Riding the Red Ch. 05

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How much longer can she wait?
8.7k words
4.64
16.4k
9

Part 5 of the 9 part series

Updated 10/05/2022
Created 11/16/2011
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vampwrrr
vampwrrr
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Adrienne gradually regained consciousness, warm and surrounded by softness. She stretched, her limbs sliding over the flannel bedclothes, luxuriating in their comfort. She lay in bed, thinking about the previous day, specifically how pleasant it was to watch Lucas' muscles running like water under his skin. She frowned as her thoughts turned to other matters, such as how long they were going to be snowed into the cabin.

She had responsibilities that needed her attention, not to mention the fact that, having disappeared without a word, everyone would be thinking that some harm had befallen her. She would see if Lucas could clear the snow from the dish so that she could at least email her parents and grandmother. They could contact the school. That plan in mind, she rose to begin her day.

Adrienne dressed quickly in charcoal yoga pants and a black racer-back sleeveless tee. Searching the room, she located several pairs of shoes under the bed, and pulled out a pair of black Converse. She found Lucas in the exercise room, already hard at his run. He nodded at her and she smiled, walked over to a free spot on the floor, dropped down, and began to stretch. Lucas watched hungrily, yet covertly, as she made her limber way through various splits and stretches. Climbing on the elliptical beside him, she began to work. Forty minutes later, she was out of breath and ready to quit, and he had yet to break stride. After a five minute cool down, she jumped off the machine to go shower. As she was leaving, she didn't see Lucas' tongue flash around his mouth, licking his lips. Adrienne still hadn't found a bra, and he hated to see her go. He sighed, ruefully thinking at least the view of her walking away was just as good.

Back in her room, Adrienne pulled out a button-down cashmere patchwork sweater-dress in varying shades of green, and paired it with eggplant sweater tights. She carried her booty to the bathroom, where she took a leisurely shower, this time using a thick, rich shower cream that smelled sweetly of mimosa. After her shower, she braided her hair into one thick French braid that she laid over her shoulder, and pushed back the tendrils curling about her face with an aubergine velvet headband. By the time she emerged from her room, Lucas had finished his run, and was outside shoveling snow.

She searched through the kitchen, trying to decide what to prepare for breakfast. She decided to make a simple breakfast of white whole-wheat currant cream scones, scrambled eggs, and fruit salad. She began by mixing the ingredients for the scones. By the time she was cutting them, Lucas came in, stamping snow from his feet.

"Well hello," she said. "How did you sleep?"

Lucas gave her an oblique look and said, "Not as poorly as I have been. Not as well as I could have." His eyes dipped down, caressing her breasts as they pressed against the fabric of her sweater. "Nor as well as I will."

Adrienne smiled to herself, having grown somewhat inured to Lucas' bold manner of speaking. She leaned close to him, stretching until her mouth was a few scant inches from his. She paused until his expression changed and his body grew still in anticipation. Dragging her eyes to his she licked her lips, and then whispered, "Go take a shower you beastly creature!"

Lucas threw his head back and laughed. Nudging past her with his hip, he loped to his room to bathe. Adrienne pulled strawberries, a pineapple, lychees, green, purple, and red grapes, and a mango from the refrigerator. When she searched for yoghurt, however, all she could find was a plain single serving container of Greek-style. "Note to self," she thought, "make more yoghurt..." She chopped the fruit and put it in a bowl, and then moved on to the eggs, scrambling them, and then pouring them into a cast iron skillet coated with hot olive oil. When they had set up, she grated a healthy dose of Dubliner cheddar over them, and put them on the back burner so that the residual heat would cook them and melt the cheese. By the time Lucas returned, smelling sweetly of soap, Adrienne was pulling the scones out of the oven.

She had just put the food on the table, so Lucas went to the cabinets to pull out dishes and flatware. Adrienne ran her eyes over his wide shoulders, straining against the nubby fabric of his charcoal turtleneck sweater, to his long legs encased in black lamb's wool trousers.

"What are you going to do with this peeled pineapple?" he queried.

"Hm?" she said, quick-witted as treacle. "Oh, that was supposed to go into the salad! I was distracted—-I'll just cut it up and toss it with the others." Adrienne began to slice the pineapple, when Lucas walked by her, smelling so good that she closed her eyes for a moment.

Suddenly he turned, harshly biting, "You cut yourself."

