by Mara White
“MacGyver,” he said.
“Hardly,” she replied. She produced two ice scrapers from under the seat and tossed one in his direction. At least he could catch.
“It’s like I’m bringing nothing to the table!” Ryan crowed as they both scraped stubborn ice off of the windshield. Jackie looked at him with a burgeoning smile, her eyes flitted to his groin. Ryan smiled back at her and raised an eyebrow.
“I will bring that.”
They slipped into a fast food drive-thru, where Jackie ordered them large coffees and two mammoth breakfasts.
“Governor warned all non-emergency vehicles off of the road by 2:00 PM,” the woman at the window said, as she handed Jackie, first the two giant coffees and then equally impressive paper bags full of food.
“We can make it,” Jackie said, glancing at her watch. “Thanks!”
“Yeah, if you drive ninety miles per hour and there’s no snow on the road!”
She ignored his estimate and guided the car into a parking space. Even at slow speeds she had to pump the brakes, the layer of fresh powder over ice made even the parking lot treacherous.
“I worked up an appetite,” she said. Her smile was coy, as they sat in their parking spot.
“Me, too. I’ve never seen a girl eat a sausage and pancake sandwich before,” Ryan told her. He loved watching her eat. She wasn’t self-conscious and it was sexy how much she enjoyed her food. Ryan reached over to wipe a tiny drip of syrup from her quilted knee. When their eyes caught, he could feel the movement of this energy between them. It was heavy and delicious, it melted and smothered but only in the best way. He could climb under it and be comforted. He could pull her in and they’d go under. Together.
An hour into their two hour trip, it really was a whiteout. What struck Ryan the most was the muffled silence, the vast beauty of simple everyday shapes softened by the blanket of snow. There were no longer corners, everything was rounded. Only white and the bright grey of the sky. The only other vehicles they’d passed had been a pick-up truck and a fleet of snow plows. Jackie had slid forward in her seat, closer to the windshield. She sat on one hand while the other gripped the steering wheel.
“Want me to drive?” Ryan asked her multiple times. She’d look at him and shake her head, smile and squint back at the road. “How do you even know where we are?”
“I’ve lived here my whole life. It’s always covered in snow.”
“Do you want to talk about last night?” He dared himself to do it, here in the car where she was trapped and couldn’t run away from him or her feelings.
“What about it? It was great. We should do it again sometime,” she uttered resolutely.
“What about us? Does it change things? Do you want to try to be exclusive?” The question earned him another, “Pfft!”
“And ruin it? Hell no!”
“So, what do we do?”
“Exactly what we’re doing already!” Jackie cried.
The deer ran by in a streak of brown fur against the all-white world. The last thing Ryan remembered was seeing its white tail and wondering how it was possible.
They sailed across the oncoming lane and flew into the ditch. The car spun out almost gracefully, twirling in slow motion, like a lone dancer on the stage. It slid rear first into the ditch; Jackie pumped the breaks but she might well have been asleep for all the car responded to her stage directions.
“Fuuuccckkkk!” she spit out. Ryan heard not a smidge of fear in her voice. Jackie is a warrior he thought. She doesn’t even fear for her own life.
Their landing was as soft as their hydroplane had been smooth. A nimble butt-first landing that was like sliding into soft butter.
“Fuck!” Jackie said. She hit the steering wheel with her mittened hands. “There’s a deer crossing sign about a mile back, too.”
“Did you see it?” he asked her incredulously?
“No, but I know it’s there.”
“That doesn’t help us much,” Ryan responded. It was too late, as a smile was already stealing his expression. Jackie burst out laughing and covered her mouth with her mitten.
“We are in big trouble!”
“Royally screwed,” Ryan said still smiling at the beautiful girl across from him.
“Up Shits Creek without a paddle.”
“Totally fucked.”
“Actually, it’s fine. I’ve got flares in the trunk.”
“Really?” Ryan was impressed. Jackie had had a tough life, he knew that, but she was smart and resilient. And it was an insanely huge turn on.
“But if you still want to get fucked, maybe we can work that into the plan. Should I flare first?”
