My dreams wouldn’t come with an ice cube suddenly pelting me in the back of the head, would they?He turned back halfway, in time to see the crotch of her panties tugged back into place, now see-through with wetness. “What’re you trying to do?”
“Break my fever. I remember they put people with heatstroke in tubs of ice and packed ice under their arms and on the back of their necks. The ice is melting on my skin right away. I need something that won’t melt. I need you.”
“Okay, I’m here, Penny. Right here.” His mouth, much warmer than it had been, turned into the Sahara, dry as sand.What does she need me for? I have a feeling it isn’t going to be to fetch another glass of water. What the hell am I going to say?
“IS YOUR —” PENNY PAUSED.Should I be polite or casual? I know it’s wrong. He might not think it’s wrong. He might like it. He’ll love it! But I should ask nicely.“Is your penis-cock cold?” She decided to use both the anatomically correct term so she sounded professional and the sexy term so he’d know she was being friendly. “And could I borrow it if it is?” She smiled, pleased with her request and certain (in her fevered state) that she’d asked in the perfect way.
HIS MIND FROZE. HOWfunny. It was slow, frozen into a solid state of reluctance, want, and worry. Then, like someone losing their footing and skidding helplessly, the words slid out. “I don’t know. I think it is, I haven’t checked,” he was startled into answering.
“It’ll warm up inside me right away, I know that, but could I borrow it for a few minutes?”
“I can’t exactly take it off!”
“I know! We could use it together. Submerging it in me might be good for you.”
Bloody amazing for me, but probably not like this.“Sweetie—”
“You’d warm up,” she wheedled.
“Penny! You cannot have sex with a person just to warm ‘em up.”
“Yes, you can! That’s why August has the most babies. Cold weather means couples keep each other warm, and then sex, and then nine months later, babies!”
“Oh, God,” he sighed, shaking his head, trying to stifle the insane laughter waiting to burst out, “we’re not a couple.”
“We’re a friend-couple. A truce-couple. And I don’t have any frozen bananas.”
“What in the name of—”Oh, holy sweet mercy, picturing Penny slipping a banana in and out of her—
She continued, cutting him off, talking to herself and to the ice cubes that liquified as soon as she got them into her palm. “I had a bunch for smoothies, but I haven’t been to the store, and you won’t melt, and I promise not to stake you, and I like you now, and it hurts to talk, so can you please just say yes and make me feel better?”
“No! I’ll go to the store! The bananas will freeze before I’m five feet out the market door and oughta be ready for—for whatever y—”
“But it’s Christmas Eve! The nearest open store is probably miles away, and by the time you get back, you’ll be frozen solid, and I’ll have to come find you alongside the highway, and I’ll die before I get there, a giant fireball of sore throats and sweat!”she whined miserably. “Can’t you just help me like this? I’d be helping you, too, and wecouldbe breaking the spell!”
She wants my help.Every instinct he had told him to say yes, unequivocally yes. His demon whispered that he should say yes for selfish reasons, for painful reasons. She’d be humiliated later, and he’d have his kicks, and that would be a score after months of being sidelined.
And the human voice in him, getting louder every day he didn’t kill, practically screaming in his face tonight, reminded him of a night a century ago, a night when he wanted to get Jenny the money she asked for, sweet, gorgeous, sinfully hot Jenny, one of the girls who hung around the quarter, the kind his mother would have shooed him away from. He’d gambled it all because Jenny needed money, and she’d asked him to get some.
And you always say yes to the woman you love, never refuse her needs.
Gambled his life away that night.
Felt like he might be gambling with something just as important now.
His heart, his humanity, and his demon all wanted him to say yes for one reason or another, so of course his obstinate, sorry-ass mouth said, “I don’t think so, Penny.”
She let out a helpless whimper, high-pitched and annoyed.
But he shook his head. “Sticking my cock in you—” he winced at the harsh sound of his words, “is not how I want to break the spell. Because... Because I don’t want it to break us with it. You said you like me.”
“Well... You’re oddly likeable.”
“Same to you. I like you, Penny. I didn’t know that until tonight. I’d like to keep being a—what did you call us? A friend-couple? Truce-couple? Or more. After this night is done.”
“Yeah, well, if I combust or your face freezes off and you explode into ashes, there won’t be a night after this, will there?”
“No. Might not be.”
