Page 7 of Separate Lives

Her second shock came when Jess opened her mouth to speak. Her throat was sore and parched, like someone had forced a bag full of dust inside it. No sound came out of her vocal cords. Holding the first wave of panic at bay, she tried again. Nothing happened. Leaving that venue, Jess concentrated her attempts back on opening the eyes. It took some doing, but she finally managed to focus on something white and blurred.

A strong, extremely hungry baritone voice cut through the haze of her senses with the finesse of an axe.

“I guess you’re happy nowMs. Wright. You’re definitely out of my life, thanks to the Almighty.”

With each passing second her vision gradually cleared, until Jess was at last able to distinguish line after line of a very official-looking paper sheet with computer typed words. The document that finalized her divorce fell absently onto the duvet covering her, while a towering, broad-shouldered, black humored Reece, moved restlessly around the small log cabin. Jess was confused.

“What–” she rasped.

“I’m packing. Ten minutes, and I’ll be outta here.”

“Why?”

Each word she spoke hurt her throat, but the urgency, the need to understand why she was laying in her bed feeling so poor, was stronger than any physical discomfort.

“Because I’m a fool,” Reece harshly mumbled, viciously shoving a shirt into his backpack. Then he froze. Abruptly he turned to watch her then moved toward the narrow side table next to the futon, making Jess retract against the pillows. She hated this habit of his to move so suddenly. Just like with a snake, you never knew when it would strike nor how deadly its bite could be. It kept one constantly on the edge. It was nerve-racking, and never failed to trigger a defensive response from Jess who, not knowing Reece all that well, never could tell what he might do when thoroughly provoked.

His impressive height and build, made people aware that latent violence lay under the surface and that the simplest misinterpreted statement could easily rouse it. Although she’d never seen it happen –and from what she understood of him, he wasn’t in the habit of beating the daylights out of people, she didn’t wish to be near him should he decide to unleash his wrath.

Reece reached one hand behind her head, cuddling it, while with the other he brought a glass to her lips, to help some sips of water down her vocal cords. The considerate way in which he was holding her head up to prevent her from spilling water on herself, was in striking contrast to his angry mood. Jess was baffled. He was so unpredictable that she wasn’t sure what to expect next, but it certainly wasn’t almost falling off the futon after she’d drunk half a glass of water because he’d pulled his supportive hand from behind her.

“Your fever is down. The kitchen has enough food to last you through the entire winter. I made you two pitchers of frozen OJ. There are several cans of soup in the pantry, and since you’re an extremely independent woman, you won’t certainly need my help to fix yourself a decent meal. It’s high time I go back to civilization and to my job, where people are grateful for my help.”

Jess was still trying to sit up against the pillows to confront him with further questions, but was too weak. A dizzy spell forced her to hold her spinning head. Then she remembered. He’d arrived at the cabin unwanted, and unexpected. How long ago that had been, she couldn’t tell. At first she’d thought he was the wind knocking at the door. Then he’d made some references to the divorce papers, and maybe to something else, but Jess wasn’t sure. What she did clearly remember, was her propelling need to get him out of the cabin, because he was dangerous for her peace of mind. The rest was a confused mix of recollections.

“Hold it,” she rasped. Her voice sounded feeble, but Reece stopped his doings and moved back to tower over her slumped body.

“You don’t even have a goddamn phone!” he exploded.

Jess was taken completely aback by the hatched strength of his remark.

“It took me seven days to find you! Seven damn days, all because you had the brilliant idea to disappear without telling a soul your whereabouts. Don’t you read the papers? Don’t you listen to the news? There are millions of psychopaths, perverts and nut cases out there. People disappear every day, and the majority are never found. Don’t you ever attempt another stunt like this.”

“I don’t have a phone because it slipped off my purse and broke soon after I left Chicago, and I didn’t get around to buying a new one,” she said defensively.

“I asked everybody I could think of for info on your whereabouts. But neither your parents, nor your friends or colleagues, knew a damn thing.”

Jess paled. “You called my parents?”

“Yes, but as soon as I found you, I called them back to reassure them you were fine.”

Her parents didn’t know about the wedding. For that matter, they didn’t even know he existed. What had Reece told them?

“I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is no. Nobody but you, me, our attorneys, and the county judge who married us, knows about this.”

Jess sighed, deeply relieved.

The reaction didn’t go unnoticed by Reece. This was how the woman he’d heard profess and later confirmed that she loved him, normally acted to hearing that her parents didn’t know she’d married the man of her dreams. Very interesting reaction indeed. Identical to the one she had during her feverish spell.

He’d managed to make her sip the ibuprofen he’d melted into a glass of water and had brought to her lips with a soaked dish towel, before strong, body-racking cold shivers had made her teeth chatter. When Reece realized the duvet was not enough to keep her warm, and her bout was not going to be a short one, he stripped down to his underwear and moved under the duvet, holding her back to his front. Twenty minutes later, he was about to leave the futon to call an ambulance, when Jess suddenly stopped shaking and went back to sleep. Exhausted, he’d closed his eyes. He didn’t know for how long he lay there, but when he’d looked outside the window in front of him, the sunrise was clearing the night away. Turning to check on Jess, he’d found her eyes pointedly fixed on him. He was still holding her weak body in his arms, while his eyes searched hers to determine how she was feeling. Without warning, Jess had started to struggle against him, trying to break free from his embrace, all the while shouting, “Leave me alone”.

Realizing she was still under the effects of her high body temperature, Reece had tried to calm her with soothing words while caressing her head, but Jess had reacted even worse to his touch, first trying to bite his arm, then kicking him, furiously repeating over and over again that she hated him, that he was a useless, insensitive cod, and for that, she wanted him out of her life.

To defend himself, Reece had moved until he laid on top of her, keeping her body pinned down against the mattress. The move only contributed to add more spite to her words and more determination to her attempts to emasculate him. Luckily for him she didn’t succeed, and by the time she finally submitted to exhaustion, and went back to sleep, Reece was bathed in sweat, with several angry bruises marking his arms.

The feverish state she was in had made Jess physically stronger than she normally was. That same fever had propelled out of her mouth the spiteful words she’d used against him. Probably half of what she’d said was only a subconscious reaction to some dream she’d conjured up in her hazy mind, but it hurt, because those images were somehow connected to Reece, and without realizing it, she might have voiced what she really thought of him deep inside.

A soft curse at his own foolishness brought Reece back to the present. He took a long, lingering look at her. Jess was still physically weak, but the worst of her fever was gone, and she was well on her way to full recovery. Soon she’d be her normal self. And what’s more, now she was free. Free to give her insatiable body to some other sucker. Free to wring the life out of the lucky bastard in bed. Free to use that plush mouth of hers to send the guy straight to heaven.

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