“Flare later!” Ryan said as he dived for her side of the car.
The contrast between the warm and cold was fascinating. The surface of her skin was chilled to the touch but he could feel the warmth from deeper down heat his fingertips the longer his hands lingered on her flesh. Cold flesh on top, hot blood running in unseen rivers underneath. They could see the white puffs of their breath, which increased in tempo as they removed layer after layer of clothing, as if they were racing against time to touch skin to skin. She was pale in the darkening grey light, a light that was at once dull, as it was sharp on the eyes. You had to squint to see through it, so they both closed their eyes. Jackie stretched out her full length along the seat, and Ryan supported himself on his forearms and covered her completely with his body. She felt like a ribbon of silk of unwinding underneath him. He spread her thighs with knees, bit her neck with love. He nibbled on her earlobe, her shoulder, her collarbone, and it only made him more ravenous. When he took her nipple between his teeth, her back arched and she opened for him.
The world was so quiet and void of sound and of color. The only audible noise was their ragged breathing and their thudding heartbeats. He kissed her mouth raw and swollen, until she turned her head away. Then Ryan ravaged her neck and her breasts, kissing, licking and sucking until her breathing went from exhalations, short puffs of air into quick gasps she sucked in as if the oxygen level decreased as their bodies warmed. They created friction-heat and steam. The sky darkened and the windows fogged over.
Ryan slid one hand under her ass and she rocked her pelvis into him, allowing him more depth, even though he was already drowning. Her mouth was open, he bit her lower lip and she moaned as her torso started to tremble.
“Come, Jackie,” he said quietly into her ear. They were brutalizing each other’s bodies, still sore from the night before.
As his hips crashed into hers, the impact chopped up the sound of her long, drawn out moans, turning them into staccato whimpers that took him to the edge of his consciousness.
He could feel the orgasm building, centered like a white light at his tailbone.
“Come for me, Jackie.” He said again, recapturing her mouth.
She reached behind her and pulled the door handle. The snow was so high that it fell open less than an inch. Cold air and snow swirled in and Ryan shuddered at its surprise.
“Air,” Jackie said. Ryan reached forward with an arm and slung the door open farther.
The ding, ding, ding of the open door notification shattered their rhythmic score.
Jackie arched more until she was almost sliding out the door upside down.
With her stomach muscles straining, she rose up and dumped a giant armload of soft snow between their two scalding bodies.
Ryan yelled and every muscle in his body tensed, but he didn’t pull out, he pushed even farther into her warmth instead. Jackie’s smile widened as he fucked her, and the snow between them gave way to water quickly, given the heat of their muscles. The strangest sensation arose on their skin. Where the ice burned, the heat soothed; the contrast was agonizing, but Ryan’s senses were heightened. His vision sharper, his sense of smell more acute. The dew from Jackie’s flesh, the lilacs, her cold peppermint oil, the whiteout, the deafening silence. Ryan was at once so overwhelmed, he thought he might not be able to come,
but once Jackie started a desperate whimper that he recognized as her subtle sign, his body released the wave and all the water rushed forward.
The collapsed onto one another, their bodies still vibrating. Jackie’s heart pounded against Ryan’s breastbone and he treasured the sound of it. With one arm he reached out and pulled the door to their lair closed. Ryan’s skin tingled like a livewire, was as wet and red as if it had been slapped.
With bent elbows behind her, Jackie heaved herself to sitting. She grabbed her thermal and began to rub her skin down quickly.
“Dry off, Sport,” she said tossing him his T-shirt. “We don’t need to freeze to death on the side of the road. Although that was kind of show-stopping.” She looked at Ryan and her expression was soft, yet she was still all about business.
“Let me stick that flare out in the road and see if some kind plow head will stop for us.”
“Wait, shouldn’t I be doing that? And what’s a plow head?”
“I need your boots,” she said, her fingers already grabbing for his Sorrells. “Plow heads are dudes who have plows on the front of their trucks because they like to plow other people’s driveways for fun.”
