Bollywood Nightmare (6 page)

I looked more closely at him and the newspaper. I caught the date on the front page.

I blinked, shook my head and looked again. No, the date was still the same. I had definitely lost a whole day somewhere along the line. Bloody hell, what had the beggars knocked me out with?

I had no real idea of time, I could see windows high above me, tiny, long and thin but they were evidently so grimy that they let little to no light in. Either that or it really was the middle of the night. In which case I’d lost closer to thirty-six hours. When I thought about being out cold for so long I started to feel well and truly afraid for the first time. They could have done all sorts of evil things to me before I even woke. Men who would drug a woman and leave her unconscious for so many hours were not men I wanted to mess with. I had to escape. Had to.

I heard a rustling from Aseem’s chair and noticed him taking a bite from a sandwich. My stomach rumbled.

“Aseem,” I said, “I’m hungry.”

He looked up reluctantly and sighed.

“Have they not fed you?”

“No,” I replied, “I’ve only been awake a little while but I think, I think I’ve been here for much longer than that.”

“I believe you’re right.” His brows knitted and he bit his bottom lip. I supposed he was contemplating how much trouble he’d get into with his masters. “Okay, you can share my sandwich.” He stood, put down the paper and grabbed a Ziploc bag firmly in between his fingers.

When he reached me he sat down on the bench beside me.

“I’m afraid it isn’t much.” He offered me two half slices of bread, the contents being brown with a stripe of purple through it.

“Peanut butter and jelly,” he said in response to my obviously quizzical look, “it’s an American thing but it’s deceptively good.”

“Okay,” I smiled, “but I’m a little tied up, how am I to eat?”

“Good point,” he replied, “I will have to feed you.” I had hoped he’d untie me but I guess I shouldn’t have expected it to be so easy. He held out the sandwich and I leant forward and took a bite. I couldn’t exactly complain or demand something else even though the contents sounded incredibly bizarre.

I was pleasantly surprised by the crunchy, salty peanut combined with the sharp but sweet tang of the grape-flavoured jam. It was quite pleasant. “It’s pretty good, actually.”

“Mm,” he agreed, “I like them. Good job really.” He sighed. “I rarely eat anything else.”

He offered the sandwich to me again and I took another bite.

“You’re a prisoner here too, aren’t you?”

Aseem tightened up as if my words put him back on his guard, then he let out a long, soft breath.

“Yes, yes, I am.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You really are a kind soul,” He smiled, his dark eyes sparkling with emotion. “I am your jailer but yet you express sympathy for
me
.”

I shrugged. “We’re in the same boat, really. You don’t want to be here and I certainly don’t. I can’t see much difference between us.”

“You are a good person. You know my name but I do not know yours…”

“I’m Kiya,” I replied, “Kiya Khan.”

“Ah, you’d not be the daughter of Rahul Khan?”

I nodded. “Yes, how did you know that?”

“I can see it in your eyes and your face. You look like your dad.”

He offered me more of the sandwich. I took another bite.

“I saw a few of his movies when I lived back home with my…yes, well. I know Rahul Khan, he is a good actor.”

“Thanks, I’m an actor now, too. I’m here to star in a big Bollywood movie. I think people might be missing me by now.”

“You have the beauty for Bollywood,” Aseem nodded. “I do not wish to sound fatalistic, but I don’t think that it matters how much you are missed. No one will ever find you here.”

“Why not? Surely there are clues leading to this warehouse? I am sure the police will be on my trail right now.”

“Oh, I do not deny that, Kiya.” His voice made my name sound like a blessing. “The cops will be looking for you, they just won’t find this place. It’s hidden.”

“In a wood?”

“Well, sort of. I shouldn’t really say but as we are both prisoners going nowhere I might as well tell you. This place is magic. It is
in
the world but not
of
the world. You need a special key to get in and get out.”

“What do you mean, magical?” I, of course, automatically believed him. When you’d been brought up with magic pervading everything, you knew that there were many wonders of the world that couldn’t be explained without its presence. I couldn’t let Aseem know that I was so au fait with such things though.

“I mean that if you open the door that you will see nothing but a chasm before you. A never-ending blackness that stretches out forever. However I have seen Josh and his brother Joe open the door with some mystical thing they have around their necks and they walk out into a street like any other in America.”

