‘For knowing you so well or coming to get you?’
‘Both.’ Lukas smiled. He turned in time to see Katherine enter the room, her bag rolling along behind her. He noticed once again that she was in the cameraman’s jacket. He wanted so badly to march over to her and rip the jacket off her. To wrap her in his own and claim her, but that would go against what they had. A momentary flirtation in private while they were snowbound. If he showed any interest in her now, rumours about them would get out and spread like wildfire. If a relationship he had been so committed to had ended because he was unwilling to budge on his privacy, he couldn’t go against his principles for a tryst. So he clenched his hands into fists and stayed where he was.
Katherine noticed. He could tell by her slightly cocked head.
‘Katherine!’ Dominic exclaimed with surprise. His eyes growing wide when he noticed her. ‘How did you… We thought you were…’ He looked back and forth between Lukas and her. ‘Did you two get trapped together?’
‘Yes,’ she replied, coming closer. Lukas could feel the distance between them closing as if she was hooked onto a spool within him and when she joined them a mere foot away, it felt like she was an entire chasm away. He wanted to touch her. To hold her. To tell everyone to leave them alone for a few more weeks but he bit his tongue instead.
‘Lukas saved me, actually. I hurt my ankle and he found me and then I wasn’t surviving very well on my own so he brought me here.’
He ignored the impressed look on Dominic’s face. He didn’t want to acknowledge the hate that no longer existed between them or explain what the past week had been like.
‘Thank heavens for Lukas.’ Dominic squeezed her in a one-armed hug. ‘I’m very glad you’re okay, Katherine.’
‘Thank you, Dominic.’
‘Your crew will be returning shortly to pick up their stuff,’ Dominic said, ‘But how would you like to leave with us now?’
‘I would love to.’
The helicopter ride from the cabin to Rovaniemi was uncomfortable. Lukas said nothing the entire flight but every time he looked at her she could feel the heat in his gaze. Her body reacted to him but no relief would come now. He wouldn’t kiss her or take her to bed. All those touches lived only in her memory now. Katherine knew she would compare anyone in her future to Lukas and they would always fail in comparison. But they were over. They were rescued and it didn’t matter that her heart was imploding for whatever ridiculous reason, they had an agreement.
As soon as they landed, she and Lukas were bundled into separate vehicles. She didn’t even get the chance to say thank you or goodbye.
‘Hei,’ she greeted the driver. As soon as she buckled herself in she switched on her phone, which still had battery life having spent the week powered down in her suitcase. A series of vibrations went through her phone. One of them being an email with a plane ticket out of Rovaniemi Airport straight to Heathrow.
‘Perfect.’
She closed her emails, wishing she could be home already. In those walls she could safely let herself miss Lukas. She could replay the night by the fireplace and think about how different a man he actually was to the one she reported about.
Like in the feature article she’d written. The things she’d said wouldn’t reflect the man Lukas really was, so it wouldn’t be true. She couldn’t let it run after all he’d told her.
Katherine dialled her editor, drumming her fingers on the door-handle as she waited for her to pick up.
‘Katherine! It’s such a relief to hear your voice! I was so worried—’
‘I need you to pull the feature,’ she said.
‘What?’
‘Jennifer, I know what I’m asking and that feature on Lukas Jäger can’t run. I’m begging you.’ Her palms grew sweaty. Katherine had never once asked to pull a story before. ‘I’ll write something else in its place. Please.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t think it’s true anymore.’ Katherine scrunched her eyes shut, assaulted with images of Lukas talking to her, taking care of her, pleasuring her, cooking. But she couldn’t say any of that. She forced herself to sound more in control. Rational. ‘It doesn’t accurately reflect who Lukas is.’
‘It’s a great piece though, Kat. What’s brought on this change of heart?’
‘Being stuck in a snowstorm.’ Jennifer wasn’t going to respond to an emotional appeal. The story came first so there was only one thing she could say to make her editor change her mind and agree. ‘I’ve just had the opportunity no one else will ever have. Full access to Lukas Jäger. I’ve got to know the man behind the persona and if we print the article I first gave you, we wouldn’t be printing the truth.’
‘I’ll see what I can do…but this means I want a new article covering what you’ve learnt about him or we’ll come up with something else to get us those clicks.’
‘Thanks, Jen.’
‘You owe me,’ her editor said and then added, ‘I really am happy you’re okay. You had us all worried there.’
‘I’m okay. See you soon.’
