The sun was going down and a chill was setting in, the rain sending an echoing thunder as it battered the canopy above them. Jack held her hand as they walked, his smile smooth and endearing. There was no way that Jessie was going to fall in love with him over great dry humping, but she was very much in lust with him. They talked as he led her through the foliage, well, she talked and he listened to her. They were silent now, their thoughts focus on private things that neither were yet willing to share.
Jack watched her through a side-glance and felt a tight burning in his heart that he didn't recognize. Of course he just done everything but strip her naked and rut her in the middle of the jungle, but he wasn't willing to except that this sensation was based solely on sexual gratification. She was fiery, and fierce in her own way, and his respect for her was growing in leaps and bounds. She'd told him about her family and it left him feeling empty and alone. Four hundred years of watching over a man versus animal rainforest could do that to a person.
His mind shifted to a happier time, his wife in his arms, her hands ruffling his hair as she laughed that low throaty laugh he'd come to hate. Her eyes had looked at him with admiration and pride, the ownership of a great man her biggest success in life. He'd been so foolishly in love with her, so very much into the way she led him around by his pants rather than his heart. She'd been his every dream, waking and sleeping. So lucky he'd thought himself, to find someone so late in life. After the third century he'd given up on finding someone to spend his life with. Shaking his head he tightened his grip on Jessie's little hand. She wasn't going to stay with him, there was absolutely no way he could keep her here, but for the time she was in the jungle, he was going to soak up the human company to its fullest.
They reached the cave just as Jessie was sure she was going to pass out from hunger. Her stomach was growling loud enough that Jack was laughing at her every time it gurgled, and she wanted to be mad at him, but she really couldn't get much further than wrinkling her nose at him and poking him in the ribs. Despite her hunger she had to admit she was having fun. Jack was easy to be around and his laughter brought out a side to her she didn't know existed. She adored teasing him, especially after he'd thrown a leafy looking Preying Mantis in her hair. He'd given in to her when she just stood there, hands on her hips and waited for the damn thing to fly away. She had the sneaking suspicion that he was proud of her reaction, and encouraged, he'd shown her every nasty looking grub he could find, and after several tries to gross her out, he'd even eaten one particularly fat and pasty looking one, claiming it was great once you got past the gut taste.
Ducking through the caves rocky entrance and out of the chilling rain she turned and grinned at him,
"I still can't believe I kissed that bug eating mouth." She hugged her arms around her waist and nearly melted when he gave her that wolfish little grin of his and merely set about starting a fire. Within minutes a blaze was going and she sighed at the site of all the home comforts he'd obtained. In one corner of the square cavern a bed was made up with a blanket and several others were piled at the foot, and under the bed even more lay on a pallet of branches. On the other side lay a pile of Jack's folded clothes, like the ones he wore now, the threads worn thin and the cloth faded into a bleached out camouflage that suited his lifestyle. Knives hung from the walls all around her, and several traps lay scattered against the back wall. From the ceiling hung a net that when let down would encompass the entire space, leaving no quarter for insects. He obviously liked his peace while he slept.
It wasn't until she began searching the actual walls though that she found a crack, about the size of a man, and from it curled a misty heat that wafted over her face and wet her curiosity. Returning to Jack she knelt beside him and watched as he hacked strips of meat from some indistinguishable carcass. It looked like a pig, but it was so cut up she really couldn't tell, and seeing him eat the slimy little grub quelled her need to ask.
She was fascinated by the speed with which he put together their meal, his big hands deftly spearing hunks of meat on a handmade spit that hung over the fire, sturdy enough to hold nearly the entire pig...thing. When he noticed her curious stare he merely muttered "Tapir" and went back to cooking. She watched him as he worked, momentarily forgetting the heated crevice as the scent of roasting meat hit her nostrils, and sent her stomach into a cramping frenzy. Desperation coursed through her as she watched the meat turning, the juices hitting the hot coals with a sizzling pop. Licking her lips she did her best to sit still and not be grabby, but four days without food and she was sure she was going to die from the pain in her gut. Time was sliding slowly by when he finally handed her a plate from a cupboard behind him and heaped it full, motioning her to sit back and dig in.
Her hands shoveled the hot fare into her mouth and she wolfed it down without thought to the way she looked. Juiced dribbled down her chin and she smeared it away with the heal of her hand and continued to push more into her mouth, not stopping until her cheeks bulged and her throat rebelled at taking anymore in. It was Jack's chuckle and apt stare that brought her attention back to the cave and her dinner partner. Mortified she chewed what was in her mouth and took the paper napkin he held out to her. A muttered sorry was all she could mange around another bite of food. He shook his head at her and kept smiling and eating, his appetite just as great as hers. Slightly comforted by the thought she continued with her meal, though the pace was greatly reduced.
Nearly an hour later, her belly full to bursting and her head resting back on the rocky cave wall she drifted in and out of sleep, her mind unfocused and her bones weary. She dreamed of her family, her abusive ex boyfriend Michael, her friends all back at home, all of them unaware that she was so far away and having the time of her life. She dreamed of staying in the jungle with her Tarzan-esque rescuer. In her dream she didn't have to turn the notion away in the face of reality, and she liked it. She drifted peacefully, only waking when strong arms lifted her effortlessly and settled her into the big bed; his large body tucked behind her, the warmth and weight of his arm around her waist just what she needed to send her off to dreams that flashed passion and tenderness and rocked her to her very core.
A blood-curdling scream ripped Jack out of his feast-induced sleep and had him sitting upright, his head fuzzy from sleeping so soundly. Beside him Jessie shuddered in her sleep, her cheeks wet with tears and her hands clutching her head as she whimpered and wept. Heart in his throat he shook her, trying to wake her and get her away from whatever it was that had her so terrified. She muttered something about a Michael and then covered her head with her arms, as if blocking something. Again he shook her, the effort rewarded with more fearful murmurs.
"Jessie, wake up!" His voice hoarse and a lot sharper than he'd meant it to be, but he watched her open her eyes and his heart started to settle. Her gaze was glazed over and her sobs still came at an alarming rate and she looked at him as if he were a monster.
Voice thick and tearful, she reached up and cupped his face in her hands and whispered, "Don't hit me anymore, Michael, please."
Anger tempered with tenderness caught in his vocal cords rendering him speechless. Now he knew why she seemed to love his affections so much. Some prick named Michael had abused her. It was none of his concern, but he was outraged that she'd been touched in a way that gave her nightmares that had her screaming in the middle of the night. She was far too special for that. He slipped his hand over her cheek and nuzzled it, a soft whimpering sigh slipping past those sweet lips. He tenderly kissed her awake, most of the terror erased from her face as she came too, her head resting on his chest as her held her to him.
Jessie was aware that she'd been dreaming of Michael, and she was also aware of the fact that she was with Jack and he must have heard her and shaken her to wake her up. His chest pillowed her face and the scent of his hit her nose with an intoxicating mixture of man and smoked meat. She snuggled to him, letting the dream pass as she focused on the feeling of being held in two arms that had never been raised to hit her. She couldn't help but want to be around this man. He'd saved her and been sweet to her, never once getting upset with her, always with her even though there was clearly another reason he was out in the middle of this god forsaken tree hell. Affection nudged at her heart, growing a little stronger with every thought of him.