Page 36 of Separate Lives
“And that made me as mad as hell, because after all there has been between us, I thought I deserved more consideration than what you gave me. That’s why I hunted you down until I finally found you here, without a phone and running a fever. I helped you through it like any decent human being would, but instead of thanking me, as ungrateful as you are, you started to throw ugly accusations at me and again managed to jostle me out of your life. So tell me, Jess, who’s the bully here?” His incisive stare dared her to dispute the truth of his words. Jess couldn’t.
Nodding at her like he’d made a silent point she’d agreed upon, Reece went on. “For several months, I’ve tried to stay away from you, but when our paths accidentally collided at the Four Seasons, when I saw you in the lobby after I had taken a client to his room, I had to have you. And if the way you gave yourself to me was of any indication, you clearly wanted me too. I cannot resist this mad obsession we have for each other any better than you, Jess, and it gets even harder to fight when you look at me with naked lust in your eyes, or jump on my bones when you’re hungry for me, just like you did. I’m only damn human after all.”
And with that, he walked past her and purposely went to the peg behind the front door to retrieve his heavy down coat.
“Where are you going?” Jess was unable to resist asking. Her voice was full of puzzled concern.
Reece didn’t turn. “I need some fresh air.”
ChapterThirteen
The display of her phone stated it was 11:26 p.m. and Reece had yet to come back from getting ‘some fresh air’. Soon after he’d left the cabin, Jess had cleared the table, placed the dinner leftovers in the refrigerator, washed the dishes, cleaned the counters and swept the floor, finding, and throwing away, the envelope Reece had hurled at her. But tidying up the kitchen didn’t require all that big an effort, and by the time she was done, it still was too early for bed.
Had she been alone, she would’ve felt free to open the futon and go straight to sleep, but now that Reece was here, Jess somehow felt she had to demonstrate to him that their argument and his presence had not altered her daily routine, and going to bed soon after dinner didn’t quite seem the appropriate way of looking at ease and in control of the situation. Unfortunately, that left her with the need to waste several hours away. She spent some time absently scanning television program after television program, and finally, at 9:15 she gave up any further attempt to pass the time and opened the futon. Once tackled in bed, Jess grabbed the best seller book she’d bought on a previous trip to the supermarket, and although the story had engrossed her earlier, now she could hardly focus on the pages, too worried over Reece’s whereabouts to concentrate on anything else.
Damn him. He was doing it on purpose. There could be no other explanation for his prolonged absence. It was his way of getting back at her for their confrontation earlier on, she could swear on it. The temperature outside was well below ten degrees with a cold wind sweeping the night air clear of clouds, and although this type of weather wasn’t considered dangerous by Fairbanks’s standards, to any other American living below the 48° parallel and unaccustomed to it, it was rather challenging. Luckily, the cabin stood at the end of a lane five minutes by car from one of downtown main streets, not in the middle of nowhere. So what was keeping him?
Thinking back once again to their argument, she almost clenched her hands together in a prayer. Reece had been so angry at her when he’d left the cabin, Jess hoped he’d not done anything rush like…like nothing. She was being ridiculous. He was an ex cop, perfectly capable of taking care of himself, and right now was probably sitting somewhere merrily sipping a cup of coffee or a beer, with an eye on his watch so he could decide how long he had yet to wait to make sure Jess worked herself into a froth over him, before returning to the cabin.
She froze.
Somebody was trying to turn the door handle she’d locked before slipping under the duvet. Fairbanks was a fairly safe city, but Jess was not one to take unnecessary chances, unless she was running a fever. Then her judgment might be affected, and doors might be left open.
“Jess, I can see the lights are on. Are you still up?” called a deep, familiar voice.
Both peeved and relieved, she took her own sweet time opening the front door.
The bitter cold from outside swept around her bare legs, making Jess shiver. Her nipples visibly stiffened under the oversized T-shirt she wore as pajamas. Reece deftly moved inside the cabin and closed the door behind him before surveying her attire. She had on an extra-large cotton T-shirt with the White Sox logo printed on it. On her feet were a pair of thick, white, wool socks that pooled at her ankles. Her glossy black hair was slightly tousled where it had rested on the pillow. Her nipples were visible behind the cotton, teasing his imagination. Reece knew by heart their sweet taste and the softness of her pert globes. He suddenly felt the need to take another walk outside.
Lucky for him he’d resisted the temptation to enter the first bar he’d encountered and get drunk, otherwise Jess would have yet another reason to despise him in the morning. He was sure she would’ve allowed him free access to her body tonight had he forced her hand, but in the morning she would’ve hated herself for her weakness, and blamed Reece for it.
He was hard. He needed her heat to ease his pain. Curse her for making him miserable with want. “Did I wake you up?” he asked none too gently.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I wasn’t heavily asleep,” she lied. “But now that I’m up, I don’t mind brewing you a cup of coffee or a hot chocolate if you’d rather. You must be freezing,” she offered, not because he deserved it, but to cover the embarrassment caused by his lingering once-over.
“Coffee would be fine,” he answered matter-of-fact before turning to hang his down coat behind the front door while Jess moved to the wardrobe at the opposite end of the cabin to retrieve a sweater. The fire in the fireplace had died down a while ago, but the central heat worked well and the room was still pleasantly warm, so Jess decided against wearing a pair of track pants too. Her T-shirt covered the majority of her legs, leaving exposed only two inches of bare skin above her knees. She thought she was more than decently covered to avoid tempting Reece.
When the coffee started brewing Jess popped the topmost question in her mind.
“Have you booked a room somewhere?”
“No, why?”
“You were gone for so long, I thought you’d spend the whole night out and sleep in a hotel.”
Reece’s mouth thinned. He had expected to find her sick with worry over his long absence, but instead she’d been relieved, thinking she’d finally succeeded in getting rid of him. He’d half frozen his butt, and she had slept snug as a bug under the warm sheets of the futon. He had braved the weather for hours, now and again stepping into any bar or coffee shop he could find open to warm up and drink something hot, for nothing. Anger surged inside him, but he managed to control it.
“Like I told you this afternoon when I arrived, I have every intention of remaining here with you, and that includes sleeping in the same room.”
“Where?” she asked, handing him the coffee cup.
“Where what?”
“Where do you plan to sleep? I don’t have a sleeping bag or a spare mattress you can lay on the floor.” Her voice was calm, but her heart was racing. Jess was trying to play it cool and aloof, but it wasn’t easy with Reece standing a few feet from her, filling the small cabin with his overwhelming presence.