Page 62 of Mountain Trial

Sleep eluded him for the longest time. Luc had never been much for second-guessing destiny. It’d been years since he’d played the what if game. There was no point in trying to think about what his life could have been like if he hadn’t jumped that day. If he hadn’t broken his back.

But now, it was difficult not to lie there, conjuring up all sorts of alternative scenarios for the night. Ones where Kat hadn’t survived. Ones where her trauma had been a hundred times deeper.

When he did sleep, he dozed fitfully. But each time he woke up, he felt for Kat, in his arms, and found her sleeping deeply. Until one time, when he woke up to find her staring at him, her hair mussed from sleep.

“Hi,” she said.

“Have I told you how beautiful you look when you first wake up?”

She touched her hair shyly. “I don’t feel very beautiful right now.”

“You are. You’re so beautiful, it hurts to look at you.”

“What time is it?”

“One p.m.”

“Wow. I slept like the dead,” she said, then winced. “Not the most appropriate comparison, perhaps.”

He stroked her hair lightly until she looked up at him with those large, luminous eyes of hers.

“What are you thinking?” he asked. “I can see the wheels turning in your mind.”

“Last night … no, this morning, when we went to sleep, you said …”

He nodded, encouraging her to go on.

“You called me your woman.”

He nodded, chuckling. “I did.”

“Did you … did you mean it?”

“I meant it more than I’ve ever meant anything before.”

“But even if you stay in Chamonix now, eventually you’re going to leave and―”

“If last night taught me anything, Kat, it’s that I’m not going anywhere.”

“You really mean that, Luc?”

“I mean that.”

Her stomach rumbled loudly.

“Someone’s hungry,” he laughed. He looked for his chair, which was exactly where he’d left it the night before. He could make a ham and cheese galette, and they could call it lunch.

Her eyes narrowed. “Maybe it’s not food I’m hungry for,” she said.

Luc felt the stirring of something in his cock.

“Tell me what you need, Kat―I swear I’ll do everything in my power to give it to you.”

She ran her hand down his side. He didn’t move away when she reached the treacherous spot where sensation ended. Instead, he stayed still, letting her explore, enjoying the thrilling sensation as her hand came back up to his hips, past the level of his injury.

Luc closed his eyes and moaned softly.

“I like touching you,” she whispered.