His mouth clamped down on hers, and for a moment she was choked by the beery gust of his breath, which had only been a gentle spicy scent in the air before. His tongue prodded around in her mouth like a red-hot poker and swept roughly against her gums. Ruth tried to tip her head back a bit, but he held her tight. The delight she had just felt drained clean away.
Thomas’s hands were busy with the buttons of her blouse. Ruth shuffled backward as far as she could. When the rough stonework of the wall pressed up hard against her spine, she shoved Thomas away with all her strength.
He looked at her in utter shock. “What is it now? Come back here!”
Ruth’s heart was hammering. “You know very well that that’s not what I want!” she said reproachfully, and began to button her blouse back up.
It was the same every time; she gave him a bit, and he only wanted more and more. But her anger vanished a moment later, and she felt miserable. Joost’s warnings echoed in her ears again. “In this world, once a girl loses her honor she has nothing left to call her own!”
Thomas stood up and straightened his pants. “This is the last time I let you make a fool of me!” His voice was trembling. He stood before her with his legs wide apart.
Ruth found she couldn’t stop looking at the great bulge between them.
“You shove your breasts at me week in and week out, but if I want to touch them I have to beg like a dog. You show off your legs but won’t even let me set eyes on what you have between them. Let alone put my hand there. I’ve had enough!” He slammed his fist against the wall. The nearby shelves shuddered.
“If everyone else knew that you’d been leading me up the garden path like this, I’d never live it down! They all believe we’ve been at it for ages by now.”
“What has everyone else got to do with us? I hope you don’t talk to your buddies about what we do! This has nothing to do with anyone but you and me!” Ruth said heatedly. She toyed fleetingly with the thought of getting up and leaving—it might be better to have this conversation when Thomas wasn’t in quite such a rage—but the moment passed and Ruth stayed where she was.
He went on as though she hadn’t spoken. “They’ll say you’ve got me whipped. They’ll call me a gelding. If you plan to keep your maidenhead right down to Judgment Day, then just tell me now!”
Ruth flinched as though she’d been punched in the gut. Thomas had never spoken to her so coarsely before.
She was even a little afraid as she saw how greedily he was looking at her. Like a snarling beast that had fought long and hard for its prey. She tried to clamber to her feet, but all of a sudden he was on his knees in front of her.
“What do I have to do to show you that I love you? Tell me and I’ll do it!” he pleaded. “I don’t know how to treat a woman right. How am I supposed to know?” He shrugged convulsively. His blustering manner had melted away, and now he just looked helpless. “If you like, we can meet somewhere else from now on. I’ll think of something,” he said in a defeated tone. “Just tell me: What can I do to make you happy?”
Ruth looked at him, astonished. He had certainly changed his tune! Unsure as to how to answer him, she took a moment to shake out her skirt as though to free it of all the dust and grime. Should she use the opportunity she’d been given? Or should she wait for Thomas to come to the idea on his own . . . She would probably have to wait until Judgment Day herself before that would happen.
She went to him and put her arms around his shoulders. “Do you want to have me?” she asked, choosing her words carefully.
Thomas nodded. There was hunger in his eyes.
Ruth smiled quietly to herself. He must think he got where he wanted. Ha!
“I’ll let you have me. And you don’t even have to do anything to ‘make me happy,’ ” she said, her voice as smooth and sweet as syrup.
She ran her hands along his forearms. Her lips drifted up his cheek to his right ear. “I love you, Thomas Heimer. And I want you to be my man.” She pressed herself up against his bulging loins. Her legs were trembling, and she wondered whether she was going too far. On no account did she want to send him back into a fury. Then she slipped out of his embrace, gently but firmly, before it could turn into anything more.
Thomas could hardly believe his ears. “Ruth! Ruth! Ruth!” he whispered over and over again. He buried his hands in her hair and breathed in the vanilla scent of her hair powder. “You don’t know how much I’ve wanted to hear those words!” He still had no idea how to read her mood, and he tried to push her down to the floor.