Whispers on the Ice (9 page)

“Whittaker…” Jordan pleaded, casting a frantic look toward Dee, who simply shrugged, the gesture clearly stating
you’re on your own
.

Whittaker wiggled his finger in a circular motion, and slowly she complied. Aleksei watched, a confused frown creasing his brow until he heard his coach’s instructions. “Aleksei, both palms on her bottom, fingers wrapping toward her hips. Be sure you get under her again so the water supports that leg and pay attention, she’s going to be slippery.”

“Excuse me!?” Aleksei croaked in disbelief, twisting to face his coach and casting his own pleading expression.

Whittaker ignored his unspoken plea and again wiggled his finger, indicating he turn around. “You heard me. Positions, please.”

Aleksei turned to face Jordan’s shapely rear end, barely covered by the shimmering, black clinging fabric. His fingers flexed nervously, their tension climbing up his forearms and toward his shoulders. Seeking to stop the tension that threatened cramps, he rolled his massive shoulders, crossing his arms and stretching the muscles until he relaxed. Jordan remained still and silent before him, her own shoulders working out knots of tension. She could feel the heat of him as he stepped behind her, their bodies mere inches apart.

“Ready?” he asked softly, awaiting her answer.

She nodded once.

Aleksei flexed his hands once more and lowered himself into the water until it reached him mid-chest, his feet braced slightly apart. He placed his hands on her skin, cool against the heat of his palms, his fingers wrapping around her slim hips and holding steady. Jordan grasped his wrists and suddenly she was airborne, water pouring from her sleek body. She tottered back and forth, certain she was going back into the water over his shoulders but he held her firm, adjusting her weight and balance and holding her steady.

“Well?” Aleksei inquired loudly, shaking water from his face where it dripped from Jordan.

Whittaker looked from the pair to Dee and back again.

“Jordan, let go of his wrists,” Dee stated, content with the position her arms took and the steadiness of their lift. “That’s it,” Dee approved, then suggested, “Jordan, try a lay-back.”

“A what?” Aleksei asked, adjusting Jordan’s weight forward as she straightened her legs forward and lay back as if on a bed.

“A lay-back,” Jordan stated, groaning when her weight shifted farther back and Aleksei staggered a step backwards.

“Sorry,” Aleksei mumbled, regaining control of her weight and holding the position.“We’re going to do this on the ice?”he asked in disbelief.

“Hard to believe isn’t it?” Jordan answered, returning to a sitting position and looking toward their coaches. “Well, what dismount are you looking for?”

“I know I’m not going to like the one he chooses,” Aleksei mumbled to no one in particular.

“Aleksei, a little pop up, half twist and catch her against your chest, but not too soon or you’re going to have her knees in your chest.”

Aleksei groaned, remembering the position Gordeeva and Grinkov had used and grimacing as he thought about her warm, silken skin sliding against his own, mere scraps of material separating their bodies from one another, their own will power barely keeping the firestorm that threatened to overthrow them at bay. Aleksei did as instructed, tossing her easily another foot into the air. Jordan lifted her arms, aiding his powerful lift and twisted, sliding down the front of his muscled torso before his arms came around her waist to catch her and hold her tightly against him, her feet a foot off the floor of the pool. Both their breaths caught, whether from the abrupt stop or the sudden flaming of passions as their near-naked bodies met. Their eyes locked; ebony and forest green, searching, questioning, wanting, retreating.

Aleksei relaxed his hold and Jordan slid the remaining inches to the pool’s floor, her breath held as she nervously nibbled her lower lip with straight, white teeth. Slowly Aleksei’s arms released her waist and she stepped back, running her hands down her slim thighs and finally breaking the trance of Aleksei’s gaze.

Tentatively she looked at Whittaker who looked from Jordan to Aleksei and back again.

“It needs work. Again,” He boomed, turning to walk toward Dee, ignoring the groans of discontent drifting over the gently lapping water.

“You’re wicked!” Dee stated, attempting to keep the smile at bay.

