Chasing Fire

Room For Two - Part 15

"I am not sure I want to stay here, anymore."  Noralee was scared as the night began to fall on them, but the rain was not going to let up anytime soon and they were soaked.  

"It will be fine.  There is no one here but us.  I only fear the living.  The Saloon has bedrooms upstairs and the roof is still in tact.  We can get dry, eat and get a good night's rest to go exploring tomorrow.  Come on Noralee, this is our adventure."  He did have a way of making her want to overcome her fear of everything, but the town was creepy to her.  It seemed like ghostly shadows were watching her from dusty, broken windows.  There was a feeling that she had, a foreboding, like the girl in the horror movie who should be running out the front door but goes up the stairs like a stupid idiot.  

"I guess it will have to do.  I don't want to spend another night out in the rain."  She really didn't.  The thought of another night of cold rain made her braver than she really was.  

The Saloon doors creaked loudly when she walked through them, making her heart jump.  She was already on guard, so any sound made her flight or flight response stay on standby.  She could tell wild animals also made this their home from time to time.  Old bones were littered behind the bar and made her look to Bear in askance.  

"What do you think did that?  I hope we don't have roommates."  She wasn't so sure now if the tent wasn't a better idea.  

"No telling.  Wolves.  Bears."  This did not make Noralee feel more comfortable.  "Don't worry.  The rooms upstairs are safe.  I have one room I fixed up a while ago.  Like I told you, I stay here sometimes when it is too cold and I can't get back to my treehouse."  He wasn't lying as Noralee found out as he lead her by the hand up the staircase to a suite of rooms.  The furniture in the largest suite was old but in solid condition.  A four poster bed made of solid cedar, a tall chest of drawers, a night stand, a vanity with a wash basin and a clawfoot bathtub looking over the window to the street below.  The lock, an old fashioned key type, still worked as she locked the door.  They would be safe there for the night.  

"I would love to take a bath.  Too bad there is no hot water."  Noralee sat in the tub and closed her eyes, remembering how much she missed a hot bath after a long day.  

"It is not impossible.  We have water and we have fire.  I will get started on it."  He left her alone in the room and at first she wanted to tell him to wait, but decided if anything was going to happen to her, she was safest in a locked room.  Noralee started to explore the room.  She open a cedar chiffirobe and found saloon girl clothes.  They were musty but had been preserved by the cedar.  She found a scarlet red velvet corset trimmed in black lace with a bustle of red satin in the back and black stockings.  It was like this outfit was waiting for her.  Everything about the room gave her the indication this wasnt just a room for weary travellers to get a good night sleep.  Everything about the room said sex, seduction and lust.  The peeling wallpaper was a deep red with ornate gold leaves, paintings on the walls of naked Muses frollicking in a waterfall and by the ocean.  A finely made black lace canopy draped around the bed full of faded pillows in red and purple satin and velvet. 

Everything in the room screamed touch me, feel me, enjoy me.  It was a whore's boudoir and the woman's spirit was still very much a part of the room.  Noralee could feel herself becoming enchanted with the soft light from oil lamps on the nightstand, almost as if she could hear lovers breathing hard and soft moans.  She touched the soft velvet of the corset, that seemed to say touch me, and received a shock from it.  The room was electric with energy.  She could feel it pulsing around her.  It was the oddest sensation, as if the room was saying, be with us, be one of us, try it on if you dare. 

Bear came back upstairs and knocked on the door.  Noralee flew out of her reverie and unlocked the door.  He was carrying two large, black caldrons of boiling hot water.  They used one to wash the bathtub, just to be safe, it was really strange how the whole room wasn't that dusty or worn by time.  Bear left to fetch more and by the end of three trips, he filled the tub enough for Noralee to take a decent bath.  She found lavender oil in one of the drawers.  How she knew it was in there was strange, the room guiding her in subtle ways, she almost felt like she had been there before.  

Bear left the room and waited outside the door while she undressed and sank slowly into the scalding, hot water.  The flumes of steam and the obscenely sweet scent of lavender enveloping her in a state of absolute rapture carrying her away into the languishing, subtle mood of the room.  Noralee noticed a photo of a beautiful woman hanging on the wall.  Her Gibson girl hairstyle piled heavily on top of her head with a tumble of thick curls cascading down finely boned, delicate, pale shoulders.  The photo was black and white, but Noralee could tell she was heavily made up, lips dark and full, a pout ready to kiss, but it was her eyes that drew Noralee in the most.  She couldn't look away from the femme fatale peering back at her as she soaked naked in the tub, a coy smile playing in the corners of her mouth.  Who was she?  Noralee contemplated, feeling flushed and hot all over.  Was she a wild and wicked temptress who came to Alaska to get as much gold as she could from lonely miners?  Or was she a sweet girl who lost her way with no one to take care of her?  Driven to a life of circumstances? A woman could be many things and all of them at once.  The woman's eyes flickered with desire.  She wasn't a woman a man would turn down, the lilt of her arched eyebrow said she knew how to get what she wanted.  "So, what do you want Miss Noralee Hale?"  She seemed to be cooing from the photo.  "What is it you want, but you are afraid to ask for?  Tick. Tock.  The mouse ran down the clock."

"Bear!"  Noralee called through the door,"I can't hear you out there.  Come in here and keep me company."  Noralee could have sworn she saw the woman in the photo wink at her.  The old, Grandfather clock chimed from downstairs, filling the empty Saloon with a bellowing echo.  Noralee almost thought she heard the piano playing and people laughing.  

The door opened slowly and Noralee leaned forward and smiled,"Wash my back for me, Sweetie.  I am sore from carrying that backpack all day."  

Bear was speechless as he stood in the doorway and seemed frozen in place with wide eyes as he took in Noralee's bare, flushed breasts, the areolas bright pink and nipples taut.  

"Well, don't just stand there gawking.  You are letting the draft in."  She waved him over smiling at him.  He was irrepressibly cute when he looked shocked.  "You don't want me to catch a cold do you?"  

Obediently, he pulled the door closed and locked it with the key and walked over to Noralee soaking in the tub.  "God, Noralee, you are so beautiful.  Your skin is perfect.  I don't think I can keep looking at you."  

"But I want you to wash my back and rub my muscles."  She pulled him down to eye level and put his shaking hands on her shoulders, "Feel how tight my muscle are.  It is awful to have so many knots in my shoulders from that backpack."  She could feel his hands come alive as soon as he made contact with her skin as they kneaded the muscles vigorously.  His lips were near her ears as he whispered, "Is that better?"  

"Lower."  She leaned forward, relaxing her shoulder blades as his hands traveled slowly down her back.  "Bear, do you think there is still gold in the mine?"  

She took one of his hands and cupped it around her breasts and guided the other hand between her thighs, "I have been thinking.  The mine needs to be explored."  She lead one of his fingers inside her, she was hot and pulsing as she laid her head against his shoulder and kissed his bearded cheek.  

"Maybe, if we go deep inside the mine."  He began to rhythmically thrust his fingers in and out of her creating the nicest sensation as she was already tingling from the hot water.  His lips found hers as he climbed over the side of the tub and laid on top her.  He created waves of displaced water sloshing over the sides.  She was pinned under him and there was no going back, and wrapped her burning legs around his waist as he freed himself of his jeans and entered her sharply.  Noralee gasped with pleasure and smiled, the room had seduced them both.  She loved this man. The way he filled her up, making the secret parts inside of her come to life.  The old room, the Lady on the wall, velvet curtains, she loved everything about this place.  But most of all, she loved old bathtubs.  There was always room for two.