Breaking the Ice (29 page)

“I’ll do that. Just don’t wear yourself out,” Karla whispered close to Bryson’s ear. “I have plans for you later.”

Bryson headed toward the stage with a smile so firmly planted on her lips she couldn’t possibly erase it.

They played a set of jazz standards to wild applause from the audience, none more enthusiastic than the clapping at Karla and Maggie’s table. Bryson wolfed down a quick bowl of stew at their break, but declined Grizz’s offer of a cold brew to go with it. She noticed Karla was sticking to cola as well and wondered if she, too, didn’t want any alcohol to dull their enjoyment of the hours to come.

“Short set this time, guys, okay?” she told the other band members when they returned to the stage. If she didn’t get to touch Karla soon, she’d go out of her mind.

When they announced they were done for the night, the crowd roared for an encore, but by then they were all ready to quit. Grizz and Ellie had orders backed up, and Lars was anxious to join Maggie, who’d taken a crying Karson to their room to put her down for the night.

“You have quite a talented ensemble,” Karla said as Bryson sank into the chair Maggie had vacated.

“We have fun, and fortunately there’s not a lot of competition to judge us by. But it was tough for me to concentrate tonight.”

“Oh? And why’s that?” Karla feigned ignorance, but the impish twitch at the corners of her mouth told Bryson she knew very well where her mind had been all evening.

“Come on, tease,” Bryson said, taking her by the hand to lead her upstairs. “I got Grizz to give us the best room in the house.”

“Something special about it, is there?”

“You’ll see.”

The room was larger than the one Karla had stayed in before and was evidently designed for couples seeking a romantic getaway. Scented candles adorned the headboard of the king-sized bed, and the private bathroom came equipped with a pair of plush fleecy robes and a deep Jacuzzi built for two.

Karla took it all in, noting the special touches she suspected Bryson had arranged: the bubble bath beside the tub and the basket of goodies on the table by the window containing fruit, cheese and crackers, and imported chocolates. Beside it was a bucket of ice containing a bottle of white wine and a half-dozen sodas.

“You approve?” Bryson said from behind her.

Karla turned to thank her for her thoughtfulness, but before she could speak, she was enveloped in Bryson’s embrace, her mouth captured in a searing kiss. Bryson’s hands clutched her ass, drawing their bodies firmly together, and within seconds she didn’t even pretend to speak.

Just as her knees began to buckle, Bryson scooped her up and carried her to the bed.

“Now, where were we when we were so rudely interrupted?” Bryson released her onto the edge of the mattress. Despite Bryson’s light tone, her eyes were undeniably intense as she stood over Karla, her gaze fixed on the soft swell of breasts beneath her sweater.

“I believe we were both naked, for starters.”

“Ah. Indeed we were. It’s all coming back to me now.” Bryson bent to remove Karla’s boots and her own. Then she slowly began to undress, just out of arm’s reach, obviously enjoying the effect of her prolonged striptease on her audience.

Karla found it difficult to draw a deep breath. With each garment removed, her heartbeat accelerated, the drumming in her ears obliterating all other sounds, until finally Bryson stood before her, fully exposed. “You have such an amazing body.”

“Thank you. I’m glad you’re enjoying the show, because it’s absolutely killing me not to pin you to that bed right now until you beg for mercy.”

“Keep talking like that, and we may have a competition to see who pins whom.”

Bryson laughed and pulled Karla to her feet. “Your turn.” Karla started to reach for her, but Bryson dodged her with a grin and hopped onto the bed. “The sooner you get undressed,” she said, climbing between the sheets, “the sooner I can…uh…” She gaped when she saw how fast Karla was peeling off her clothes.

By the time she stripped, Bryson’s expression had turned from mirthful to smoldering. “Come here,” she beckoned, pulling aside the coverlet.

Karla moved into Bryson’s outstretched arms, and Bryson’s mouth claimed hers in a slow, sensual kiss as their bodies came together along their full length. As the kiss built in heat and intensity, Bryson rolled on top of her and thrust a firmly muscled thigh between her legs.

