‘They must be proud of you,’ he said. ‘Whether they show it or not.’
‘I don’t know,’ Katherine admitted. ‘Before coming here I was meant to have dinner with my family but they cancelled because Paige got into trouble.’
‘Is it always like that?’
‘Yes, but I understand. The others need my parents’ support more than I do.’
Lukas shook his head. ‘It shouldn’t have to be that way, but I understand.’
‘You do?’
The world knew about his parents’ divorce, about his strained relationship with his mother, because tabloids had reported on it, but he was so private, more than that was purely a guess.
‘My mother left because of me.’
Katherine’s heart stuttered to a stop.
‘My father spent a lot of time, energy and money on my racing. All those things could have been spent on the family and we could have had a more comfortable life.’
Katherine knew Lukas had come from humble beginnings. Everyone did. Just as everyone knew his father. A man who was at as many races as he could attend, which was nearly all of them until his death.
‘Having to support a child through karting and everything else puts a huge financial burden on a family. My mother didn’t sign up for that, so she divorced him and moved to Salzburg.’
Katherine put her arms around Lukas’s middle, holding him tightly. If someone had told her days ago that she would be trying to offer him comfort she would have laughed in their face. But here they were and she realised something: They weren’t so different.
‘It was difficult but we were fine. My dad and I had each other until just over a year ago.’ Lukas stopped talking. The anguish in his expression was hard to witness and even harder to feel. And she could feel it. As if her own heart was trying to tear itself to pieces.
Katherine remembered when Florian Jäger had died. It had been a short illness. Lukas had done absolutely no PR in the weeks leading up to his death. The whole paddock knew he was flying back and forth each night just to see his father while he could. Her stomach churned with guilt now because she remembered calling into question if Lukas would be able to remain competitive in the build-up to the race the next day. If it was her father who died and that was what people had said afterwards, she would have likely set the world on fire. But she’d had to ask the question. It was on everyone’s lips. Up and down the paddock. Online. At the network.
Katherine realised that at every turn she had assumed the worst about Lukas. She hadn’t been good to him. But she couldn’t apologise, because she’d only been doing her job.
‘I’m not sure why I told you that.’ It seemed like he said that more to himself than her.
‘Because we’re running low on wood and food and might succumb to the elements and die while in this over-the-top cabin,’ she joked, hoping to bring some levity to the atmosphere that had grown solemn. And when she heard him chuckle, she felt an odd sort of relief.
‘Are you comfortable?’ he asked.
She adjusted against him. ‘Mmm-hmm.’ Then she glanced up and found him looking down at her. And she was caught. Frozen in place by a wintery gaze. One that reeled her in as if she were hypnotised. Her lips parted and so did his. Pink and soft. His breath hit her face. Cool and minty. He was so close now. Any movement might make their lips brush.
Just as they were about to touch, he pulled away. Blinking fast as if to clear away an enchantment. He pulled the blanket tighter around them, which forced her upright, breaking the connection of their bodies, and looked away.
What was that?
CHAPTER SEVEN
Lukas’s heart hadthrummed in his chest. His skin had felt red-hot everywhere that Katherine had touched him. It was as if she’d ignited him and he’d burned up like flash paper.
And he was coming to see that she had brought out this reaction in him in every heated exchange. In every thought. Every touch. He’d needed to break the connection of their bodies and had done so, but he couldn’t move away, because it was a thrill to be so close to her. Because she was cold and anxious. Because of all that she had told him.
So he stayed on the couch, under the blanket, with her. Sat with her in silence until they dozed off.
And when he finally opened his eyes to find the fire grown low, adding a log or two was not his first thought. Not when he looked beside him and found Katherine curled towards him in her sleep. With her head on his shoulder and her hands pressed under her cheek. Peaceful. Beautiful. Dangerous.
She was off-limits to him. He shouldn’t want to brush her cheek or kiss her lips but he had wanted to earlier. He still wanted to.
He needed space. Air.
Laying Katherine down on the cushions as gently as possible, he extricated himself from the blanket and tucked her in tightly. Then he threw a couple logs on the fire and looked out the window. The wind had died down. The snow was no longer falling. The night sky lay beyond the filmiest of wispy clouds that were slowly blowing away.
