We never spoke about those nights, and haven't to this day. Somehow she knew, and continues to know, exactly when I need to be comforted the most, and offers herself completely and without reservation.

I suspect she knows exactly what demons haunt my sweat-drenched nights. I suspect they haunt hers, too. And perhaps, if we confront them, unspoken but together, they will remain specters in the night and never leave their cave to stand in the daylight.

Perhaps.

On a particular Saturday morning in late spring, I awoke with a knot of happy anticipation curling in my stomach. After several intense discussions, a heated argument or two, and a final pooling of our less than vast monetary resources, this would be the day we would finally break ground on the cabin.

After a thorough inspection of the foundation already laid, Ice declared it unfit for a new home, the snow and water damage having crumbled and weakened it in some parts. She had spent the past several days, when not working, using a pickaxe to break up the pieces of concrete and move them out of the way so that the ground would be fresh for the new foundation to be laid on the ashes of the old.

A smile on my lips, I jumped from my bed and quickly showered and completed my morning routine, throwing on an old pair of shorts I'd somehow managed to save and my grungiest T-shirt. As I stepped from the bathroom, I wasn't all that surprised to see Ice standing in the hallway, a slight smile curving her lips.

She looked fantastic in a pair of cut-off shorts and a tight black tank top that displayed her body to its best advantage. Many days of hard labor had further defined her already chiseled body and my eyes devoured what they were seeing like a starving man might when presented with the banquet of his delirious dreams.

Closing the distance between us, she took me into her arms and lowered her head, capturing my lips effortlessly in a kiss of slowly burning passion. I grabbed her waist and pulled her closer, my entire being reacting to the feelings she was sparking within.

God, it felt so good to have her love me.

After several moments, she pulled away, holding me at arms' length and smiling down on me, her eyes gone silver in the dim lighting of the hallway. "Ready?"

My head spun. "Oh yeah."

Grabbing her hand, I tried to tug her into my own bedroom, not caring at that moment if the Pope himself was sleeping in the next room, such was my need for her. My forward progress was quickly halted by a swift tug on my hand, and I spun back to face her, my disappointment, I was sure, showing clearly on my face.

Her silvered eyes glinted in fond amusement. "I was referring to the cabin."

"Oh. That." I sighed, then stepped closer, noticing a thick vein which trailed over her bicep; a vein which practically begged me to run my tongue over it just so I could feel her pulse bounding. "Right now?"

"Right now," she confirmed, ducking her head down to kiss me senseless once more.

"But-"

"The faster we get this cabin built, the faster we get to finish what we've started here, my Angel."

Sexual bribery provided me the impetus to set a new record in the 'down the hall, through the house and out the door' dash.

A record which, I believe, stands to this day.

My fingers drummed a riff on the hood of the bastardized truck Ice had brought with her from work one day. "It followed me home," she said, that half cocky grin lighting her eyes.

A mongrel it was, too, and an ugly one at that, with parts scavenged from half a dozen other cars and trucks which sat on the grounds around Pop's station collecting rust. He'd let her tinker with the engine, and when it was up and running, she bartered it for a couple day's free labor. No fool, Pop, he snatched that offer before it had time to fully leave her lungs.

At least that's how Ice tells it. I never quite got up the nerve to ask the deal maker himself.

"C'mon, Ice. Christmas'll be here before you know it." I didn't have to raise my voice. I knew she'd hear me easily.

A moment later and she sauntered out of the house, twirling the keys on her finger and sporting a definite cat-ate-the-canary grin. At any other time, I might have called her on it, but I was much too anxious to get this particular show on the road. I'd waited too long and too hard for this day to let the smugness of my partner ruin it for me.

Much, anyway.

I settled for throwing her my best scowl as she purposely brushed against me while reaching around to open the passenger's side door. As I was about to sound off with a particularly, I believed, witty retort, she froze in place, head cocked. I could almost see her ears twitch to hone in on whatever sound she'd caught.

I knew that look, having seen it more times than I'd care to count. "What?"

She brushed by me again, only this time walking toward the small hill that separated Ruby's property from our own. More than a little curious, I followed behind.

I almost ran into her back as she stopped at the crest of the small rise and, looking around her long body, I stopped too, my jaw dropping open. "I ...think I'm seeing things." I rubbed my eyes, hard, then blinked.

The scene before me didn't change. Not one iota.

"If you are, then so am I," Ice replied, her voice flat.

The sound of our voices attracted some attention, and a man turned around, a broad grin on his face. It was Pop, dressed in a pair of heavy duty overalls and a thick sweatshirt. "Mornin', eh? 'Bout time you two got up. Thought we was gonna have to start without ya."

