Hard As Steele(2)

Next, he shed his jacket and worked quickly in the cold, stacking the firewood on the iron log holder in the fireplace and lighting the kindling underneath it. She leaned back in the couch and admired him as he worked. Snow glistened in his thick black hair, and he moved with the grace of a powerful animal. Something about him put her in mind of a wolf gliding through the forest, confident and fearless in his domain.

Was it wrong for her to be totally turned on by a hallucination? Roxanne wondered. She decided it wasn’t. After all, that was exactly what her fantasies about handsome, unattainable men were all about, weren’t they? Just images of good-looking guys who looked at her, at her soft belly and broad thighs and great big butt, and went wild with desire at the sight. Dreams that could never be true.

So she nestled in deeper to the sofa cushions and imagined all the things she’d love for him to do to her. His hands, his mouth, other parts of anatomy…

The fire blazed and crackled, yellow and red flames flickering above the cris-crossed logs, and the heavenly scent of wood smoke filled the cabin. He looked up at her and smiled.

“How are you feeling?” he asked. “The color’s coming back to your face.”

“I feel much better now,” she said. “Thank you for everything.” She certainly did feel better. That warm smile of his heated her faster than the fire, and spread a delicious tingling sensation all over her body.

“Do you want me to make us some hot cocoa?” he said.

“That would be lovely, thanks,” she said. “Do you want me to help?”

“You just sit there and rest up. You can take the snow pack off for now.”

He moved over to the other side of the room and built a fire in the potbellied iron stove. There were bottles of water sitting on the counter by the small kitchen sink; he poured them in a kettle, set the kettle on the stove, and came back to sit down next to her. He sat down right next to her, bathing her in the warmth of that smile and she felt a little dizzy again.

Well, if she was going to dream-molest him with her mind, she should get to know his name first.

“You saved my life, and we haven’t been properly introduced,” she said. She reached out and shook his hand. “I’m Roxanne Weldon.”

He enclosed her hand in his. His grip was firm and lingered, as if he were reluctant to let go of her. “My name is Steele. Steele Battle.”

Yep, all of this was part of a dream. The guy was too handsome to be real, he was looking at her as if he wanted to strip her clothes off, and he even had a name like an action figure.

“So where were you going?” he asked her. “Are there people going to be worried about you?”

“My friend Katherine. I should call her.” Was this all part of the hallucination? Was this her way of saying goodbye to Katherine?

“There’s a telephone in the cabin, a landline phone that should be working,” he said. He stood up, and held out his hand to help her to her feet. “The phone’s over there.” He pointed to the kitchen wall, where the old fashioned phone was affixed.

“Whose cabin is this?”

“Friends of mine. Their family owns it, and they stay here during hunting season. They’re big deer hunters.” He nodded at a deer head mounted on a wooden plaque.

Roxanne went to use the phone while Steele poured them both cups of hot chocolate.

She knew that super practical, protective Katherine would freak out. She was right.

“How do you know he’s not a serial killer?” Katherine demanded. “He took you to a lonely cabin in the woods?”

“He had no choice. We seriously could not have driven another mile,” she said. “It was white out conditions. Besides, he was the one who suggested that I call you. Would a serial killer do that?” She saw Steele stifle a laugh behind his hand, and she shrugged apologetically.

“Gosh, I don’t know. I’m trying to remember what I do when I’m serial-killing people,” Katherine said.

“Har de har. I’m fine. Thanks for caring, though.”

“This is what you get for driving in a snowstorm. Who does that?”

“You were the one who told me to go!” Roxanne protested indignantly. “When I left, there were just a few flakes sifting down.”

Katherine’s voice went all self-righteous and schoolmarmish. “Did you check the weather before you left? No, you don’t need to answer that. You did not.”

