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“Stop that, or I’ll bloody your nose again.” Tossing a colorful old quilt about his shoulders, she hung the jacket upon a hook near the fire to dry. “We’ll be able to make our own horror movie by the time this is all over. Can you feel all of your fingers and toes? Any dizziness, headache?”

“No.” He grabbed her hand as she approached, his eyes intent.

“You’ve got to listen to me. I wanted to do this. I needed to do this.

To see if anybody out there was in trouble, to prove that it was all a
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mistake, that the rest of the world was safe and sound, so that you…so we could…”

He stared into the fire. “I made it down the hill. Took half of it sideways, but I made it. Figured that was the worst of it. Didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, except for some old, abandoned car, so I headed for my neighbor’s place. I think I was about halfway between here and there when the car started sliding on that slow, lazy curve at the bottom. Like sailing on ice. Not a damn thing I could do.

“Before I knew it, I was sledding down an embankment. I thought I’d hit a tree, and good night Russ. Skidded into a big rock instead. She rolled. A minute later, I was upside down. Guess I must’ve hit my nose.”

She gently squeezed his hand. “I guess.”

“So, there I was, icing up in this pinched-in metal can. And I had to choose; either make my way to the neighbor’s house and see if they and the rest of the world were okay…” He held her hand to his cold cheek. “Or to say the hell with the rest of the world. And to come back here and be sure you were okay.” He shrugged. “Here I am.”

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Damn her, she would cry anyway. She scraped her tears impatiently away, smoothing the frown from his forehead with a gentle kiss. “Thank God.”

“You always thought…” He released her hand, huddling beneath the blanket. “You always thought of me as some sort of big, protective brother, I think. I hate the idea of letting you down.”

Why did everything he said make her cry? “Russell Carr, I’ve always loved you. You know that. You could never disappoint me.

Now, give me those pants.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said give me your—”

He held onto his belt, pulling away from her. “Why?” he growled defensively. “What did you have in mind?”

Iris gaped at him, laughing with surprise. “I have it in mind that you’re letting me off easy with this little story of yours. That you’re not telling me the whole, hard truth. The seat and knees of your pants are torn. It looks like you spent a lot of time on them while trying to make it back here. Your kneecaps are bordering on blue and aiming for purple. You’re bloodied, beat up, and half frozen—partly because I was silly enough to let you make the attempt.

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I’m just trying to help, and if you weren’t so busy being so stubborn and hard-headed you’d let me.”

“I’m being hard-headed?” He sat up straight, eyebrows raised.

“I seem to remember that the last thing I told you was to keep your trim little ass right here, safely in front of the fire. But noooo…the new, improved Miss Alpha Female has to go exploring and scare the shit out of both of us.”

“Russell, there’s something in that basement.”

He dropped his head between his knees, shaking it in despair.

“And you were going to take it on with an empty gun and a flashlight that was damn near dead.”

“Well, what did you expect?” She’d raised her voice, despite her best intentions. “You torch my shoes so I can’t run away, and leave me trapped here with that—that whatever it is…”

“Iris. I checked the basement before I left. I told you, there’s nothing there.”

“I heard it! I heard it breathing, running around the place on little monster paws! It knocked the mop down and made the box scoot away from the wall and—”

“Rats.”

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“I beg your pardon?”

“It was probably just a rat. I’ve had one or two down there since I moved in the joint. It happens in rural areas, hon. Like erections in the morning.”

She fixed her jaw and determinedly shook her head. “Not unless they’re the size of a raccoon and living down there has made them asthmatic.”

Russell removed the damp towel from his neck and dabbed at his nose. “’Food of the Gods.’ Great old cult horror movie. Giant rats and all, devouring everything in sight.”

“Is this your idea of making me feel better?”

“I’m sorry.” The stream of blood from his nose had nearly stopped. “You want comfort and reassurance; somebody to tell you that everything is going to be okay. I’m sorry. Guess I’ve never been very good with words.”

She shrugged, feeling slightly guilty. After what he’d been through, it was petty of her to complain about something as silly as a rodent. Even if it was the size of a pony. “No, no, I’m sorry. I’m probably overreacting again. We’re both on edge. We just need to relax. Let’s start with getting you out of those wet pants.”

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He leaked bright red polka dots of blood onto the towel. “I’m not going to sleep with you, Iris.”

Her hands fell out of the slit of her pocket. “Wha—what? What did you say?”

“I said we’re not going to have sex. It ain’t gonna happen. So, if your runaway imagination is right, and we are the last two people on earth, I guess the human race can call it a day.”

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C H A P T E R 8

“You realize, of course, that we’re a little too close-quartered for you to keep ignoring me.”

Iris continued to stare out of the window at the fallen tree, all rough bark and stiff limbs delicately frosted with a silvery sheen of ice. “The sleet seems to have stopped. But I don’t think Hell’s quite thawed out yet.”

Russell winced at the hostility in her voice. She wouldn’t even turn to look at him. “No, but the steak you left out has. I can cook dinner for us. Aren’t you hungry?”

She pointedly ignored him, and he wound the blanket he’d secured from upstairs more tightly around himself. Damn, the room felt colder. “We could try a game of Scrabble. You’re probably bored to death.”

“That’s quite all right. I think I’ve had enough truth spelled out for me today.”

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She was wallowing. And she was very good at it. And he couldn’t believe how unwittingly, how easily, he’d inflicted pain on the person he cared most about in the world. “I know it’s hard to tell, but you’ve been sitting there for nearly two hours.”

She gave an impressive imitation of the terse, staccato speech of Rod Serling. “There is a fifth dimension. A dimension beyond time.

It’s called The Rejection Zone. I bid you welcome.”