“Weird. Aseem, you do realise what you’re asking me to believe, don’t you?”

“Why would I lie to you, Kiya? I am only telling you so that you don’t live in false hope. You can’t escape this place. I can’t and I have tried, oh how I’ve tried. I even walked out into the chasm once, or tried to. I didn’t even get my big toe out of the door, it was like I’d walked into a brick wall. If I had pushed on, I’d have died. There is no way out. You’re stuck here with me.”

“Oh, that’s not good,” I replied. “Can you show me this door and the chasm?”

“No, I can’t. I can’t go against their wishes. Kiya, believe me, I wish I could but they are evil beings and I can’t risk their wrath.”

“Okay, Aseem, I understand. I had to ask though. I’m scared, Aseem. I don’t know what they want me for.”

“I know you’re frightened, I wish I could help, I really do, Kiya. But they have me trapped. If I go against them they will hurt my mother. I could not bear it if anything bad happened to her.”

“Is there nothing you can do, Aseem?”

“No.”

“All right, I’m sorry for upsetting you after you so kindly shared your food with me.”

“It’s okay, here, you have the last piece.”

“Thank you.”

I felt his fingertips graze my lip when he fed the final bite to me. My skin blazed with his touch. A drop of jam dripped down as I chewed and splashed down onto the bottom of my cheek. I tried to reach it with my tongue but couldn’t stretch.

“Erm, I think I’ve made a mess,” I said.

“A little,” he smiled, “let me get that for you.” He gently ran a finger over my cheek and scooped up the jam then, as our gazes locked, he offered the finger to me to lick clean. It seemed like such an intimate thing to do but hesitantly I lapped at his finger, then, with increasing bravery brought on by dizzying lust, I slipped my lips around his finger and sucked on it. I knew from his moan and the way his eyes fluttered closed that he did not miss the erotic symbolism in the act.

I released his finger from my mouth and his hand just hung there between us for a moment. Then ever so slowly he reached out and stroked his warm hand down my cheek.

“You’re cold,” he said and reached out the other hand to rub down my arm. He added, “And wet. You need warming up. I have no blankets, I am afraid, so this will have to do.”

He embraced me then. Pulled me close to him and wrapped his arms around me.

I hadn’t shed a tear but as the warmth of another human being caring for me hit I sobbed loudly and cried into his shoulder.

“There, there,” he said, rubbing his hand up and down my back, “there, there.” I was sure he wanted to comfort me but he didn’t have the words to do so, he couldn’t promise me it’d all be all right because he’d just told me there was no way for me to escape my prison. I pushed closer to him as emotion overwhelmed me. I might not see Mum or Dad ever again, or Johnny even. They could kill me or torture me or worse and I couldn’t escape.

“I’m sorry,” I sniffed, “I…I…I don’t know what’s come over me.”

“No, no, it’s fine.” He pulled back a little and I lifted my head from his shoulder to look him squarely in the eyes. “I’ve shed many tears myself.” He lifted both hands to my face and wiped away my tears with his thumbs. “I understand.”

I didn’t understand what happened next. I’d always been sceptical when people used the excuse ‘but it just happened’. Things didn’t just happen. You made a conscious decision to do something. Well, that was what I thought until the day I stretched forward and kissed my jailer.

He stiffened with shock at first but I didn’t back off and seconds later his lips were moving against mine and passion was exploding in my mind and my body and I just wanted to keep kissing him forever. His lips tasted sweet and salty and were addictive like chocolate. I couldn’t pull away. His hands slipped into my hair and pulled me tighter. My hands were bound between us but I wriggled my fingers into his top and clutched at it, desperate to keep him close to me.

It sounded crazy and it was crazy. I had never felt so turned on in my life before and I was being turned on by the man who was keeping me captive. I didn’t think about that though, I just submerged myself in the emotions that coursed through me. I wanted to forget the danger of the situation. I didn’t want to think about what would happen when the guys in charge returned. I just wanted comfort and Aseem was eager to provide it. He’d been cooped up alone for years. No wonder he couldn’t resist. I felt as if I couldn’t think. I was just taken over by my senses and they told me I wanted to have sex and I wanted it right then and there.