As I groped dumbly around for something to say, his grin broadened. "Cat got your tongue?"

"What's ...going on here?"

"Never seen a barn raising before?" he asked.

More silence.

"Is he speaking English?" I asked Ice out of the corner of my mouth.

"No."

I started a bit at that, then realized she wasn't replying to me.

Shaking his head, Pop pulled off his ball-cap and trotted up the small hill, coming to a stop before the both of us. "Sorry about springing it on you like this. I tried to tell 'em to wait and ask you first, but ... ." He shrugged. "That's not the way things work around here, mostly. They get a bee in their bonnet and it's full speed ahead, damn the consequences, if you'll pardon my French."

I pinched myself. It hurt. Dreaming was out, then. Alien abduction, however, was still in the running.

I looked from Pop to Ice the way a neophyte might who is trying to divine the truth of the meaning of life from an important yogi. When nothing was forthcoming, I cleared my throat and watched as two pairs of eyes lit upon mine. "Would either of you mind terribly filling me in here?"

After a moment, Pop nodded and flung out his hand, gesturing to the mob who stood below us, all trying to pretend they weren't doing their level best to eavesdrop, and failing miserably. I looked from the group back to Pop, eyebrows raised. "Folks around here ain't much on thank-yous," he explained. "Not with words, anyway. So, this is their way of sayin' it without really sayin' it. Understand?"

Unfortunately, the answer to that one was still a resounding 'no'. My expression told him as much.

He sighed, then tried again. "They wanna help break ground on your cabin. As a way to pay ya back for savin' the boy's life."

Success!

"We don't need any thanks," Ice said, her tone still expressionless. She looked angry, and for once, I could understand why, even if the townspeople hadn't meant to hurt us with their gesture, which I'm sure they didn't. I knew how much she'd been looking forward to building that cabin, pitting herself against wood and steel and bending them to her will, forming something out of nothing with her own hands.

To tell the truth, I had been looking forward to it, too.

"I tried to tell 'em that. Tried to tell 'em it'd be best if they asked first." He shook his head. "They're good people, though, if stubborner than a pack of mules sometimes." He gestured to the crowd again. "That Clayton Dodd, he's a right fair carpenter; been buildin' here for years, him and his dad both. And Mary Lynch is the best electrician in these parts, bar none. The Drew boys own their own plumbing company and service most of the towns around here." He looked back at Ice, his gaze beseeching. "They won't take nothin' away from ya. Follow your orders to the letter, they will. Work like dogs when you want 'em to, stop when ya don't. Just got to give the word, either way, and we'll follow it." He put his cap back on, straightening the brim with a brief tug. "I understand what it's like ta want ta build something with your own sweat. Did my own house that way. But ...sometimes a little help is a good thing too. And it ain't charity, so don't go thinkin' it is. It's just a thank-you said in the only way these folks know how, that's all."

After a long, silent moment, Ice abruptly spun on her heel and strode back toward Ruby's house, never once looking behind her.

Pop sighed, removed his cap again, and twisted it in his hands. "Knew I should'a made 'em ask first."

"Ice ...isn't very comfortable accepting surprise gifts," I replied, stating the obvious just for something to say. "She's a pretty private person."

"I know." He shrugged. "It was worth a shot, anyway. Thanks for at least listenin', Tyler. I'll get the folks and leave you two alone. Sorry for the intrusion. Won't happen again."

"Wait," I said, looking toward the house and seeing a shadow pass against the open door. Ice reappeared, something in her hand. When she got even with us, she shoved it at me, then breezed by us both.

"Let's get on with it, shall we?"

Stunned, I looked down. Her sketchpad, filled with all the drawings of our future home sat in my hands. I looked at Pop. He looked back. Then we both turned and watched as she was swallowed up by the grinning crowd of eager helpers.

"Well, whadda ya know," Pop half-whispered.

Indeed.

It was the first week in July before the lake was warm enough to swim in. For me, anyway. Our neighbors had been sampling the 'refreshing' water since May, but that didn't surprise me, since I was convinced a common Canadian ancestor had once mated with a Polar Bear somewhere along the line anyway.

As for Ice, she'd taken to washing off her sweat in the lake since early June, which in and of itself posed somewhat of a problem, since she regularly shucked down to her civvies in full view of the working crew before diving in. Doc Brown, the town's dentist, had to take a week off after bashing his thumb a good one with his hammer, and one of the Drew boys almost met an unfortunate end when his brother let go of the ladder he was holding in order to take in the splendor that was my lover.

