by Ann Lister
“You can take off your coat, Colby, unless you don’t want to stay,” he offered.
Colby removed her coat and tossed it onto a nearby chair. “We just got here,” she said. “Besides, I need to use your bathroom.”
He smiled and moved toward the fireplace to start a fire. “The bathroom is between the bedrooms.”
Nick was sitting by the fire, watching the flames licking and curling around the logs, when Colby returned to the room. She sat on the couch behind him, tucking her legs beneath her.
“You’re right. This place is a lot like the other cabin,” she said. She watched his movements at the fireplace, the muscles in his arms and shoulders flexing as he restacked the logs in the bin sitting on the hearth.
“All the cabins on the mountain are basically the same, some are bigger, but that’s about the only difference.”
Nick finished his task and stood up. “Would you like some wine?” he asked, wiping the dry wood slivers and bark pieces from his hands.
“Sure.”
He brought back a chilled bottle and two glasses from the kitchen, filled the stemware, and handed one to Colby.
“Thank you for lunch,” she said, her eyes staring at him over the rim of her glass.
Nick settled into the pillows at the end of the couch and smiled. “My pleasure,” he said, extending his arm across the back of the couch toward her. He watched Colby’s eyes dance around the cabin. Her eyes stopped on several photographs sitting on top of the fireplace mantel and walked across the room to see them up close. He followed and stood beside her, his shoulder touching hers.
“This is a photograph of my parents, Phillip and Ruth. They’re both still together and living in the same town where I grew up in Connecticut. This is my brother Bill and his wife Sue and their two kids. And, this snapshot is my sister and her husband, Dan and their son.”
“Are you the oldest?”
“Yes, and the only one still not married, which my mother loves to remind me of every time I talk to her.”
“You came close,” Colby said, her eyes lifting to his.
He saw her expression and knew what she was thinking without having to ask. “You want to know about Sarah, don’t you?”
“If you’d like to tell me, yes. If you’re not ready to talk about it, then, that’s okay, too.”
“I’ll tell you what,” he said, moving back to the couch to sit. “I’ll tell you everything there is to know about Sarah - after we talk about us.”
Colby remained by the fireplace, her eyes gazing at him with uncertainty.
“Sit with me, Colby. It’s quiet here and very private. No one can hear us talking so, you can say whatever you want to me.”
She moved to the couch and sat down reluctantly, the knot in her stomach tightening quickly and fluid pooled in her eyes.
“You really don’t feel comfortable talking about this, do you?” he asked.
Colby shook her head and raised her wine glass to her mouth. “Liquid courage,” she said, trying to make a joke.
Nick rested his head on the back of the couch. “How about I start talking and you can join in when you feel comfortable?”
“Okay.”
Nick inhaled slowly, gathering his thoughts and deciding what he wanted to say first. “I was destroyed when you went back to California,” he said, his eyes dropping to his lap. “I couldn’t sleep, didn’t want to eat and it was difficult to concentrate at work.” He raised his eyes back to her and smiled weakly. “I was desperate to get in touch with you, but the only option I had, was calling your old company and the bitch that took my call there refused to give me your cell phone number.”
Colby reached for his hand and held it. “I thought you weren’t calling because you had no interest in seeing me again.”
Nick tipped his head back and laughed. “If you only knew,” he said. “I guess you could say, it took me a few days to absorb what it was I was feeling. I knew what had happened between us was pretty intense but I was having trouble putting a label on it, until I realized I probably wasn’t going to see you again; that’s when it hit me and everything fell into place. Unfortunately, by that time, you were long gone and I was left with all this emotion and the one person I wanted to share it with was nowhere in sight.”
Nick focused on Colby’s face for a minute. The tears in her beautiful eyes were beginning to flow once again. “Baby, don’t cry,” he whispered, and wiped her face. “I feel like all I do lately is make you cry.”
“It’s emotional to hear you say these things to me now.”
“I would have told you before, Colby. You have to know that,” he said.
“I should have called the triage unit and made sure you received my letter, but I was embarrassed to do that. If you had received my letter and didn’t want to talk to me, I would have felt like an idiot for bothering you.”
“For weeks after you left, the first thing I did when I got to work was ask if you had called. I think they were beginning to worry about my sanity,” he said. “I’m usually the one that does the running and this time, it felt like you were the one that had bailed on me.”
“Meeting you was one of the strangest and happiest events in my life,” she said.
“Why strange?”
Colby sipped from her wine glass. “It was strange because meeting someone as nice as you was so unexpected. I wasn’t looking to be intimate with anyone on that trip,” she shrugged. “I came because I had to, and I went out of my way to express my unhappiness with everyone around me.”
“I heard.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Your supervisor warned me about how much you hated being here. Then, he wished me luck because he said he doubted you’d be happy to see me.”
“Once I got a good look at you, I was very happy,” she said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt that kind of instant attraction before,” he said.
