Page 56 of Survive the Night
As he moved in her, Otto watched her face, holding her gaze, giving her that complete attention that was almost as addicting as his hands on her bare skin. She kept her eyes open as long as she could, until the pleasure built too high and she had to close her eyes and let go, let everything go except for the beautiful, beautiful man connected to her.
He came right after she did, and she was entranced. It was just like when he made a joke or laughed, only even more so. She was witnessing something that very few people got to see—the secret and best parts of Otto Gunnersen.
Afterward, they lay on their sides, gazing at each other. Sarah memorized what he looked like, the angles of his cheek and jaw, his full mouth, his gentle expression and warm eyes. If she had to leave, at least she’d have this amazing memory of him. He studied her just as intently, and she wondered if he was also taking a mental picture of her.
She liked the thought of that, and she smiled. In response, his lips tilted up at the corners until it grew into a grin. There. She took another imaginary photograph, wanting to remember him just like this—gorgeous and so, so happy.
Chapter 15
“Seriously, who uses a fax machine anymore?” Grace fumed.
“The scholarship committee that wants you to fax their forms back before they’ll give those students a bunch of free money, apparently.” Sarah dipped her head, pretending to focus on the boxes of ammunition that she was stacking in the case. Grace’s annoyance was justified, but her wide gestures and pained expression were so dramatic that Sarah had to hide a smile.
Grace gave a drawn-out groan, and a small laugh escaped Sarah before she got it back under control. “But why? It’s like using a mimeograph machine. We’re beyond faxes as a civilization.”
“Why not just scan it in and use a faxing app?” Sarah asked, topping off the stack with the last, surprisingly heavy box. Standing up, she stretched out the kinks from crouching next to the ammunition case for so long.
“I tried,” Grace said gloomily, leaning against the wall. “It’s not going through. Satellite internet is just a tiny bit better than dial-up.”
“Where’s the nearest fax machine?”
“Dresden, probably.” As she spoke, Grace’s eyes widened. “Oh, this could be good!”
“It could?” Sarah blinked, startled by Grace’s dramatic change in mood. She was starting to look almost giddy.
Grace grinned, as excited as she’d been frustrated just a minute earlier. “Yes! Do you know what Dresden has?”
“Ski slopes?”
“Yes. What else?”
“Rich people?”
“Yes, and what do rich people like to do?”
“Uh…” A number of possibilities ran through Sarah’s mind—things that her father and Aaron had liked to do—but they were all slightly psychopathic. She tried to think of things that normal rich people liked to do. “Buy things?”
“Exactly!” Grace gave an excited bounce. “Dresden has shopping that doesn’t involve buying clothes at the general store.” Her gaze moved to a point behind Sarah. “No offense, Grady.”
“None taken, but you, missy, need to leave so that Sarah here can get her work done.” Grady spoke right behind her, making Sarah jump. She sent an apologetic look toward her friend, but Grace didn’t look at all abashed by the mild scolding.
“I’m leaving,” she said. “I’ll be back at… What time are you done here?”
“Four.”
“I’ll be back at four, and then we’ll go shopping in Dresden. We’ll celebrate your brother and his minions getting picked up by the FBI today. By the time we get home, Monroe will be blessedly Blanchett- and Jovanovic-free.” Blowing Sarah a kiss, Grace left the store, leaving Sarah feeling a little dazed, as if she’d been swept up in a tornado. It would be nice to shop somewhere besides Grady’s, though. She thought about getting some pretty lingerie that would make Otto go all caveman on her again, and she flushed, giving Grady a guilty look, as if the man could read her wicked thoughts.
“Back to work, missy” was all he said.
* * *
To her disappointment, the shopping trip in Dresden was a bust. They’d barely gotten halfway there when the check-engine light had come on in Grace’s car. Both of them agreed to turn around, since the sky was an ominous gunmetal gray and neither wanted to be stranded somewhere in the wilderness between Monroe and Dresden. They’d returned to town empty-handed.
One positive was that Grady admitted that he had an ancient—but functional—fax machine in his office that he grudgingly let them use. While muttering about obsolete technology, Grace had sent her fax. She’d wanted to wait until the scholarship committee signed the forms and faxed them back to her, so she had stayed in the office while Sarah headed home.
As Sarah drove, small hard pellets of snow smacked against the windshield. An inch had already fallen and was sweeping across the road in white, frozen eddies. It had gotten worse now that she was on the other side of the pass and had turned onto the twisting, uphill road to Otto’s place. Everyone had been warned about the coming blizzard for so many days that it was almost a relief to finally have the snow arrive, except that she worried about Otto. It would make his job so much more difficult—and dangerous.
