A Week in the Snow (11 page)

“I’ll be all right,” she said.

The nurse gave her a broad smile. “Here we go.”

Rebecca stood behind the nurse as Richard got a few shots of numbing medication, then got his stitches. She watched through all fourteen of them, and marvelled at how rarely he flinched. He seemed to be more interested in a story for the paper about the nurses at the hospital. He asked one question after another, and eventually more nurses came into the room, adding their own answers. Richard joked that he needed his tape recorder at a time like this, and more than a few of the nurses offered to answer his questions—anytime. Would he like their phone numbers, so he could call them when he was ready to do the story?

Rebecca reminded herself that she was leaving in about a week, that these women would be here long after she was gone, and that she had no cause to get jealous about things. After all, when they had cast curious looks in her direction, she had told them she was just a friend from out of town. That’s what she was, wasn’t she? She was a friend who happened to have wild sex with the man they all seemed to lust after, but how well did she really know him?

She watched as Richard collected phone numbers, prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medication. The attending nurse finished wrapping his hand again and pointed a finger at him.

“Take that medicine. Finish the entire antibiotic. Don’t hesitate to take those pain pills if you’re hurting. And stay away from broken glass, for God’s sake.”

“Yes, Madam.”

The nurse gave Rebecca a final grin and walked out with his chart. Richard shrugged into his coat as Rebecca watched him from across the room. With his good hand he stuck the papers deep in his pocket, and a small twinge of jealousy nagged away in the corner of Rebecca’s mind.

“You okay?” he asked, and she nodded.

“Are you?”

“Yeah. But I need to get some of this pain medication in me, because I have a feeling I won’t be so okay in an hour or so. That was a big needle.”

“That was a big cut.”

They walked together down a long hallway and wound up at the pharmacy, where the receptionist knew him by name and didn’t ask for his insurance information. The bottles were filled amid banter about the snow and what the paper would have to say about it, and a minute later they were outside in the darkness. The sun had gone down while they were under the fluorescent lights of the hospital, and now the world seemed a bit disorienting.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asked when they were out of earshot of the hospital.

“Nothing.”

“That’s not true.”

She didn’t answer him, and soon he realised that no answer would be forthcoming.

Rebecca sat on the snowmobile and Richard climbed on behind her, wrapped his arms around her middle, and decided it might be best just to keep his mouth shut until she was ready to talk. Not a word was said between them as she manoeuvred the machine down the hillside and along the same path she had taken a few hours before. Richard laid his chin on her shoulder and watched the world go by while he wondered at the thoughts running through her head.

When they reached the house, Rebecca carefully slid the snowmobile into the garage. She turned off the engine and the silence rushed in, making it clear just how much time had gone by without a single word from her. Finally she sighed and turned in the seat to look at him. Why be anything but perfectly frank and honest?

“I’ve had so much fun these last few days,” she started. “I’ve enjoyed every moment of being with you. It’s almost magical, how it happened—you saved me from the blizzard, we wound up in bed, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. But I guess when we were at the hospital I started to realise that this isn’t a fairy tale, and it’s going to end soon. When it does, you’ll have your life and I’ll have mine, and never the two shall meet,” she said, and smiled sadly. “You’ll have a lot of nurses waiting for your call.”

Richard didn’t know what to say. While in the hospital he had acted the same way he always had, and he’d had no designs on any of the women there. He had known most of them for years, and while some of them had made their interest known, he had never returned the favour.

“I don’t think I’ll be calling any of them for personal reasons,” he said carefully.

Rebecca nodded and put on a brave face. “What you do is your business. I just think…well, I think I’m going to miss you.”

What else could she say? No matter how magical things might seem, she was a realistic person, and the reality of so many miles between Miami and Crispin was very clear.

“You don’t have to miss me yet,” he said.

She climbed off of the snowmobile and took off her coat. Outside the garage the moon had drifted behind the clouds and it was almost pitch-black, but they could still hear the roar of snowploughs, so much closer now. The roads would be cleared by morning, and then they could pull her car out of the ditch, and then…

And then?

Rebecca stared at the snow until Richard pushed the button that lowered the garage door. They were left in utter darkness. She listened to him as he moved towards her, the rustling sound of his coat the only indication of his movement. When he wrapped his arms around her from behind, she bit her lip and fought the urge to cry.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she murmured.

“Maybe there’s nothing wrong at all.”

She shook her head. “I’m not usually this emotional.”

“I knew seeing your car again would be emotional for you. Maybe this is part of it.”

“It’s not the car,” she whispered. She turned in Richard’s arms and found his lips in the darkness. “It’s not the car.”

He kissed her back. “What is it, then?”

“I’m jealous.”

The admission was like fuel to a fire. His desire for her blazed brighter than before, something he hadn’t thought possible. He grabbed her arm and hauled her to the door of the garage, fumbling with the doorknob until she moved ahead of him and opened it for him.

They burst into the kitchen and immediately he took her down to the floor, where she rolled on top of him and reached for the snap of his jeans. Richard kicked them down, even as she stood above him and stripped out of her clothes. There was the sound of a seam ripping, a zipper opening, a swish of fabric on the tile floor, then she was on top of him, guiding him into her with one deep thrust.

At the now-familiar sensation of his cock impaling her as deeply as it could, Rebecca took a deep breath. She began to rock back and forth. There was no gentleness to her as she rode him, and when Richard reached up to touch her, she yanked his hand away. She looked right into his eyes as she slid her pussy up and down his cock.

“You’re mine,” she hissed. “For the rest of my time here, I’m going to fuck you so often and so hard that you won’t look at another woman for months.”

The warmth of her words flooded Richard. It was the balm he had always wanted, but had never really had, even when he’d worn his wedding band. “Show me.”

