Breaking the Ice (26 page)

She returned the provocative caresses, skimming her tongue along the curve of Karla’s mouth and sucking lightly, until Karla’s lips parted wider to welcome her into a deep-tongue kiss. They stroked hotly, wetly, and desire poured through her, sending her higher still, until the need for more became almost unbearable.

“Jesus, Bryson,” Karla rasped when they pulled away from each other a few inches to catch their breath. Her lips were rosy red and slightly swollen. “I…I can’t begin to describe how you make me feel when you kiss me like that.”

“Definitely mutual.” The open, unbridled yearning in Karla’s eyes captivated Bryson. She’d seen it before in women, certainly, but it had never touched her this way. “But dangerous right now, since we can’t carry this further. I’m kind of wound up, if you know what I mean.”

Karla squeezed her hand. “You’d barely have to touch me right now and I’d come.”

The words resonated through her body and settled like a hot fist in the pit of her stomach. “Oh, God, don’t say that. That’s definitely not helping.”

“No?” Karla teased. “How about if I tell you where I’d most like to put my tongue?”

“Cruel. That’s just plain cruel.” Bryson sat up abruptly, grimacing at another spasm in her back, and put her fingers in her ears. “La la la la. I can’t hear you. La la la.”

Karla sat up, too, and grabbed for the nearer hand to pull it away. She was laughing. “Okay, okay. I’ll stop. Not doing me any good either, to have those pictures in my head.”

“Maybe we’d better, um, better…” That haze of lust was still radiating from Karla’s eyes, and she was drawn to it like a moth to light. “Will you stop looking at me like that? It turns my brain to mush.”

“Can’t help it,” Karla replied, all innocence.

“In that case, I’ll have to be the strong one.” Bryson forced herself painfully off the bed and stood beside it. “Maybe we should turn this back into a couch for a while?”

“Spoilsport.” Karla poked out her lower lip in a pretend pout.

No matter how much Bryson’s body was hurting, it was still impossibly difficult not to ravage Karla when she looked so damn irresistible. “I should take a look at your feet. Put some more wood on the fire. See about the skiff.” Something, anything to get her mind off how turned on she was. She’d take a cold shower, if she had one.

Karla frowned. “The first two I can agree with. But surely you don’t mean to go back out there, as sore as you are, to look for the boat. It’s a long way, Bryson. I’d hiked a while before you found me.”

Bryson glanced toward the front window. The sun was up, and for the moment, anyway, it wasn’t snowing. “Grant you, I’m not looking forward to it, either. But freeze-up is a tenuous time. The water level can rise a lot from ice jams, and all kinds of debris comes floating downriver. Even if the skiff was grounded and you anchored it, it might come loose. It’d be a big loss for Lars and Maggie.”

“It wouldn’t start,” Karla reminded her.

“I’m pretty mechanically inclined and Lars has tools on board. I can probably get it running again.”

Karla didn’t look happy. “You sound determined. I can’t talk you out of it?”

Bryson sat on the edge of the bed and stroked Karla’s cheek. “I’ll be fine. I’ll take it slow and easy, and won’t overexert myself. I promise.”

“How long will you be gone?”

“Two or three hours, at least. I should probably go while the weather holds.” She threw a trio of thick logs into the woodstove. “Think we can wait until I get back to look at your feet?”

“Yes, they’ll be fine. But I’d like to get rid of some of this coffee before you go.”

“Oh, right.” As Bryson returned to the bed, Karla put her arms out in anticipation. She had a glint of mischief in her eyes. “No funny stuff, now,” Bryson warned as she bent to pick her up.

Karla’s arms circled her neck again, and this time she twined her fingers playfully in the hair at the back of her neck. Halfway to the screen, she traced her tongue wetly along Bryson’s ear before whispering, “I want you so much.”

Bryson went weak in the knees. “I won’t be held responsible for dropping you if you keep that up.” She struggled the rest of the way and set Karla down, suppressing a moan as another shooting pain ripped up her spine.