“What about with Sarah?”
Nick’s expression froze, almost as if Colby had slapped his face. “It wasn’t like that with Sarah,” he said quietly, and then cleared his throat. “We were friends for a long time before anything physical developed between us.”
“Nick, you don’t have to talk about this. I can tell you’re uncomfortable.”
“It’s okay. I want you to know,” he said. He finished the last of the wine in his glass. “My partner Glen is Sarah's brother,” he said. “That’s how we met. It took me an entire year to ask her out because she was Glen’s sister. It just felt weird for me to be dating someone so closely related to my best friend.”
“Obviously you got over that, since you asked her to marry you,” Colby said.
“Glen said he was okay with it, so I eventually came to terms with it, too.”
“Why’d the wedding get called off?”
Nick rubbed at his face and sighed. “It was good in the beginning. We dated for about a year, then she moved in here with me for another two years. Getting married felt like the next logical step for us to make, but not long after we got engaged, she started acting differently. About six months before we were supposed to get married, I found out she was cheating on me with one of the resort ski instructors. I confronted her about it and she said it was a one time ‘thing’ and she promised she wouldn’t do it again. She lied. Not only wasn’t it a one time thing, but she ended up leaving the resort with him three months later.”
“Oh, Nick…I’m so sorry.”
He shrugged with indifference. “I’m over it now but it hurt like hell when I was going through it. It even strained my relationship with Glen, too, which sucked, since we’re partners at work. I told him it wasn’t his fault that his sister turned out to be a bitch.”
Colby glanced around the cabin, then directed her focus back to Nick. “Sarah lived here with you?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t see any visible signs of her ever being here,” Colby said. “None of the usual female decorating acce
nts exist.”
“That’s not by accident, Colby. Anything she left behind after she moved, I either threw out or burned. And, in case you’re wondering, you’re the first woman I’ve had here since then.”
“I have to say, I’m surprised to hear that.”
“In the past four years, I haven’t had much desire or a need to share my private space with anyone, until you came along,” he smiled. “When I was with a woman, we typically went to her place or it didn’t happen.”
Nick moved closer to Colby on the couch and ran his fingers through her long hair. “How about you? Have you ever come close to getting married?”
Colby nodded. “I was with someone in grad school that I would have married.”
“What happened?”
“He died.”
Nick tipped his head to Colby, disbelieving what she had just said. “What do you mean?”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so blunt about that. His name was Wayne. He died in a car accident. We lived together for almost three years and talked a lot about getting married, but an engagement was never made official. One night, he was really late coming home from work, which was not typical behavior for Wayne. If he knew he was going to be late, he always called. I sensed something was wrong immediately. I called his cell phone several times, but he never answered.” Tears filled her eyes. “A few hours later, I got a call from the police asking me to go to the hospital, but it was too late. He had already passed away and I never got the chance to say good-bye to him.”
Nick pulled her against his body and hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry you had to go through that, Colby. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to lose someone you love so suddenly and unexpectedly.”
“It was ten years ago,” she said against his neck. “I can’t say I’m completely over his death - because that will never happen, but I’ve learned to live with his loss. Life is for the living and I know he’d want me to be happy.”
“True,” he said. He rubbed his cheek against hers. “Thank you for sharing that with me. I’m sure it’s not easy to talk about.”
Colby nodded. “Everyone has pain in their lives. You lost Sarah and I’m sure that felt like a death to you.”
“Yeah, in a way, it did,” he sighed. “But it also felt like I had failed.”
“Failed how?”
Nick shook his head. “I don't know. Maybe I failed Sarah and that's why she wasn't happy being with me.”
“Or maybe she wasn't happy with herself and her failure had nothing to do with anything you may or may not have done. Did you consider that?”
“This is depressing the hell out of me,” he said. “Let’s talk about something else. How about we talk about the sex we had in your cabin?” he asked. His mouth curled into a sly smile.
“Is that really necessary?” Colby asked. Heat pitched in her cheeks.
“What happened at that cabin went way beyond the sex for me. Although, as I’ve already told you, the sex was…unbelievable.” He watched her face blush and her eyes drop to her lap. “I’ve never felt that type of physical energy before, nor have I ever had that much sex in a two day time period. My back was actually sore for a couple of days afterward - I suspect I strained it while we were doing the water aerobics in the shower.”
“Nick…”
“What? Am I embarrassing you?” he smirked.
“Yes.”
“Are you disagreeing with what I’m saying?”
“No. It was everything you said and then some.”
“I told you at the restaurant, what happened during those four days at the cabin really hit me hard. No one has ever affected me like you did, or done so as quickly. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible, without being there to experience it.” Nick stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. “You said you fell in love with me, but implied the other day you no longer felt the same way. Is that true?”
“Yes, I did fall in love with you.”
“I fell in love with you, too, Colby. The only difference is, I still feel exactly the same way now as I did then - nothing has changed.”