“Fun. What’s wrong with your boots? I’ll put out the damn flare.”
“Unuh. Larger surface area-lighter weight, you’d fall through that crust on the first step and get stuck. Then I’d have to dig you and the truck out.” Jackie pulled on his boots and zipped her parka up until just her eyes were peeking out of the hood. She heaved the door open and carefully stepped on top of the snow in Ryan’s size thirteen boots.
It was one of the most moving and unusual scenes he’d ever witnessed in his life. Jackie glided up to the road, walking across the top of the snowbanks, her boots sinking in maybe an inch at most. It made him think of the Sunday school stories of Jesus walking on water. Her form was so small against the sea of white and cold. The snow was still falling and in the glow of the headlights, the flakes glittered opalescent, like tiny diamonds hurling downward from a maleficent sky.
When she lit her flare, he gasped. She held it high like a torch as sparks flew, cascading down around her, one drop of fire for every thousand drops of transparent jewels. He photographed the moment in his head. Survival was Jackie’s element. She knew how to survive.
Three hours later, they were giddy from chewing Twizzlers and sipping coke through them in intervals. They had the radio on and were singing along to classic rock while air-guitaring and drumming on the dashboard. At first, Ryan questioned if using the radio would wear out the battery.
“Yeah, but I’d rather die to music, wouldn’t you?” Ryan was almost one hundred percent sure she was kidding.
“On second thought, yes.” She turned it up louder. She head banged while he drummed and they sang Freebird at the top of their lungs. It was pitch black out, even though it couldn’t be later than 4:00 PM. Jackie had burned through five of their six flares. She let Ryan go up to the road once and sure enough, his jeans were now wet almost up to his waist.
All he could do was stare at her, beautiful under stress, still funny under duress, resourceful like a survivalist. She gutted him with her uniqueness, the ability to make him howl with laughter when their lives were at stake, in awe of how she convinced him to come on her crazy, wild goose chase.
“Dog’s probably dead already. I suck.” She kissed the driver’s side window and left a perfect melted heart in the ice with her full lips.
“Um, I would say you gave it one hell of a shot.”
“Oh, my God, headlights!” Jackie jumped out of the car. Ryan didn’t know how she saw them because all he could see was darkness and flying snow. But surely enough, if he looked in the direction of the highway, he began to see a sort of blurriness that soon turned into the two sweeping beams of headlights. It was ridiculous to lament their rescue, but he couldn’t help but feel a tiny pang in chest. He and Jackie against the world had felt good. Just him, her, the universe and the onslaught of the elements.
She held a lighted flare as she waved her arms above her head. The large pickup slowed and stopped beside her. Ryan’s heart lurched and he shoved open the door on his side. Fuck the snow. He didn’t know who it was. They could be dangerous; he’d stand beside her.
The way Jackie was gesturing, it almost looked like she was arguing. As Ryan got closer, he could make out more and it appeared as if the man towering over her were scolding her.
Despite sinking almost to his waist in snow, Ryan hurried to her side.
“Jackie?” he called, as got close.
“Don’t be a fucking idiot!” he heard the man tear into her.
“Hey!” he directed at the guy. No way was he Jackie’s father. A boyfriend? Family. He had no idea, but whoever he was, had no right to speak to her that way.
“Kratch-Ryan. Ryan-Kratch,” she said with lackluster.
“I had to put the plow down the last twenty miles, Jack. You tryin’ to die out here or what?” This guy acted like Ryan didn’t exist, didn’t even glance over at him once.
“Can you pull us out or not?”
“I’d rather give you a ride home.”
“No, get us out. If you already took the dog in, then I’d rather head back to school. How are Mia and Angel taking it? Did they get to be with him in the room?”
“They’re fine. Jonny is over there with ’em now. Christ, how long you been sitting in the ditch? If that snow is hard, I ain’t gonna be able to pull you out.”
Ryan felt like this Kratch’s lingo was laced with sexual innuendo. He looked at Jackie like she was meat and Ryan didn’t like it, especially not after he’d called her an idiot.