“Yeah, well ain’t it a bitch?” Whittaker answered, a wicked smile lighting his eyes.

“How long do you intend to torment them?”

“As long as it takes.”

Dee cast a glance at the pair in the pool; the intense vibrations of their ever-changing emotions toward one another filled the air with palpable electricity. “Shouldn’t be too much longer,” She decided.

Whittaker snorted in amusement. “Not long at all,” he agreed. Casting his attention toward the athletes, his loud demand echoed off the high ceiling. “All right, children. Show me something beautiful!”

Aleksei resumed his position beside Jordan, sliding silently into the water and placing his hands as platonically as he could manage on her shapely rear-end, a hiss escaping his lips as his palms made contact with her silken, wet skin. With an easy lift, she was up and over his head, finding her balance quickly as she followed Whittaker’s loudly bellowed instructions and slipped into the requested lay-back position. Aleksei cast a quick look upward, ignoring the drops of water that slipped from her shiny black swim suit on to his face and believed there was nothing more beautiful that the dripping wet nymph he held securely over his head.

* * * * *

Seven weeks after the cast was removed, Aleksei and Jordan officially began their practices together. As much as Aleksei had wanted his leg to hold, it refused to do so and the pair had spent nearly two weeks in the pool learning their lifts before they had felt confident enough to move back to the padded floor. Unlike their first attempt at a lift on solid ground, Jordan was safely lifted and returned to her feet harmlessly, she only hoped it would go as smoothly on the ice. The pair were both excited and apprehensive about moving on to the ice but knew their time was running out if they had any hope at all of making the upcoming competitions. Nervously, they agreed to move out of the safety of the padded room and on to the unforgiving surface of the ice, each saying a quick prayer for mercy.

Initially, they were walked through the program, much as Dee had walked Jordan through weeks earlier. Aleksei was several weeks behind Jordan as far as actually having had ice time with the music. Jordan already had the basic program down, she knew where the lifts and throws and holds would be; Jordan had simply been waiting for Aleksei to fill in the blanks. Aleksei had had the time to watch Jordan as she learned the program. Watching her skate over the last several weeks had given him more information than anyone could have ever told him. He knew how she moved, which side she was most comfortable on, the way her arms drifted downward on a given sequence. Without Jordan knowing it, Aleksei had had Whittaker videotape some of her practices and Aleksei then had practiced separately, late at night, trying to make up for lost time. The major competitions were drawing nearer and Aleksei didn’t want to be the reason they couldn’t compete. After several nights of midnight practices, he’d decided he was ready to try an actual run-through of the routine.

Jordan raised questioning eyes to her coach. “Are we ready?”

Dee looked toward Whittaker, shaking her head slightly in thought. “I think we should walk-through it a few more times,” she suggested, frowning at Whittaker’s casual shrug.

“I’m ready. We don’t have the time to waste anymore,” Aleksei stated, his deep voice sure.

“If he says he’s ready, let them try it,” Whittaker suggested, crossing his arms across his chest, and leaning against the wall surrounding the rink.

“That’s easy enough for you to say. Jordan’s the one that will be dropped on the ice and hurt if he’s not ready!” Dee stated heatedly, casting a hot look at Aleksei.

“Wouldn’t be the first time she’s been dropped,” Whittaker remarked without thinking.

“You asshole!” Dee managed to shriek before Aleksei’s deadly calm, deep voice stopped her tirade.

“That won’t happen!” He vowed solemnly.

Aleksei offered his hand to Jordan, waiting patiently while she looked from his hand to her coach to Whittaker then back into his eyes. “Want to skate?” Aleksei offered, his eyes promising her she’d not be disappointed or harmed.

Jordan placed her hand in Aleksei’s, smiling softly as his fingers closed carefully around her palm. “Start the music, Dee,” Jordan requested and together she and Aleksei skated to center ice.

“So help me, Whittaker. If she gets hurt there won’t be a safe place for you to hide on this planet!” Dee threatened, shaking her head in concern and frustration as she turned on the CD player and slipped their program’s music disc into the machine.