Karla sensed her stiffening and grew serious. “You really shouldn’t go out again, Bryson.”

“Have to. And stop worrying, I’ll be home before you know it. I’m gonna throw on some warm clothes. Be right back.” She took a couple more ibuprofen and returned the futon to a couch before she headed into the loft to layer up for her trek. To her pack of survival gear she added neoprene wetsuit pants, neoprene socks, and a spare pair of boots, since the crossing to the boat was evidently a deep one.

“All set?” she called from outside the screen.

“Come and
get
me,” Karla replied breathily, in her most provocative tone.

Bryson rounded the barrier and shook her finger at Karla. “Cruel. That is definitely the word for you. Do you plan to taunt me the entire time you’re here?”

Karla grinned. “That’s the plan. Can I help it if I like to make you squirm?”

Steeling herself, Bryson picked up Karla without further comment and headed back to the futon, trying hard not to succumb to the caresses along the back of her neck. She didn’t look at Karla until she got in position to set her down. “Play with fire, and you’ll get burned,” she warned, before kissing Karla again. She tortured them both, putting everything into the kiss, all the pent-up desire that had been building for days.

The frustrated arousal on Karla’s face when she left was priceless.

Bandit dive-bombed Bryson as soon as she emerged from the cabin, and because she didn’t offer him breakfast, the raven accompanied her down the trail to the water, squawking as he darted from spruce to spruce just ahead of her.

“Yeah, yeah. Such a rough life. Look at you. If I feed you any more you won’t be able to fly.”

As though he understood, Bandit buzzed her with a flutter of wings and a loud croak, then vanished into the woods, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She stopped when she reached the river. The water level was up several inches, and the freeze-up along the bank had advanced another foot since the night before, not surprising since the temperature was in the teens now. Her Super Cub would soon be grounded until everything froze solid; she hoped the lake stayed open until Maggie was discharged so she could get them home in Skeeter’s floatplane. On the other hand, she wouldn’t mind if they were delayed and Karla was forced to stay longer with her, though their inevitable parting would be all the more difficult.

The snow must have tapered off just after they’d arrived at her cabin, because Bryson could still make out the slight indentation of her snowmobile track from the night before. As she followed it upstream along the bank, she considered the impossible. What if Karla didn’t leave? She’d lived a solitary existence for so long it was difficult to imagine things any other way, unless she pictured Karla sharing her bed and her life. Then it was remarkably easy. She could see them in the morning, Karla snuggled deep in the covers after they’d made love, refusing to emerge until she’d made coffee and stoked up the woodstove. The two of them curled up on the couch together reading, stealing kisses between chapters. Hiking into the backcountry in the spring, when all the baby animals were out exploring with their mothers. Sitting on the porch, sipping wine and watching the sun paint the mountains gold-orange as it dipped toward the horizon. All the things she most enjoyed would be twice as special shared with Karla.

It was folly. Sure, Karla seemed to like it here. She’d raved about their hike up Mathews Dome, and she clearly appreciated the wilderness. But Karla had a well-established life elsewhere. A job, an apartment, and probably lots of friends. And she’d grown up with the modern amenities all outsiders had and were always reluctant to give up.

Also, Karla had been in a long-term relationship until only a month or two ago. She hadn’t seen the end coming and had been deeply hurt. Karla probably wouldn’t be able to fully trust anyone again enough to commit to them for a long time. She knew as well as Bryson did that what was happening between them would end in a few weeks. Maybe that was one reason she found it appealing. Maybe Bryson was just a way for her to move on and feel better about herself and her situation.

The thought depressed her. She wanted to mean more to Karla than that. But she would happily take what she could get, regardless of Karla’s motivations. For many years, she had followed her pop’s advice to live life in the moment and seize happiness wherever possible. She’d continue to do so.

