Chapter 6 Five

Putting on a change of clothes and a piece of cloth, we brought a relatively large rock on the river's edge. Mirza and I went into the water with our clothes. We would take them off when we finished bathing and then wash them if the clothes were still suitable for us to wear again because they weren't. Rarely tear our clothes in several places and cannot be reused. I felt fitter when my whole body, down to my hair, sank into the river water. I looked for Mirza's figure, who was not far from me.

"Mirza," I called in a not-so-loud voice while looking around me; my eyes caught her figure quite far from my current position. I shouted her name again in a loud and loud voice while my hands were at the corners of my lips so that the sound of my screams was focused. Mirza waved at me and then said while shouting, "The water is a little warmer here; come here!" I formed my lips into a straight line while putting my hands on my hips; this river water can't experience temperature differences from one distance to another. Understandably, Mirza has never received an education in her life; she doesn't even know how to read, although that doesn't mean she is a stupid woman and doesn't know anything; in fact, she is more mature than me in terms of attitude and thinking. I chose not to heed her invitation and continued bathing; the river was deep enough in some places, so it was possible to swim and submerge my body completely. After feeling refreshed, I removed my clothes until I didn't have a single thread in the water, then washed the clothes.

"You're quite brave to bathe in a place like this and at a time like this."

Surprised by the sound, my body immediately turned around, and in that second, my scream was heard.

"SHUT UP!" he snapped, immediately making me stop screaming with feelings of surprise and sinking guts. I held my wet clothes in front of my body to cover the front of my body even though it was currently submerged in water. The man was standing about one meter from me; his upper body was not wearing clothes while the area from his hips down was still covered with cloth. When my eyes focused on his face, my brain immediately sent information about the figure before me. My eyes widened, and my heart hit my chest hard; oh my God! He was Sultan Bagyar, the same person I had helped about a week ago. I took a step back slowly, but he approached me. His gaze was like a predator watching his prey, sharp and focused. That was a look that discouraged him; he deserved to be Sultan. He could scare people just by looking at him.

"Don't come any closer," I ordered, and he stopped, still looking at me in silence.

"Aren't you the woman from that time?"

Oh no! He remembered it. I didn't expect him to remember me, and the kiss came back to my mind. Turning my face away, I said, "No, you have the wrong person, sir." Then he approached me again with a probing look.

"I SAID DON'T COME CLOSE!" I snapped angrily, and he looked surprised; I was also surprised by my anger that arose because I was now scared. Who wouldn't be afraid if a man caught you bathing in the open utterly naked at night, quiet and with no one around you?! Then I remembered Mirza; I turned my body to look for the woman's figure.

"Mirza!" I called pretty loudly when my eyes couldn't see her figure anywhere.

Oh my God! Where is that woman? I need help here!

My mind was furious about the disappearance of Mirza's figure.

"Are you afraid of me?" His question distracted me; I looked at him with a look, trying to look brave.

"No!" I answered, then cursed in my mind for lying and acting stupidly. He stepped closer to me; my eyes widened with fear and panic.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT? I SAID DON'T COME CLOSE!" I almost screamed and immediately took a few steps back.

"You said you weren't afraid of me," he said with a mocking smile. I was annoyed because I felt like I was being played.

"You'd better go," I said matter-of-factly.

"Do you know who I am?"

There was silence between us; our gazes met for a few moments. That gaze seemed to knock something inside me. I first broke eye contact by turning my face away with a slight bow; my heart was pounding, making me uncomfortable.

"No," I lied for the umpteenth time, and something I didn't expect to happen. Sultan moved, so he arrived right in front of me without me being able to stop him; then his lips were on mine, and his hands squeezed my bare shoulders. The kiss happened again, but this time with an intimacy that could shake my soul.

I spent this night with a confused mind and a lack of sleep. As a result, I daydreamed more while working in the garden the following day. Mirza threw me a carrot to stop my thoughts, turned away, turned my body to face her and looked at her a little annoyed. I took a deep breath and then picked up the carrot he had thrown at me.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked curiously. When the incident happened between me and Sultan Bagyar last night, Mirza was not there, and I don't know where she was at that time. Her figure appeared when I had finished dressing, and Sultan Bagyar had left about 30 minutes later; I sat stunned on the rocks by the river in a state still half shocked and my mind paralyzed by the kiss that we almost continued with the activity that would lose my virginity. Still, I regained my sanity and stopped the action of the Sultan, who started to caress my neck to my shoulders with his lips and two hands that had roamed around my back and squeezed my buttocks gently. His touch on my body lulled me, which was a first for me; he was the first man to touch me so intimately that it aroused something I felt for the first time. It wasn't a feeling of disgust because of a man's touch, something different and vibrating in my lower stomach, all over my body.

"I just didn't sleep well," I answered, then put the carrots I had picked into the basket containing his friends.

"Why? You don't usually get enough sleep." Mirza was aware of something different from me during the kiss incident a week ago between Sultan Bagyar and me; Mirza wasn't there either. She was out looking for help for the Sultan, so she didn't know anything about the kiss, and I didn't tell her either. I was embarrassed to say to her. Moreover, last night's incident, I thought a thousand times about telling her, let me, Sultan Bagyar and God know what happened.

"Showering at night makes me more awake," I explained, trying to get Mirza to believe me and stop acting like a criminal investigator. Luckily, she started thinking about my reasons and changed the topic by discussing Maliq. Mirza was quickly distracted, and I felt relieved. We met Maliq again during the lunch break; this time, Maliq and Mirza were busy chatting with each other while I was busy thinking about what happened at the river last night.

I didn't know what to expect or how; on the other hand, I didn't want something like that to happen again, but curiosity about that strange sensation bothered me a little. I decided not to hope that such an incident would not happen again. Everything between us was just a coincidence and had no effect whatsoever. I must immediately forget the incident and hope God will grant my wish that Sultan Bagyar will also ignore the incident as soon as possible.