Adrienne gradually regained consciousness, warm and surrounded by softness. She stretched, her limbs sliding over the flannel bedclothes, luxuriating in their comfort. She lay in bed, thinking about the previous day, specifically how pleasant it was to watch Lucas' muscles running like water under his skin. She frowned as her thoughts turned to other matters, such as how long they were going to be snowed into the cabin.
She had responsibilities that needed her attention, not to mention the fact that, having disappeared without a word, everyone would be thinking that some harm had befallen her. She would see if Lucas could clear the snow from the dish so that she could at least email her parents and grandmother. They could contact the school. That plan in mind, she rose to begin her day.
Adrienne dressed quickly in charcoal yoga pants and a black racer-back sleeveless tee. Searching the room, she located several pairs of shoes under the bed, and pulled out a pair of black Converse. She found Lucas in the exercise room, already hard at his run. He nodded at her and she smiled, walked over to a free spot on the floor, dropped down, and began to stretch. Lucas watched hungrily, yet covertly, as she made her limber way through various splits and stretches. Climbing on the elliptical beside him, she began to work. Forty minutes later, she was out of breath and ready to quit, and he had yet to break stride. After a five minute cool down, she jumped off the machine to go shower. As she was leaving, she didn't see Lucas' tongue flash around his mouth, licking his lips. Adrienne still hadn't found a bra, and he hated to see her go. He sighed, ruefully thinking at least the view of her walking away was just as good.
Back in her room, Adrienne pulled out a button-down cashmere patchwork sweater-dress in varying shades of green, and paired it with eggplant sweater tights. She carried her booty to the bathroom, where she took a leisurely shower, this time using a thick, rich shower cream that smelled sweetly of mimosa. After her shower, she braided her hair into one thick French braid that she laid over her shoulder, and pushed back the tendrils curling about her face with an aubergine velvet headband. By the time she emerged from her room, Lucas had finished his run, and was outside shoveling snow.
She searched through the kitchen, trying to decide what to prepare for breakfast. She decided to make a simple breakfast of white whole-wheat currant cream scones, scrambled eggs, and fruit salad. She began by mixing the ingredients for the scones. By the time she was cutting them, Lucas came in, stamping snow from his feet.
"Well hello," she said. "How did you sleep?"
Lucas gave her an oblique look and said, "Not as poorly as I have been. Not as well as I could have." His eyes dipped down, caressing her breasts as they pressed against the fabric of her sweater. "Nor as well as I will."
Adrienne smiled to herself, having grown somewhat inured to Lucas' bold manner of speaking. She leaned close to him, stretching until her mouth was a few scant inches from his. She paused until his expression changed and his body grew still in anticipation. Dragging her eyes to his she licked her lips, and then whispered, "Go take a shower you beastly creature!"
Lucas threw his head back and laughed. Nudging past her with his hip, he loped to his room to bathe. Adrienne pulled strawberries, a pineapple, lychees, green, purple, and red grapes, and a mango from the refrigerator. When she searched for yoghurt, however, all she could find was a plain single serving container of Greek-style. "Note to self," she thought, "make more yoghurt..." She chopped the fruit and put it in a bowl, and then moved on to the eggs, scrambling them, and then pouring them into a cast iron skillet coated with hot olive oil. When they had set up, she grated a healthy dose of Dubliner cheddar over them, and put them on the back burner so that the residual heat would cook them and melt the cheese. By the time Lucas returned, smelling sweetly of soap, Adrienne was pulling the scones out of the oven.
She had just put the food on the table, so Lucas went to the cabinets to pull out dishes and flatware. Adrienne ran her eyes over his wide shoulders, straining against the nubby fabric of his charcoal turtleneck sweater, to his long legs encased in black lamb's wool trousers.
"What are you going to do with this peeled pineapple?" he queried.
"Hm?" she said, quick-witted as treacle. "Oh, that was supposed to go into the salad! I was distracted—-I'll just cut it up and toss it with the others." Adrienne began to slice the pineapple, when Lucas walked by her, smelling so good that she closed her eyes for a moment.
Suddenly he turned, harshly biting, "You cut yourself."
Adrienne looked down to see a small slice on her middle fingertip on which blood was just starting to drip. "Oh," she said hesitantly, nonplussed by the fact that he had noticed before she had. "I'm sorry; I'll just get rid of this—"
"No need," he said, slowly walking toward her. "I trust you." Taking her hand, he brought the injured finger to his mouth and slipped it inside, gently sucking away the blood from the small wound. "See?"
Adrienne swallowed hard, her eyes fixed on her own small hand nestled in his large, rough ones. When she looked up, he was watching her, his pupils once again strangely dilated. She gently swayed toward him, and Lucas let her finger slip from his mouth. His warm, minty breath fanned her face and she blushed at the turn that her thoughts were taking. She looked away and heard him sigh. Reaching around her, he took the plate of pineapple, and mixed it with the rest of the fruit.
