Snowbound Hearts (8 page)

She stepped over to the side of the bed. “We can’t, Stephen.”

He huffed and rolled over, facing away from her. “Fine, I’m too tired anyway. Wake me up if you change your mind.”

Audrey slid under the covers, snuggled up against his back, and put her arm around him. “Is this okay?”

He shivered as her ice-cold body touched his. “I’m awake now. God Almighty, Audrey, how did you get so cold?” Stephen rolled over to face her, pulled the blanket tight around her back, and wrapped his arms around her. “Have you been out in the snow?”

“No, I woke up like this.”

“How could it be so cold in the next room? Was your window open?”

“I don’t know. Something happened, Stephen. You’ll think I’m nuts if I tell you, but when I woke up, something was on top of me.”

“Something? Somebody? An animal?”

“No, something dark and cold, like a thick black blanket made from ice. It held me down so I couldn’t move at all for a while. Then it just dissolved away. I was terrified, but I couldn’t scream. It’s like I was paralyzed.”

Stephen sighed heavily. “The way the wind is howling is enough to spook anyone. I’m having a little trouble sleeping myself. Don’t you think it was just a nightmare?”

“Maybe it was, but there’s another explanation, and I think it’s probably the right one. I’m still in my car, covered with snow, probably dying. That would explain so many things, like why it’s been so cold in here ever since I arrived.”

“Audrey, you’re not in your car. I thought we had settled that.” Stephen grunted as she worked herself tightly up against him. “It was cold before you got here. That little stove is too small to heat the whole cabin. If you want, I could have you sweating in five minutes.”

She repositioned her cold hands to another spot and drained away more of his heat. “That’s a subtle way of suggesting that we have sex, but only if I want, right?”

“Of course.” Stephen rubbed her arms and back, hoping the friction would warm her frigid skin.

“If I’m unconscious, living in a dream, it would also explain you.”

“What’s so unbelievable about me? I’m just a regular guy who happened to rent a cabin the same week as you. There’s nothing mysterious about that.”

She kissed his cheek and whispered in his ear, “You have no idea what you just said.”

“Are you sure you didn’t hit your head when you crashed? Some of the stuff you say makes no sense at all. Maybe you’re in shock.”

Audrey wiggled her voluptuous body against him. He slipped his hand down her side to her slim waist, over the mound of her hip, and around onto the back her freezing thigh.

“I’m definitely in shock, but not from the crash.”

He slid his hand up onto her rear and squeezed.

“Are you massaging my butt to get me warm?”

“No, I’m doing it because I like it. Audrey, do you feel that lump where you’re pressing your crotch against me? We’ve got about a millimeter of cloth between us. What’s the difference in that and my hand?”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t okay. I was just thinking maybe you should use both hands. That way one side won’t get more attention than the other. You know what’s okay and what’s not. Besides it’s only a dream.”

Since she had asked, he took her rear firmly into both hands and indulged himself. “Audrey, if this was a dream, we would have already had sex. Sex on the table after I beat your clothes off playing strip poker. Sex sitting in the chair at lunchtime. Sex on the sofa after gassing the generator. We would have had cans of whipped cream and mounds of bananas, and I would have eaten the nastiest banana split in the history of the world after reading in bed. If this was a dream, we’d be having some crazy awesome sex right now, instead of talking.”

“We would if this was
your
dream.”

The fact that she wouldn’t expect to dream about sex with him rattled his confidence. Up until that moment, he had been certain that she desired him. “So, you like to have frustration in your dreams?”

Audrey pressed her hand between them, momentarily separating her crotch from his, as she worked it down toward his legs. “Sometimes, really good frustration can be better than sex.”

Stephen sucked in a hard breath. Her hand was ice cold, but the spot where she grasped him was burning hot.

She loosened her grip and rubbed him. “Was that a good gasp, or did I grab them too hard?”

“That was a ‘I can’t believe she’s touching me there’ gasp.”

“Because it hurts?”

“Because it feels
so
good.”

She tightened her grip. “I knew you liked the way I frustrate you.”

