As he says this, his voice low, I catch the wicked hitch at the corner of his mouth and a bright flash in his eyes, and I get a glimpse of the other side of the Stellan I knew when I was nineteen, the Stellan who would undress me deliberately slowly, who would kiss my entire body until I was breathless and wild, the one who’d…
‘Sylvie, are you here?’
I focus on him once more and see him draw his bottom lip between his teeth as his eyes rest on my mouth. I find myself wanting to shift closer to him on the slatted bench, so I do, and I watch as Stellan reacts, reaching for my hand.
The feeling of our slippery wet fingers slowly interlacing has me exhaling a measured breath. Suddenly, and without thinking, I lift myself from the bench onto Stellan’s lap, straddling his thighs, and his hands immediately spread over the small of my back, pulling me closer to him. We’re face to face in the dry air and the low light when I kiss him, hard and long, and it’s perfect.
But after a few blissful moments where our breathing accelerates and Stellan’s hands find my face and my neck, I realise I’m seeing stars. I can hardly breathe.
He pulls his mouth from mine, and I try to focus on his face. ‘We should stop,’ he says. His lips are swollen and red. ‘Somebody’s going to pass out unless we cool down, and it might be me.’ He rakes a hand through his wet hair and laughs.
I have to admit he’s right and I slip back onto the bench beside him as he reaches for the bucket of water on the floor and pours it out onto the hot stones, staunching their heat instantly. The steam billows up in a white cloud then stops with a dying hiss.
‘You said you hadn’t even scratched the surface of Lapland?’ Stellan’s reaching for my hand again, and his eyebrows are quirked wickedly.
‘Uh-huh?’ I say, wondering where he’s going with this.
‘How about we take the ultimate next step in the sauna experience?’
Oh my days! Whatishe going to do?
‘Come with me?’ He’s leading me to the door and I’m going to follow him no matter what. But instead of turning for the house, he’s leading me onto the jetty. That’s when I notice it: a pool cut out of the ice at the jetty’s end. ‘It’s traditional to plunge into the water after a sauna.’
‘I’m sure it is Stellan, but that’s also completely insane.’ My toes curl at the thought of it. ‘I was born in Castlewych, you know. We’re not rugged like you Scandinavians.’
‘You’re a Magnusson, aren’t you? How about you take one for your ancestors?’ He’s grinning provocatively.
‘You got me,dammit! Well, if we’re really doing this, you’d better make it quick, before I change my mind.’
‘Sweet!’
He takes me at my word and leads me through the dark and biting cold. My skin prickles and all the heat of the sauna leaves my body. He picks up his pace, starting to run. There are lights underneath the jetty illuminating the lakeside, and I see the large black mouth of the diving hole getting bigger. As we reach it I slam on the brakes and Stellan lets go of my hand, grabs the towel from his waist and throws it to the ground. I watch him launch himself into the air before plunging under the frigid water. There’s barely a splash.
I stand horrified at the end of the little pier and look for him resurfacing from the black rippling ink, hugging myself against the cold and stamping my bare feet, wide-eyed and panting. I swear my heart’s about to stop and I try to call his name, but can’t.
Suddenly, the surface breaks and Stellan appears with a deep gasp. And in an instant he’s back on the jetty.
‘Your turn,’ he rasps. He’s shivering uncontrollably. ‘Nobody enjoys the dive. It’s the feeling you get afterwards that counts.’
I give myself a millisecond to weigh up my situation. I either jump in now or I stand here feeling like a spoilsport and a coward faced with a freezing, naked Stellan, and so I sit on the side of the jetty and lower the towel from around me, never more aware that I’m being watched, and I drop my body in, trying to keep my head above the water.
The cold takes my breath. I gasp and flounder my arms in the black slushy water. No air reaches my lungs. I can’t move. I can’t think. But strong hands drag me out of the water and back onto the jetty before I sink deeper.
‘You did it!’ Stellan shouts, gleefully. ‘Now let’s go before I lose mykiveksetto frostbite.’
I feel the cleanest air in the world enter my lungs again, and my skin tingles with pins and needles as my circulation restarts. I’m not one hundred per cent sure whatkiveksetmight be but from the way Stellan is breaking into a hunched run and protecting a very delicate part of himself with his hands, I can hazard a guess.
I realise I’m running full pelt beside Stellan, and I’m screaming like a siren from the lake.
‘It’s exhilarating, right? Some feelings are worth the agony,’ Stellan’s shouting, and we’re both laughing hysterically, blood fizzing and nerves buzzing, gasping for each breath.
As we run, I stoop for a handful of snow and throw it at Stellan’s broad back. The holler he makes leaves me howling, and I’m rewarded with a pelted snowball which breaks up in the air between us and falls in a sparkling shower of finest powder on my skin.
We reach the lake house door and he hauls it open, its wonderful warmth enveloping us. The house is in darkness, but we don’t stop running all the way up the winding stairs and into a dim room, snug and warm. In the half-light I see him reach for a thick robe from behind the door which he drapes over my shoulders, running his hands over the material across my back, pulling me close to him. The warmth of his skin pressing hard against mine through the open robe is dizzying.
I feel the sinking softness of the bed as we hit it and, diving under the covers, we roll into each other’s arms, ravenously kissing until the cold is gone.
‘Wait, wait,’ I hear him say, and, frankly, I want to scream because waiting is the last thing I want to do. I watch him kneel up over me, looking down at me on the bed. ‘Are we doing this?’