“Give me a little credit, would you? Do you think I’d risk either one of them if I didn’t think they were ready?”

“Jordan’s ready, but from what I’ve seen, Aleksei’s still got a good two weeks to go,” Dee stated, setting the volume and track buttons.

“You haven’t seen what I’ve seen.” Whittaker stated cryptically, again shrugging at her questioning look. “Just watch,” he stated simply.

“You’d better be right!” Dee threatened.

“When have I ever been wrong?” Whittaker asked smugly.

Dee rolled her eyes in disbelief and turned her eyes to the ice.

Jordan and Aleksei had assumed their opening position center ice, she with her hands joined together over her heart, her right leg crossed slightly behind her left leg, resting next to his left supporting leg, her right toe-pick holding her securely in place on the ice. Aleksei stood behind her, his chest nearly against her back, his right arm crossed over her upper chest and holding her left shoulder gently. His left hand softly caressed her left hip. His right cheek rested lovingly against the top of her head. His right leg continued the line of her extended right leg where it brushed against his left.

Patiently they waited for the first notes of music to fill the air before they began, and as they waited, the hair on Dee’s neck tingled and she cast a knowing look at Whittaker. “What don’t I know?”

“Just watch,” Whittaker stated and nodded toward the ice.

“Aleksei?” Jordan whispered, she too waiting for the music.

Aleksei gave her a soft squeeze and whispered back. “Believe in the story and let the music bring you to me. I won’t let you fall.”

Jordan nodded slightly in agreement and both breathed a deep sigh.

The notes of Romeo and Juliet slowly filled the arena and Jordan and Aleksei began to slowly move, circling each other tentatively, like new lovers, unsure, anxious, yearning to be close yet aware of the differences between them. Gradually they came closer, touching playfully, sensuously, maturing in their love as the music moved on, carrying them. Lifts were made seemingly without effort. Throws were landed perfectly. Somewhere during the routine, Jordan and Aleksei became one and it was impossible to tell where one skater ended and the other began, and like Gordeeva and Grinkov, their hearts began to beat as one, and there was magic.

Dee couldn’t believe the performance going on before her eyes. The couple covered the ice at a frightening speed. Aleksei lifting Jordan over his head as if she were a feather, turning without fault or weakness only to gently return her to the ice. On and on the program continued, the lifts flawless, the throws defying time and distance as the pair sped across the ice. As the heartbreaking strains of the finale draw near in the cold air, Dee felt the tears slowly glide down her cheeks as she watched Aleksei slowly slide to a stop on his knees on the ice with a seemingly lifeless Jordan in his arms. Carefully he placed her on the ice, laying his cheek against her heart then lovingly running his hands over her face. Abruptly he raised his arms toward the heavens, pleading to join his love. His arms dropped hopelessly and he gently lifted Jordan from the ice, holding her limp form to his and burying his face into her neck. Without effort, he stood and skated as if dancing one last time with her, spinning and dipping, the music following suit. Suddenly he slid to a stop, her death brutally real to him. With a final soft kiss to her lips, he lifted her over his head in one last appeal to be with her. As the music whispered its final strains they both collapsed to the ice, their arms around each other, their lips gently touching, their eyes closed as if in death.

The arena was completely silent, Dee and Whittaker held their breaths, unable to believe the beauty of the program just skated.

Silently Aleksei and Jordan lay on the ice, unmoving, the final whispers of the music having dissipated. The only evidence of their strenuous performance, the rapid puffs of their foggy breaths hovering the ice as their breathing slowed and returned to normal. Jordan’s mind slipped easily into her ever-strengthening dream of Aleksei as she felt her blood rushing through her veins and sought to regain her breath.

Aleksei effortlessly lifted Jordan to her feet, missing the softness of her body against his, then stood himself.

“You’ve been practicing!” Jordan accused, smiling broadly.

“Maybe a little,” Aleksei teased back, ruffling her hair affectionately.