eternity, and she had not stopped staring at him like that since she had awoken. The girl had an air of earthy defiance. He had abducted her , yet she acted as though she had the upper hand.
He had expected her to be frightened, had been prepared for panic and screaming, but she had defied his expectations. Was this sort of thing commonplace in her life? He never knew anymore.
******
A few hours earlier, at a greasy spoon just outside Slidell, Jack gnawed at a barely recognizable hunk of charcoal pretending to be a rib eye steak; it had the misnomer “The Bloody Outlaw” on the menu. His order had been medium rare, but the steak was so hard he could have murdered the “chef” with it. He was chocking down a mouthful of the charred meat when he first spotted the comely waitress. She was blonde, with a similar height and build to Dianne, maybe twenty-five or so, he guessed. Her shorts were very short. She sported several exotic tattoos on her achingly well toned limbs. A colorful Koi fish on her inner left thigh swam up that curvy leg in search of Zen further north. A vicious looking dragon slithered along her other sexy thigh, evidently to beat the fish in the race to paradise.
She was tanned and beautiful; deep brown, almond shaped eyes, perfect teeth, no wrinkles, at least none that he could see. He was enthralled.
She noticed him staring at her as she hustled from table to table, stuffing tips into her fanny pack. She stiffened instinctively and Jack looked away, embarrassed. He had been enjoying the guilty pleasure of watching her bend lithely over the edges of the tables; even seeing her perform the menial task of re-stuffing the napkin holders was intoxicating. In spite of his shame at being caught leering, he glanced again in her direction. To his delight, a smile brightened her eyes; she actually winked at him.
GOD Dammit, Dianne! I got you one, he thought and his pulse quickened at the prospect of this being his moment. It was time for him to make his move. He wasn't certain, but Jack felt pretty sure this girl was flirting with him. If only he could get alone outside with her for a moment.
He wondered if he really had the courage to kidnap this girl and bring her back to the Goddess. The thought that he might actually pull this off gave Jack a jolt of adrenalin and frightened him to death at the same time.
He picked the gristle out of his teeth as he waited anxiously for the cashier to return from wherever she had disappeared. He was surprised when the cute waitress he had been watching boldly strode up to him. She was a full foot shorter than him and it was immediately apparent that she kept herself in great shape. She had a “girl next door” body, sexy without having to try and draw attention to it.
She was a natural beauty, like Dianne, and she held a cigarette in the notch between the first and middle finger of her right hand. Though she attempted to appear nonchalant, he could tell she was a little timid. It was easy to see she was no lot lizard,: not some floozy looking to fuck for a buck; in fact, she appeared pretty normal.
Even though she looked worn out from her long shift hustling tips from dirty truckers, she still walked with confidence, seemingly unaware of how she rolled her hips as she approached him. This girl was playing it cool, calm and collected, but he could tell the need for a cigarette was on her like swine flu.
She waved her hand in front of his eyes, alerting him to the embarrassing fact that, once again, he was ogling her.
“Got a light, mister?” she asked. Her name was printed on a name tag buttoned to her shirt: Rayne. He liked that name,
“You got a spare smoke, Rayne?” he replied.
Her eyes widened as he said her name, but then she touched her name tag and smiled.
“They're menthol...” she shifted on her feet, her eyes darting left first, and then right.
“Then you got yourself a deal Miss Rayne. I've got a mighty fine lighter in my rig out back. I