By Judy Meadows
Genre: Spicy Contemporary
Romance
A trek through the mountains to Iran--with her
baby, her puppy, her secrets, and the man she must never love.
Two years ago,
abandoned, despondent, and pregnant, Olivia was pressured into letting her
sister and her sister’s husband, the sultan of Behruz, adopt her baby and
pretend he’s their natural child. Her sister died soon after the baby was born,
so Olivia has been able to raise her son after all. The sultan lets her stay in
the palace, but if she ever reveals the baby’s true parentage, he’ll make sure
she never sees the child again.
Now rebellion
threatens the country. And the baby’s real father, Rashid, has returned. He
arranges for Olivia and the baby he doesn’t know is his to escape with him to
Iran, traveling under cover of the nomad migration.
Can Olivia spend
nights in a tent with Rashid without succumbing to the attraction that has
always drawn her to him? Can she survive the trip without revealing her secret
and without losing her heart to him once again?
When the meal
was over, the women helped her put on her nomad costume. They wanted to do
everything. Their hands were all over her, pulling at her sweater and trying to
open the snap and zipper of her jeans. They giggled and exclaimed when they saw
her small, pale breasts, but the biggest source of delight turned out to be her
lacy briefs. She was relieved when they covered her with the new clothes.
“This reminds me
of a wedding,” Fatima said when they all stepped out of the tent. “When a
Qashami girl gets married, the women all help her dress in her wedding clothes
and then they escort her to her husband’s tent.”
Walking toward
the tent of her “husband,” Olivia felt like a bride. The mantle framed her face
and fell down her back like a bride’s veil, and the long skirt swayed with
every step. Rashid stood in front of the tent talking to Saddiq. He was wearing
a long shirt and a wool vest like those worn by the other men. Time stopped for
several heartbeats when his eyes fell on Olivia. He seemed to straighten up, to
become taller, and everything about him became very still.
She met his gaze
boldly. The petticoats swished around her legs when she walked. She felt the
swing of her arms, the sway of her hips, even the slight bounce of her breasts.
All the women stood behind her, waiting for Rashid’s reaction.
“Spin around
again like you did for us in the tent,” Fatima whispered to Olivia.
Rashid’s nomad
clothes made him look primitive and very male. His eyes were intent on her,
like the eyes of an animal watching its prey. He was motionless except for a
slight quivering of his nostrils.
Olivia lifted
her arms slowly, and the women stepped back away from her. Then she began the
pirouette. She moved as if in a trance. Everything seemed to happen in slow
motion. But still the skirt rose, its colors blurring as she spun, and she felt
dizzy and flushed when she stopped. She gave Rashid a smile that came from some
new knowledge.
“You are a
temptress,” he said in English. His eyes were dark pools that beckoned her to
tempt and be tempted.
“The ladies are
waiting to see what you think of their handiwork.”
He stepped
toward her and reached his hand up to touch her face at her temple. Then he
slid it down until it cupped the nape of her neck. A shiver of response rippled
through her, but she didn’t move.
“She is very
beautiful,” he said in Farsi. “The costume is perfect. She is perfect.” He
kissed her lightly on the lips. The speculations and remarks of thenomads
hushed. A crow cawed in the distance, and then it was silent too. She was
mesmerized. She felt possessed.
Midwife in Behruz
End of 2017
Laila’s trip to
Behruz, her father’s country and home of her early years, is meant to be one
last adventure before she joins her dreamboat fiancé in Texas. But Behruz casts
a spell on her. Her knowledge as a midwife is needed there. Serving women’s
health in a country where no one talks about “such things” presents interesting
challenges.
Majid, a doctor
trained in the States, has returned to Behruz to serve his people. He’s ready
to settle down, but because of old family wounds, American women are forbidden
to him. That’s no problem until Laila walks into his clinic—with a sassy smile,
a jar of semen, and a blond fiancé back home.
I grew up in
Minnesota but now live in a small town in Oregon with my husband Jim. I’m a
mom, grandma, wife, gardener, cat-lover, nerd, and traveler.
I’ve had a few
different careers, starting with work as a systems engineer for IBM after
college. Then there was my “earth-mother” stage. Jim and I had a farm in
northern California where we raised kids (one of our own and several foster
kids), apples, Asian pears, and raspberries. When we retired from farming and
moved to Oregon (when we should have been done with the parenting thing), we
added one more child, a 10-year-old girl adopted from a Russian orphanage.
Next, when our
new daughter was settled into the family, I became a doula and childbirth
educator. (See www.doulajudy.com and www.mexicanmidwives.com)
During 20 years of working as a doula, I helped 460 women in labor.
During a
sabbatical from career number one (computers), I spent a year in the Middle
East, traveling and camping in a Landrover. Later, Jim and I spent a year and a
half in Iran working as computer engineers on a project that was meant to
modernize the Iranian phone system (but was interrupted by the revolution). I
based the fictional country of Behruz on Iran and Afghanistan as I knew them
back then, before war and political turmoil altered both countries.
Now, at last,
I’m fulfilling a lifetime dream by writing. My second romance novel, Midwife in
Behruz, which will come out at the end of 2017, draws on my experience with
childbirth. I’ve just started plotting the final book in what will be a trilogy
of stories set in Behruz.
Thanks for the support!!!
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