“You owe me one, Jack. Don’t think I won’t call you on it!” the guy yelled through the storm, as he grabbed a rope out of the box in his truck and opened the tailgate. He was dressed for a snowstorm. His dark tan jumpsuit was insulated and zipped right up the middle, his parka had a fur-lined hood like Jackie’s and his snow boots were made for the tundra. He even had a pair of snow goggles that were up on his head. From what Ryan could see, the guy had long blond hair that was pulled back in a ponytail.
“Fuck!” Jackie cursed and kicked the snow, as the two of them made their way down the ravine.
“Who is that?”
“My neighbor.”
“Kind of a jerk,” Ryan said. He didn’t care if the guy heard them. He only cared about Jackie and what she was feeling.
“He’s alright. At least he came. Mia told him after he helped them take the dog in. Poor Ralph!”
“Can he really pull us out?”
“Did you see those chains on his tires?”
“No,” Ryan said. He squinted through the flying snow.
“And kitty litter. Let’s dump the whole bag in front of the tires.”
Once the car was back on the road, Kratch gave them a jump. He watched in admiration as Jackie threw open the hood of the car and attached the jumper cables like a pro. It started in no time, despite their near death radio splurge.
Jackie laughed as they took off.
“Fucking Kratch. What a jerk! But a jerk with good timing. I’ll have to get him a nice Christmas present.” Ryan didn’t want to ask her what that was.
Less than two hours later, they warm, dry and sitting in front of the fireplace in Ryan’s frat. Someone had built a raging one and there was hot cocoa with peppermint schnapps and an incredibly gorgeous girl in his lap.
Jackie had her boots and socks off, legs across his lap and toes stretched toward the fire. Her hair was down in waves all around her face from the melty snow that had pelted them as they ran inside.
“We almost died,” she whispered in his ear. He smelled the minty sweet on her tongue.
“I was ready to go by your side,” he whispered back.
He was still in awe of her brawn and her smarts in the snow. It might have been a stupid decision on both their part to attempt the drive, but it was fascinating to see Jackie in this light, she had strength
in spades. Had he not gone, he never would have known.
“Can we crash on this couch?” she clung to his neck tightly and Ryan’s chest felt inflated with pride. He would walk out with her in his arms like this and smuggle Jackie away to his bed for another round of fireworks. Sparkling flares, starry-flakes and blaring rock music had nothing on their symphony. They were alive, drunk, high on survival and each other’s melodies. Fuck safety and blizzards, this was Ryan and Jackie’s snowstorm.
Chapter 10
Ryan
It was great. Better than he’d ever imagined. Jackie was more than a girlfriend, she was his best-friend, his partner in crime, she was the one who made him laugh, made him feel like he had a purpose in life. What was so great about boyfriend and girlfriend status? He and Jackie were beyond that already. It didn’t hurt that the sex was out of this world. Jackie made him come harder than he ever had in his life. When he was inside her, it was like he’d been possessed. Together, their bodies made chemistry turn explosive. He had a hard time pinpointing exactly when their relationship had turned so sexual, but there was no going back.
Jackie was always up for anything. She kept him on a tight leash, ever eager for whatever exciting exploit she would come up with in bed—or even out of bed. They’d had sex in the bathroom of a bar, doubling the risk because Jackie was using a fake ID to get in in the first place. They’d gone at it in the quad at night, in both of their dorm rooms, roommates be damned, once in the auditorium on campus in the balcony film room. In the stacks surrounded by the astute and seductive smell of ink, paper and binding glue. Jackie kept him more than occupied; he was so smitten, he rarely ever thought of other women. The only thing Jackie flat-out refused him was commitment or exclusivity. He didn’t mind though. At least not too much. It’s what he told himself over and over.
“We’re not dating, jeesh! He’s like my best-friend,” he’d heard her say to both of their friends. It crushed him a little, but the trick to keeping Jackie around was not to smother her, to never let her see him get too emotional. And God, she’d run off it she could see how tightly he was wrapped around her little finger. He’d go to the ends of the earth for the woman and she’d still demanded they have sex with other people.