THIRTEEN
“N-now what?” My teeth were beginning to chatter but I didn’t want to admit how cold I was already getting.
“Now you’d better find a way to get warm,” Jake said flatly. “Try the fireplace—is the fire still alive? I can see some glowing coals.”
I walked over to the fireplace with quick, mincing steps, since the floorboards were icy under my bare feet. There were, indeed, a few glowing coals, but they didn’t give off much heat. Also, there was no poker to stir them around or anything else I could use for fuel anywhere. I thought that Sorenson had probably thought it was a bad idea to leave anything that could be used as a weapon, like an iron poker or a length of firewood, out for us to find.
I huddled near the fireplace for as long as I could, but pretty soon the last glowing red ember winked out and I was left staring into the darkened grate.
“It’s no good,” I said, coming back to Jake, where he lay cuffed to the headboard of the bed. He was lying in a pool of silvery moonlight and I couldn’t help thinking that he looked positively mouthwatering. I mean, I knew I wasn’t supposed to think like that about my own stepbrother, but seriously, his broad chest and six pack abs and long, muscular legs were highlighted by the moonlight and shadows, making him look like some perfect sculpture carved by a master artisan.
“See if you can find something to wrap around yourself,” Jake suggested. I noticed that he was avoiding looking at me, though his eyes would dart towards me and then away again from time to time. They glowed gold in the dim room.
I searched but found only an empty closet without even an old moth-eaten sweater inside. I had been hoping for an afghan or even a towel, but there was nothing.
Nothing in the bathroom, either and by that time I was getting extremely cold.
“J-jake, I c-can’t take m-m-much m-more of this,” I told him, my teeth chattering. If only the wind wouldn’t keep gusting down through the skylight! I needed to close it, I decided. If I didn’t, I was seriously going to freeze to death.
“What are you doing?” Jake demanded, as I climbed up on the bed and reached for the opening above it.
“T-t-trying to c-close this d-damn thing,” I replied. By now I was shivering so much I could hardly make my lips work right.
“Stop that—you’ll freeze to death!” Jake protested.
Looking down at him, I saw that he was once again trying hard not to look at me. I supposed I must present quite a sight—standing naked on the bed right over where he was lying. He was probably getting the same kind of view those pervy upskirt videos they upload to porn sights show.
But I couldn’t afford to be embarrassed about showing him my naked body—this was literally a life-or-death situation. I knew if I didn’t manage to get warm somehow, I was for sure going to freeze to death tonight—I really needed to get the damn skylight closed!
At last I managed to find the metal prop that held it in place. It was attached to the window itself or I would have tried to twist it off and keep it to use as a weapon. As it was, I felt lucky just to get the damn thing to fold back into its place so that the skylight closed with a soft thump.
The wind stopped whistling through the room and I collapsed on the bed and curled myself into a ball, shivering helplessly. I wasn’t far from Jake—I was so cold I could actually feel the warmth his big, muscular body was putting out. But he had made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want me anywhere near him, so I made no move to get close to him. I just lay there with my teeth chattering, trying desperately to get warm on my own—which wasn’t happening.
“Ani?” Jake sounded worried. “Ani, talk to me. Are you all right?”
“J-j-just f-f-f-fine,” I got out at last and then couldn’t say anymore, because my teeth were chattering so fiercely.
“Bullshit,” Jake said harshly. “You’re shivering so hard you’re shaking the whole damn bed!”
“W-well what am I sup-p-posed to d-do?” I demanded, turning over to face him, though I stayed curled on my side. “I c-c-can’t get warm and you d-d-don’t want anything t-to d-do with m-me!”
Jake frowned. He had turned on his side so he was facing me, his arms still cuffed over his head.
“Ani, try to understand…” he began.
“What I understand is th-that I’m going to be f-f-freezing to d-death tonight because you d-don’t want me n-near you,” I snapped.
He sighed deeply.
“It’s not that I don’t want you near me—I do. Probably too much,” he added in a mutter, as though to himself. “But this is wrong—wrong for us to be too close to each other! You heard Sorenson—the combination of my scent and the light of a nearly full moon could bring on your Heat Cycle. In fact, that’s exactly what he wants!”