Once, Josie would have been relieved.
But now…
Numbly, she rose from their bed. Grabbing her backpack, she started to gather her clothes. Then she stopped, looking around the tent. Kasimir always dumped everything on the floor, in that careless masculine way, knowing it was someone else’s job to follow after him and tidy up. Looking across the luxurious carpets piled thickly across the sand, Josie’s eyes could see the entirety of her husband’s day: the empty water bucket of solid silver. The hand-crafted sandalwood soap. His crumpled pajama pants. And in a corner, his black leather briefcase, so stuffed with papers that it could no longer be closed, none of which he’d glanced at even once since the day they’d arrived here.
In the distance, she heard a sound like rolling thunder.
Tears rose to her eyes, and she wiped them away fiercely. She didn’t want to leave him. This was the place where they whispered secrets to each other in the middle of the night. The bed where, if she woke up in the middle of the night, she’d hear the soft sound of his breathing and go back to sleep, comforted that he was beside her.
No more.
When she was finished packing, she grabbed her mother’s tattered copy of North and South. For the next hour as she waited, sitting on the bed, Josie tried to concentrate on the love story, though she found herself reading the same paragraph over and over.
Kasimir’s footstep was heavy as he pushed aside the heavy cotton flap of the door. She looked up from her book, her heart fluttering, as it always did at the breathtaking masculine beauty of his face, the hard edge of his jawline, dark with five o’clock shadow, and the curved edge of his cheekbones. His blue eyes looked tired.
Setting down the book on the bed, Josie asked anxiously, “Is he going to be all right?”
“Yes.” He went to the basin and poured clear, fresh water over his dirty hands. “His uncle put a proper splint on his leg. The helicopter just left to take them all to the hospital in Marrakech.”
“Thank heaven,” Josie whispered.
Kasimir didn’t answer. But as he dried his hands, she saw the shadows beneath his eyes, the tightness of his shoulders.
Without a word, she came up behind him. Closing her eyes, she wrapped her arms around his body, pressing her cheek against his back until she felt his tension slowly relax into her embrace.
A moment later, with a shudder, he finally turned around in her arms to face her.
“You were the first to reach him,” he said in a low voice. “Thank you.”
Her eyes glistened with tears. “It was nothing.”
Kasimir gave her a ghost of a smile. “You were much faster than I thought.”
“I told you my father and Bree were gone a lot,” she said in a small voice. “My babysitter was a former championship snowboarder from the Lower Forty-Eight.”
“You grew up in Anchorage, didn’t you?” He gave a low, humorless laugh. “Had a season pass at Alyeska?”
“Since I was four years old.” She gave him a trembling smile. “If it’s any consolation, I’m faster than Bree, too. She’s horrible on the mountain. Strap skis or a snowboard on her feet and she’ll plow nose-first into the snow.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“But you and I,” she said quickly, “it was a close race…”
“Not even.” He bared his teeth in a smile. “You won by a mile.”
With an intake of breath, Josie searched his gaze. “Kasimir, you have to know that I never meant to—”
“And I see you’ve packed. Good.” He glanced down at her backpack. “I’ll show you to your new tent.”
“Fantastic,” she said, crestfallen. Against her will, she hungrily searched his handsome face, his deep blue eyes, his sensual lips. She didn’t want to be away from him. She didn’t. “If not for the accident,” she said, glancing at him sideways, “the race could have ended very differently…”
“Josie, please,” Kasimir growled. “Do not attempt to assuage my masculine pride. That would just add insult to injury.” Picking up her backpack, he tossed it over his shoulder. “I’ll send over your trunk of new clothes later. You’ll likely only be here at the camp for another week or two.”
“Just me? Not you?”
He set his jaw. “I’m going to go look for your sister.”
“I thought you said it was too soon,” Josie said faintly.