He felt like cowering beneath the coverlet. They’d spent the last two hours dancing around each other, as he tried to explain without telling her everything.

How was it possible he’d handled all of this so badly? “Iris.

You’re being unreasonable.”

“If the temperature rises a few more degrees, we can get the devil out of here. And I can’t wait. Hell, I won’t even need shoes. I can ride the elephant you’ve got lurking in the basement.”

“Alright, alright, you win!” He threw up his arms, surrendering.

“Fine. Seduce me, if that’ll make you happy. I’ll willingly sacrifice my bod. Take me. Use me. Anything to end the silent treatment.”

She glared at him, incredulous. “You must have lost what little mind you came back here with.”

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He barely managed to fend off a grin. Lord, they were beginning to sound like an old married couple. And that idea sat surprisingly well with him. “You could give me a chance to explain.”

“Sure. Why not?” She gestured eloquently, her long fingers moving like butterflies through the air. “Everybody wants a blow by blow description of why they’re not sexually attractive.”

“I never said—”

“And you seriously believe that I would want to touch you now?”

“If you would just listen—”

“The thunder’s moving away. It sounds fainter, like muted timpani. The storm may be over. Maybe we’ll know the truth soon.”

“You’re going to hear the truth right now.” With one powerful heave of his arms, he turned her small armchair to face him. “And you’re going to stop pouting like a little girl who didn’t get exactly what she wanted for Christmas. And you’re going to be logical and stop giving me the damn weather reports and listen to what I’m saying.” He hesitated as she looked at him expectantly, suddenly stumped.

Christ, what was he going to say?

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“I…I can’t have sex with you because I brought you here to have sex with you.”

Iris calmly crossed her arms and legs, nodding. “And I’m being illogical?”

“This is gonna be tricky to explain, so stay with me for a minute.” He took a deep breath. She had to understand. She had to.

His butt was sore, his knees were swelling, and his nose was probably broken. But the only thing that mattered to him right now was that she understand. Even if they never became lovers, he needed her in his life.

“I had an ulterior motive for bringing you here last night.”

“If you’re going to tell me that this was all some sort of sick Halloween prank…”

“I brought you here last night to tell you that I wanted to become your lover.”

Iris’ expression remained unchanged. There was only the hard blinking of her eyes to indicate that she’d heard him at all.

No matter. He’d come this far. He couldn’t turn back now.

He heaved a great sigh, as if a weight had been removed from his shoulders and, smiling, continued. “I knew it would be hard, but I
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had no idea how hard. You’ve just been so off men, so determined not to make the same mistake. And then you were going on about only becoming involved with somebody you didn’t care anything about. Made it even more difficult. I was having a helluva time trying to figure out how to broach the subject.

“And then you handed it to me on a silver platter! You offered to seduce me. It seemed to solve the problem, and…and I admit that I couldn’t resist the idea of having you touch me, getting me all heavy and hot. I have waited so long to…” He paused, losing the words. “It seemed like a God-given gift! And I was sure that, once we did it, I could persuade you to consider having a relationship. A purely sexual one, of course,” he added hastily.

“It wasn’t really a deception. I never actually said I didn’t want you—but I wasn’t really honest about how much I did. And that really bothers me. So here I am, being noble again, and refusing to sleep with you under false pretenses.” He grinned happily, glad to have gotten it all out. “Understand?”

She casually examined her fingernails. “You don’t have to make excuses, Carr, especially pathetic ones. You don’t want to have sex.

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I’m a big girl. I can deal with it. You didn’t really think I’d believe this crap, did you?”

“But you have to believe me! It’s the truth! Do you think I’d lie to you about something like this?”

“According to what you just said, you’ve been lying to me for the past two days. Which lie is it that you want me to believe now?”

Damn him, he’d asked her to be logical. And she was right.

Everything had become so twisted between them that he was having trouble remembering everything he’d said.

“Alright. That’s it. Get up.” He yanked her to her feet and practically dragged her up the stairs. “We’re going to get this straight right now. Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“To my bedroom.”

“Russell Carr, I have no intention of—”

“You have to know what you want before you know what you intend. That was your mistake.” He led her firmly by the arm, allowing the quilt to trail behind them. “And I should’ve made it clear that I intended to become your lover from the beginning. That was my mistake. Idiot that I am, I’ve been so damned worried about
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being in love with you that I forgot who I was. I don’t need to ask you to come to my bed.” He paused with her on the landing, felt his eyes become dangerously dilated. “You’ll give yourself to me because you want it as much as I do—if not more. Understand?”

“That rock must have scrambled your brain if you really believe I’d—” She stared at him. “Love? Did you say—”

“Never mind that,” he snapped. “Enough of this tiptoeing around. Get in here.”

*

*

*

He entered the room ahead of her, carefully lighting the single candle there as she huffed in the doorway.

“If you think you can bully me into believing you—”

“This is my bedroom. I want you to see it.”

“I’ve seen it. I’m not exactly new to the house, and I’m not one of your silly women. Wanna impress me? Pull out some kind of laser weapon to kill that Godzilla that lives below.”

“All I’m asking you to do is look.” He curled his arm around her waist, drawing her in. “Tell me what you see.”

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She sighed impatiently, her eyes darting about the wavering shadows. “I see that you threw your bloody clothes on the floor and left them there.”

“Not that. I’ve always been a slob. You know that. What else?”

Iris stood rigidly beside him, allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She wasn’t in the mood for this game. There could be little about the room to surprise her. It had always been as spartan and bare essentially as the rest of the house, as uncomplicated as it’s owner. One queen-size bed, a full-length mirror, it’s frame six inches wide and hand-carved by him; a small chest that held his clothes, and a rickety old rocking chair.