Kate and Julia: Abducted in India by Lindsey Brooks

rapidly and, Julia thought, heatedly, gesturing in her direction. Jahngir responded levelly but before he had finished speaking the girl interrupted with an angry retort. Her dark, kohl-rimmed eyes went suddenly wide and she clapped a hand to her mouth.
    The Pathan spoke more sharply and the girl took a step back and bowed her head. Lifting her gaze to his she said something very softly, sighed at his head shake and walked slowly off down the long room towards an area divided by many wooden screens.
    “Come,” Jahngir said in English, and then switched to the other language to speak to the girl who had opened the door. He led Julia out onto a long balcony, down a staircase at one end and into a high-walled garden. She walked beside him beneath shady fruit trees, past green lawns and flowers and a gurgling fountain to an open-fronted stone building at the far end. Very apprehensive, Julia reluctantly let herself be drawn inside.
    In the centre of the large building was a rectangular pool a good twelve feet long and eight wide, sunk into the stone-paved floor. The place was a bathhouse. A frightening suspicion came to Julia, confirmed at once by Jahngir Khan pulling the cloak from her shoulders and laying it on a marble bench beside the pool.
    She leapt away from him with her heart hammering and covered her sex with both hands.
    “Come now. I’m sure even well brought up English girls remove all of their clothes before taking a bath” Jahngir said with an amused smile and a nod at the chemise that was all she wore. It barely reached her hips. Julia shook her head vigorously, too afraid to speak.
    “You’ll feel better with the dirt washed off, little murgah , and the bath will relax you. You’ve been coiled like a spring since I first set eyes on you. It must be very exhausting.” His eyes twinkled as he spoke.
    Why did he keep calling her that name? She finally found her voice. “I will not be a slave.” Her own daring surprised her, but the Pathan seemed unimpressed.
    “That is not the issue,” he said, still with a smile. “It is only about you taking a bath, or more accurately, I think, me seeing you undressing to take a bath. What if I don’t look?” He turned his back.
    Julia eyed the steamy tendrils drifting above the pool. The water did look very inviting. She was gritty with dust and her body ached, especially her belly, which had not stopped twisting and churning since she had awoken that morning. She darted a glance at her captor, and when he remained turned away she slipped off her chemise, hurried to the far end of the pool and down the steps into the water. It reached her waist, but she could feel a slope beneath her feet and waded towards the centre of the bath until it was lapping around the upper curves of her breasts. It felt wonderful. For a brief moment she surrendered to the comfort of the sensuously hot water cleansing and soothing her tense body. Then she looked up.
    The barbarian was standing at the opposite end of the bath, looking down at her and casually stripping off his clothes.

Chapter 4
    Julia looked away, but not before her horrified gaze had seen the width of Jahngir Khan’s shoulders, the dark hair covering his broad chest and the bulging muscles of his arms. She backed away until the points of her nipples bobbed above the water then dared retreat no further and crossed her arms over her breasts.
    Risking another glance made Julia’s breath catch in her throat. He was descending into the bath, as naked as she was and making no effort to conceal the snake-like appendage hanging between his muscular thighs. Outraged and scandalised by her first ever sight of a man’s penis, Julia kept her head down as a fierce blush burned her cheeks. Her belly gave an awful lurch as fear returned with full force.
    The Pathan laughed softly. “Don’t worry. I’m only here for the same reason as you – to be bathed.”
    Julia looked at him from the corner of one eye. He was up to his waist