chance of someone coming behind the waterfall and catching them. Rose meant too much to him, she was too precious to treat that lightly. He ached for her like he hadn’t had her in weeks though. He knew he would have to put that out of his mind when he got back to Iraq. For now they had time and he was going to love her as much as he could till then.

  He let his hands go down and press her into him and her moan told him her feelings, her needs as she moved against him as she moaned her words.

  Turning her around Ty looked down into her eyes. They were a bit unfocused and with her hair wet she looked so good, so sexy. He caught her lips and kissed her deep, letting his tongue meet hers, dancing, mating as she pressed up to him. Her hand going up the back of his neck bringing him in harder.

  “Rose, you keep this up baby, and I’m going to take you regardless of....”

  “Maybe that’s what I want, Ty. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to make love in a place where we might get caught. Where there is a possibility of someone walking in.” She kissed him back, letting her hand travel till it got to his very evident boner.

  Ty arched as she caressed through his jeans. “Rose, we better stop, as much as I don’t....” Oh, if she kept that up he was going to take her against that wall and let her have it. Her little fingers were insistent, pulling, caressing. “Oh, Rose, I don’t want you to stop but I don’t want someone coming here, finding us… making love.”

  Rose had never acted like this, but Ty brought this out in her and she wanted it so bad, wanted it here. For once in her life she didn’t want to be careful. All the times she had worked with men, out in the field and they had treated her like a china doll. Like the little sister who needed to be protected. For once in her life she wanted to take the chance, do something risky with the man who loved her. Make love under a waterfall. Have him love her right here.

  She pulled them back a bit and she went down on her knees. She started to work his jeans open and she caught him with her lips.

  “God, Rose, how can I stop when you’re doing this.” He moaned and arched as she took him hard, taking him again and again. “I really should stop us.”

  “But you won’t.” She said as she looked up at him with an impish look on her face. She came up and kissed his lips, letting her tongue taste him, licking in, licking his lips. Letting her lips trail around his face, hearing his moans as she touched him, as she kissed him. “I want a quickie Ty, to hold us. Take me hard and fast, now, here.”

  She turned and bent slightly and felt his lips on her back as he lifted her tee, letting his lips caress her back, his knee going between her legs. “Are you sure? I can stop us now.”

  “Don’t stop, till you cum,” Rose said in a rush of words.

  How was he supposed to act sensibly when she said she wanted a quickie, hard and fast? “Lord have mercy baby.” He threw away the last ounce of caution and entered her hard like she wanted and he held her for a few seconds as she whimpered and moaned. Then they moved as he kissed her back. He let his hand caress her breast. His cock stroked her, letting each thrust go in her harder and harder. Again and again till he could tell she was slick and getting tighter, moaning. God the acoustics were making the sounds of her bounce. He hoped they weren’t entertaining anyone outside.

  “Are you almost there Ty? I’m going to cum, hold me tighter.” She met his thrust and bowed her head. He saw she was biting her hand so she wouldn’t be too loud. He held her as she let go. He could feel wave after wave hit him, milk him till his head was spinning with her and her closeness and the act of their love behind the waterfall. He was blown away that his shy, sweet Rose had wanted to take this chance and make love like this.

  He could feel himself swell, his blood beating to the primitive beat, wanting release. He would fill her. He thrust again hard, then harder as she hung in his arms limply, but he could hear her as she moaned and said broken words. Then he looked out through the waterfall and he saw a small rainbow. He thrust into her hard one last time and with that filled her.

  Chapter 10

  Rose lay on the rock and soaked up the heat. They had eaten their bag lunch that she had secured from the place where they were staying. Now she felt very sleepy. She was stuffed and she had just been loved behind a waterfall. The ultimate fantasy. Something she had always pictured but in a book or a movie, never with her as the one doing it.

  She felt his hand and, turning her head and shielding her eyes, she saw his dear face. She loved him, loved him with her very soul. She would do anything for him, she knew that, lay down her life, if she had to. Where in the world did that thought come from. Then she got a chill. She was sweating, ready for another dip and she felt a chill but not from being cold, it was fear. So raw and on the surface she needed his arms about her.

  “Hold me Ty....”

  Ty had been watching her as she snoozed in the sun and he just had to touch her, make sure he wasn’t dreaming. Yup, she was real and what they had just done was very real.

  God, he still couldn’t get over the fact that they had just made wild love behind the waterfall. Now he wanted her again but it could wait.

  He reached out and touched her and she looked up. She was so beautiful, laying there, her hair looking like a flame, alight with color and heat from the sun. Then he saw a look go across her face, so fast, he thought he imagined it until she spoke, just above a whisper but he heard her. “Hold me Ty.”

  They sat there, him holding her, stroking her head. He sang to her till he felt her relax enough that she moved a bit in his arms. “Thank you Ty, I don’t know what came over me, but I needed your touch so badly.”

