Claimed (15 page)

“I don’t think so, man. Come on,
you don’t want to stay back here with the women. We are men. We gotta get out there and get the meat.”

“I really don’t mind, Edmund,” Jared rubbed his forehead, desperately figuring how to turn their offer down without sounding suspicious.

“Don’t tell us you’ve got a bit of your old man Saunders in you. Afraid of weapons and all,” Liam chuckled.

Jared smiled politely. Why did he
feel insulted each time they mocked James? For some reason he wanted to wipe their snobbish grins off their faces by showing them how well he was familiar with archery.

“I’ve never seen a bow before,” said Tara, walking up to them with curiosity.

“You need a permit to carry one,” said Edmund, showing his off proudly to her.

“Is Jared going hu
nting with you?” she asked, raising her brow at Jared.

“Of course he is,” Liam replied. “
We’re just going to show him how to use the bow. It isn’t too hard. He’d learn it in a flash.” He walked away to set up a shooting target in the distance.

Tara tugged Jared by his sleeve and pulled him away from Edmund.

“You can’t show them you know,” she whispered harshly.

“I wasn’t going to.”

“I saw that look on your face not too long ago, Jared. I could tell you were tempted to snub their comments in their faces.”

“Tempted- that’s different from actually giving in to
it. But the way they have been going on about James and his well-known dislike for weapons…”

“If James doesn’t mind it, then I don’t see why you should too. Have you even seen James with a gun? If there is a reason why James won’t tell anyone he is an expert marksman, then you better believe that it is
for an absolutely good reason. And since when have you started defending James?” she grinned at him.

He scowled. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

“Like what?”

“Like cook or something?”

“Not until you men bring the meat. And with those two there, I doubt it would be anytime soon.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I suppose it would be fun just watching them.”

“As long as
you
don’t shoot it.”

Jared snorted.

“Jared, you can’t,” she stressed.

Edmund called out to Jared and Tara immediately caught his sleeves before he could leave. “
You can’t.”

He nodded, giving her an assuring pat as she let go of his shirt.

Ellie watched Jared carelessly
fumble with the bow and arrow from the porch swing. She spurted a chuckle when his arrow fell loose from the bowstring and onto the ground. She watched him keenly as he aimed at the target at a gracious distance closer than they would normally shoot she noticed, thanks to Liam’s generosity. And when he shot the arrow way off mark, she still felt that pride linger inside her. It seemed that no matter what he did, she would always find him admirable.

She glanced over at Tara and she was chuckling at the poor aim. Not long ago, she h
ad been wringing her hands anxiously. Perhaps, she had worried over him and his introduction to deer hunting too. She shook her head, a small smile tugging the corners of her lips. She closed her book and strolled back into the house. Evelyn was at the table, hovering sleepily over a cup of steaming coffee.

“I don’t know how you do
all this early morning business,” she croaked.

“And what got you up so early?” Ellie asked her with curiosity.

“Are you kidding me?” she turned her head annoyingly at her.
“Jared, of course. How would I have known he would be up earlier than this?” She screwed her mouth and sipped at her coffee.

Ellie twitched her fingers, feeling guilty. How could she tell her sister she was
just as much attracted to the same man as she was? Worse still, she was engaged.

She awoke this morning with shame and embarrassment lingering over her. She remembered clearly how she had asked him to sleep with her. She had only wanted to continue feeling the warmth and
fervor he was invoking inside her. When he had touched her on the sofa, cupping her face and looking into her eyes like she was the only woman in the world, she had almost believed she could never belong to anyone else. And when he had carried her in his arms, she had wanted to remain in it forever. He had stayed with her until she had fallen asleep, his hand clutched in hers, holding their enjoined palms close to her breasts.

The morning though, washed her coldly with t
he realities of her life. How could she have ever asked Jared to sleep with her when her fiancé was in the room next to hers? The immorality of her request hit her like a tidal wave. At least Jared had more sense than her to turn her offer down. What had he thought of her? A cheap cheating tart? She colored at the mere thought.

She had avoided him all mo
rning since, not knowing how she was ever going to meet his eyes without drowning in embarrassment. The door burst open interrupting her train of thoughts and Edmund marched heavily into the kitchen.

“We’re leaving,” he announced. “We’ll try to be back by mid-afternoon. Hopefully with a deer in tow,” he winked at Evelyn. He turned to Ellie, holding her delicately by the waist. “How about a good luck’s kiss before I leave?”

