Page 43 of Mountain Struggle

“We’ll go in the front door, walk inside … then I’ll probably leave you and Tess to catch up.”

He laughed at her stricken expression.

“What?”

“You heard me,” he said, his lips curling up into a smile.

“You bastard. You know who I am.”

He nodded.

“Though I know you as Sarah, not Lilibeth.” He emphasized the name she’d given him.

“Lilibeth is my middle name. I don’t use it.” She paused, her expression somewhere between outraged and amused. “How long have you known?”

“Try since you first approached me.”

“How did you know?”

She smoothed her skirt over her long legs. He was bound to notice—he still wasn’t blind.

He started the car before replying.

“You were too obvious. You zeroed in on me the moment you saw me, even though I was there with a bunch of good-looking men, most of them closer to your age. A woman who looks like you would have looked at Jens or Gael first—or at Kat, if she swung in that direction. Second, you look like Tess—not exactly the same, she’s softer where you’ve got more edges, but the resemblance is there. And, finally, Tess keeps a picture of both of you on her writing table. Your hair was blonde like hers, back then, not brown like it is now, but you were easy enough to recognize.”

Sarah scowled.

“So why did you let me embarrass myself?”

“I apologize,” he said, knowing it behooved him to sound contrite. This was Tess’s sister—he couldn’t afford to have her hate him. “It seemed like fair payback for what you were trying to do to me.”

She pondered that one so long he didn’t think she was going to reply, but then she finally nodded her agreement, relaxing into the seat beneath her.

“Is it okay if I call you Damien?”

“Of course.”

“May I ask you something personal?”

“Go ahead. It seems like we’ve gotten pretty personal already,” he laughed.

“What if you hadn’t known it was me?”

He kept his eyes on the road ahead. “Would I have slept with you, you mean?”

“Yes,” she said.

“No.”

“No? Why not? You don’t find me attractive?” she pouted.

He sneaked a quick look at her. “You don’t need me to tell you that you were the most beautiful woman in that bar. Hell, you’re probably the most beautiful woman in all of Chamonix.”

“But you wouldn’t have slept with me.”

“I wouldn’t have slept with you because you’re not your sister.”

Chapter 14