Adrienne looked down to see a small slice on her middle fingertip on which blood was just starting to drip. "Oh," she said hesitantly, nonplussed by the fact that he had noticed before she had. "I'm sorry; I'll just get rid of this—"

"No need," he said, slowly walking toward her. "I trust you." Taking her hand, he brought the injured finger to his mouth and slipped it inside, gently sucking away the blood from the small wound. "See?"

Adrienne swallowed hard, her eyes fixed on her own small hand nestled in his large, rough ones. When she looked up, he was watching her, his pupils once again strangely dilated. She gently swayed toward him, and Lucas let her finger slip from his mouth. His warm, minty breath fanned her face and she blushed at the turn that her thoughts were taking. She looked away and heard him sigh. Reaching around her, he took the plate of pineapple, and mixed it with the rest of the fruit.

Sitting down, they quietly began to eat. "Are there any preserves?" Lucas asked, breaking the silence.

"No," Adrienne responded. "I did, however, locate plenty of frozen fruit, fruit juice, and pectin, so I'll make some later. Also, you're pretty much out of yoghurt, so I'll make some more of that, too."

Lucas stared at her for a second, and then grinned wolfishly. "Who are you? You can make all of this stuff from scratch? You're like some atavistic creature from 'Little House on the Prairie'."

She laughed, all of the previous tension draining from the room. "I like to be able to make things myself. That way I know what's going into it, and I never run out, as long as I have the raw ingredients."

"Will you show me how?" Lucas asked.

"You want to learn how to make preserves?" Adrienne asked incredulously.

"Why not," he responded comfortably. "I'm always up for learning a new skill." Then, slyly, "...and I couldn't ask for a prettier teacher."

She grinned, cocky. "How's this afternoon?"

"Sure. It's not like we have any pressing engagements."

"Oh, that actually reminds me...I was wondering if it's at all possible that you could, well, try to clear the snow from the dish. Just for a little while? I need to let my parents and Grandmother know that I'm alright, and tell them to call the school for me."

Lucas looked pensive for a moment. Slowly, he said, "Alright. I'll do it after breakfast which, by the way, is delicious. Thank you for feeding my bottomless pit." He put his hand over his abs.

"Well, it feels nice to see pleasure on someone's face because of what you've made."

"If you want to see pleasure on my face, I can show you a much more interesting way to--" He ducked, laughing as a napkin narrowly missed his head.

After they had eaten, and the dishes had been washed, Lucas put on his coat to go try to clear the snow from the dish. He opened the door and peered outside at the quickly falling snow. "Go into my room; my laptop is on my bed. As soon as the web is up, make your emails—-with this snow, I don't know how long I'll be able to stay up there, keeping it clear.

Adrienne nodded, feeling awkward for making him do something so potentially dangerous. She put her hand on his arm. "Thank you," she said.

He looked at her briefly, then back outside. Smiling as he started, he said, "You'll just have to owe me a favour."

She watched as he made his way to the shed, stomping down snow onto the path that he had just shoveled that morning. As he made his way back toward the house with the shovel, she trotted to his room and opened the door. A warm puff of spicy air surrounded her, smelling strongly of him. Adrienne closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, enjoying the luxury of being able to unabashedly take pleasure in his scent. When she opened her eyes, she looked around the room.

Neat as a pin, it was done in dark emeralds, chocolates, neutrals, and russets, and all of the wood was dark cedar. It was similar to her room, which was done in autumnal tones and cherry wood, but his was definitively masculine. No diaphanous curtains hung around his bed, no candles littered his dresser or nightstands. She saw an open door leading to his bathroom, which was almost Spartan, housing only soap, and shaving implements. Another door led to a closet, she was sure, but she wasn't bold enough to take a peek, even though curiosity burned through her.

She quickly walked over to his bed and climbed on—-it was much higher than hers—-curling herself around his laptop. The screen came on as she moved it, the desktop a vivid green picture of a lush forest. His desktop was curiously bare, but she shrugged, assuming that his propensity for neatness must run to his computer, as well. As she was looking for the internet icon, a neat little pop told her that the wireless was back up. She went to her email and quickly typed a message to her parents and grandmother, saying that she couldn't talk long, but she was safe, and briefly explaining the fact that she hadn't previously contacted them because of the accompanying hardships that followed being snowed-in in a remote cabin in the woods.