Arousal burned in Karla as they clung to each other, tongues stroking deep, their full passion flaring. A bonfire of need and yearning and surrender engulfed her. When she raked her nails down Bryson’s back, Bryson broke the kiss and threw her head back in ecstasy as a sound—half groan and half growl—reverberated from the back of her throat. Karla clenched Bryson’s lean, muscled ass, and her hips rose to maximize the pressure of their pelvis-to-pelvis contact. Bryson looked down at her, brown eyes darkened by desire and lips rosy and swollen from their kisses. The hunger in her expression sent a thrill through Karla, ratcheting her excitement even higher.

“How you make me feel…” she gasped, heaving for air. It wasn’t the kisses alone that left her breathless. The rush of adrenaline was dizzying, too. “…never like this. Never.”

Bryson slowly nodded, and a combination of joy and relief came over her face. She bore down upon Karla again, kissing her soundly and shifting her weight to the side so she could caress her with one hand. Despite the ferocity of their kiss, Bryson’s touch was maddeningly light as her fingers trailed down Karla’s shoulder to her upper arm, then down her hip and thigh, and back up to her chest. When they reached the outer curve of her breast, she moaned. Bryson gently bit her lower lip as she claimed the breast with the full contact of her palm, producing a sudden rush of sensation. Her nipple was instantly erect, and moisture surged between her legs.

Bryson must have felt it, too, because she thrust her thigh more firmly against Karla’s center, rocking against her, creating a delicious friction that brought her dangerously close to climax. Another minute or two and she would have come, but Bryson stopped to move down her body, trailing wet kisses from her neck to her collarbone, then down her cleavage. Bryson’s tongue traced the curve of one breast, and then her mouth closed over the nipple and sucked, hard. Karla’s hips bucked upward as she raked circles into Bryson’s back with her nails.

Another surge of wetness poured out of her as Bryson lavished her other breast with her mouth. The maelstrom of sensations brought her once again to the precipice; she bit her lip so hard she tasted blood.

Her enormous need for release was intolerable. She wanted to make this incredible buildup of excitement last, but she was incapable of self-control. She grabbed Bryson’s hair and pushed her head lower as she opened her legs. “Please, Bryson. I’m so close.”

When Bryson delivered her with measured and well-placed strokes of her tongue, she cried out and clenched at the sheets, then collapsed in a fog of overload. As she calmed and caught her breath, Bryson sweetly kissed her thighs and abdomen, working her way back up Karla’s body to lie on her side beside her.

Karla rolled into her embrace and buried her face in the soft warm skin at the base of Bryson’s throat. Her body thrummed with aftershocks. “Oh
my,
” she whispered, gripping Bryson tight.

“You’re amazing.” Bryson kissed her forehead. “Sooo hot.”

“What you do to me, Bryson. What you do to me.” She couldn’t begin to convey how utterly and completely she
felt
when Bryson touched her. Her body, head to toe, her senses, her mind, her imagination. All of her roared to life like she had been dozing too long. Full speed ahead, all the bits and pieces of her working in harmony to achieve the perfect orgasm.

“I can say the same.” Bryson clenched her jaw. The effect of Karla’s touch was unbelievably powerful. Though she held Karla with infinite tenderness, her body still shrieked with arousal. She was so far gone, falling hard and fast, first enamored by Karla’s loveliness and vulnerability, then enchanted by her humor, open honesty, and strength. It had taken such courage for her to deal with all she’d been slammed with. No matter what the challenge, Karla faced it with quiet resolve.

Bryson so wanted to freeze this moment. Everything she’d dreamed she should feel—that spark, that special chemistry, that gut instinct that this was the one—she was finally experiencing. Why now? Why Karla? It seemed so unfair
.
Bryson memorized every detail. The softness of Karla’s hair and skin, the aroma of her perfume, mixed with the scent of their arousal, the sound Karla made when she climaxed, and the heightened sensations of her own body.

Karla stirred from her lassitude, disengaging slightly from their embrace to place a long, wet kiss at the hollow of Bryson’s neck, then another just below her ear. “My turn.” Her voice was husky and full of promise.

