by T. J. Quinn
“You only sculpt on ice?” he asked, taking a seat at the table while she picked a bottle of white wine from the refrigerator and sat across from him.
“Yes, that’s right. Right now, there is a high demand, especially in the wedding events market, but I’m aware that can change,” she said.
“Doesn’t that concern you?” he asked, with a slight frown.
“Not really. I know I might sound as if I have no goals in life, but the thing is, there’s a hint of truth in that,” she sighed. “I’ve always felt as if something was missing in my life. Something vital, the one thing that should give sense to my life, and that feeling has affected my life, more than I wished,” she explained, pouring some wine into her glass and offering him some.
He held his glass for her to pour some wine into it. “Perhaps you need to expand your horizons to find whatever is missing in your life,” he suggested with a hint of a smile.
He knew very well how it felt to miss something vital in one’s life. He had experienced that ever since he lost Leena.
“Yes, you’re probably right and who knows, I might do it someday… when people stop asking for my sculptures,” she said with a self-deprecating grin.
He smiled back at her. “Shall I drink to that?” he asked, raising his glass.
She chuckled and shook her head. “No… not just yet. I don’t think I’m ready for that,” she confessed with an ambiguous expression.
“All you need to do is take the first step,” he said in a gentle tone, entranced by her beauty.
“I know… and I will…sometime soon,” she replied, finishing her meal. “I have some ice cream for dessert. I know not many people like to have ice cream when it’s cold outside, but I can eat it all year long,” she offered with a smile.
“I like ice cream too, thank you,” he accepted, watching her get up and head to the refrigerator, relishing the view.
A few minutes later, she was back with two small bowls with three scoops of ice cream portions in them. She had added some fresh fruit to the ice cream and sprinkled on some crushed nuts, topping it all with chocolate syrup. It looked delicious.
The ice cream had been one of the first things he had fallen in love with on Earth. Living on a planet covered with ice, he couldn’t understand why people hadn’t invented ice cream. Of course, they didn’t have anything like sugar on his world. But he had tried some sorbets on Earth, that were almost as good as ice cream. His world didn’t have that either.
They enjoyed their dessert, relishing its sweetness.
“I could eat ice cream all the time…” she said, with rapture written all over her face and for a moment he wished he was the one providing her with such pleasure.
He cleared his throat and squirmed uncomfortably on his chair, doing his best to hide his erection. The image of him going down on her had crossed his mind, and it had been so hot, his whole body reacted to it.
“I can see that,” he said, finishing his dessert.
She took the bowls to the dishwasher as he cleared the table.
“I should take a look at that wound,” she suggested when they were done. “You know, just to be sure it’s healing properly.”
He took a step back and covered the bandage with his hand. “There’s no need, thank you. I checked it when I changed the bandage, and it looked perfectly fine,” he added.
He couldn’t let her see the wound. Though he had no idea how bad it had been, his fast healing body had taken care of it, along with the cold they had withstood on their way there, and there was only a simple scratch left. All his other scratches and bruises had already disappeared.
She wouldn’t understand it, and it would raise questions he couldn’t answer.
“Are you sure? It was a very deep cut,” she insisted, with a frown, a bit worried.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“Well… it was a very long day, and I didn’t sleep a minute last night, so if you don’t need anything else, I’m going to sleep,” she said, with a faint smile. “Don’t hesitate to call me if you need help,” she instructed him, heading out of the room.
He caught her hand in his and stopped her. “Thank you for dragging me all the way here.”
She shrugged and tugged her hand from his. “It’s not like I had any other choice,” she mocked him on her way up the stairs.
He chuckled and watched her disappear up the stairs before he walked to the mattress she had put in front of the fireplace. The fire was almost out, and he didn’t do a thing to reignite it. The heating was more than enough, though he would have preferred to have it turned off.
He lay down in the improvised bed and closed his eyes, thinking about all the things that had happened in the past hours. For some reason, he had the feeling his life had changed forever.
Up in her room, Leah let herself fall into her bed and closed her eyes, allowing her exhaustion to take over her body. It had been a hellish day, but fortunately, it had ended well, considering the other possibilities.
She sighed and cuddled up in bed, trying to put away the events of the day and get the rest she needed, but it wasn’t that easy. Now that she wasn’t busy with anything else, her mind kept playing the accident over and over, making her relive the moments of anguish she had felt while she looked for Zorban.
After what felt an eternity rolling in bed, she gave up sleeping and decided to go check on her guest. She needed to be sure he was alright, that he was safe and sound.
She jumped out of bed and quietly walked downstairs. The embers provided her with enough light to see him in bed, with his eyes closed. He was still wearing his clothes, but his breath was even, indicating he was sleeping.
Slowly, she walked up to the mattress and knelt next to it, staying there for a few minutes to make sure all was fine. He looked alright, and there wasn’t any sign of fever, so she should have gotten up and gone back to her room.