She heard a loud curse come from the roof, and a loud dragging noise that ran to the end of the room. She quickly clicked "Send", just as a small "poof" and a very loud expletive came from under the window. She ran over to it, and opened it to find Lucas buried in the snow, under a very large dish, and a complicated array of wires. "Are you alright?!" she called.

"Ow," he calmly rejoined.

"Hold on—I'm coming out there!" she said.

"No, no," he said. "I'm alright. The snow broke my fall. I'm afraid that the dish didn't make it, though. Did you get to send your email?"

"Yes, just."

Lucas grunted. Then, in a surprising display of athleticism, he flipped from his back to his feet.

Adrienne gasped in surprise and delight. She grinned. "I guess you certainly are alright."

He nodded brusquely, wrapping the cords around the dish. "I'm just going to go put this in the shed. I'll be in in a moment."

Adrienne nodded uncertainly, watching him trying to make his way toward his shoveled path, in the now waist-deep snow. She looked pensively at the snow. It seemed as if there were periods when it would melt at a rapid rate, but before things became manageable, it would begin to snow again, leaving them buried in the white fluff. Adrienne had never seen such odd-acting weather. Sighing, she shrugged and closed the window. She laughed ruefully to herself as she made her way to the kitchen. It's not as if anyone could control the weather.

She put some milk on the stove to warm, so that she could make hot chocolate. She was just stirring in the powdered sugar and cocoa when Lucas tumbled into the kitchen in a blast of frigid air and powdery snow, breathing heavily. Adrienne stared at him for a moment before starting forward to help him remove his heavy grey wool coat and scarf.

Lucas ripped the hat from his head and fluffed his hair. His cheeks were ruddy, and his eyes were shining. He grinned broadly, lifted his nose and sniffed the air. "Cocoa?" he asked hopefully. Adrienne nodded and handed him his wrappers. "You spiked it!" he playfully accused.

"Bailey's Irish Cream," she grinned.

By the time he returned from hanging up his coat and scarf, she was grating cinnamon into the hot chocolate. He chafed his hands, watching Adrienne while she poured the cocoa into mugs, topped them with a healthy dollop of marshmallow fluff, and handed one to him. Lucas gratefully wrapped his hands around the warm mug, inhaling the fragrant steam. He tipped the mug to gingerly take a sip, and then moaned as it hit his tongue. When he lifted his face from the mug, his upper lip was charmingly dotted with fluff. "I may just have to kidnap you, when the snow is gone," he said, smiling angelically.

"I'm very frightened," she deadpanned. "Also, you have a bit of...ah..." she gestured toward his lip. His curiously mobile tongue flickered out and made neat work of the fluff. Silence reigned for a while, as Adrienne had definitively un-friend-like thoughts. By the time she came to, Lucas had finished his hot chocolate and had covertly started in on hers. "Well," she said, briskly clearing her throat and wiping her hands on her thighs.

"Let's get on with the jam-making."

They went hunting for jars, and found some empty glass honey jars that would do nicely. Lucas filled a stock pot with water, and put it on the stove to sterilize them, while Adrienne perused the freezer.

"What type of jam or jelly would you like?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I'll take whatever you want to give me."

She flashed him a sideways glance and said tartly, "Your choices are pomegranate, raspberry, apple, or cherry."

"Why not all? That way we can have variety," he answered.

Adrienne nodded thoughtfully. "You do have a point." She began pulling labeled freezer bags from the deep freezer and handing them to him to put on the table. Then she looked under the counters and pulled out a few bottles of apple cider and pomegranate juice, and grabbed the packets of pectin from one of the cabinets.

"Okay. The jelly will be the easiest, so let's start that first," she said. "Grab a sauce-pot and put it on the stove." While he was doing that, she popped the bags into the microwave to defrost. Adrienne filled the pot with cider, let it reduce to a third, then divided that into two bowls, and added the pectin to one of them. When that dissolved, she poured some of it, along with more juice, back into the pot, and let it come to a rolling boil for about a minute. "Take out one of those jars from the stockpot and put it on the counter, will you?"

Lucas cautiously fished one of the jars out of the boiling stockpot and put it on a coaster. Adrienne carefully poured the boiling juice into the jar until it was almost full, then gestured for Lucas to put on the lid. "Now what?" he asked.

"Pop it back into the stockpot to process for about 10 minutes," he did so, "And that's your first jar of jelly. Easy, no?" she teased.

He smiled slowly. "I feel so Martha Stewart right now."

