Page 59 of Mountain Shadow

“You’re doing this on purpose.”

“Maybe. How about you punish me for it tonight?” she whispered in his ear.

“That’s really not helping,” he replied. He turned to Kat and Luc, who were describing the work they were doing in the garden of their new house. He listened intently, figuring that topic should be perfect to get his thoughts off sex, except Sarah’s knee was pressing against his and, even when he looked the other way, her soft, fresh smell was intoxicating.

He settled back in his chair, knowing it was going to be a long dinner.

18

Sarah

Jens lathered his face in shaving cream. “Your sister hates me,” he said.

Sarah finished brushing her teeth before replying. “Tess doesn’t hate you. She just didn’t like being kept in the dark about … about us.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t realize I had to ask your sister’s permission before taking you out on a date?”

Sarah handed him the razor carefully. “Is that what we’ve been doing? Dating?”

“It’s what I’d like to do,” he replied, looking earnest despite the ridiculous layer of shaving cream on his face.

She turned away. Now wasn’t the time to talk about this. It was hard to think of the future while her life was on hold. At times, it felt like the future didn’t even belong to her.

But wallowing in self-pity isn’t going to fix that.

“I’m going to go back to see Cédric today,” she said. “He’s got a good setup, but he’s looking to grow the station, and I have a few ideas that might help him.”

Jens nodded. He ran the razor expertly down the planes of his face, leaving behind soft skin she wanted nothing better than to touch and to kiss. He was a real distraction.

“But you won’t go on air, right, Sarah?” he asked, worried.

“No, no, of course not. Nobody will ever know I’m there, other than Cédric.”

“Okay, good. I have to go to the office today. I’ll take the motorbike so you can take my car.”

“Thank you, Jens,” she said, getting ready to go.

“Here, you’re forgetting your bracelet. What is this, silicon?”

She nodded, slipping it on quickly. “Our brother got these for the whole family last Christmas. If you look at the back, they have our blood type and, in the case of my dad, also his medical allergies.”

Jens took her wrist in his, carefully turning over the colorful material to reveal the other side.

“Type O positive.”

She laughed. “Me and something like forty percent of the world’s population, right?”

He shrugged. “Something like that. You know a lot of things.”

“I’ve always been curious, but my job helps. I get to talk to a lot of interesting people.”

“I’m running late. You’ll keep your phone on you at all times, right?” When she nodded, he leaned over to give her a soft kiss on the lips before striding out of the room.

His concern warmed something inside her. She had to remind herself that being protective was in his nature, that it wasn’t just about her. She needed to keep reminding herself of this, or else she’d never be able to leave.

Would that be so bad?

She looked at her reflection in the mirror.