Free Initiation (Gypsy Harts #1) by C. D. Breadner Page B

back, and she returned to her post without a word.
    The two men dropped their loads into the sled. She saw that it was the carcass of two large-ish animals, presumably the deer they’d been so eager about upstairs. As they straightened Oakley caught her breath. She knew she’d never been in the close proximity of larger men than these two. She had to guess they were six and a half feet tall. The darker one had his hair piled up in a knot on his head, but she could tell it was long. His dark eyes took her in without much stealth. They ran over her body from toes to the top of her head, and she caught a flare of something in his gaze before he turned to Em with a nod. “Emmanuelle. You’re looking good.”
    Em nodded. “This is Oakley. She’s new. We found her last week. Oakley, this is Benvolio.”
    Now Oakley was aware of the blonde’s attention, even though they weren’t discussing him. His skin was heavily-tanned and she found herself wishing she could tell his eye color. The goggles didn’t make it as obvious as the dark-haired one. His eyes also ran up her legs, over her torso, to her face. He was slower about it, and for some reason his gaze wasn’t uncomfortable. If anything, she liked it.
    He was handsome, even with the goggles and beard she could see it. His arms and their impressive musculature made her inhale the longer she looked on him. Under the sweat and dirt, she saw bright colors and she knew he must be tattooed up both arms. The same for the skin under the neck of his shirt.
    They were staring at each other, and she didn’t fully realize it until the dark-haired man cleared his throat. “This is Stone,” he told her, specifically. “I’m thinking you’ll know that before too long.”
    Oakley avoided Em’s gaze. She was suddenly uncomfortable with how flushed and embarrassed she was to be caught checking out a man out like that.
    For his part, Stone was nonplussed. As a matter of fact, he ran a hand over his chin, licking his bottom lip before biting it and running that hand down his own chest.
    Oh, good lord…
    “We’ll get supper going,” Em was saying, taking Oakley’s arm. For the life of her she couldn’t take her eyes off of Stone.
    “Sounds good. We’ll be waiting. You sending the women out?”
    “Yeah,” Em said, forcefully maneuvering Oakley behind her. “You can have your use of a few until dinner’s ready.”
    The dark-haired one was chuckling, slapping the shoulder of the other man. “I’ll make sure the guys at least clean up a bit in the spring.”
    “I’m sure the girls will appreciate that,” Em answered, sounding amused. The two strode off, Benvolio turning to walk away. Stone, however, was walking backwards for a while, still staring at her. Her heart was hammering away behind her sternum, and her skin felt distressingly tight and warm.
    “Holy shit, Oakley,” Em was chuckling, picking up a rope that was tied to the end of the sled. “Just get on your back right here.”
    “What?” she asked, innocently as she bent to pick up the other side of the rope’s loop.
    “Yeah, what .” Em was still laughing as she did most of the work getting the meat offering into the front entry.
    It took four of them to pull all that weight up to the top of the stairs. In the kitchen their arrival was greeting with loud whooping and clapping.
    The kitchen women fell on the meat like skilled vultures; immediately slicing the meat away from the bones inside. There was no blood which she found odd.
    “Why isn’t there blood?”
    “They roast it as soon as it’s caught, just to get rid of the fur and kill anything that might start growing in it. Meat can only keep so long. So they turn it over a fire a while. Then stuff it full of the hot rocks to cook from the inside out while they transport it. See? No maggots, no rot.”
    The ribcages of the two deer were suddenly wrenched wide open, and as they watched the awfuls were collected and thrown in two huge pots on the stove