Vera stiffened under his grip, almost attempting to fight back and wrench out of his grip, but Vulpes could feel her body relaxing the moment his lips pressed to her ear.
"You smell disgusting…" He inhaled the clinging smoke from her hair, his hands holding her hips secure back against his. "Where did you get such a foul drug?"
"Hm." She shrugged as her mouth began to water for the smells drifting from the tent before her, just out of her reach. "That's a secret… what's in the tent?"
"It's a secret…" He hushed in her ear, one of his hands disappearing momentarily before blackness blocked her vision. "I won't assume you know what Gula means, Courier…"
"Nope." She smiled, pressing back against the warmth of his body as a chilled wind blew past.
"Of course you don't…" He sighed, seemingly disappointed with her lack of knowledge, and nudged her backside forward with a light bump of his knee. "Walk."
She did just that, rather eager to be warmed in the safe, delicious smelling tent. Was there some kind of private dinner date that she forgot about?
Did Vulpes go on dates? Ah… bad train of thought…
Upon stepping into the tent she was indeed very warm; hot actually, the air rather humid. But oh it was worth it, being completely wrapped in the smells of freshly cooked foods, salts and spices, the sweet smell of Mutfruit juice—her favorite other then Sarsaparilla.
"Mmm…" She swallowed back the building drool with a smile, subconsciously squeezing Vulpes' guiding hand as he led her across the tent. "Am I being punished or rewarded?"
Vulpes smirked as he sat the Courier down in a chair seated in front of the table bearing the fruits of the slaves' labor, courtesy of Catula, the slave in charge of meals. It wasn't much, but it was enough fragrance to make the girl beside him believe it was a vast feast. "What could you have possibly done to deserve reward?"
He watched her brow furrow and imagined her eyes to be narrowing beneath her blindfold, her face turning up towards the sound of his voice.
"I haven't tried to kill you." She began in a solid tone he was sure she thought sounded convincing. He nodded despite it all, observing the options of food carefully as she carried on. "And I'm allowing you to blindfold me without any fuss, that's something, isn't it?"
Vulpes' brow twitched on the word 'allow' but let it pass without word, picking up a piece of apple and leaning down to the Courier's eye level.
He watched her expression as he gently prodded the fruit against her lips, curious was to why her face seemed to contort in disgust rather then pleasure, given that he knew for a fact she favored the fruit.
"Open your mouth, girl."
She inclined her head towards his voice, seeming to pause in thought before sighing. "Are you trying to poison me?"
A small hint of a smile plagued him momentarily. "If I wanted to do that Courier, I would have by now."
She seemed to take that to heart, slowly opening her mouth and allowing the fruit to push into her mouth.
Vulpes supposed that, in the moment, she was purposefully trying to entrance him with the way she ate the fruit. No longer did she scarf it down like a starved mutt, quite the opposite actually.
His eyes lingered on the way her lips curled back ever so slightly against her nicely straightened teeth, watching her bite slowly into the sliced apple. The juice dripped down her jaw slowly, then sliding down her neck to soil the top of her robes.
A bad habit of hers, yet now it was simply delicious.
