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Though when he turned around, put the plate of food in front of her, she felt like she was trapped. Would she run away from a guy with a gun? Get shot in the back? Like she’d heard happened to people in the city? Or was that just an excuse to stay? He’d not been threatenin’ to her. Not yet at least.
He uncapped another bottle of ale and put it down before her before he sat down with her.
“Eat up. It’s fresh caught venison,” he said of the meat on her plate, cutting into his own with knife and fork.
She looked towards his ‘home’, then to him, the scent of the meat filling her nose and momentarily distracting her from that throbbing heat between her thighs. Never had she felt so for a man before, like he was the devil himself.
But the faster she could finish the meal, the faster she’d be able to get her basket back and take her leave, so she quickly grabbed her utensils and began eating.
Jake wasn’t a real talkative man, big, strong and brooding, it seemed, and though he’d just bathed in the creek, he had a certain musk about him that was ripe in the air. It wasn’t unpleasant at all, in fact it was titillating. But that only compounded Laura’s worries.
Though one thing quickly became clear: the food he’d prepared was delicious. Like nothing she’d ever tasted before. The spices and flavours were out of Laura’s world! The sauce upon the venison steak was exquisite, pure heaven!
Though the drink he’d gave her was powerful and quite abrasive, and she worried instantly it was alcohol.
That was yet another sin.
She set it aside, looking at him with such intensity before she had to bashfully look away as her mind went back to her body. She wasn’t supposed to see a man, not ‘til she was to be wed. And she certainly wasn’t to be alone with one.
He was temptation incarnate, and she knew it could only mean one thing.
He was the devil.
“I could use some company out here, lil’ miss nameless,” he said so dryly, finishing off his meal entirely. “Been hidin’ out alone for too long. Not another soul to keep me company. Then you come along, lookin’ as pretty as they come.” His dark eyes rested upon her so intensely, sizing her up as he reclined in his chair, his rippled physique on display before her as his shirt hung open.
She was breathing hard. She hadn’t been hearing him hardly at all, had completely missed him asking for her name. What was his name again? Jack? John?
Jake!
She rose her eyes to his, though she still felt for all the world she was in a stupor.
“Laura. And I can’t stay,” she murmured. “I can’t talk to boys. I shouldn’t be here, not at all, not if I don’t want punishment.”
He angled his head back, studying her so intensely as he strummed his long digits upon the tabletop.
“You’re a might old for facing punishment just for being out. And it ain’t even nightfall yet,” he said, bringing his free hand to his bare chest, rubbing the fingertips through the meadow of dark hair to scratch at himself, drawing
attention to the rock-solid mounds of his pecs. “And I ain’t no boy. I’m a man, Laura. The kind of man who protects pretty ladies from harm, y’hear?”
His words were loud and clear, but with his gravelly voice, and his shocking appearance and demeanor, it was hard to imagine Jake as a good guy. But all the same… those words…
She’d been under the thumb of her harsh father for so long. So cruelly punishing, beyond what the scripture called for. It had a certain enticement to what he said there.
She stared, open mouthed, and was once more tempted. To a little kindness. Some warmth. Surely with his strength he could protect any he set his mind to, though he carried a weapon, and any with a weapon in the light of day couldn’t honestly be good, could they?
She drew her lower lip in as she thought it over, her mind spinin’ with lust and logic battlin’.
“You have a gun, though, Mister.”
He looked a little surprised by that, and gave her an approving nod.
“Keen observation, sweet thing,” he said, reaching into the back of his jeans and pulling that pistol out. She was a bit on edge at first, but he carefully laid it to rest in the center of the table, its black metal lit up in the day light. “A man like me makes many enemies. You go lookin’ out for pretty ladies, and you’re sure to run afoul of many a scumbags, y’hear?” He said, looking to her expectantly.
Her eyes narrowed. That didn’t sound like how it should be, not at all.
But she knew as much as any that the good and the righteous were punished by the disbelievers. And so, quick as that, her expression softened and she gave a soft nod.
“I’m sorry I intruded yesterday. Weren’t my intention.”