  “I’ll always hold and sing to you, whenever you are afraid. Don’t you ever worry.” He kissed her hair and smoothed it back.

  “How about we go find those ruins....”

  “Okay, sounds good.”

  **********

  Ty would never tire of holding Rose and he had to get his holds in now, with his leaving less than a week away.

  They had been just sitting there on the old balcony of the ruins of the Prince’s hideaway for his mistresses. Then Prince Sihanouk had quite the life style of the rich and famous. He brought parties of people up to his mountain playground, where they had the casinos and restaurants fit for any king. That all ended when the Khmer Rouge took over. Now the home where they sat and the casino back up the road lay in ruins. What was left was covered with mold.

  The sun was strong but the breeze was just right so they sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts. Ty would feel Rose take a deep breath and then sigh. He knew she was having a hard time with his leaving soon. They didn’t talk about it but he felt her growing anxiety. He had to hand it to her, though. When she turned to him she was always okay. She would push it back and enjoy him t
o the fullest. She reminded him of Samid’s wife back in Northern Afghanistan. Even with all she had gone through she still smiled.

  He tried to think of something to take her mind off of his leaving. “What got you into photography, besides the obvious?”

  “Well you know Dad worked during the Vietnam War. He’s friends with Tim Page. Our home was always filled with people from the field. I would sit and fall asleep listening to them and their stories of being in the field, out in the thick of things. I loved it, ate it right up. Then one day Catherine Leroy came. She was so tiny. Small like my wizened grandmother from Ireland, but there was something about her that just made you sit up and take notice. She came quite a bit when she was in the area. She would sit and talk with my parents for hours. She was the one who really made me want to be a photojournalist. Her camera of choice was a Leicas, my first one was a Pentax. I also was learning to work in the dark room so I could do my own photos. I really think that’s what kept me out of trouble all of my teen years. I had friends who were doing drugs but I would only smoke pot, drink a few beers. I wasn’t into frying my brain.”

  Ty sat there holding his Rose, to think she had smoked pot. Merciful heavens, as his mother would say. “To think, you smoking pot, and I was trying to shield you from the opium in Afghanistan.”

  Rose started laughing, “It’s not like I was a hard core drug user, just once in a while.”

  Ty gave her a squeeze. “I know, I know it’s just, well, not you.”

  “What’s me? What image do you have of me, or had of me, before you knew me?”

  “Well when I first got wind of you and your work, I thought good lord, another Leroy. Your work is a lot like hers in many ways. You convey something when you are shooting. The very essence of the life they are in at that moment. It’s like you could walk right into that photo and pick up where you left off. The photo of the child holding his dying mother up in the north of Afghanistan was heartbreaking. I cried when I saw that.”

  Rose nodded “I was bawling as I shot the pictures. We came upon them and the ambush and we already knew she wouldn’t make it. I was crying and my translator and the Northern Alliance soldiers were saying in the background, ‘There is nothing we can do, it’s Allah’s will Little Sister, don’t cry....’ I was crying for the child.”

  “What happened to that boy?”

  He told us he had relatives in Kabul so we kept him with us after we buried his mother. He seemed to grow up over the next couple days. I keep in touch as best as I can and send funds so he can go to school. I told him not to go in the army. Learn, get an education, which can change the world better than a rifle.”

  Chapter 11

  Ty kissed Rose’s head and pulled her in closer. His Rose, changing the world one person at a time. He had known she liked Leroy’s work, admired her, but was glad she wasn’t like her in some of her ways. Leroy was a tough cookie on the field, no nonsense. She swore like a sailor, or worse, and she had quite the libido. Thank goodness Rose wasn’t like that. Rose had worked in areas that were really off limits to women but because of her sweet personality she had been accepted after a given time and protected like she was a treasured sister or wife. The Northern Alliance had called her Little Sister. They had beaten a Taliban man who had made the wrong remark after being captured. If it hadn’t been for Rose they would have cut his throat. These battle hardened men would go to any lengths to get what she needed. He saw that when she lay sick and he had feared for her life. She lay for days taking barely anything in, not able to keep anything down. The men would travel for miles to get some little ingredient, even if it meant that they went through dangerous territory or without. They would have killed for her.

  That had been the catalyst of their trouble in Banda Aceh. There he had worried over her again. She still didn’t look strong but she had refused to slow down. She had tried to shoulder the responsibilities of helping, along with shooting pictures and writing. She got hardly any sleep and hardly ate. Said the stench turned her stomach, said she’d be fine.

  The sickness came on so quickly. They had been back to work for a couple of weeks, having taken a rest in Pakistan. They had finally been able to go work up in the north, out away from any towns or help. If they needed to get out quick it would have to be with a helicopter. It was also the beginning of November. It was cold and snow was on the ground. Rose didn’t say it but Ty knew she was cold all the time.