He seemed to be in agreement because his lips slipped down my cheek onto my neck and into the soft curve of my shoulder. His hands roamed down my back, cupped my hips and then lifted up to stroke at my breasts. I’d never been touched so confidently, so reverently before. I felt like a prized work of art.

“Your top is ruined,” he sighed, “wet and dirty.”

Without another word he gripped the material at the neck and ripped down.

“Hey,” I yelped, “this is all I’ve got to wear.”

“I’ll lend you a top, you can’t wear this again.”

“Well, no, I can’t now,” I grumbled when what was my T-shirt fell back and dangled uselessly from my tied wrists. So Aseem ripped again and again until the ruined material fell to the floor. “And what about when the two evil dudes come back? What are they going to think of me wearing your clothes? They’ll kill you for fraternising with me.” The seriousness of the situation hit me hard. I didn’t want Aseem to put himself in danger for me.

“I can stop if you want,” he panted, “I can leave you here half naked and cold if you like or I can warm you up, the choice is yours. I’ll tell the guys that you struggled and ripped your clothing with your thrashing about. They’ll believe that, they’re not exactly bright sparks.”

I thought about it for a moment. “Warm me up, please, Aseem.” I wanted him to. It was completely unwise, totally the opposite of the sensible thing to do, but I was desperate for him to fuck me.

“Since you ask so nicely…” He gripped my naked breasts in his hands. When they had kidnapped me I had been asleep, so I was wearing my nightwear and I didn’t wear underwear in bed. So once the flimsy top was ripped I was half naked. “Are you feeling any hotter now?”

“Oh yes,” I moaned as he tweaked a nipple with his fingers, “oh, fuck yes.”

“Good.”

His mouth scorched a trail down to my breasts. Each erotic caress sent pleasure screaming through my veins and I wanted so badly to reach out and touch him in return but I couldn’t, not properly, as my hands were fastened tightly before me. It was frustrating but also arousing. Aseem could do anything to me, anything at all and I would be all but powerless to resist.

He ran his hands over my hips and dipped down into the elasticated waistband of my trousers. I held my breath but he stopped in his tracks.

“This isn’t going to work, hang on a moment.”

He got up and walked away from me. I wanted to shout out, to protest but the words dried up on my lips. I should have been scared but something deep inside me knew that Aseem could be trusted. I wondered why he’d stopped. Maybe he didn’t really find me desirable? I thought he could have been off getting an overcoat to cover me and keep me warm. He came back with a tired and holey blanket. My heart sank, he did want to cover me up!

“It’s not perfect but it should help a little,” Aseem said, but instead of wrapping the material around my shoulders he dropped it to the floor. “It will be much easier to touch you and warm you if we both lie down on the floor. Here, let me help you down.”

“Aseem, couldn’t you untie me?”

“I don’t know, Kiya. I think you’re enjoying being tied up just like that. I’m right, aren’t I?”

I lowered my head as my cheeks flushed. He used just the very tip of one finger to tip my chin up and bring my gaze to meet his own.

“You like it, don’t you?”

I felt my head nod of its own volition. I couldn’t deny it. As scared as I had been when I’d first woken in the presence of those disgusting brutes I couldn’t deny that I was completely turned on, tied up and at Aseem’s mercy. I was scared that my kidnappers would return at any moment but the adrenaline running through my veins just seemed to make me braver. Johnny would say I was just being stupid. Stupid Djinn, invading my thoughts at such a moment.

“I thought so. I like it too. You look so sexy bound like that and I just want to use and abuse you for my pleasure.”

I licked my lips and smiled. Aseem stroked my cheek then proceeded to help me down onto the blanket on the cold, hard concrete floor. It wasn’t the perfect romantic setting for a woman’s first fuck but I didn’t care. I might have been a Bollywood actress and working in a world of fantasy but I didn’t expect my real life to be like a script.

I had a man who turned me on, who seemed to care for me and was turned on by me and that was all I needed, that was all that really mattered. The setting was not of any consequence at all. My heart was hammering, fear and arousal coalesced and made me feel dizzy.

“Are you still cold?” he asked and settled himself beside me.

“Yes,” I replied and a shiver ran down my spine as if to illustrate the fact.