Chapter Six

Circles framed her eyes as Alison cautiously descended the stairs.  It was the wee hours of the morning before she could find any respite in sleep.  If she wasn’t reliving the mind-blowing foreplay with Nick, she was thinking about her impromptu date with Martin.  They took turns occupying her thoughts until she finally fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.

She’d been awake for several hours, but just didn’t have the nerve to venture out of her room for fear of encountering Nick.  She paced her room while she pondered over her dilemma.  This just couldn’t go on.  Her aunt’s Will might have insisted that Nick stay on for at least another year, but she knew she couldn’t keep hiding from him and she certainly didn’t want any further love sessions with him. If you could call them that.

She needed Nick to stay as far away from her as possible.  She just had to figure out how to accomplish that. Wilma would be back in a few hours, which would give her some type of a safety net, and Vanessa would be arriving in another day.  Vanessa was far more experienced with men. She was sure she would have a solution for her situation.

She crept out the front door with the intention of putting her Mini Cooper into the garage, but it wasn’t there.  She was certain no one stole it, which meant only one thing.  Nick took it upon himself to move it. Alison was easy going about a lot of things, but people making merry with her personal possessions wasn’t one of them.  She stormed, barefoot, down the gravel drive to the carriage house where the cars were kept and looked inside.  Sure enough, her Mini Cooper was parked next to her great aunts’ fifteen-year-old Cadillac.

She spotted Nick working in the vegetable garden and stormed off in his direction.  Without a moment’s hesitation or consideration that she was barefoot, she stomped in his direction. 

Her voice pierced the air as she shouted, “Who gave you the right to move my car?” while burrowing through a patch of thick, tall grass that lay between the pristine lawn and the freshly tilled garden.

“Are you barefoot?”  Nick asked incredulously as he leaned on the hoe he’d been using and shaded his eyes to see her more clearly in the mid-morning light. “Don’t you know where you are?”

“Don’t change the subject,” she bellowed.  “I want to know what gave you the right to move my car. Do you think that just because you… you… well… last night gave you the right to help yourself to my things?”

“I thought I was being nice,” he mumbled.

“Where did you get my keys?  Did you go into my purse for them?” she continued.  “Don’t you know a woman’s purse is sacred territory?”

“I had no idea,” he said with stunned humility.

“Well, now you do,” she said before screaming and grabbing her ankle. “Ouch, something just stung me! Oh no!  It was a snake!”

“Copperhead!” Nick roared.

He tossed the hoe he was leaning on and raced to her side with record speed. He swept her into his arms and onto the back porch of the guest house.  Without hesitation, he placed her in a chair, pulled a pocket knife from his pants pocket, and slit her flesh where the copperhead bit her.  It all happened so quickly, Alison didn’t have a chance to comprehend what was happening, let alone ask about it.

She watched as Nick knelt before her while he held her ankle in a position that allowed him to suck the venom from her opened wound and quickly spit it out onto the grass.  Her head ached and she felt chilled, but she somehow knew that he’d gotten the poison out in time for anything worse to occur. 

When he finished, Nick went into the kitchen of his little home and stood at the sink rinsing any poisonous residue from his mouth. After which, he returned with antiseptic and bandages.

“Do you see what I’m wearing on my feet?” he asked with a sharp tone.  “I do my best to keep the lawn cropped close and free of snakes, but sometimes they sneak in; especially where the grass is still tall.  Never ever come out here barefoot.  Understand?  That was a copperhead that bit you.  They’re not abundant, but they’re around.”

 “I didn’t know,” she muttered.

“If I hadn’t been there…,” he continued as he paced back and forth in front of her. “Do you understand?”

“I’m sorry,” she said.  “I don’t feel very good. I think I’d like to go back to the house and lie down.”

“Not a good idea,” he replied.  “You’ll have to stay here with me until Wilma returns.  We’ll need to keep an eye on you. I think I got the poison out, but, just in case… It’s better to be safe.”

“What happens if you didn’t get it all out?” she asked nervously.

“My real concern is whether you have an allergic reaction to any venom I didn’t get.  I don’t believe the remnants of what’s left in there, if there is anything left, would do much damage other than a headache,” he explained.

“I feel dizzy,” she said.

“That’s normal,” he said as he wrapped her wound with a gauze bandage.  “Put your arm around my neck,” he said as he bent toward her.

“Why?” she asked shakily.

“I’m going to take you inside, so you can stretch out on the sofa until Wilma gets back,” he said.

“I might fall asleep,” she admitted.

 “As long as I can monitor you, you can sleep,” he assured her.

She heaved a sigh of relief as she clung to his neck.  Her face buried deep into his muscular flesh as she took his musky scent deep into her lungs where she could savor it long after they parted. Memories of his love ministrations the night before floated through her mind as she relaxed against him.  He moved with smooth surety from the porch into the living room of the quaint guest house at a much slower speed than when he rescued her from the snake.

“This is cute,” she said as she twisted her head to look around.   “I think I like it better than the big house.”

“It has its charm,” he mumbled as he positioned her on the seven-foot-long, fifties era sofa. “I’m going back out to finish the planting. I’ll be in and out checking on you.”

“Really?” Alison said with a childish tone.

“Scared of a little bitty guest house?” he chuckled.  “It’s daylight, for crying out loud.”

Something in his mocking tone struck a nerve. Rather than do the mature thing, she stuck her tongue out at him and rolled over so that her back was facing him.  She scowled as she heard his deep chuckle as he went back outside.

Whether it was from the venom that might still be in her body, the stress of the events, or the fact that she didn’t sleep well the night before, she wasn’t sure.  Whatever the reason, Alison was asleep almost as soon as the door closed behind Nick.