Show Me

She could ignore the situation no longer.  “I don’t blame you for hating me at first,” Jake said.  “After all, I forced you to marry me.  But you do see why I had to tell you all this, don’t you?  You’ve been so honest with me that I had to be the same with you.”  Tanya’s heart sank.  Honest!  Honest!  The word kept haunting her.  Her supposed honesty was the one thing he admired about her.  She couldn’t possibly tell him the truth now.  If she did, his love for her would be shattered forever!

Something brushed against her leg…  Tanya leaned forward to knock the insect away, and horror rose in her throat as she stared at the large hairy body of a tarantula.  She was too terrified to move, frozen by the sight of the mammoth spider.  But when it began to crawl onto her leg, she screamed.  In her terror she didn’t recognize that she was calling Jake’s name over and over again.  Nor did she hear the sound of his footsteps racing toward her.  The only things that registered were the tanned hands brushing the spider off her leg and the pair of arms that reached down and pulled her to her feet.  Then she was crushed against a muscular chest, the arms wrapped around her, a hand stroking her hair.  “It’s okay.  You’re all right now,” a soothing voice whispered in her ear.