Alicia
To walk off breakfast, Jamie took Alicia along a nature trail close to the hotel, thick with snow but still walkable. It was difficult, though, to get far in the current conditions and in the end, after wading through ten-inch-deep snow at a glacial speed, Alicia, broke the pace by starting a snowball fight which ended with Jamie pinned underneath her in a sunken snowy hole not remotely fending off her kisses.
‘Why don’t we go back and get warmed up and you can do your artist bit,’ he suggested. ‘I need something to remember you by. Also, this is making me horny as hell and I think I need to see to you asap.’
Alicia was more than happy to be seen to by Jamie but at the mention of their soon being parted, she had to fight back fear. It was not much more than forty-eight hours she’d known him. Why did it feel like so much longer?
‘Or you could keep the painting,’ Jamie suggested as if seeing her feelings were sketched all over her face? ‘If you want to have a keepsake of me.’
Is it a joke to him? Probably, but that’s normal, you’ve no reason to be upset.Alicia tried to joke, too, hoping her sadness wasn’t obvious, ‘Oh, the painting is for you,’ she said. ‘And I can’t wait to get you out of these clothes so you can be my muse again, with as many bedroom breaks as you need, of course.’
Back in the lodge, Alicia tried to keep herself in check as Jamie stripped off his shirt to pose for her.
‘We’re good to go, then?’
‘Unless…’ Alicia was feeling flirty.
‘Yes?’
‘Well, there really is no call now for you to cover up so much. Not since I’ve seen everything.’
‘I see.’ Jamie hung on the waist of his jeans like a cowboy. ‘So, what you’re saying is you don’t want me in these jeans, even though I was wearing them last time?’
Narrowing her eyes, Alicia examined the canvas, pretending to consider the situation through the prism of artistic integrity. ‘Hmm. Yeah, I think not. Let me worry about the continuity.’
‘Okay.’ Jamie unbuttoned his jeans but went no further. ‘And what about these?’ He slid his thumbs under the waistband of his jockey shorts. ‘Should I wear these?’
‘Honestly…’ She gripped her chin and pretended to consider the question. ‘Those may get in the way too.’
‘Righto.’ Jamie stepped out of his jeans and threw them across the room. ‘You sure?’
‘Yep.’
‘Okay.’ Next off came his underwear which was cast with abandon over his shoulder. ‘So, this,’ he motioned with his thumbs to somewhere around his hips, ‘is what you want?’
Alicia knew he was teasing. She looked him up and down. God, he was glorious.
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘that’s how I want you. There’s no way a man like you should hide his light under a bushel.’
Jamie laughed. ‘Well, we’d better shut the curtains, I suppose. I don’t want to get thrown out of the hotel for putting my bushel under a light.’
‘Your bushel is perfect, but I think you might be right about the drapes. I’ll get them.’
When Alicia swung back from closing the drapes, Jamie was standing there in all his magnificence, holding a whisky bottle across his crotch. She didn’t stand a chance.
‘What are you doing?’ she managed to ask, amidst convulsions of laughter.
‘I thought I should have something to cover up with in case there was still a gap in the curtains, or if someone comes to the door.’
‘You’ll be answering the door like that?’
Jamie shrugged. ‘Yeah, why not? My bushel is covered, isn’t it?’
Alicia threw her head back in delight.
‘In fact,’ Jamie continued. ‘I’ve changed my mind about posing nude and have decided to keep wearing this whisky bottle. Because it’s Butler’s, I figure that the end-product will be perfect for hanging in my office. Or at the distillery reception. Or we could sell prints in the distillery shop. To think I’ve been racking my brains as to how to lift flagging sales when the answer has been in my pants all along.’
Alicia had tears of merriment rolling down her face. She tried to compose herself to get the painting done as Jamie lay back on the couch and placed the whisky bottle on the floor.