Katherine had been raised by an irresponsible, free-spirited mother, who smoked like a chimney, never went to the doctor for a checkup, never wore her seat-belt, and used to speed through their county like only the wife of the town’s mayor could. When Katherine was twelve, her mother went out for a drive and her car rounded a corner and ran into a giant moose.

Katherine had grown up the complete opposite of her mother; she believed that by taking every possible precaution, you could guarantee the safety of yourself and your loved ones. Roxanne loved Katherine, but it was hard to relax around someone who felt that sunbathing without sunblock should be added to the list of seven deadly sins.

Roxanne had seen both of her parents wither away from cancer, and she believed that you should enjoy every moment of life that you were given, and always expect the unexpected.

Like, say, a freak snowstorm that had sent her car off the side of the road and was probably killing her, and might already have killed her, which meant she was currently in some kind of very sexy purgatory.

Roxanne felt a sudden twinge of sorrow. She’d miss Katherine.

“I love you, no matter how much of an annoying naggy-pants you are,” she said. “I should let you go now.”

She set the phone back down in its cradle.

Steele was sitting on the couch with their two cups of hot chocolate resting on the table in front of him. It was made from a cross section slice of a tree, resting on a tangle of branches that had been finished and polished.

“Do you think we see our loved ones again after we die?” she asked Steele, her voice suddenly turned wistful as she settled down next to him and grabbed her coffee cup.

“Of course,” he said. “You’re not dying anytime soon, though, so you got nothing to worry about. That bump on your head’s pretty much gone, by the way. You’re fine.”

“What about you?” she said. “Nobody that you need to call?” She was about to ask if he had a wife or girlfriend, but she decide that since this was her fantasy, he definitely did not.

“No, I’m fine,” he said. “I was on my way to meet up with some friends and do some hunting. I talked to one of them on the CB, so he’ll let everyone know I’m stuck here in the snow storm.”

He reached into his shirt pocket. “Let me check your pupils again.” He cupped her chin gently as he shone the light in her eyes, and when he switched the light off, he held on to her chin, just looking her in the eye, for another couple of seconds before he finally let go. The touch of his hand sent shivers through her body.

“You feel all right?” he asked her.

“Never felt better.” It was true. This was a very naughty hallucination. She could feel her nipples swelling, and a rush of moisture between her legs.

“That’s good to hear.” He settled in next to her.

“So you’re not from around here?” she said.

“Up north,” he said. “Little tiny town. You wouldn’t have heard of it.”

“Me too. I come from Lonesome Pine. It’s a little dot on the map. I’m a short order cook at the restaurant there.” She sighed. “I was going to go to culinary school and be a chef somewhere, but then my parents both died of cancer within a year of each other, and the hospital bills ate up all of their savings.”

“I’m sorry.” His voice was warm and gentle.

“It was a couple of years ago.” She felt the sharp prick of tears, and blinked hard. She still missed them every day, but with time, the dull ache had eased somewhat. She’d been just going through the motions of daily life since then, showing up at work, paying her bills, then going back to the tiny mobile home that her friend Katherine’s father rented to her.

“So where were you going today?”

“I was coming back from the funeral of my great aunt.”

“Jeez.” He looked sympathetic. “I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t be. My parents’ loss, that was very hard, but I’d never even met my great aunt. I wasn’t going to go, but my best friend Katherine insisted.”

“A stickler for tradition, is she?”

Roxanne couldn’t help but stifle a giggle. “No. Okay, this is going to make me sound like a terrible person, but then again, you’re a hallucination, so I can tell you anything, right?”

“Are you still on that? You can tell me anything, but I’m not a hallucination. Really, Roxanne, you’re going to be fine.”

“Katherine told me to go to the funeral so I could scope out single guys.”

Steele burst out laughing. “Seriously? At a funeral?”

Roxanne smiled. She liked talking to this guy; she felt totally comfortable with him. “That’s how dire the dating situation is in Lonesome Pine. I mean, the town has like a hundred and eighty two people there. Besides, even if they had a big population, it’s not like it would help.”