That piercing outcry she let out alerted Adnan who was standing by the side of the tent holding Imara. He wouldn't have heard her had he stood a few feet away. Working with logic and rationality, he called out Alim through the small window by the tent where he was standing. Alim rushed out having heard the cry from Jannah too, he was already standing.

Adnan entrusted Imara into his arms then ordered; "Go back into the tent and don't come out."

He moseyed to the back of the tent with his pistol in hand, his movements slow and calculated. The sound she'd let out was filled with too much terror to have been one of her many tricks so the gun. Rounding the tent, he peeped with one eye keeping his stance dominant in case she's gotten away so he wont be on her way.

But he saw her standing there rooted, her eyes wide on the floor as her lips moved with rapidness, she was supplicating, saying anything that comes to her mind. His eyes trailed down to the floor where a mahogany and onyx snake pose, it's fork tongue slicing in and out maliciously.

Without thinking, Adnan rushed to where she stood and took a stance in front of her, his hands pushed her back several inches behind. Jannah's eyes widened some more if that were possible, she surveyed his muscular bunched back all tensed and stiff with a slight frown. Why did he do that? He is putting the both of them in danger now.

"Walk slowly through the other side of the tent and be careful in case there are more." He ordered in a quiet tone while watching the cobra hissing much more wrathfully at his interference.

She frowned at the order, almost cathartic. "The snake won't come near you. You are it's master! A freaking dragon, Dracs! You get this."

Despite himself, Adnan found his lips pitching and twitching to fight back a grin but he couldn't. She cannot see him so he let it out, a real smile he hadn't let soar or see the bright light of the day in forever. "Just do as I say and get Alim to come help with a snake snatcher."

"No! I'm not going to leave you hear all alone­..." She was cut short when the snake lunged it's head with sudden alacrity and did something to Adnan's leg just when Alim came with another man holding a snake snatcher.

Adnan let out a loud hiss similar to the one the snake had discharged earlier, Jannah stayed hidden behind him because he wouldn't let her go, he is keeping her away from the venomous reptile. Maybe the snake wanted to bite him all along and not her? If not why didn't it attack her when she stood there shouting out her lungs?

A man from the workers hurriedly took the snake snatcher from Alim who wanted to bravely do the work and captured the snake with it. He smiled apologetically at them because they are clearly foreigners and don't know how to deal with snakes while they are used to seeing them here and there.

Jannah forced herself away from Adnan's stilled body, meandered to see what had happened only to see him grimacing while clasping his calf. Something happened! The snake had bitten him but the man won't even scream or perhaps groan in discomfort. That could've been her in his place. She cannot begin to imagine how she would react to a snakebite.

Taking a hold of his leg in her two hands, she tried rolling up his slacks to view the bite but he wouldn't let her, he yanked his leg away and started walking back to the tent making her more worried. The guy is fucking limping! How stubborn is this guy to not accept a little help after been bitten by a snake? Will that shatter his ego too?

She followed closely behind with Alim and the other worker, all of them quiet. They don't know how to react to their boss not allowing his wife to check him. Then who are they to try?

Her patience literally detonated when they entered the tent alone, she closed the curtain like doors so Alim won't come in, he knows he isn't welcomed so he settled on roaming around the construction site while adding knowledge on things he had never been concerned over. He is also worried for Adnan of course. His stubbornness will lead them nowhere.

Raising her head, she watched him from below her lashes. Her lips moved in that enigmatic way, the rabbit teeth at the front catching her lower lip once in awhile. "You must sit down and let me check that wound!"

"And if I don't?" He raised his brow aloof struggling to sit down on his executive grease chair, she didn't offer help to the stubborn man.

"There is no other option. You were bitten by a snake and not any other snake, king cobra. If you think you have much choice on this then you must be eerily mistaken." She crossed her arms beneath her chest trying to look intimidating, his eyes are on his MacBook.

Unconsciously, he gave the answer grumpily earning a chortle from her. "My body, my principles. Stop nagging."