I nearly burst my spleen trying to hold back my laughter over that one, and finally, for the health of the men and women, as well as our cabin, had to inform my partner exactly what havoc her mid-day swims were causing in the crew, asking her nicely to please wait until work was done for the day before showing off what the good lord, and years of hard work, had given her.

She accepted, somewhat graciously I thought, though our helpers threatened to stage a revolt over the sudden halt to their daily entertainment.

The cabin's building was going better than I expected, though the work had started to ease off some, given that the tourist season was beginning and most of our helpers were up to their eyebrows in paying tasks that had priority over this, as it should be.

Though the Fourth of July was, obviously, an American holiday, it marked the beginning of the tourist season in this part of the land, and the town was soon filled to overcrowding with a great many Americans anxious to spend their hard-earned dollars on a bit of rest and relaxation.

That sounded good to me as well. At least, the R & R part did. So when Ice suggested a day's break from our building labors, in celebration of the holiday, I jumped at the chance with all the grace of a wounded gazelle trying to escape the jaws of a hungry lion.

Enthusiastically, to say the least.

I grinned evilly to myself as I slipped on the bottom half of my secretly purchased bikini. Of course, half wasn't the best word for what I was now wearing. 'Pitifully thin strip of clingy material barely covering one's more delicate parts' would have been a more apt, if a bit long-winded, description.

Still, as I wasn't planning on a vigorous game of water-polo, the positive effects of wearing little more than dental floss and a smile far outweighed the negatives, in my opinion. The biggest positive, of course, being the look that was sure to appear on Ice's face when she saw me in it. The second biggest being what she might want to do to, for and with me after seeing me in it for several hours.

Ah, yes, this particular Angel had fallen. Hard.

Grabbing a towel, I ran out of the house, blithely ignoring the scandalized looks thrown my by the members of Ruby's bridge party as I passed through. I got partway down the long hill that separated the house from the private beach before realizing my error in neglecting to don footwear for the trek. Dried pine needles pricked at my feet in retaliation for thoughtlessly crushing them. I hopped around trying to brush them off, but the sticky resin coating the needles made the effort a lost cause.

Hearing laughter and splashing from the direction of the water, I resolved to grin and bear it, and resumed my quick trot down to the beach where my lover waited.

She sat on our dock, one leg tucked under her, the other playing idly through the water as she watched the colorful parade of sailboats glide around the lake. The sun was continuing to bestow its blessings upon her, tanning her skin to a rich mahogany brown which blended nicely with the black racing suit she was wearing. Her hair was wet from a no-doubt recent swim and brushed back from her face in a shining mass of inky black, bringing her features, even in profile, into sharp relief.

So intent on watching her, I impaled my big toe on a rather large pinecone lying in wait for my tender foot. Cursing a blue streak, I hopped around on one foot while disentangling myself from my spiny intruder. Task completed, I looked up to see Ice watching me, amusement sparkling in her eyes.

Not quite the entrance I'd imagined.

Gathering up the last tattered shreds of my dignity, I pulled myself together and settled for my most sultry walk instead, hoping to make up lost ground.

Sultry isn't easy to do when you're limping.

I was about to chuck the whole thing and settle for some good old fashioned groveling when the look in her eyes stopped me dead in my tracks, my sore toe completely, utterly forgotten.

It was a look that could have incinerated an iceberg, had any been laying handily about. My entire body pulsed with the intensity of it and my knees hit the oatmeal stage. The temperature, already pleasantly warm, shot up another twenty degrees in a split second.

Then she stood, and the sight of her long, lean body, all oiled skin and rippling muscles, dried up every single bit of moisture my body had ever thought to produce.

The upper half, anyway.

"Very nice," she purred, still raking my body with her searing gaze. "Very nice indeed, little Angel.

Oh, for the gift of words. I'd have given a kingdom, had one been mine to give. Lacking that, I settled for trying to remain standing as she stalked over to me, the most sensual smile I'd ever seen curving her full lips. When the tiniest sliver of her tongue darted out to wet them, I was sure that the sand and I were destined to become one.

From somewhere, I heard a whimper, and from the darkening of her eyes, I realized it had come from me.

Then her hands were hot on my shoulders, scorching through me and branding my soul. She slowly-God so slowly-lowered her lips to mine and merged us together by the passion of our kiss.

I didn't care that we were doing this in full view of everyone on the lake. Didn't care that there might well be repercussions later. I wanted her, needed her in a way that surprised even me.