Free Snow Job by Delphine Dryden Page B

picking up a blown-glass orb and looking for an empty branch to hang it on.
    “So…is there something we should al know?” Emily asked immediately, though her attention stil seemed focused on the tree. “I couldn’t help but notice…”
    Blushing, Elyce fiddled with the wire hook on the bauble in her hands. “Uh, that was nothing. Karl being an alpha male or something, I don’t know.”
    Emily glanced at her then back at the tree. “Okay.”
    “Real y. It was nothing. Just…your brother can be a real ass sometimes.”
    “You’re the one who married him,” Emily said, and looked up longer this time, searching for something in Elyce’s eyes. Elyce had to wonder what it was, and whether she found it there.

    * * * * *
    It was too strange and too familiar, huddling there in the dark under the lofty goose down duvet. The bed was situated to take ful advantage of the view from the picture window, and Elyce had always loved fal ing asleep to the sight. The stark beauty of the surrounding landscape behind the house presented sleepy eyes with a soothing palette of silvery light over purple shadows, the inky black of the nearest treetops and the furthest peaks etched against the impossibly clear, star-spangled sky.
    The only downside to the room, and a feature that had always been a source of some amusement between them, was that the children al slept in the large, open loft area directly adjacent. Not only did Elyce and Karl have to step over sleeping bodies to get to their door if they stayed up late, they always had to be quieter than usual. There had always been a certain amount of giggling and shushing, a whispered quality to any encounter at the cabin that lent its own sort of charm and excitement. Elyce had always said the view was worth it. For the past five years, she and Karl had shared that same room several times a winter, and she had never grown tired of looking out the window.
    N o w Elyce stared out into the postcard-perfect landscape as though it might hold the key to finding the sense of proportion she seemed to have lost. It was beautiful out there, but dangerous in its way, and every bit as cold as it looked. She felt panicked as she lay in the bed, waiting for Karl to finish in the bathroom and join her.

    bed, waiting for Karl to finish in the bathroom and join her.
    It had been just eleven months since the last time they shared a bed, and that occasion had also been the last time they’d had sex. Now she could stil feel Karl’s hand on her arm and his lips against hers, hours after the kissing incident had happened. Stil feel an echo of the heat he’d conjured from her so easily. It was nearly as overwhelming as the heat of her anger, flaring up al over again as she thought of his presumption in handling her that way.
    The sound of running water ended in a creak of pipes, and then Elyce was momentarily blinded as the door swung open. Karl turned off the bathroom light as he came into the room with a murmured apology at her complaint. A moment later Elyce felt the bed dip at his added weight and she pul ed the blankets tighter around herself, as if it would help, as if it would offer her some sort of protection. She was only beginning to suspect it wasn’t real y Karl she needed protection from, but herself.
    “We’re hitting the slopes right after breakfast. Did you ever get your binding fixed?” Karl’s voice was unexpectedly casual and just inches from her ear. As if they were stil a couple, and lying together in the dark was the most commonplace event imaginable. Once upon a time, it had been.
    “Yes, it’s fixed. I went skiing with Veronica and a few other people last February.”
    “Over the Valentine’s Day weekend. Yeah, I remember.”

    “You do?” Had she even told him she’d gone?
    Veronica had spent that whole trip trying to fix Elyce up with a cousin of hers who was visiting from New York. Although Elyce hadn’t real y been interested, she had enjoyed the feeling of being