Fire and Ice Read Free Page A

permission.
    When I get back to the bedroom, I can tell he's deteriorated. Innes is shivering hard now, despite his heap of bedding. What the hell can I do? He doesn't appear to have any more duvets or blankets, other than the ones I've gathered, but I've got to find a way to heat him up.
    There is one, of course, and it's been staring me in the face all along as my heart's desire.
    Body heat.
    Nothing to do with sex at all, at least for him, but skin on skin is probably the most efficient way to warm him.
    As if he's sensed my intentions, Innes rouses again when I peel off my jacket and throw it on top of the duvets. "What are you doing?" he whispers as I kick off my boots, then wiggle off my jeans, adding the latter to the heap.
    "I'm about to administer emergency heat."
    Just as I'm dimming the remaining lamp, his eyes snap open, and as I elevate the duvets a smidge and start to slide beneath them, he gives me a delicious, slightly perplexed and worried look. "Maybe I should put something on… some boxer shorts? I'm afraid I don't own any pajamas."
    At the moment, he doesn't look as if he has the strength to blow the skin off a rice pudding, much put on underwear and I'm in bed now anyway. God, his skin is so cold! It feels like marble. I snuggle up as best I can, all the time trying not to think too much about the sizeable knot of his genitalia pressing against my knicker clad loins. He's not hard, but he's still big and the feel of him is monumental, swamping my senses.
    And he knows what I'm thinking, I'm sure of it, because he tries to tug away.
    "Look, Innes, astonishing as it may seem, I've been in bed with a naked man before, and during that time, I've managed to not have sex every single second I was there." He relaxes, and I even sense a smile, despite his shivers. "I'll do my best not to harass you, out of respect for your delicate condition."
    He chuckles and edges closer, sliding his cold arms around me now, and suddenly he cracks open his self-imposed shell of propriety again... and comes to life. "I wasn't thinking of you harassing me. It was more the other way around, Cally."
    Be still my stupid heart! And be quiet my stupid pussy! He's ill. He's probably delirious. He doesn't know what he's saying and he hasn't the energy to do anything anyway, even if he meant it.
    "Indeed, boss. Well, we'll see… Given the state of you, I think I'm pretty safe from any advances. You're shaking too hard to even find my erogenous zones. Now stop talking nonsense and let me warm you up."
    It's cruel and unusual torment being allowed to touch him and yet not really touch him, but I set to work rubbing his back and shoulders and arms, and even his bottom, in an attempt to heat his skin. He feels as if he's been carved from a glacier at first, but eventually, he finally starts to thaw. Even his frigid feet start to warm up.
    It isn't sexual, but even so, he sighs, as if just not being frozen is a pleasure. His limbs loosen and his breathing slows and steadies as his shivering subsides. Is he falling asleep again?
    Great!
    Proper rest is the best thing for Innes, but irrationally, I feel a tiny bit insulted. Obviously my body isn't quite as drop-dead alluring as I'd hoped, and his libido isn't inclined to fight the flu germs.
    But somehow, lying in the arms of the man I love, with his naked body pressed all along my clothed one, is relaxing despite the infernal temptation. I too feel drowsy, warmed by my clothes, and by the duvets and my beloved Innes too.
    Influenced by my wine at home, and the hot toddy, I drift in and out of a light sleep for a while, tired by my amateurish attempts at nursing, I suppose. But eventually I rise into wakefulness again. Not with a jerk this time, just a gradual awareness and a subconscious perception of change.
    Innes is warm now, and it's natural, healthy warmth, not a fever. And that's what's woken me. We've moved apart a bit, but I can sense his body close to me. He seems not to be restless