“Nick…I…”
“It’s okay, Colby. Knowing the way you feel only makes me want to work harder to change your feelings for me.”
He slid his hand around her neck and pulled her closer to him, his lips brushed against her cheek. He could feel the warmth of her breath teasing his skin. He closed his eyes and contemplated kissing her and wondered what her reaction might be if he did. “Colby,” he sighed. “The other night on the phone you said something to me in French. What’d you say? I understood one word: sexy, but that was it.”
“Vous etes un homme tre`s sexy et je suis dans l`amour avec toi.”
“Yeah, that sounds like it. Can you tell me what it means?” he asked, and inched his mouth closer to hers; open and hovering, but not fully touching.
“I said, you’re a very sexy man and I’m in love with you.”
Nick pulled away, his eyes burning into hers. “Do you really mean that?”
Colby smiled. “You are very sexy.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said, reaching for her again and gliding his lips across hers, still not making contact.
“If I say I love you, will it make you stop teasing my mouth and kiss me?”
“Don’t say it unless you mean it,” he said, his mouth still floating over hers.
Colby slid her hands around the back of Nick’s head, her fingers sifting through his hair, and pulled him forward. “I do love you, Nick, very much.”
He smiled against her lips and eased her flat against the couch. “And, I love you,” he said. He covered her mouth with his; his tongue reaching for hers, softly stroking. As soon as the connection was made, their bodies fused, completely melting into each other.
“Say you love me again in French,” he said, teasing her mouth with his tongue.
“Je t`aime.”
“Damn! Hearing you say that makes me hot,” he whispered against her throat, subtly grinding his erection into her pelvic bone.
“Nick,” she said breathlessly. “If you keep rubbing against me like that, I’m going to come.”
“Is that bad?” he asked, kissing her again deeply.
“No, it’s good, but it would be even better if we were naked.”
Nick lifted himself up and smiled down at her. “Colby, I hope you don’t think I brought you here to seduce you into my bed, because that wasn’t my intention. I felt it was important you see where I lived, plus I thought being here might give us a chance to really talk openly without distractions.”
Colby sat upright and slid across his lap, facing him. She tipped her pelvis forward against the thick length of his cock. Nick’s hands moved around her hips and cupped her bottom, holding her in place.
“You mean to tell me, not even in the back corners of your brain, you weren’t holding any hope of getting me into your bed today?” she asked.
Nick laughed. “I’d be lying if I denied that, but I want you to know I wasn’t expecting it. This is our first real date and I thought you’d want to take things slow and keep the physical aspects to a minimum. You’ve made more than one comment about how we skipped over the dating and went straight to the sex. I didn’t want you to think that’s what I was doing today, by suggesting we jump into bed.”
“Taking me for a ride on your snowmobile, pressed up against your back, already made this date sexual,” she teased.
“You’re right about that. You have no idea how hard I was for that entire trip,” he said with a laugh. He dropped his head to the back of the couch.
Colby gripped the hem of her sweater and pulled it over her head, followed by her thermal shirt, and tossed both garments onto the floor. She watched Nick’s head lift from the couch and gaze at her powder blue bra framing her cleavage. His eyes quickly glazed with the heat of desire. She had seen that look on his face before and knew exactly what he was thinking and what he wanted to do.
<
br /> His hands slid up her spine and pulled her to him, his mouth opening against her breasts. “Are you sure you want this, Colby?”
She stood up from his lap and unzipped her ski pants. She pushed them from her legs and stepped out of them, revealing a thin, lacy thong that matched the color of her bra.
“A thong, Colby? Jesus! Are you deliberately trying to make me come in my pants?”
Colby grinned mischievously and sat back down on his lap. His fingers went to her exposed buttocks and massaged. She began to rotate her hips over his groin, while his tongue slowly moved across the tops of her breasts plumped above the bra. When her hand reached between their bodies and gripped onto his hardness, Nick flinched.
“Okay, that’s it,” he said. “Now, you’re really gonna get it,” he said. He lifted her over his shoulder and carried her into his bedroom, then playfully tossed her onto his bed and began to unbutton his shirt, staring at her with fire in his eyes.
Colby undid her bra and used it like a sling-shot, firing it at his face, then moved up against the pillows at the headboard to watch him strip.
“Don’t tell me later, you feel we rushed into the sex again, because I was prepared to show some restraint today,” he said, and lifted her bra from his face. He discarded his shirt and pulled off the white t-shirt beneath it, then removed his jeans in one quick motion, before climbing onto the bed beside her.
He found her mouth and seduced it until he heard her moan, then rolled on top of her, resting between her legs, gently rocking without entering.
“The chemistry between us is combustible, Nick,” she sighed, elongating his name. “When it comes to us being physical, there is no such thing as restraint, so don’t kid yourself. It is, what it is, and it’s beautiful,” she said, feeling his lips drop to her neck, then onto her bare breasts.