Ellie bit her lower lip and at a total loss on how she should turn him down without looking frigid. “Edmund, please…,” she began.

“What?” he whispered. “For god sake’s Ellie, we’re engaged.”

“I know, but…”

He pulled her close and brought
his lips to hers, possessing it harshly. She pushed against his chest, tightening her lips as much as possible, refusing him any more access. She spotted Jared walk into the house and then froze when he saw them in their intimate embrace. He didn’t stay to watch her push Edmund away and she paled from the burden of guilt bearing upon her. Why did she feel she was betraying him rather than Edmund? She ran a hand over her head, smoothing her hair to mask her shaky hands.

Edmund frowned. “What’s going on with you, Ellie?”

She shook her head. How could she tell him that she wasn’t in love with him? That she had never been in love with him. She had never known love. And until she had met Jared, she had doubted it ever existed. Edmund had been a compromise to what she had thought was a fallacy. And until now, she never had thought she would ever regret making that compromise.

“I’m… I’m just not feeling too well,” she stammered. She forced a smile. “Don’t get too late. It gets dark in the forest too quickly.”

He smiled, seemingly satisfied with her response. He gathered her again in his arms. “I won’t,” he whispered and gave her a kiss on her cheek.

He released her and turned to leave but Ellie caught him by his arm. “Edmund…
take care of Jared. He doesn’t know the forest like you do.”

He looked up at her, arching his eyebrow questioningly.

“She’s right,” Evelyn threw her head between them. “He’s the only reason we’re here on this trip. And I’m not going to let you lose him before I even get a chance with him.”

Edmund relaxed, letting out a chuckle. “You have my word,” he said as he walked out the door.

Evelyn peered at her. “You should have shown some concern for your man as well, Ellie.” She threw her bowl into the sink. “Sometimes I think you don’t really want to get married. That you’re only doing this to please Edmund and Dad.”

Ellie clenched her fist. She hated it when Evelyn was right. She
strolled over to the window to watch the men walk into the thickness of the forest, her eyes keenly resting on the man to the left. He had stormed into her life, throwing it out of order and into a chaotic mess. Could she afford to risk her engagement and her future for a man she barely knew? Could she trust her heart to keep her safe from getting hurt? Love is a fallacy, right? Because it didn’t make any reasonable sense why she should leave Edmund- the man she had known for the last ten years of her life, for a man she barely knew ten days. There was no rationality. She prided herself on being a woman of common sense. So why suddenly did she feel that she didn’t have much of that since meeting Jared Ryder?

“Stay as quiet as you can, Jared,” advised Liam. “This is what we call deer scouting. What we’re doing now is looking for signs of any deer in the area.”

Jared did his best to avoid the grin tugging on his lips. “And are there any?”

“It doesn’t seem like it,” Liam replied. “We can’t seem to find any scat. Their droppings tell us if there have been deer feeding here.”

Jared picked his head up and spotted the tiny ball of hair on a thorny bramble bush. His eyes immediately traced the trees close to them. Just as he had expected
, there were the rub lines he had been looking for.

“Perhaps you’re looking in the wrong direction,” he suggested. He wanted to go back to the house and the sooner they could finish the hunt the better. And knowing Edmund and his egotistical nature, he would never return without it.

The vision of Edmund kissing Ellie wouldn’t stop playing on his mind. His blood had run cold . It took him all his self-control to pull the man away from her. But as of now, Edmund had more right to her than he did and it sickened him to his core.

He had been aware of how Ellie was watching him from the porch swing and it tore him to make himself appear feeble with the bow. And now, he was on a hunt that he knew all about, pretending to look as ignorant as possible.

“You’re not getting the deer,”
Tara had warned him. He clenched the bow in his hand, perking his head up at the tree in the distance.

“Let’s go this way,” Liam suggested, leading them in the opposite direction of the rub lines.

“I think I saw something,” Jared burst in quickly. He needed them to get that deer. He could tell the lines were fresh and if they were in luck, they would be heading back to the house sooner than they expected. “I think I saw antlers,” he lied, hoping they’d buy into it.

“Are you sure?” Edmund asked.

“Yeah… large antlers. In that direction,” he pointed. “I’m sure it was a buck.”

The men grinned and eagerly headed towards it.

“You’d better be right, Ryder,” Liam teased. “Otherwise, it’s your ass we’ll be grilling tonight.”

Fortunately, unlike their poor deer spotting skills, Edmund and Liam were good shooters. They sat by the river bank as they field dressed their hunt.

