<span style="color: #FF0000">He chuckled and shook his head, "Look, I may be an ass, but your father hired me because he knew that I was skilled in my job. Our body heat together will help to warm one another faster, until the fire is bigger and burning better. But, the choice is yours." The comment was given with a shrug as he looked down at the fire, "However, you may want to think about changing your mind come nightfall. It was already rather late by the time I got here carrying you and when the sun goes down, it will all get very cold..."<br/><br/>Nothing else he said as he leaned forward and cut some of the meat from the body and slipped it into his mouth, "Hot!....but goood!" he exclaimed with a grin at her.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">At least he's the one that said it...</span>she thought with a wry sort of inward tone. She was determined however...Even if he looked exponentially warmer than she did, tending to the fire...in nothing but those...little...<br/><br/>Clearing her throat, she huddled into the wet cloak (his own, not hers as it was hanging up with the rest of her clothing), willing it to dry. Yet, it didn't seem to help. Her teeth continued to chatter, her body trembling as she sat there, staring at the fire and slowly inching as close as she dared to it, but the heat barely registered. And, the longer she sat there, her teeth stopped chattering, but she wasn't warming up. If anything, she was growing colder, but her body was trying to conserve what little heat it had left.<br/><br/>With a glance outside of the cave, her heart sank.<span style="font-style: italic">If...if this is supposed to get worse...</span><br/><br/>Refusing to finish the thought, she decided to take him up on his advice. She wasn't sure how long she'd sat there debating, but there was eventual movement, sliding closer to him to try the...body heat he'd suggested...<br/><br/>There would have been a deep blush at the simple gesture of getting closer, if her body weren't more focused on her core. Still, her eyes remained on the fire, focusing harder to keep from looking at the man next to her.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">At about the time he had decided that the rabbit was done enough, she moved. The action was slow and hesitant, as if she was unsure about what she wanted to do. It fascinated him and out of character he stayed where he was and let her move to him. <br/><br/>There he sat with her, occasionally she would brush against him when either would breathe or move a bit. He leaned forward and cut the legs off the rabbit, the meat hot and not much to it, but it would help them to get warm and stay warm. <br/><br/>His arm shifted and without pause wrapped about her to draw her into him while he offered a leg to her. <br/><br/>"Here you go, like I said it is not much and certainly not what you are used to, but it will help you to stay warm," when she took the leg he kept his arm draped over her. There it rested on her shoulder while he used his other hand to eat the other rabbit leg he had cut for himself.</span><br/><br/>It didn't<span style="font-style: italic">feel</span>any warmer to her, sitting closer to him instead of where she'd sat. If anything, it felt...the same. The air was still cold, her body was still numb, the urge to shiver still there though she lacked the energy to do it. He'd said he knew what he was doing, and obviously her father had trusted him, or they wouldn't even be there at that moment.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">So why am I doubting this?</span>came a confused thought.<span style="font-style: italic">Maybe I'm just...not focusing hard enough.</span><br/><br/>Movement caught her attention, as it had been since the shift. His arm brushed passed her own again, this time as a result of cutting a leg free of the rabbit. It took her a brief moment to realize he was handing it to her, startling her almost as much as the arm that was suddenly around her shoulder. But, the leg acted as a buffer, a focal point of which to give her complete and undivided attention, the food offering up a whole other set of problems:<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">How does one...eat this?</span><br/><br/>Her food had always been immaculately prepared, several different size forks, knives, spoons, plates at her ready disposal. Here...she had the ground...and her fingers. As he was eating one handed, she assumed he was just tearing it off with his teeth, but that seemed too barbaric to her...so she opted to pick at it gingerly with her fingers, trying to be as discrete and polite as possible in the uncommon conditions. It gave her that nitch to cling to, to pick apart figuratively and physically.<br/><br/>Anything to keep her mind from wandering the all too short distance to the man beside her, with his arm currently about her...and the muscles now pushing into her thoughts.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">The leg was polished off and he tossed the bone into the fire, before he reached forward to move the rabbit off from the flames; least it over cook. That done he sat back, his arm still about her though he seemed to not notice it, at least it was how his outer presence appeared. Within  he watched her, studied her. To him, it was like he stalked a very skittish deer. A young doe, who seemed ready to dart away at the smallest sound. <br/><br/>It was...almost.....appealing...<br/><br/>She was not the only one who was aware of their closeness. The heat from their bodies that seemed to grow with each passing moment, though that could have been more his own mind, then actual heat between them. Now that she was out of the tight, stuffy and impractical clothing of the court, he could appreciate her form. Delicate, graceful, soft and with enough curve for him to appreciate.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic"> From her behavior she has probably never held hands with a man, let alone anything more.</span> It amused him to think that his lips were the first to ever touch her own. <span style="font-style: italic">Soft....they had been soft....</span> To think that such a prize would be wasted on some inbred brat that probably porked every maid, servant and horse before he would have a go at her. <span style="font-style: italic">Such a shame....it would be over in a few moments for her and it would hurt, because he would not care enough to make it....pleasurable for her...</span> <br/><br/>At some point his gaze had slid to her and remained, while his mind mused about her body, her future experience and the sensation of her against him.</span><br/><br/>His lack of outer acknowledgement, for a while, was a comfort. It didn't add stress, and kept her as relaxed as possible, even if still uptight and uncomfortable with the idea of being so close to another man. It wasn't how things were done. In the court, when he'd yanked her close, she'd had the safety of others around her to know nothing would happen. Here, it was just her...and him. It's not like she could fight him off in a way that was even remotely productive. He'd be able to pin her arms down in one quick movement...Muscles bulg-<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Stop that!</span>she scolded herself, about the time that she noticed the prickling her body had begun to do, the distinct feeling of being watched. Violet eyes turned a hair toward him, seeing what she'd been dreading and looked away, her freehand pushing some of her drying, tangled curls out of her face.<br/><br/>She didn't want to pull away from his heat, but the way he was looking at her was making it...difficult to stay there.<span style="font-style: italic">It's just your imagination,</span>Maria told herself.<span style="font-style: italic">Your father wouldn't have sent you off with a scoundrel who'd take advantage of you in such a fashion, not when he knew what was at stake.</span><br/><br/>But, the longer she thought about it, the more ashamed of herself she was becoming. Her thoughts weren't staying completely pure, wondering what it'd feel like to have both of his hands holding her, both of his arms wrapped around her. She wondered what it'd feel like to have his lips on hers when it wasn't life-saving. Her mind lingered on the muscles, and how they moved when he did.<span style="font-style: italic">No...No, stop that. Maybe he's just seeing something on you that you didn't notice.</span><br/><br/>So that's what she started looking for. A hand moved over her cheek, and then the other, even going so far as to have her tongue dart out of her lips nervously, licking for any rabbit she may have clumsily missed. "Um...is...is there...something on my face?" came a quiet, hesitant voice, shyly glancing up at his eyes for a moment...and then to his lips...and then back to his eyes, embarrassment and confusion bearing down on her thoughts.