Chapter 11
The motion-sensor lights on the house had flicked on when I drove up and headed down the driveway to the big barn in back. Daniel looked puzzled when I jumped out and threw open the big double doors, but then he caught on and climbed into the driver's seat and pulled in. I closed the doors behind us, locking the Passport in the barn and motioned Daniel to the house. The ice pelted us and thick black clouds choked the sky. He shivered in the wind with the rain running over his shaved head and down his neck, clutching his bag, following me up the old-fashioned cement sidewalk past the old hand-pump for the well, and my grandma's flowerbeds that were now empty and full of brown weeds, to the back porch where I used to play. The two-story farmhouse was old, but solid. It had weathered storms a lot worse than this one.
I unlocked the back door and let him into the dark house. He rubbed his arms and looked around in dismay at the cold, gloomy kitchen.
"Hang on a minute. I gotta go flip the breakers."
Without meaning to, I brushed a kiss over his cheek before I headed back outside to lift the doors into the root cellar. I pushed the buttons on the old-timey glass circuit breakers, the familiar smell of must and the dirt floor pungent in my nostrils.
Why did I kiss him? That was so stupid
. My stomach lurched when I thought about what he must be thinking right now.
Okay. Knock it off.
I took a deep breath and grabbed a jar of golden home-canned peaches from the shelves against the wall. They were from last summer, but they would still be fine. They'd be good with whatever canned food we could scrounge from the cabinets, probably jars of tamales or corned beef hash.
The sleet was coming down even harder when I ran back up the wooden stairs and slid the bar back in place over the doors when they slammed shut. Small, hard pellets of snow mixed with the frozen raindrops. I eyed the glaze of ice forming over the bare-limbed trees. This was going to be a bad one. We were lucky to get here when we did, before the roads got too treacherous. Nobody could've followed us all the way here.
I repeated that firmly to myself and shut down on that line of thinking. Safe here. A breather, time to think. The screen door clattered shut behind me and I shivered in the kitchen, shaking the icy rain from my hair. Daniel was on the other side of the room, kneeling in front of the old iron stove. He'd found the shovel and ash bucket and was clearing out the stove's belly, scooping out the ash to start a fire. Kindling and old newspaper were in a basket next to the stove, just like they'd been for as long as I could remember. With the lights on, things looked a lot more cheerful, totally normal and reassuring.
"It's a good stove," Daniel said as I set the peaches on the counter and got out the jar of instant coffee above the sink.
"Yeah. It really keeps the room warm." I smiled faintly at the two rockers on either side of the stove. I could almost see my grandparents sitting there rocking. They'd like Daniel. "Well, we have electricity for now, but if the ice keeps building on the power lines it could go down. We don't have any gas, though; we keep it shut off when nobody's here so that means no stove and no furnace. The water heater's electric so when the tank has time to heat, we'll have enough hot water for a bath." I put water into two mugs and popped them in the microwave. "There's plenty of wood on the side porch and a fireplace in the living room, so even if the power does go off, we'll be fine. Can you take care of lighting that fire?" I asked his back.
"I think so." He was tearing the newspaper in strips in the proper way, so I was satisfied he knew what he was doing.
"Okay. I'll go get us some warm clothes."
My old room upstairs was freezing. I stayed only long enough to get enough long johns, flannel shirts and wool socks for both of us out of the closet and dresser. Yep, definitely sleeping downstairs. My grandparents' room was close enough to the fireplace that we wouldn't freeze. I planned on making sure we both stayed very, very warm tonight even if we had to use body heat.
Back in the kitchen, he had a small fire going in the stove. "Where did you say the wood was?" he asked. He looked so sexy sitting back on his heels, a smudge of soot across his chin. The kindling blazed, but I knew he still had to be chilled to the bone, especially with all his hair gone. I'd never been attracted to bald men, but he made the shaved look sexy, all sleek and feral.
"Side porch, right out that door. Put these on first, before you freeze," I ordered, dumping the clothes at his side.
No argument from him. Gratefully, he stripped and reached for the long underwear. His bare chest prickled from the cold, the nipples standing out in hard nubs. His lean belly flexed as he raised his arms to pull the shirt over his head and I was mesmerized by the silky line of hair under his navel that disappeared into the waistband of the khakis he'd borrowed from me, now crumpled and smudged. The long underwear shirt fell into place covering his hips, and then he shed the pants, stepping out of them when the fell to his ankles. When he bent to hike up the long johns, I caught a glimpse of his luscious pale ass, and then the outline of his cock lolling against his thigh and his balls weighing down the thin waffle knit. He smirked at me when I realized he'd caught me staring - again - but I just blushed a little and grinned, shrugging. Who could blame me for looking?
"Ahhh warmth," he breathed in relief as he pulled on the thick red-and-black plaid flannel shirt I'd brought down and buttoned it up the front. "I've been cold so long I almost forgot what warm is like."
I'll show you.
I almost said it, but now wasn't the time to perv on him, not after what he'd just been through. My libido was making a comeback, but his might not be. He had a lot on his mind and it would probably be best if I just backed off for now and saw what happened later. Watching him kick off his boots and pull the wool socks on, seeing his shaved head bent reminded me of the pellets of sleet abusing it and trickling down his bare neck and I thought of something.
"Wait a minute." I headed to the closet in the cold living room where all the cold weather gear, coats and boots and mittens and so forth, were all kept. "Here. Most body heat is lost through the head you know." Back in the kitchen, I put a wool stocking cap on Daniel's bare head and pulled it down to the tops of his ears. My fingertips brushed his scalp and he sucked in a sharp breath, closing his eyes on a shudder. "Sorry, are my hands cold?"
"Umm, yeah. Kind of." He shivered again and smiled at me. "Thanks, Ry."
"No problem." I was glad to do it, glad to make him a little more comfortable, even if I didn't like to think too much about the warm feeling that spread through me when he gave me a gorgeous blue-eyed grateful smile. While Daniel brought in wood from the enclosed side porch, I used the microwave to make instant coffee and heat up some canned chili. I also filled the big enamel stockpot with water and put it on the stove while Daniel built the fire up.
"What's that for?"
"I dunno." I shrugged. "My grandma always had a pot of water on the stove in case we needed it."