“Well, I can honestly say that having frustration with you is better than having sex with the women I’ve known.” He dug his fingertips in deep and massaged her bottom.

“Yeah, Stephen, you’ve frustrated my brains out. More of that, please.”

Stephen chuckled, not knowing what to think about Audrey. She obviously had some serious issues on her mind. Grabbing his balls was probably just her way of distracting him so he wouldn’t push her for answers that she wasn’t ready to give him. And it worked. For the moment at least, he didn’t care about anything except the way she was clutching him. “You feel a lot warmer now, especially your hand. Do you want to sleep by the stove?”

She repositioned her hand grasping him more fully. “Do you mind if I stay in here with you? The wind is awfully spooky. We can’t have sex, but if you’ll let me, I’ll frustrate all night long.” She giggled as she massaged him.

He took a deep breath and groaned. “Oh, you’ve already frustrated me so much that if you don’t stop, I’m going to explode.”

Audrey quit moving her hand but didn’t let him go. “So, you’ll let me stay?”

“You can stay, if you’ll be quiet and go to sleep. And stop mentioning that we can’t have sex. I’m still craving one of those special banana splits, and I don’t give a damn about the banana, only the split.”

Audrey pressed her lips to his and kissed him passionately. “There’s a little taste for you. Maybe not the one you want, but it’ll have to do for now.”

“Audrey, you’ve seriously got to move your hand.”

She began gently squeezing him again.

“Uh
, that is not what I meant. On second thought, maybe I could stand being frustrated a while longer.”

She put her mouth to his and continued frustrating him. The thin T-shirt she was wearing provided little buffer between her rigid nipples and his bare chest as she squashed her breasts against him. He didn’t think he’d be able to get any sleep, not that he wanted to sleep.

The relentless wind pelting the cabin with snow was downright unnerving. Her presence in his arms brought him comfort the way clutching a teddy bear soothes a kid’s worries about monsters under the bed. As teddy bears went, Audrey was extraordinary.

***

Stephen opened his blurry eyes to the dim light of an overcast morning. At some point during the wee hours, Audrey had finally stopped rubbing against him and dozed off, allowing him a few hours of desperately needed sleep. He gazed at her pretty face and watched her sleep for a while. She was lying on top, straddling him, her head on his shoulder and her crotch placed squarely onto his. Eventually, she opened her eyes.

“How did we get like this?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m glad you’re on top so you can’t get mad at me.”

She slid off him and glanced at his crotch. “Oh.” She reached down and traced the length of his erection with her index finger. “Did I do that?”

“Yes.
Again
.”

“Sorry,” she said and got up, but turned back and grinned. “I’m not really sorry.” She spun on her heel and glided to the bathroom as if walking on air.

Stephen expected her to go on to her room and get dressed, but she came back and got into the bed with him. Her big pink nipples were visible through the old, worn-out white T-shirt she was wearing.

Stephen was still lying on his back. She slid under the covers, straddled him, and put her head back onto his shoulder where it had been. A man’s body was never intended to endure the kind of repeated stimulation with no relief that Audrey insisted on giving him. But he couldn’t ask her to stop. If the torture of constant arousal with no hope of fulfillment was what he had to endure to be near her, then he’d suffer silently in agonizing bliss. She shifted from side to side getting perfectly centered and settled her full weight onto him.

***

After breakfast, Audrey and Stephen sat staring at each other over their empty plates. She had put on one of his flannel shirts over her T-shirt but hadn’t bothered buttoning it. Her hard nipples strained against the thin white cloth that barely obscured them. She pushed the plates aside, put her elbows onto the table, and her chin in her hands. He did the same so they were face-to-face.

“I know I’m just the test dummy, but I hope I’ve given you second thoughts about your so-called soul mate.”

Audrey shook her head. “I’m more convinced than ever that he’s my soul mate.”

Stephen let his head drop and rapped it once on the table, then frowned at her. He tapped the middle of his chest with an index finger. “This is not indestructible, Audrey. Any more damage and it might never heal.”

She sighed heavily, returning his frown. “Were not in love, Stephen, we
can’t
be.”