  The first day Rose slept longer. Ty was up, knocking at her door. They had to be extra careful here, in a house populated by Northern Alliance troops, all hardened warriors of General Ahmmad Shah Masood. They were in the most sacred place of the Northern alliance. The house was located in Khodja Bahaudin, the same house where the General or the Lion of Panjshir was killed by men posing as journalists.

  It was because of Rose that they were now here. Her father had met Masood a few times and Rose had been told whenever she wanted to go there she would have very easy access. She had arrived the first time too late. She, along with the rest of the world, had been shocked and saddened to hear the great warrior had been struck down. She had told Ty how she just cried when she saw the news on the computer. She was in Pakistan waiting for transportation to go see him. She would have been flown in on a Russian made M-I-8, which was how they had arrived this time.

  He remembered the first day they had arrived. The men were quiet, a bit wary but very respectful because of who she was and the daughter of a friend of their former leader. So she had been given the best room to stay in.

  Ty looked at his bedside travel clock. It was six in the morning. Usually Rose was up, having knocked on his door to wake him then going to the kitchen to start the tea water.

  One of the men was always up for morning prayers before them to light the fires so it would be warmer and Rose wouldn’t have to start the fire.

  He got up. She must have knocked but he slept more soundly after their lovemaking , the night before. He had poured all his feeling into loving her.

  As he pulled on his layers and then a turtleneck and sweater, he thought of how she looked when they made love, trying to be quiet. With her big eyes she had made love with her eyes, then whispering how she felt till he thought he’d explode. They barely moved, afraid the mattress would give them away.

  Rose had a way of painting erotic word pictures so he nearly went mad with loving her as they made love while hardly moving.

  Ty rolled up his sleeping bag and went out. The place was quiet. He stood and listened and then heard voices further on. He went out into the common room and saw a lot of the men sitting around having tea and nan. No Rose.

  “Ty, Rose isn’t up yet?”

  “I don’t know. I just got up and realized I’d overslept. She usually knocks at my door before she goes to make the tea.”

  “Maybe she’s not well,” one of the men said. His words hung on the cold air. Those words sent chills up and down Ty’s spine, not in a good way. All those chills landed in the pit of his stomach just like lead.

  Ty stood there. He thought back to yesterday and how she looked. She hadn’t looked good yesterday but she said it was nothing. “I’ll go check.”

  He walked out and back down the hall, past the area where Masood had been when the supposed cameraman had taken his life along with the General. He reached Rose’s room and knocked. He didn’t hear anything, then a faint muffled reply. He opened the door and it took a few minutes to adjust to the darkness. Then he saw her face and the change within the night.

  Going in he closed the door and flipped on her battery powered lamp. “Rose, what’s the matter? I overslept and then realized you hadn’t knocked. The men said they hadn’t seen you.”

  Rose tried to get up but she doubled over. “Oh Ty, I’m so sick. Please forgive me.” She got up quick grabbed her robe and ran for the door. She was out the door and down the hall before he could do or say anything.

  He sat there and thought, maybe some tea would help. He got up and walked out to
the kitchen. Noori was there talking with one of the men. “Rose is sick.” Both looked up and both looked very concerned.

  “Not a good time, it’s getting cold and we have too much sand in the air. If she needed to get back out it would take too long by ground. Helicopter would be the only way but we’re grounded.”

  Ty looked at the two as he made a pot of strong tea, just how Rose liked it. “She should be fine in a day.”

  Noori walked with Ty to the door. “Let me know how she is, if there is anything we can get for her.”

  “I think this will help her.”

  He walked till he got to her door and noticed she was back but had left the door ajar. Walking in he saw her laying all curled up. Putting the tea down Ty walked over to her bed but sat on the chair next to her. Better to keep up appearances. “Honey, are you feeling better?”

  She looked up from the bed, her face pale and pinched. Her voice was horse. “I’m not sure but I think I have dysentery. I’m not sure though, because I’m heaving too.”

  Ty brought his hand up to feel her forehead. “Well you’re not hot. Do you think a cup of tea would help?” Rose felt her stomach clutch at the sound of tea. “Mm, don’t know if I could keep that down. I’ll try, maybe some nan too. I need to get something in my system, I feel so weak.”

  Ty got up. “Come on, let’s get you up and see if you can keep some of that tea down. Then if you do I’ll get the nan. I’ll go ask Noori if there is any broth around.”

  Rose tried to smile.

  Ty tucked the blankets around her and then got the tea and poured into a mug. Rose traveled with her own. It had seen a lot of miles and would probably see a lot more. “Here take some of that, no milk, milk is not good for you when you’re sick.”

  He could see Rose trying to make a face at him but she really was sick and one minute she was trying to stick out her tongue then next she was holding her stomach.

  “Oh, Ty, help me up, I need to get to….”