Adrienne rubbed his back. "As well you should, you manly jelly-maker, you. Now back to the grind. You should have read the fine print, my lovely jam-slave. We have one jar down, and three to go." After repeating the process for the pomegranate jelly, they were ready to make jam. "Would you grab two bowls for the fruit?" Adrienne inquired. After Lucas set them down on the table, she poured the defrosted bags of fruit into the bowls, and grabbed the masher from the drawer. "Now mash them."

"Me?" he protested.

"Hey, you wanted to learn. You have to obey Teacher," she grinned.

"Obey, hm? This could be fun," he said, mashing the fruit.

As he did that, she poured more cider on the stove to reduce, and procured another bowl.

"Okay, now I'm mixing the pectin with some of this reduction." When that was done, she took another pot and poured in the raspberries and some of the pectin mixture and let it come to a full boil, then poured in more of the cider reduction. After letting it boil for a full minute, she turned it off.

"Why aren't we filling another jar?" Lucas queried.

"We could, but then all of the fruit would float to the top," she responded.

He nodded sagely. "Ah yes. That could destroy worlds," Adrienne giggled and gently punched him in the shoulder. After 5 minutes, they filled another jar with the raspberry mixture, repeated the sterilization process, and made the last jar of cherry jam. Lucas collapsed into a chair with a long-suffering sigh.

Adrienne dimpled. "Oh, come on! It wasn't that bad!"

He shook his head. "I don't know if I can make it another step without sustenance," he said, raising his eyes hopefully.

She rolled her eyes and said, "You clean, I cook."

"I suddenly have a second wind," he laughed. After Lucas finished the dishes and wiped down the counters, he sat down at the table and grinned endearingly. "I am ready for you to prepare items for my gustation."

She burst out into peals of laughter. "You are slightly ridiculous, do you know that?"

He put his hands on her hips and guided her to stand between his legs. Smiling up into her face he said, "Yes, but you like me for it."

Slightly breathless she could do little more than nod acquiescence. Smiling tremulously, she backed away and turned toward the deep freezer. Lucas' eyes tracked her every move as she bent over to pull out a plank of salmon. By the time she turned around, she was once again in possession of her faculties. "How's salmon?"

"Sounds good," he said, softly.

Adrienne nodded, her chin firm, and reached into the refrigerator for broccolini, feta, a lemon, and an orange. "We're having it with pasta."

Lucas leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head. "My stomach likes it when you're bossy."

She flashed him a campy look, patting her hair, and saying in a vampy Mae West impression, "And what of the rest of you?"

"Oh, I'm sure all of my various and sundry body parts would like it, if only given a chance," he winked.

Sighing deeply as she raided the pantry for shallots, garlic, cumin, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and whole-wheat linguine, she rejoined, "I have the sneaking suspicion that some of your body parts would like it six ways from Sunday."

Smiling indulgently, he moved his hands to lace them over his taut belly. "You're not wrong."

Adrienne smiled secretly as she put on the water to boil, preheated the oven to 500 degrees, and sliced the lemon, onions, and garlic. Though it was true that she was a bit overwhelmed by his blatant flirtation, there was a blossoming part of her that that reveled in it. She felt by turns shy and powerful, and it was a new, heady feeling. Unlike the sweet, endearing boys that she was used to, Lucas had an underlying layer of iron that made her simultaneously wary of, and attracted to him. She felt pretty confident that he would never force her, but she knew that if he actually turned on the full measure of his charm and persuasion, she would be lost.

She decided to poach the salmon en papillote, laying down the parchment paper, and then placing the salmon on a bed of lemon and onions.

"Don't you need to thaw it?" Lucas asked.

"No, salmon can be cooked from frozen," she responded distractedly, as she sprinkled salt, cumin, and sliced garlic over the top of it. After she put it into the oven, she poured the pasta in to boil, and set the broccoli to steam on top in the strainer. Over her shoulder, she saw Lucas moving his hands, and she asked, "Are you rubbing together your hands like a cheesy 50's sci-fi villain?"

He paused, his face carefully blank, then gave a wolfish grin and said, "Maybe. I'm just excited. It all smells so good."

"Well, gird your loins and set the table, because it's almost done," she said, zesting the orange into a bowl of vinegar, and salt. She whisked in the olive oil, then drained the pasta and tossed it, the feta, and the broccolini into the bowl. "Could you toss this, while I grab the salmon?" she requested, already turning, confident in his acquiescence.

vampwrrr
vampwrrr
84 Followers