Page 108 of Rugger: The Huntress

“I don’t.”

The barriers were slow to come down, but they were falling. And, until she was stripped of them completely when it came to me, I’d continue to nourish the idea of their depletion.

“Then don’t worry, love. Your heart is in good hands.”

Gazelle’s lack of response was expected. However, we didn’t need words to understand the value the moment offered our union. It was clear, which was why we clung to each other until the skin of our fingers and toes wrinkled.

The moon’s glow caressed the skin of Gazelle’s back. Face to face, we lie in bed with the covers around our waistlines. The jacuzzi had been ideal for the insomnia that often followed the completion of an assignment.

“Tell me things–” she yawned.

Her eyes grew misty. Her chest sunk further into the mattress. Her body drew closer to mine.

“Things.”

A smile lifted every detail of her face. I leaned over and placed my lips on hers. I pulled back prepared to spill.

“I’m an only child. My mother and father had me after they were married. I’d have an older sibling but they died in the womb, three months before my mother’s delivery date. I was her miracle child and she loved me like it.”

“And, your fath–”

“Tell me things.”

Deflection wasn’t my intention, but even the thought of my father left me bothered. He ruffled my spirit in the unkindest of ways.

“I am not the only child. I am one of many. Girls, mostly. My father raised me. So did my oldest sibling. They taught me everything I know.”

“They taught you well.”

There was a loud, pregnant pause before Gazelle continued.

“When did the pain stop?”

Though she didn’t clarify it, I was well aware of what she was referring to.

“It didn’t. And, it never does. But, when you’re with me, it hurts less. It loses so much of its significance. Sometimes, I hardly feel a thing.”

“Me too,” she confessed, pushing out a stream of air, “That burdens me.”

“It shouldn’t. It should be a sure sign that life goes on, love. Whether we’re ready for it to or not, it will continue.”

“Our time together is teaching me that–amongst so many other things.”

“Like–”

“The fact that my heart works, too. I’m not all flesh and bullets although I’d convinced myself of it.”

I chuckled at the revised phrase. She was so much more than that.

“If I told my family that any of this has happened, they’d swear it’s a lie.”

Her smile was contagious.

“Yeah?”

“They don’t believe I’m capable of being anything but a hunter. Until recently, they were right.”

The twinkle in her eye was evidence of the feelings she harbored for her family.

---