The vague snowmobile track she’d been following ended at the large boulder where she’d left Karla. The remnants of her footprints beyond were much less distinct, disappearing entirely in the open places and visible only as faint impressions where she’d passed beneath thick clusters of trees. But she had a keen sense of direction and well-developed tracking skills, and was able to follow the footprints along the riverbank to the entrance into the deeper woods, where she’d found Karla.

It was a long shot, but she had to try to find the necklace. Carefully and patiently she picked her way along, circling when she lost the tracks until she found them again, until at last she came upon the downed tree where she’d first discovered Karla. She said a prayer as she got on her hands and knees to sweep the snow aside, and soon the sight of a gold chain peeking out of the white powder rewarded her.

Elated, she angled back toward the river and continued upstream, barely noticing the ache in her legs and back from carrying Karla the night before. But her brief euphoria dissipated when she spotted the skiff and realized what she was up against.

The rise in the water level would help her get the skiff off the gravel bar and back down the river. But crossing to it would be a bitch, even with neoprene on. She’d be punching through ice for the first and last few steps, and she’d have to go slow over the rocky bottom when she reached the fast, deep current in the middle or it would sweep her away.

Karla had been damn lucky
.
Just thinking of what could have happened chilled her, but she admired Karla even more. It had taken a lot of courage to face that crossing and make it as far as she had.

Bryson quickly shed her jeans and pulled her neoprene kayak pants on over her lightweight long underwear, then her neoprene socks and waterproof boots, laced as tight as they would go. Shortening her backpack so it rode high on her shoulders, she took a few deep breaths and stomped through the thick ice at the edge. She moved as quickly as she dared, but had to slow when she got in over her knees and began to feel the impact of the current. The middle was wicked deep, up to the top of her thighs, and she struggled to keep her footing.

The thought that Karla was depending on her to get back in one piece kept her from making stupid mistakes out of haste. She reached the other side and darted into the cabin of the skiff, out of the wind, and quickly changed back into her jeans and warm, dry footwear.

The clouds above her were thickening, and the wind began to pick up as she checked the exterior of the skiff for damage. The dent in the bow that Karla warned her about wasn’t too bad; the boat was still watertight. The engine was balky but she managed to get it going on the fourth try. Things had probably happened so fast that Karla had flooded it.

Her final obstacle was getting the boat back in the water and to her place without further problems. The water already lapped against the bow and was only a few inches from the starboard side, so she didn’t have to move the skiff much to get it afloat. Fortunately, Lars had a winch on board that should do the job nicely. She hooked it up and was headed downriver a half hour later.

*

“Miss me?”

The nearly four hours Bryson was gone had seemed an eternity. “Talk about understatement,” Karla replied. “Any problems? Did you get the skiff? How do you feel?” Everything rushed out.

Bryson laughed as she hung her coat and backpack on the pegs by the door and shed her boots. “No, yes, and don’t take it personally if I suddenly fall asleep on you mid-sentence. Kinda beat.”

“I’m amazed you’re still standing. I was getting worried. I expected you a lot sooner.”

“Took a little detour.” Bryson’s eyes twinkled as she approached the couch. “Close your eyes and hold out your hand.”

Puzzled, Karla complied. Her heart filled with joy as she closed her palm over the familiar cold metal and smooth stone. But she still couldn’t quite believe it until she opened her eyes and saw it was true. “Oh, my God! You found it! How in the world—”

“I knew how much it meant to you. I was lucky.”

“Oh, Bryson!” She clutched the necklace to her heart. “I’d given up hope of ever seeing it again. I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Not necessary.” Bryson looked down at her with a very pleased expression, but had dark circles under her eyes. “Seeing your face right now is ample reward.”

“Come sit and relax. You look like you’re ready to collapse.”

Bryson nodded wearily but headed toward the kitchen. “Soon as I get some cocoa poured, you’re on. Join me?”

“Please.”

“How’re you doing? Feet hurting much?”