Lukas placed his fingers on the pulse point on her neck, which did nothing to slow the beats down.
‘You didn’t answer my question,’ he said softly.
Katherine was hit by a wave of doubt. Had she overstepped?
‘I wanted to show you that you can celebrate the holidays,’ she said. ‘That you aren’t alone.’
‘Is that true?’
They stood exactly as they were. His hand on her neck. Her hands at her sides. Not moving a muscle. Not daring to breathe.
‘Yes.’
For as long as he allowed her to be part of his world, he wouldn’t be alone. So she stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, not trying to kiss him or push for that passion that they so often lost themselves in, but just wanting to hold him. Give him the comfort he had been giving her.
His arms closed around her and he dropped his head onto her shoulder. In that moment Katherine could have wept. She had never felt his heart so open to her. A sign that this wasn’t just physical.
‘Is that lebkuchen?’ he asked before she could overthink what was happening.
‘Yes.’ They broke apart as he instantly reached for one. ‘Abandoned for biscuits,’ she tsked.
But Lukas had halted. Held the confectionary in his hand, making no move to eat it.
‘Lukas, it’s the off-season and it’s nearly Christmas. I think you can allow yourself a few things that make you happy.’
He turned a burning gaze to her. She knew only part of that intensity was because of the lebkuchen and the nostalgia he would certainly be feeling.
Shaking himself out of whatever it was that had a hold on him, Lukas brought the biscuit up to her lips.
‘After my mother left, at Christmas my father would make sure we never ran out of these,’ he said. She bit into the soft, spicey glory, listening almost as if hypnotised. ‘Most years there weren’t any presents, but there was always a tin of these for me to open on Christmas Eve.’
He popped the other half into his mouth. She was mesmerised by his lips.
Katherine remembered Lukas saying his father had been a cook. ‘Did he bake them?’
He nodded.
‘How long has it been since you had any?’
‘Nearly two years.’
Because his father had died the year before. They couldn’t have spent last Christmas together. He had no one to spend it with anymore. A holiday filled with pain. Well, she was about to change that.
‘I have one more thing to do on the tree. Will you help me with it?’
‘Of course.’
She tugged him by the hand and gave him a box to open but he was inspecting a gold nut on the tree. There were many scattered among the branches.
‘You thought of everything.’
‘Never underestimate a determined woman, Mr Jäger.’
‘I would never underestimate you.’
‘Open that.’ She tried to hide her flushed cheeks but it was no use. He caught her chin and placed a soft kiss on her lips. The first kiss since the restaurant.
He let her go and opened the box, revealing an exquisite iridescent shell angel with gold metalwork.