But she didn’t. Instead, she stayed there for a while looking at him, wondering why he unsettled her so much. She had met attractive men before, some probably even hotter than Zorban and yet, none had made her feel the way he did.
Tiredness hit her like a wall of bricks, and she decided to lay down next to him for a few minutes before she went back to bed. Though he was a virtual stranger, she didn’t feel he was one. She felt safe next to him.
She closed her eyes, promising herself she would only be there for a few minutes before she allowed her body to relax.
Zorban opened his eyes the moment she laid down next to his back. Her presence there had surprised him, but when he felt her lying down next to him, he was astounded. He waited until he was sure she was sound asleep before he turned around to look at her.
As she slept, he could see the lines of exhaustion on her face. He should have noticed them before, but she was so active and looked so full of energy it had slipped his attention.
Being around her prevented him from thinking straight. Otherwise, he would have concluded she had to be exhausted after all the perils she had faced that day. He hadn’t even asked if she was alright or if she had gotten hurt in the accident.
It couldn’t have been easy to drag him all the way there, through a storm like the one roaring outside. Most women he knew on this planet wouldn’t have even tried.
He removed a lock of hair from her cheek, relishing the silkiness of her skin. Desire and lust rushed through his body, and he wanted her with a fierceness he didn’t recall feeling for any other woman.
After he had given up hope of ever finding his soulmate, he had allowed himself to become what people on Earth called a womanizer. He was never with the same woman for more than three, four dates, unleashing his lust and burying himself in the faint happiness of sexual satisfaction.
His frenzy didn’t last long, though. After a while, he grew tired of the emptiness of the act and now, he only went out with a woman on rare occasions.
But now, lying in bed next to Leah, his raw need reached levels unknown to him. He wanted her
. However, he knew she wasn’t like all the other women he had been with, in the past years.
Leah was different. Especially when he could tell she was still innocent, untouched and worthy of someone able to love her the way she deserved, certainly not someone like him, whose heart was as frozen as the land around them.
Chapter Ten
Unable to remain still, next to her, he slowly slid out of bed and walked out of the house. The cold wind and the swirling snow appeased some of his need, but it surely didn’t extinguish the passion she had lit in him.
He wandered around outdoors for a while before he returned to the house. His clothes were soaked, so he went back to her father’s room to get some dry ones.
When he returned to the living room, she was still sleeping on his bed, and with a heavy sigh, he laid down next to her, fighting the urge to pull her into his arms and cuddle up against her.
He must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing he knew, Leah was gasping for air next to him, flustered with the situation they were in. Opening his eyes, he found her in his arms, her head not far from his chest, and their arms and legs utterly tangled up together.
He greeted her with a naughty grin. “Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
Leah felt the heat coloring her cheeks and cursed the forces of fate for making her fall asleep on his bed and ending up cuddled against him. She cleared her throat and tried to move away from him, but he wasn’t willing to let that happen.
“Yes… I… I… came here last night to check on you… I must have fallen asleep… it wasn’t my intention… to disturb you,” she mumbled, in a low tone, feeling utterly embarrassed.
“You’re not hearing me complain, princess,” he assured her.
“Yes… well, I would appreciate it if you would let me get up. I need to go feed the animals,” she said, and this time when she tried to move away, he let her.
“Can I help you?”
She shook her head. “There’s no use for both of us to get wet. It won’t take me more than a few minutes,” she refused his help.
“I failed to ask you last night if you were hurt during the accident,” he said, looking at her intensely as she jumped out of bed.
She was wearing her old flannel pajamas, a few sizes bigger than her, but for some reason, he found her sexier than any other woman he had seen wearing lacy teddies.
“No… I wasn’t hurt. The seat belt kept me safe.”
“But you must have the bruises caused by the belt,” he pointed out with a slight frown.
She had had them. When she had taken a bath the night before, she had been able to see the fading bruises across her chest. But she was sure they were gone by now. She was a fast healer. She had always been, and she remembered the doctors showing their amazement at this ability. After a few comments about it, her parents stopped taking her to the hospital.
“Yes… but nothing to worry about, I assure you. How are you feeling today? Will you let me take a look at your wound?” she asked, walking towards the kitchen area. She needed a cup of cappuccino urgently.
“I can take care of that myself, thank you,” he assured her, jumping out of bed.
“If you say so… I’m making coffee, do you want some?” she offered.
“Yes, please, I would love some,” he had become an addict to the bitter drink ever since Matthew had offered him one.
“How do you like it?”
“Black, please, no sugar,” he asked, as he walked out of the room, towards the bathroom.
She wrinkled her face at the idea of having black coffee with no sugar but prepared it for him. In her cappuccino, she put a lot of sugar and topped it with a generous amount of cream.
She needed the caffeine to wake up, but she wasn’t very fond of its flavor. Sugar and cream made it a lot better.