“We’ll carry it out in turns,” said Edmund as he stood up. He then stripped two branches into poles. “Want to help me truss it
up?” he asked Jared.

He placed the poles on either side of the deer and then instructed Jared to wrap the rope all the way down; binding the hunt to the poles as if it was resting on a ladder.

Jared sat back, looking at it impressively. “How long have you been doing this?”

“We started out young- about ten years of age,” shrugged Liam. “But we don’t do it as much though. It’s a skill we are required to learn but not necessarily perfect, I suppose.”

“That’s because it’s a hobby. Not a necessity,” Edmund remarked while Liam helped him heave the makeshift sled up. “Welcome to high social living.”

Jared picked up his equipment and followed them quietly out of the woods. His mind flashed to the starving children at Central. His eyes grew cold as he watched the two men
haul the sled through the woods. The ban on hunting game in the woods had impacted on the lives of many people in the lower stratum of the economy. The commoners could never afford to pay the expensive annual fees as listed by corporations to hunt in their privatized woods. Their petty earnings at whatever work provided by the corporations did nothing to alleviate their everyday struggles.

He had always hated the corporations but he
also had never considered James’ fight for democracy as his own. However, as he watched Edmund and Liam chuckle while they dragged the carcass back to the house, he seethed. They were the very epitome of an unjust society; the selfish elite he despised.

“Come on, Jared!” Liam called out. “The women will have our hides if we returned without you.”

Jared managed a smile. “I’m trying!” he called as he sprinted up to them. “I don’t know how you guys do it, man. And by the way, spare me the next time you go hunting. I hate this fucking forest.”

The men laughed.

“You’re such a wuss,” Liam slapped him on his back. “Stay long enough with us and we’ll turn you into a man.”

“Thanks,” Jared smirked. “But I think I’ll leave the hunting and the woods to you
two from now on.”

“
Fraidy cat?”

“Whatever,” Jared muttered tiredly, breathing heavily as he trudged on.

Liam laughed, ruffling his hair fondly.

“I don’t care what
shit you decide to do in the future,” Edmund panted. “You’re taking your fucking turn in carrying this carcass today.”

Jared grinned, his eyes wandering through the trees.
He’d been here last night. He recognized the cluster of tall sugar maple trees they were passing through now.

He glanced to his right as Edmund breathlessly dragged the sled with the dead deer behind him. He could have easily sprinted with the hunt back to the house in no time. But seeing Edmund struggle with it pleased him slightly. For the sake of his friends back in Central, these men more than deserved to labor for the food they were going to consume.

*****

“
You know, five years ago we would have got drunk and partied until midnight in a place like this,” Evelyn said as she strolled up to him.

Jared picked up another glass and began wiping it dry. “So what’s changed?”

She shrugged. “We matured. It’s only nine o’clock and the boys have hit the bed. Who would have known that Edmund and Liam would be such a bore as adults?”

He smiled. “What about you?”

“I suppose I’m gullible. I get influenced very easily,” she grinned.

He lowered his head as he shined the glass in his hand until it sparkled.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” she observed.

He looked up at her. “I was listening. You need someone to listen.”

She drew closer to him. “It’s rare to find a man who has an ear and patience for a woman.” She gently pulled the glass away from his hand and sat it on the table. “It’s even rarer to find one who is more than willing to clean up after a meal.” She ran her hand seductively up the front of his shirt. “Do you often clean up or are you trying to impress someone here? Because if you are, it’s certainly working on me.”

He clasped her hand before they could find their way through the unbuttoned gap in his shirt.

“Evelyn, I think you may have had one glass too many.”

“
Three glasses doesn’t get anyone drunk. I need way more to hit the tipsy scale.” She stood on her toes, leaning into him. “Do you like me, Jared? Do you think I’m pretty?”

A rustle of footsteps interrupted them.

“Evelyn, I…,” started Ellie as she entered the kitchen. She froze on seeing her sister readying to cling onto Jared, her hands at his shoulders, her body eagerly inclined into his. Her eyes moved lower down their bodies and she couldn’t help notice that his hands were resting at her waist. “I’m sorry,” she muttered and turned around immediately, exiting as quickly as she had come in.

She sat before the mirror, towel drying her long damp hair. She had not known where she could have run away to after catching them together. She had been afraid someone would follow her to her bedroom and catch her bawling her eyes out for a man other than her fiancé. Instead, she had headed directly to the shower and stood under it, letting the water disguise the tears trickling down her face. Perhaps, if she managed to fool herself, she would be able to fool the rest as well.

