Page 6 of Separate Lives

With a sudden movement that made her flinch, Reece unzipped his heavy down coat, and from an internal pocket took out some carefully folded paper sheets. Unfolding them, he shoved the documents in front of her face. Jess recognized them immediately. Her signature was there, at the bottom of the page. His was missing.

She grimaced.

“If I tell you, will you sign them?”

He nodded.

“How can I be sure you’ll keep your word?”

“Look Jess, my patience ran out two days ago when a whiteout got me stuck in Anchorage. Don’t push me, okay?” he warned, trying to keep a firm hold on his temper.

“Anchorage?”

“Yes, Anchorage. When I found out where you were staying, I took the first flight out, and had to land in Anchorage to wait for a connecting flight. I was inside that damn airport for two days before I could make it to Fairbanks, where another snowstorm kept me stranded in the check-in area for several hours. Then I finally came here to find you in this pigsty. Now, willing or not, you need help, and it looks like I’m the only one around here who can give it to you. Unless you’d prefer I take you to the hospital.”

“I don’t like hospitals, and this is just a fever. It will go away.”

“Fine, but I'll stay.”

“I don’t want you here.”

“Would you rather I go back to Chicago and decide whether or not I want to grant you your goddamn divorce?”

“You arrogant, selfish hobgoblin,” Jess mumbled, trying to stand up from her chair, swaying instead. Reece was quick to break her fall, catching her weak body against his chest, and was surprised when she started to fight him like a wild cat.

“Don’t touch me. Get away from me.”

“Enough,” he snapped, using his overpowering weight to stop her physical assault against his midriff.

Jess looked up at him from the iron-clad circle of the arms, pinning her own down. A strange expression crossed her face. “Release me.”

“No way.”

“I need to use the bathroom.”

Watching her drawn face, Reece sprang into action. In the bat of an eye, she was crouching over the toilet seat, throwing up.

He left her there. Moving back to the main body of the cabin, he got rid of his down coat and opened the futon quickly making her a bed. He didn’t return inside the bathroom to retrieve Jess, even after she’d emptied her stomach and laid spent against the toilet seat, her body half sprawled on the wooden floor. He took his time washing the dishes, cleaning away all the junk scattered on the small kitchen counters, the table, and on the floor of the cabin.

* * *

When she next woke up,Jess could feel a body burning hot beside her. Instinctively she shifted away, trying to put some space between the source of the heat and herself, but to no avail. The scalding warmth followed her like a magnet. Jess shifted position lying on one side, and was satisfied to find momentary relief. A minute passed before the heat came back to haunt her. The duvet was too hot, Jess could feel its weight over her burning thighs so she kicked it off. There. That was better.

Unexpectedly, something blissfully cold started to sweep its way along the skin of her forehead, relieving the pressure in her temples. She whimpered her disappointment when the shooting cool moved away from her face, and traveled to other parts of her anatomy.

Fumbling the hands to bring the cold back to her face, Jess encountered a slight resistance in the form of something warm and alive, but altogether cooler than her.

She whimpered again to attract the attention of the warm, moving thing, and seduce it back to her temples and eyes. Instinct guided her actions. For some reason Jess knew the warmer thing was the one that could bring her the cold, and sighed blissfully happy when it indulged her, providing her with the relief she needed.

Drops of restorative water fell inside her dry mouth, collecting in her throat, moisturizing it. Then something liquid was brought to her lips, and she greedily sucked it down. It was heaven.

After a while, both the cold on her forehead, and the liquid on her lips ceased to be. Jess whimpered her disappointment, but while the liquid on her lips came back, the cold on her face never did. It wasn’t necessary, because by then wave after wave of cold sweat swept along her entire body, making it shake badly.

The duvet came back to cover her, but it wasn’t enough. She shivered and her teeth chattered, until her body became a mass of coiled up nerves. There was nothing she could do to prevent the violent spasms from rippling through her, until the comforting warmth of a naked body laid next to her, and strong arms curved around her protectively. It was several minutes later that Jess regained control over her body, and the tremors stopped. She sighed contentedly. A kiss was dropped on the crown of her head. Gradually, she relaxed, and drifted back to sleep.

ChapterThree

Jess struggled with all her might to lift her heavy eyelids. Somebody had dropped two one-ton weights on each eye, and left them there, thinking it a funny joke. When she tried to move her arms to lift the weights off her eyes, she had the first shock. Her whole body was immobilized. Frantic, Jess searched her mind to find the reason for her present state, but couldn’t remember where she was, why she was there, or could explain why she wasn’t able to move a single muscle. The only certainty she had was that no accident had recently occurred to her to justify her immobility.

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