“If you know so much about cooking, Scoutmaster, why don’t you do it?” she asked sweetly.
He shoved his bowl aside and propped his forearms on the table. “Because I’ve got to do the hunting and fishing and firewood cutting. But, now that I think about it, cooking is a whole lot easier. Want to swap? Or do you plan to make me do all the work while you lounge around and watch your fingernails grow back?”
In a flash and a scraping sound of wood on wood, Rusty was out of her chair and leaning across the table. “I don’t mind doing my share of the work and you know it. What I do mind is having my best efforts criticized by you.”
“If this is any indication of your best efforts, we’ll be dead of starvation inside a week.”
“I’ll learn to do better,” she shouted.
“It can’t be soon enough for me.”
“Oh!”
She spun away and when she did, the flannel shirt, which she’d left unbuttoned, flared open. Cooper’s arm shot out and grabbed her arm.
“What’s that?” Reaching inside the open shirt, he pulled down the strap of her tank top.
Rusty followed the direction of his gaze down to the slight discoloration on the upper curve of her breast. She looked at the round bruise, then lifted her eyes up to his. “That’s where you...kissed...” Unable to go on, she made a helpless gesture with her hands. “Last night,” she added huskily.
Cooper snatched his hand back, as guilty as Adam when caught sampling the forbidden fruit. Rusty could feel the blush rising in her neck. It spread as evenly and thoroughly as his eyes were moving over her. He noticed the rosy abrasions that his whiskered jaw had made around her mouth and against her face and throat. He grimaced with regret and raised his hand to his chin. When he rubbed it, the scratching noise filled the silence.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“Does it...do they hurt?”
“Not really.”
“Did it, you know, when...?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t notice then.”
They quickly glanced away from each other. He moved to the window. It was drizzling outside. Occasionally a pellet of sleet would ping against the glass.
“I guess I should explain about last night,” he said in a low, deep voice.
“No. No explanation is necessary, really.”
“I don’t want you to think I’m impotent or anything like that.”
“I know you’re not impotent.”
His head snapped around and their gazes locked. “I don’t guess I could keep it a secret that I was ready and able.”
Rusty swallowed with difficulty and lowered her head. “No.”
“That leaves willing.” She kept her head bowed. “Well, aren’t you even curious as to why I didn’t go through with it?” he asked after a lengthy moment.
“I didn’t say I wasn’t curious. I only said that you didn’t have to explain. We’re strangers, after all. We owe each other no explanations.”
“But you wondered.” He pointed an accusing finger at her. “Don’t deny that you wondered why I didn’t finish it.”
“I assumed that there is someone back home. A woman.”
“No woman,” he barked. At her shocked expression, he smiled crookedly. “No man, either.”
She laughed uneasily. “That never occurred to me.” The injection of humor didn’t last. His smile inverted itself into a frown. “I don’t make sexual commitments.”