He pleaded: “Don’t!”
With sudden abandon, she flung herself against him, and for the first time his arms closed about her. She yielded to his fierce embrace, her head against his breast.
“You do not love me,” she whispered.
“Sadie...!” His arms tightened with his cry, and a red mist blinded him as he felt her warm, vital body closer against him.
She lifted her face and looked at him.
“You will?” she asked, smiling.
“No,” he said, almost with a moan.
She kissed him. “To drink, only to drink,” she said softly. “It is so little. I have given you myself ... isn’t that something?”
With one arm she clung to him as tightly as he held her; the other arm was free, and with her hand she stroked his face. Her kisses were hot upon his lips. His eyes were closed, and he swayed with a dizziness that was mightier than any other he had known.
“Only to drink,” she said. “Do you not care for me, and I have given you myself? What are those men in the camp to you, they and their rules? You will not drink ... yet I give you ... this....”