Chapter 24 16: Broken Rule

Nana slumped on the sofa Fareeda was seated and grinned at him, "I had to sneak out today, Ummah said I'm not allowed to be visiting Ya Fareeda, I should let her stay in her husband s house. And for food, after this lunch, she told the chefs not to let me take any food apart from the one I'm going to eat, alone in the dining table with everyone." Furiously, Fareeda turned to look at her then back to Mujaheed with a murderous look. "I need to go back into that house and teach that stupid woman a lesson, Mujaheed. Who the hell did she think she was?" She wanted something to either smack to death or strangle to death, whichever way would do, only that strangle would be the best way to relive her anger. "Ya Allah, you just said you wanted Allah to set your affairs right, Fareeda. You shouldn't bother yourself about her, okay? There's a kitchen here, there's everything you ll need." She rolled her eyes furiously at him and turned her attention back to the tv, "Stop acting like a husband already. I'm not cooking anything, it s my father s house, and I dare her to stop me from doing what I want to do or eat the food cooked there." "She doesn t know how to cook." Nana mouthed at Mujaheed alone but unbeknownst to her, Fareeda saw her and the next thing she felt was a loud smack on her back and she yelped before she ran to Mujaheed because she knew, more would come and already, Fareeda was on her feet ready to set example of her first victim through the innocent girl. "Ya Mujaheed!" She screamed and hid behind him, he was on his feet too already while Nana firmly held his shirt. "Wallah Ya Mujaheed she s going to kill me, and I didn t say something wrong, did I? I didn t even talk to start with!" She whined from behind and with each move Fareeda tried at aiming at Nana, he blocked her from getting her while he chuckled at how more furious she looked. "Mujaheed, get out of my way! For the past few days this girl has been getting on my nerves, I need to force some senses into her head, you stupid girl!" Mujaheed looked at Nana from his back and whispered, "I ll stop her now, make sure you run out to save your life, okay?" She nodded her head at him and when he turned back at Fareeda, it looked to him as though they had been a family for so long with Nana as their daughter running away from getting a beating from her mother. He smiled and realized he had only one option to save Nana from this wrathful woman now. "Fareeda! A mice beside your leg!" He shouted and she screamed at the pitch of her voice and in a swift move, she was already on him, holding tightly as she kept lifting her feet to save herself from the mice. "Nana, run out for your life!" He shouted at Nana with his laughter echoing through evolving through the room. It wasn't until Nana was out of the living room did she notice what he did and she peeled herself away from his body. "What did you just do?" She asked and felt his hands around her back, pulling her back to him. "I saved an innocent girl from getting killed, I should be paid for this." He said, and she realized how close they were. Not even an inch apart, the only thing left was for him to place her head on his chest and that would be all. She would have to fully hug him while standing for the first time. "Let go of me," she tried to get out of his hold but he only tightened his hold on her while he wrapped his hands around her waist and Fareeda wanted to cough all her intestines out. What was this man doing? How was he making her feel something as if this was her first time doing this? She knew no one had ever kissed her on her forehead, and it was justifiable that she felt that kind of way. But for this, she didn t know why she was feeling this way. He shook his head stubbornly and brought her even closer, deeply staring into her eyes with a smile. "I don t want to let you go. I want to keep on holding onto you this way." She looked away from his eyes, she would rather stare at his broad chest than those eyes that unnerved each and every fold of her soul. She kept struggling to get out of his hold, "You re breaking my rule, Mujaheed, let me go." At this point, her chest was resting comfortably on his and she was aware of his mahogany eyes on her face, wanting to see a reaction. No, she would rephrase that, he wanted to see whether he affected her or not. "I'm not breaking any rule, in islam I mean. You re my wife, I just want to know how it feels like to hold onto a woman this way, that s all." She looked up at him and he almost drooled at the way the honey color of her eyes looked so smooth and comforting. Her eyes filled with so much innocence and purity he had ever seen in his life. She was aware of his