She marched up to the chair and stood beside him, one of her hips leaning on the desk. "No I won't! I am worried the father of my daughter will die a slow death in front of her."

He cracked his knuckles ready to start working while she stared at his absurdity. Is this man out of his mind or something? "Don't worry about that then. Go back to the suite with her so she won't see her father's slow death." He blurted out, his fingers on the keyboard now.

"You are goddamn too stubborn like a mule. I told you we didn't have to go looking for a small baby doll but you wouldn't listen. Always wanting to please the daughter you tend to abandon for more than a few months." She surmised frigidly, her aim to throw his words back at him till he capitulate.

"Are you back to that?" He questioned looking nonchalant, not at all warped with her words, sitting there looking as presumptuous as ever.

"I've been on that. Now sit down that your motherfucking stubborn ass still and let me have it checked ." She chided, her eyes looking back at little Imara staring at them with wide eyes.

She gave her a small smile to calm the girl, she is not mad at her. Seeing that, Imara beamed in glee, this is not about her then. Her eyes went back to the tablet Alim gave her before he left the tent to go save her father.

"I wont."

"This is not up for a debate and I'm seriously starting to get irked with all your bullshit." She leaned down slowly on the floor trying to get to the leg that was injured. Was it the left one or the right one? She couldn't recall which means she cannot work without his cooperation.

"Great. I've been waiting for you to get irked and it's working. You can ask about the jet whenever you are ready. It'll be at your service." He bore his eyes down at her small figure huddled on the floor beside his leg, his eyes glinting satanically.

"When I get irked, I become more crazy so don't let me use that side of mine, again." She gave him a smile permeated with saccharine and aspartame to rewind back to the night before when she poisoned and blackmailed him.

"The snake would've bitten you had I not jumped there. You should be on your knees thanking me for saving you. Which is the least you should do." She knew he intentionally let that topic she wanted to bring up slip. Not after all he's felt the day before.

"The snake wanted to bite you! If it was targeting me, I would've been bitten before you arrive but noooo, it waited for you!" she stubbornly relaxed on the floor crossing her arms again mutinously.

Adnan is the most difficult man she's ever had the unfortunate luck of meeting. What is so hard in allowing someone to help you once in a while? If this venom spreads out within him, it's going to lead to some dangerous and malignant problem. It might be an organ or death, that's how snakes are. She knows how dangerous they can be after the death of her cousin from a snakebite.

He should be at the hospital now but he is stubbornly trying to work. This is serious! He cannot just work his way out of the pain.

"How ungrateful. Two snakes in less than twenty four hours." His brows are furrowed, mouth set in a grim white line.

He is now hinting back at the topic he wanted to deflagrate. Is he ready for the conversation? Because she wants everything to be behind them, whether it is going to work out between them or not.

"You deserve it!" She anchored her attention back on his slacks sheathed legs. Did the snake really bite him? If so, why is he still acting normal?

"Yeah, right. A wife equivalent to a snake? Maybe more dangerous." He studied her on the floor with piercing scrutiny. Jannah didn't like the way he made her quintessential with a limbless scaly elongated reptile.

She stood up like something just bit her too, she leaned down so they were face to face, their nose almost touching. His face was level with hers, those eyes so hot and dark, his lashes like black silk. Such a strong featured face, perhaps the slightest bit too angular, like an artist's line sketch that had not yet been softened and blurred. Is that why he is aggressive and frightening? She couldn't help wondering what lay beneath the tough, invulnerable façade, what he might be like in a complete tender moment.

Not like the ones he shared with Imara. The ones from a lover to his lover.

Taking his strong hands off the MacBook, she placed them gently on her chest then raised her both brows. "Do I feel like a venomous ophidian?"

A slowly, cynical smile made it's way to Adnan's face, his hands tightening on her chest. "Not physically by any chance, Mama."