She sat straight up and ground down hard. Her nails found his chest and drew sharp lines, taking away his breath and leaving raised welts on his skin. He thrust up into her from the floor, raising her up on his hips, and she pounded back so hard it hurt them both. The intensity of the physical taking pushed Richard quickly to his limits.

“I’m going to come.”

“Good,” she said. “Say my name when you do it.”

“Rebecca.”

“More.”

“Rebecca. Rebecca…Becca…”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to come…”

When he did come, he didn’t hold back. He shouted her name as his cock twitched and spurted into her. She rocked hard on him, getting the most out of it, and when she felt the heat of him flooding her, she reached down between them, touched her swollen clit in just the right way, and came with him. Her pussy tightened on his dick as she threw her head back and cried out, her fingernails bringing blood from his shoulders, her whole body rigid, every muscle tense.

When it was over she sat on him and looked down into his eyes. Neither of them smiled. Neither of them knew what to say.

Finally she stood on shaky legs. He sat up and looked around at the kitchen as though he had never seen it before. He held on to the table as he stood, almost afraid his knees wouldn’t hold him, his hand smarting with the motion. As soon as he let go of the polished wood, Rebecca flung her arms around him, almost knocking him back down to the floor.

“Thank you,” she murmured, though she had no idea what she was thanking him for.

Chapter Seven

The sun came through the windows the next morning, waking Rebecca first. She lay in bed beside Richard and listened to his light, rhythmic snoring. He was on his belly, the covers pulled up to his shoulders. His bandaged hand rested on the pillow beside his head. He had got up twice in the night for pain pills, and each time he had woken her up just to hold her, kiss her and cradle her until they both fell asleep again. Now she smiled at him in the early morning light, tempted to kiss his temple but not ready to wake him just yet.
If she listened closely, she could hear cars passing slowly on the road in front of the house.

The snowploughs had come through during the night and cleared the snow away. She wondered about her car, if it had been hauled out by some anonymous driver, or if it was still buried in the snowdrifts. Today she would have to make arrangements to have it taken to a shop for repairs.

Then she would have to think about leaving, and getting back home to Miami.

The thought sobered her and her smile disappeared. She tried to imagine what life would be like when she returned to the sunny south. She would go on with her work, keep her appointments, and keep trying to find that perfect shot in the frame of her lens. She would ignore Gene’s calls—she knew there would be several, because he wouldn’t give up without a fight—and she would eventually contemplate getting involved with someone else.

The idea seemed so distant, almost ludicrous, as she lay in bed beside Richard. She was having the time of her life here in Iowa, and she was in no hurry to see it end. The fact that it
would
end was something she was just now starting to face, and already she didn’t like the way it felt. She couldn’t remember the last time she had enjoyed herself so much, and the thought of this happy vacation ending was more than she wanted to bear on a bright, sunny morning filled with such promise.

Richard stirred under the blanket and turned his face towards her. He didn’t wake up, and Rebecca took her time studying him: the long, black lashes, the curve of his mouth, the two-day stubble on his face. She knew well what that mouth felt like against hers. She knew the roughness of his face and the looks he could shoot her with his eyes. She knew the way his hand trembled when he was close to an orgasm, and the way his voice dropped when he was out of his depth.

Who was to say she didn’t know him?

Rebecca watched him until her own eyes became heavy. She fell asleep again and when she awoke the second time Richard was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at her with a smile on his face. She didn’t move, accustomed by now to the way he loved to stare, and let him study her as long as he wanted.

“I want to take pictures of you,” he said.

She raised an eyebrow. “What kind of pictures?”

“Naked ones.”

She laughed and buried her face in the pillow. Richard kissed the back of her shoulder.

“I have to go to the office. The newspaper must go on, even if I want a week off.”

She watched him as he dressed—or tried to, anyway. His hand gave him trouble, and he stopped after he shrugged into his shirt, retreating to the bathroom for more pain pills. When he came back to the bedroom, she was waiting to help him with the buttons on his shirt. He wore slacks, which actually looked better on him than the jeans did, if such a thing were possible. She buttoned those for him, too. He found his watch and couldn’t get it on without hurting his hand. So he handed it to Rebecca, who put it on his wrist as casually as if she had done it a thousand times.

They looked at each other after she had done it, and Richard was the first to speak.

“Come to the office with me.”

She slowly shook her head. “I don’t know that it’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Because it will raise questions.”

“Of course it will. I can handle those.”

It wasn’t just the questions that would come from the townsfolk who saw them together. It was also the fact that Rebecca wasn’t sure she wanted to see another aspect of Richard’s life. She already knew it would be easier to let him go at the end of the week if she could convince herself it was nothing but a fling, nothing but sex between two people who needed a touch. The deeper she delved into his life, she more she wanted to learn.
The more she knew about him, the more she had to miss.

“I think I should stay here,” she said. “I need to make calls to get the car out of the ditch, first of all, then I need to talk to my insurance company, and then…”

“You can do all that from my office.”

She gave him a desperate look, unsure how to explain her fears. “No.”

Richard stared at her, dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events.

“Rebecca?”

She held up a hand and shook her head, willing him to stop. She couldn’t make him understand without breaking down into tears, and she already knew how that would go over. He would talk her into telling him everything, then he would convince her it would be all right, and she would believe him because she wanted to, not because it made sense.

It was going to hurt so badly when she had to leave.

“I’m not going to shut up,” he insisted. “I want to know what’s going on with you.”

“I’m telling you, I want to stay here.”

“Yesterday, you were so interested in everything…and now you’re hiding.”

She refused to answer. Richard pushed it.

“Why?”

She climbed out of bed and grabbed at her shirt, trying to cover herself. Richard caught her in mid-stride and pushed her back on to the bed, where she bounced once before looking up at him in amazement. “What’s wrong with you?”