If she had made her statement with conviction, Stephen was certain that his heart would have shriveled and died, but the tone of her voice betrayed her true meaning. She wasn’t making a statement at all. She was asking how they could have fallen in love so quickly. “Where did that come from? I never mentioned that word.”

“Did you really think you had to say the word? I can see it in your eyes.”

“No matter what you think, you don’t know what’s in my mind unless I tell you.”

“Okay, tell me you’re not in love with me.” She leaned forward and kissed his lips.

Stephen hesitated for a moment, thinking up a way to answer her question without lying or admitting the truth. “You know—it’s just a word. Four little letters someone strung together to give a polite name to a biological need to reproduce.”

Audrey slowly shook her head and inched her face closer to his. “It’s not just a word. It’s a universe unto itself, and we’ve fallen into it.”

Stephen gave her a little peck, catching her top lip between his. “You do realize that you’re contradicting yourself? You said we weren’t in love.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been full of contradictions lately.” She leaned forward and kissed him again, allowing the tips of their tongues to brush ever so briefly together.

Stephen touched his forehead to hers, their lips barely an inch apart. “I’m utterly confused.”

“You’re only confused because you don’t have all the facts.” She extended her tongue and gave his a little lick.

“I don’t have the facts because you won’t give them to me.”

“Exactly.”

Stephen grasped her head, thrust his lips against hers, and kissed her, passionately caressing her tongue with his. She wrapped her arms around his neck, enthusiastically returning his kiss.

“Tell me
you’re
not in love with
me
, Audrey.”

“I can’t tell you that.” She clasped her hands to his cheeks and gave him an openmouthed kiss, using only her tongue, never quite letting their lips contact. “All I can tell you is that I’m scared of where we are and how fast we got here.”

“Okay, so we’ve fallen into this universe unto itself. What happens now, Audrey? If neither of us can tell the other that we’re not in love, then apparently we
are
in love. Unless there’s some in-between state that I’m not aware of.”

She leaned forward and kissed him again with an air of urgency about her.

“Does that mean I’m right?”

“I don’t know what it means except that you’re a really good kisser.”

“Let me go out on a limb. I think it means that your perfect partner isn’t who you thought he was.” Stephen leaned forward and brushed her lips with his, but quickly pulled back, making her come toward him and not letting her catch him. He desperately wished that she’d give him definitive answers. “Why don’t you curl up on the sofa under the blanket while I get us some heat going?”

She grunted in protest and grabbed his hair, forcefully taking the kiss he had just denied her.

Stephen threw another log in the stove and stoked it up, then climbed under the blanket with Audrey. She slid over next to him, and he pulled her close.

“I shouldn’t have let the fire burn down so low, but I had my mind on something else.”

Audrey playfully bumped him with her shoulder. “You just wanted it to get cold so my nipples would poke out. I saw you looking at them.”

“You look sexy wearing my shirt open like that, but if you don’t want me to see your nipples, button it.” Stephen raised a hand to her breast and flicked his thumb across her nipple.

She shoved his hand away. “I like wearing it open, but if you want me to button it, I will.”

“Now why would I want that? If you did, I wouldn’t be able to see your nipples poking out, and that would mean I let it get cold in here for nothing.” He reached over and flicked her other nipple.

She shoved his hand away again. “Stop that. By the way, I know how we got like we were this morning. I did it intentionally. Don’t ask me why, I just wanted to. I hope that doesn’t irritate you.”

“No, of course not, but”—Stephen scooped her up and set her in his lap—”dammit, if you’re going to sit here, then you might as well sit some place that’s comfortable.”

Audrey giggled and squirmed, rolling her hips around in a circle. “Stephen, this is so much fun. I know you think I’m nuts.”

“Yeah, the thought had crossed my mind.” He slipped his hands up to the sides of her breasts, but she pushed them away before he could grasp her nipples.

“
Uh,
you’re not supposed to agree with me.”

“You have to admit that nothing about you makes any sense, but don’t feel bad, after a couple days with you, I’m pretty much nuts myself. And I wouldn’t change it if I could.”