Her heart lurched to her throat for the second time that day. The first time in an unpleasant way and this second time it was extremely pleasant. "Then don't compare me to it and you better let me check that wound. It's going to cause you complications."

She stood straighter letting his hands fall from her body. Adnan grimaced at the pain that surged through him. She is absolutely right, it hurts like a bitch. No, he didn't just curse right? It was because of the beaches here in Maldives, nothing more.

Seeing that, Jannah extricated her phone from her bag and called Alim to get them a cab. They are going to the hospital, he wont give any excuse that will help him escape from this. Whether or not he chose to go with them willingly is his concern. There are large men here that can carry him on their shoulders. That'd be humiliating but he isn't giving her much of a choice.

"We must go to the hospital now. The cab will arrive here any moment. Can you walk by yourself?" She inquired going to stand behind him on his chair, her hand around his robust shoulders that are bunching beneath her palms.

"I can." He answered curtly, not believing he is accepting help from his wife for the second time in twenty four hours.

It was easy finding a doctor in the hospital they went to. Adnan could still limp his way around, not daring to accept a simple help by placing his arm around anyone, not even her. She forced him after a while though, couldn't watch him struggle all alone when the truth is he took the snakebite for her like they do with bullets.

Should she allow her heart to zip through the territory that will probably lead to her doom?

A podiatrist was assigned to them, a young looking one too. With her long champagne blonde hair tied in professional bun at the top of her head, her snow white lab coat glistening from been washed and pressed by the best. Her thick Poland accent lured Jannah in because it sounded better than any British, that she is very sure.

"...the venom destroys the outer membrane of capillary vessels, causing internal bleeding. In some cases they can also activate blood clotting system, causing clots around the circulatory system. These have the ability to block blood vessels and induce stroke or heart attack. This is a venomous bite, the snake released venom without any wound. I'm sure you've felt the symptoms?" She asked Adnan who wasn't paying attention to whatever it was she is saying.

Seeing that, the podiatrist sighed then faced Jannah. Her beauty is almost nauseating, she is too pretty with long nose, posh lips and asian eyes. "This is Ophiophagus Hannah, king cobra. Envenomation by this snake is highly lethal, manifested mainly by neurotoxicity and local tissue damage. There is one specific antivenom for King Cobra available..."

Adnan cut her off. "Do you or do you not have the antivenom? Your spiel is not important. This thing hurts like a bitch and your unnecessary chit chats wont help it heal."

Jannah had to bite back a loud guffaw at the way he used the word bitch. Did Adnan Ibrahim Attahir just cursed? The world is about to come to an end or the snakebite really hurts to make him blurt out such words unknowingly.

Clearing her throat, Dr. Izabel answered. "We have it. Polyvalent."

She stood up and opened Adnan's leg, Jannah saw the way it twitched uncomfortably at the feel of the foreign hands on him. The man is so against physical contact and from a stranger? That is the last straw.

"I'll have to dress the place from your ankle up to you thighs. Is that okay?" She made a face, not at all liking Adnan now after the way he's rudely interrupted her.

Good, she was crushing on him when they came, literally drooling at the olive skinned man in her office. Jannah was just waiting for him to deflagrate that crush by himself, she doesn't need to work when it comes to Adnan. Which is why she told Mariam that she trusts him more than she does herself when it comes to the opposite gender.

"That is not okay. My wife will do that. Get the items and show her how it's done." He closed his eyes with his elbow lying back on the examining bed comfortably like he didn't just yanked her heart out.

Jannah stood by the bedside staring at him with her eyes and mouth wide open. He didn't just say that? Did he? Of course, he did. The woman is now looking at her too, her expression perplexed but she nodded timidly and went to get the said items. With shaky hands, it was the way he talked that left no room for her plethora spiels.

Jannah leaned down to his right ear so only he can hear her. "Why will you ask me to do this when you know I don't know anything about this? To embarrass me?"

He opened one eye by removing his elbow. "No. Because I don't want any stranger touching me."

I am also a stranger... she wanted to say.