hold that had tightened on her waist but Fareeda couldn t ask him to let go, she was even tired of struggling to get out of his hold because all her attempts kept proving futile. "Still, but you agreed to adhere to my rules. Please let me go, you ve felt enough if all you want is to know how it feels." Her heart beat erratically against her ribcage when she saw the way he was slowly leaning on her face and he was a few inches away from her lips when she swiftly turned her face away from him and rested it on his chest while she weakly wrapped her hands around him as well. "Mujaheed! What are you trying to do?!" She asked, feeling the way her heart was beating to the point that she doubted if she wasn t going to pass out in any second from now. He looked down at how she had pinned her face on his chest, not wanting to stare up at him and he smiled softly. She was shy, he loved that in her. He had never thought that she would be shy when he wanted to do something which he didn't really want to do, just wanting to see how she was going to react, that was all. "Nothing, I just want to increase the rate at which your heart beat, I could clearly feel it." She noticed the way they were hugged with each other and she wouldn t argue with him because of that, she could feel his heartbeat too, the sensation it made on her skin was heartfelt. "I could feel yours too, it s beating rapidly." She spoke softly and looked up to face him after she had mustered enough courage to do that. He stared back into her eyes without saying a word and she spoke, "I m hungry, should we eat?" She shamelessly shook her head, "I mean, I want to eat." He chuckled and softly released her, "You ll lose nothing if you said we, Fareeda." He guided her back to the sofa and she sat down before he served her himself and handed her the plate while she softly rolled her eyes at him with her lips pursed into a pout. "If you don t stop pouting your lips that way, I'm afraid but you re forcing me, Fareeda." He warned while he handed her the spoon and she curled her lips back into her mouth. "I m not pouting, it s only your eyes." She rolled her eyes at him and Mujaheed knew he would have to do something about that eye roll sooner or later. ? She came out of the bathroom with her nightdress while she carried out her skin care routine, applying the lotion she always slept with on her face. It was late at night, and since after Isha, Mujaheed went out and he hadn t been back, which she found comforting. Because she had enough time to have her phone call with Adam and now she was going to sleep peacefully. She knew he knew for a fact that she would throw a tantrum when he slept in the chamber... she wasn t done thinking when she heard his voice coming in. "Assalamu Alaikum, Fareeda are you there?" He asked and stayed by the door. Finally, a rule he was adhering too. "Yes, what is it?" She asked from where she stood, staring at her reflection through the mirror. Through the mirror, she watched as he came into the room and stared at her. "Makeup at this time of the day?" He asked, and almost immediately, she shook her head and turned to look at him. "No, have you ever seen me with makeup apart from lip balm and kohl?" He shook his head either and it was just occurring to him that he had never seen her wearing makeup. "I hate makeup and I love my face the best when I'm just wearing those two, not even a powder." She folded her hands on her chest and followed his every move, "What are you doing here?" Mujaheed flashed her a confused look before he answered her, "What do you mean? Of course I'm going to take my bathe and sleep, what else can I do at this hours? Even before I got married to you, the police guarded the house at night." She stood up with her hands raised in the air, "I know, but that s not what I'm interested in. You aren't sleeping here, right? I mean, in this room. Maybe in the living room?" She asked while her eyes slowly darted to the door to show him what she clearly meant. He scoffed and without a word, walked to the bathroom with his nightdress in hand. Fareeda watched his retreating back and sniggered also, what did he think he was doing? They both knew there was no way they were going to sleep on the same bed and he wouldn't expect her to sleep on anything apart from the bed, right? And she should also be the only one on the it. She was already on the bed while she finished her daily routine when he came out and none of them uttered a word until Mujaheed was done applying his perfumes and she wondered what kind of man he was. She hissed underneath her breath and laid down on the bed, pulling the duvet to her chest she quickly thrown it off when she saw Mujaheed walking toward the bed.