Sitting down, they quietly began to eat. "Are there any preserves?" Lucas asked, breaking the silence.
"No," Adrienne responded. "I did, however, locate plenty of frozen fruit, fruit juice, and pectin, so I'll make some later. Also, you're pretty much out of yoghurt, so I'll make some more of that, too."
Lucas stared at her for a second, and then grinned wolfishly. "Who are you? You can make all of this stuff from scratch? You're like some atavistic creature from 'Little House on the Prairie'."
She laughed, all of the previous tension draining from the room. "I like to be able to make things myself. That way I know what's going into it, and I never run out, as long as I have the raw ingredients."
"Will you show me how?" Lucas asked.
"You want to learn how to make preserves?" Adrienne asked incredulously.
"Why not," he responded comfortably. "I'm always up for learning a new skill." Then, slyly, "...and I couldn't ask for a prettier teacher."
She grinned, cocky. "How's this afternoon?"
"Sure. It's not like we have any pressing engagements."
"Oh, that actually reminds me...I was wondering if it's at all possible that you could, well, try to clear the snow from the dish. Just for a little while? I need to let my parents and Grandmother know that I'm alright, and tell them to call the school for me."
Lucas looked pensive for a moment. Slowly, he said, "Alright. I'll do it after breakfast which, by the way, is delicious. Thank you for feeding my bottomless pit." He put his hand over his abs.
"Well, it feels nice to see pleasure on someone's face because of what you've made."
"If you want to see pleasure on my face, I can show you a much more interesting way to--" He ducked, laughing as a napkin narrowly missed his head.
After they had eaten, and the dishes had been washed, Lucas put on his coat to go try to clear the snow from the dish. He opened the door and peered outside at the quickly falling snow. "Go into my room; my laptop is on my bed. As soon as the web is up, make your emails—-with this snow, I don't know how long I'll be able to stay up there, keeping it clear.
Adrienne nodded, feeling awkward for making him do something so potentially dangerous. She put her hand on his arm. "Thank you," she said.
He looked at her briefly, then back outside. Smiling as he started, he said, "You'll just have to owe me a favour."
She watched as he made his way to the shed, stomping down snow onto the path that he had just shoveled that morning. As he made his way back toward the house with the shovel, she trotted to his room and opened the door. A warm puff of spicy air surrounded her, smelling strongly of him. Adrienne closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, enjoying the luxury of being able to unabashedly take pleasure in his scent. When she opened her eyes, she looked around the room.
Neat as a pin, it was done in dark emeralds, chocolates, neutrals, and russets, and all of the wood was dark cedar. It was similar to her room, which was done in autumnal tones and cherry wood, but his was definitively masculine. No diaphanous curtains hung around his bed, no candles littered his dresser or nightstands. She saw an open door leading to his bathroom, which was almost Spartan, housing only soap, and shaving implements. Another door led to a closet, she was sure, but she wasn't bold enough to take a peek, even though curiosity burned through her.
She quickly walked over to his bed and climbed on—-it was much higher than hers—-curling herself around his laptop. The screen came on as she moved it, the desktop a vivid green picture of a lush forest. His desktop was curiously bare, but she shrugged, assuming that his propensity for neatness must run to his computer, as well. As she was looking for the internet icon, a neat little pop told her that the wireless was back up. She went to her email and quickly typed a message to her parents and grandmother, saying that she couldn't talk long, but she was safe, and briefly explaining the fact that she hadn't previously contacted them because of the accompanying hardships that followed being snowed-in in a remote cabin in the woods.
She heard a loud curse come from the roof, and a loud dragging noise that ran to the end of the room. She quickly clicked "Send", just as a small "poof" and a very loud expletive came from under the window. She ran over to it, and opened it to find Lucas buried in the snow, under a very large dish, and a complicated array of wires. "Are you alright?!" she called.
"Ow," he calmly rejoined.
"Hold on—I'm coming out there!" she said.
"No, no," he said. "I'm alright. The snow broke my fall. I'm afraid that the dish didn't make it, though. Did you get to send your email?"
"Yes, just."
Lucas grunted. Then, in a surprising display of athleticism, he flipped from his back to his feet.
Adrienne gasped in surprise and delight. She grinned. "I guess you certainly are alright."
He nodded brusquely, wrapping the cords around the dish. "I'm just going to go put this in the shed. I'll be in in a moment."
Adrienne nodded uncertainly, watching him trying to make his way toward his shoveled path, in the now waist-deep snow. She looked pensively at the snow. It seemed as if there were periods when it would melt at a rapid rate, but before things became manageable, it would begin to snow again, leaving them buried in the white fluff. Adrienne had never seen such odd-acting weather. Sighing, she shrugged and closed the window. She laughed ruefully to herself as she made her way to the kitchen. It's not as if anyone could control the weather.
