Fire and Ice Read Free Page B

any more, and neither too hot nor too cold, and I remember how quickly I felt better with this bug. But I'm scared to ask how he's feeling, lest I disturb his sleep. Holding my breath, I roll onto my side, facing him, then reach out and touch his chest, letting my fingertips rest with infinitesimal lightness against his smooth skin and the sexy dusting of hair across his breastbone and his pectorals.
    To the touch, he feels recovered, almost well. And I squeak like a cornered mouse when his hand settles on mine, so I can't withdraw it.
    "Sorry to wake you. I was just checking your temperature." The hand stays put, flat over mine, pressing my fingers against the firm muscular contours. "You seem a bit better."
    "I feel better." His voice sounds clearer, still a little husky, but not weak or blurred by illness. "Thanks to you." He moves, and the mattress rocks, making his thighs brush mine, almost as if his naked body is seeking naked parts of mine.
    My heart thuds like a Kodo drum. Boom boom boom. It's a wonder it's not shaking the bed. I daren't open my eyes, and every nerve and instinct his telling me that Innes' health isn't the only thing that's changed. It's as if the whole configuration of the universe has suddenly shifted. A self imposed structure that presided just a few hours ago has become fluid and mutable, opening doors of perception and possibility.
    Here's my chance; a life-changing opportunity that might never come again. I wait, wondering, knowing I should withdraw, but unable to because I'm his for the taking.
    Innes begins to direct my hand. Not forcibly, it feels more like a medium resting on the pointer of an Ouija board. Our nested fingers slide down, slowly, over his ribs, and his belly, until we encounter the inevitable, his warm, hard cock.
    Oh boy, he's fully erect.
    Rising onto my elbow, I risk a look at him. His face is all shadows and angles in the dim lamplight. I open my mouth to speak, drag in the necessary breath, but I can't frame words. The feel of his warm flesh cradled in my fingers steals away my ability to express myself in speech.
    "I know, I know," murmurs Innes. He can still speak, and attuned to me, he voices my thoughts. "We're work colleagues and it'll make things complicated." He stares heavenward for a moment, then draws in a breath, with effort, the way I did. The look on his face as he turns to me says knows we're being crazy, but there's yearning there too as he launches onward, "But, I care for you, Cally. I really do. And I know you like me. Maybe for Christmas, we can just forget work and be two people… and take time out?"
    The whole universe seems to be vibrating now, not just me. Anticipation pounds in my veins and my throat, reverberating in my brain, its beat synchronized to the pulsing blood in Innes' cock. Even though the air outside our haven of bed linen is just as frigid as before, everything around us seems hot now, surging hot.
    And though I still can't speak, I don't have to. Innes knows me, probably better than I do myself.
    "Let's pretend you're Florence Nightingale and I'm a recovering soldier in need of a bit of TLC to enhance my treatment."
    The sweet laughter in his voice releases the tension. I'm still bursting with excitement and months and years of suppressed desire, but I feel free now, and happy, to express it.
    "Well, I don't have the benefit of a history degree..." I chuckle too as I lean in towards Innes and kiss the corner of his mouth while I move my hand on his erection. He gasps as I go on, "But as far as I know Florence didn't shag the soldiers. She just waved her lamp about a bit and gave them laudanum and all that."
    "You can give me more of the medicine you gave me last night… body heat works for me." He rocks his hips, thrusting into my grasp. "It's far more effective than Lemsip or Night Nurse. I feel much better now, and parts of me are 100% again."
    No need to single out which parts, obviously. The thick, hard, hot shaft in my hand