for the door, I grabbed her around the waist and held on tight, kissing her soundly on the lips. When she stepped back, we were both breathless.
She smiled sexily at me and murmured, “You’re very possessive.”
“Angel, if you saw yourself the way I saw you, you would be too.” I put my hand on her cheek, and when she leaned into my touch. Her positive response to me was all I needed. And I would keep her safe no matter the cost.
“Come,” I said. “Before the sun goes down.”
“Not that it’s out now,” she commented dryly, eliciting a quiet chuckle from me. She laughed aloud and teased, “Oh he can laugh!”
I grunted. “I can laugh…if something is funny.”
She sniffed haughtily, a big grin on her beautiful face. “I’ll have to try harder to be funny, then.”
We stepped outside, and I felt lighter than I had in years. My Angel brought it out, the positive, the joy. She almost made me forget the negative, the ugliness that had been my life.
I glanced at her as we walked outside. “The sky will be grey and overcast for a while still. When it rains like this, the sun doesn’t show for days on end sometimes.”
“How gloomy.”
“It’s still light enough to hunt by, and that’s all we need,” I said.
She nodded and followed me off the porch. I scanned the area, looking for something, someone, between the trees that shouldn’t be there, just in case. But the forest was quiet save for the light drizzle that pattered against the leaves above. A fine mist reached us, the leaves blocking most of the rain.
The animals that had sought shelter during the two days’ storm would all be out now, looking for food while the rain let up. I took the gun I kept inside the door with me.
“Where did you get that?” Angela asked, glancing at the gun.
“I always have one in the cabin. For hunting.”
“I haven’t seen it,” she said.
“I don’t leave it lying around.”
She nodded, looking unsure. She wasn’t comfortable around guns, that was clear. To me, guns were like an extension of my own arm, a safety precaution a man could always rely on, if he took care of them.
Precaution…the thought sent a jolt through me. I hadn’t once asked Angela if she was on birth control. And she hadn’t insisted on a condom once. Shit. I really was a son of a bitch. Selfish as fuck, not even thinking about the long run.
“You’re on birth control, right?” I asked.
Angela laughed. “A bit late to be asking, isn’t it?”
I grunted a response, feeling a little awkward.
“I get the shot, thank goodness,” she told me. “It lasts three months, so no pills to be missed this week. Don’t worry about it. Unless you’re stressed about STD’s. In which case…” She cleared her throat and looked down, a silly expression on her face.
I chuckled and grabbed her, kissing her. “That’s right. Virgin.”
“Not anymore,” she whispered with a smile.
“No, Malen kiy. Not anymore.” I couldn’t help but grin with pride. There was something about taking a woman, about being her first. And the fact that no one had been there before me made my cock punch out for another round. I wasn’t going to let anyone else close to her after me, either.
We walked into the forest. I moved through the trees, keeping my eyes and ears open for something to shoot. Behind me, Angela stepped on twigs, on leaves as if she were looking for the loudest possible path.
I turned around and glanced at her feet. “You must be quiet, Angel,” I cautioned. “You’ll scare the animals away.”
“Sorry,” she whispered, wincing apologetically. “I just don’t know how you do it.”
I pointed to the ground. “You avoid anything that’s not pure soil or mulch. Dried leaves, even when they’re wet. Twigs. And avoid rocks and pebbles. You can slip on those if you’re not careful.”
Angela nodded and walked where I walked, staring at the ground. After a few minutes, she asked quietly, “How do you know where to find the animals?”
“Tracks,” I said. “Look.” I pointed out bird tracks in the mud. “This is pheasant or grouse. And here, we have a squirrel or rat, something small. A fawn passed through here, but it was a while ago.”
“How do you know?” She studied the prints, a confused and adorable look on her face.
“They’re smudged. The mud has slipped and shifted since it passed through. The rain hasn’t fallen on the tracks directly because of the