Only when she felt she
had steadied herself enough, did she venture out of it. She hadn’t realized though she had taken much longer than she had expected to settle her wounded spirit. When she had stepped out of the bathroom, the house was already bereft of any noise from its occupants. Retired, undoubtedly, to their respective rooms, she had thought.

She looked into the mirror, studying the dark circles under her eyes. And the longer she peered into it, the more her eyes welled with tears. Finally, she cupped her face, crying as softly as she could. She had been stupid. She had given her heart and soul to a man who might never give back in the same measure. He had left her several clues that he could never commit to her. Hadn’t he declined to spend the night with her last night? And tonight, he had gathered Evelyn in his arms with just as much tenderness as he had carried her to her bed.

Finally, she wiped away the tears from her eyes. When had she ever been besotted by the charms of a man? She sat upright, determined to not tear up again at the mere thought of him.
“You don’t know him, Ellie,” she recited to herself. “He’d never give you the same commitment as Edmund. You’re doing the right thing. It is Edmund you should marry. Edmund is intelligent, well-educated. He has a job. He’s going to succeed Dad in office. He gets along with the family. He’s everything a woman needs. He’d keep me… happy.” She bit her lips. She had hesitated. She closed her eyes and tried again. “I should love Edmund. I love…,” she trailed off into her thoughts. Who was she fooling? She didn’t love Edmund at all. But did she love Jared enough to the point of defiance?

A series of knockings rapped on her door.

“Who is it?” she called out, too weary to open it.

“Ellie?”

She stilled. Her skin prickled at the sound of his voice. What did he want? How could he come to her room after that audacious display of affection with her sister?

“Ellie?” he called her softly again.

She walked over to the door; afraid he would try opening it and catch her weeping for him. She leant into it, her forehead resting tiredly against it. “I’m worn out, Jared. Can we talk tomorrow?” she bit her lips, managing to stifle a sniffle.

“Please, Ellie?” he urged. “I need to talk to you.”

“About what?” she whispered.

“About what happened in the
kitchen. With Evelyn,” he whispered back.

“It’s none of my business.”

“Say it to my face and I won’t bother you again.”

She clenched her fists. “I’m saying it now.”

“Not until I see you.”

“
Jared, please…”

He didn’t answer and she almost panicked that he had left.

“She’s your sister and I didn’t know how to stop her without offending her,” he said slowly. “I didn’t want to hurt her.”

She pulled in a deep breath, choking back her sniffles.

“I know it must look bad but it isn’t what you think,” he continued.

“You should go, Jared, before someone hears you,” she mumbled.

“Let me see you and I will.”

She
closed her eyes, shaking her head. She must have lost her mind because she was giving into every word he was uttering. He didn’t owe her an explanation and why was she bothering to listen to him.

She turned the door knob slowly. She lowered her head to avoid looking at him. Her eyes had swollen and reddened from all her sobbing. She could never allow him to know how much he had hurt her.

He moved slowly towards her and she stepped back immediately.

“Ellie?” he said softly.

She stepped back again, wishing he would leave. Instead he cupped her face with one hand. Unable to restrain her tears any more, she let them flow, wetting his palm. He pulled her closer to him to peer at her face and she allowed him to momentarily hold her against himself. But then a sudden surge of anger swept through her. She clenched her fists and beat wildly at his chest repeatedly.

“Ellie,” he said again, trying to grasp her hands
but she pushed them away roughly and hit him again. In desperation, he clasped a fistful of hair and dragged her face to his, possessing her mouth.

Shocked, she twisted herself against him, trying to break free. But the more his tongue wielded
its way into her mouth, waging a war against her own, the more she submitted to him. His lips gradually released the pressure off her, gently caressing her mouth with his tongue, tingling her all over. He laid a kiss on the end of her nose as he pulled back slowly.

She peered up into his face. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“I know,” he whispered. He ran his hands through her long, damp hair. “But there are somethings that can’t be helped.”

“This is not right, Jared,” she trembled. “It’s all too messed
up to be right.”

“What can be more right than how we feel for each other?”

“What about Edmund; my family? What about Evelyn?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers
. But what I do know is how I feel when I’m with you.”

“It’s not enough,” she
teared, shaking her head.

“Ellie…,” he started to protest.

“Jared, please. We’re not thinking clearly. Perhaps, we’ve gone way ahead of ourselves. We’ve rushed through our emotions blindly. We need a break from each other and think things through.”