She shifted to lie on top of Bryson and resumed her kisses, down her neck, chest, and stomach. As she did, she cupped Bryson’s breasts, teasing the nipples to erection with strokes of her thumbs. Bryson’s pulse quickened and her breathing accelerated, loud in her ears. The pressure building at the juncture of her thighs was incredible. When Karla’s mouth closed over one sensitive nipple and sucked, she ground her pelvis upward and tightened her grip in Karla’s hair. “More.”

Karla sucked harder and tweaked the sensitive nipple lightly between her teeth. Bryson groaned once, then again when Karla gave the other breast equal treatment.

“I can tell how close you are,” Karla murmured as she moved lower. Bryson writhed beneath her, desperate for relief.

“Yes,” she choked. “Ready beyond words.”

She felt Karla’s smile against her lower abdomen and heard her sharp intake of breath. “I love how you smell,” Karla said, just before her mouth closed over Bryson’s sex.

As Bryson went rigid in the first throes of orgasm, she clutched at the headboard to anchor herself. Teeth clenched, she rode the rush of release like a wave, building and building until the crest shattered her, sapping her strength.

They lay for another long while wrapped in each other’s arms, exchanging sweet kisses and confiding specifics about their sexual fantasies and preferences. The provocative sharing led to several more hours of lovemaking: playful and flirty, then heated and raw, as they indulged each other in every way possible.

For once, Bryson was grateful for the long nights of winter. First light would mark the end of their blissful privacy and the beginning of what she feared would be an unbearable separation.

December 14

“Feels like some sort of cosmic conspiracy is trying to keep us apart.” Bryson absently picked at the label of her bottle, her second Black Fang that evening. She’d barely touched her plate of smoked-salmon tacos.

“We haven’t had a warm spell like this one since ’88,” Grizz said as he poured two drafts. “Got to forty in Fairbanks in the middle of December. Same reason then, too. Some weird high-pressure system over Seattle.”

“Global warming, that’s what it is.” Skeeter scowled from the barstool beside her.

Bryson continued as though she hadn’t heard. “Hated missing Thanksgiving with them.”

November had been the mildest in two decades in Alaska, and December was shaping up the same. They got a few frigid days here and there, but just about the time the ice on the lakes and rivers was getting thick enough to support a plane, temps would rise above freezing and everything would soften up again.

For the last month, she’d been stuck in Bettles and confined to airport runs, only able to contact the Rasmussen cabin through their satellite phone. Karla’s time in Alaska was ticking away, and Mother Nature seemed to be cheating Bryson out of a rare chance at happiness.

“Keep your chin up.” Grizz laid a massive callused hand on top of Bryson’s across the bar. “Forecast this morning says we’ve got a long spell of cold comin’ in.”

“Karla know how bad you’re pining away for her?” Skeeter teased with a grin.

Bryson shrugged. “Pretty clear we’re crazy about each other. But not like I’ve really said anything much. What’s there to say? We both know this is only a brief thing. Talking about it’ll just make it tougher to say good-bye when she goes.”

“Or talking about it might give her good reason to come back often,” Grizz said.

“She’s already got that, with Maggie and Lars and the baby. I don’t think it’s a question of her not
wanting
to come back.” Bryson took a sip of her lukewarm beer. “She’s a nurse, so what does she get—two, three weeks vacation a year, tops? And it’s not cheap to get here from Atlanta, I’m sure. Realistically, I’ll probably be lucky if I get to see her a few days every couple of years.”

“That’s a damn shame.”

“Tell me about it.”

“What about you going down there to see her?” Grizz asked.

“Been thinking about that. Hell of a long way by Cub, and can’t say as I’d relish trying to get anywhere near the air traffic at Hartsfield. But maybe I could do a trip or two a year. If she’d want me to, that is.”

Geneva materialized beside her elbow with an empty tray. “White wine, a Lookout Stout, and a Jack Daniel’s, neat,” she relayed to Grizz before turning to Bryson. “Why wouldn’t Karla want you to visit? From the look on her face the morning you all left, it’s clear she likes you as much as you like her.” There was no malice or jealousy in the remark. In fact, Geneva had surprised Bryson by supporting her during the weeks since she’d taken the Rasmussens home.