By the time he got out of the bathroom, she had his coffee waiting for him on the kitchen counter, and she was already finishing hers. “There’s more coffee in the coffee machine if you want a refill,” she told him after she took her last sip. “I’m going to take care of the animals before I prepare some breakfast for us.”
“Thank you.”
She disappeared up the stairs, and just a few minutes later, he heard her coming back down and walking out of the house. Once more, he watched her walk towards the barn, as if the cold wind didn’t bother her at all. She hadn’t even bothered to put on a jacket, and her resilience surprised him.
With a sigh, Zorban finished his coffee and decided to clear the living room. Though he had loved to sleep with Leah in his arms, there was no need for him to sleep in the living room anymore. If he was going to be stranded there for a few days, he’d better make himself useful.
When she returned, her clothes were damp, but again, she didn’t bother changing them, before she headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
“Don’t you think you should change clothes?” he asked, worried she might get ill. Even if he could take her to town, he had no idea where he was or in what direction the town was.
“These will dry off soon enough, don’t worry,” she said, getting some eggs, bacon, sausages and some bread dough from the fridge. “Is there anything you can’t eat?” she asked, arching her eyebrow.
“No, nothing. According to my housekeeper, I could easily eat a horse,” he said with a self-mocking grin.
“Good. I’ll have this ready in a few minutes.”
“Do you have enough food stored in the house? I know you weren’t expecting an uninvited guest,” he asked, a bit concerned.
“Yes, I have enough food to last us a few months. I had bought some more in town, but it got lost in the accident,” she explained, shrugging.
Food didn’t worry her. The sea wasn’t far from her house, and she could always go out and hunt a moose or a deer. But she had enough food for a while so she wouldn’t worry about that.
He frowned. “Do you think you’ll be able to recover your truck?” he asked.
“I have no idea. It was too dark to see the damage but either way, the truck has insurance, so I don’t have to worry about that,” she explained, while preparing the food. “What about you? Won’t you be missed at work?”
He shook his head. “I’m on vacation. Since Matthew was going away on his honeymoon, I decided to take some time for myself as well. I’m only expected in a few weeks.”
“That’s a good thing. If this storm continues like this, we won’t be able to get to town for a while.”
“I know you didn’t ask for my company, but I’m afraid you’re stuck with it,” he teased her.
“I’m well aware of that,” she said, grimacing as she took the food to the table. “Where did you meet Matthew?” she asked, curious as she invited him to take a seat.
“We met five years ago when I arrived in Seattle,” he explained.
“Where are you from? You barely have any accent, but you don’t look like the typical American man,” she said while enjoying her meal.
He wished he could tell her the truth, but not even Matthew knew it. People on Earth hadn’t had much contact with aliens, and he wasn’t sure how they might react to his truth.
“I’m from Norway,” he said, instead, sticking to the story he had told Matthew and everyone that had ever asked him. “My parents died several years ago, and since I didn’t have any other relatives, I decided to explore other locales.”
“Why Seattle? I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard it’s a cold city,” she asked, willing to know more about him.
“Yes, it’s cold, but I come from a much colder place. Seattle is a lovely place, and I really enjoy living there. Though, I have to say I really liked Anchorage.”
Chapter Eleven
She scowled. “I guess it’s fine if you like small towns.”
“What’s the problem with small towns?” he asked, with an amused smile.
“Everybody knows everybody and people always seem to think they know what’s best for you,” she expl
ained bitterly. “I’ve always lived here, except for my high school years. My mother had homeschooled me up until then, but when I turned twelve, they decided I needed to know people my age,” she added.
“You sound as if you didn’t agree with them,” he pointed out.
“That’s because I don’t. I never did. I had nothing in common with my schoolmates, and they didn’t accept me in their groups,” she replied. “I hated every day I spent in school, and though I tried to convince my parents to come back here, they didn’t listen.”
“You must have made at least one friend,” he said, wishing he could have been there to help her go through that stage of her life.
She let out a bitter laugh. “No, I didn’t. I was too different. I even look different. In no time, people were calling me the Ice Princess, and after that, no one bothered to get to know me.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he said, in a ionate tone.
“It’s in the past. I survived, and that made me tougher. Perhaps, that’s what my parents wanted when they decided to put me through it.”
“What about college? Did things change while you were there?” he asked, remembering she had mentioned having dropped out of college.
“No, they didn’t. The same crowd surrounded me. I did my best to stay there and finish my career training, but it wasn’t my thing, and after a couple of years, I decided I’d had enough.”
“So, what do you do around here, during the long, cold, winter days?” he asked, changing the subject, not wanting to make her feel bad.
“It depends if I have work or not,” she said, with a smirk. “When I don’t have any commissioned, I spend my time drawing,” she told him, sounding a bit embarrassed.
“What kind of drawings?”
“I’m working on a personal project… a kids’ storybook, with my own illustrations,” she explained. “It takes a lot more work than I thought, but I love the experience, and I’m already halfway there.”
