Chapter Sixty Three: I Want To Touch You

So much for his brilliant intelligence. Viktor had thought he was so smart,

finding a loophole around his promise. Passing her in their race down the dune, he’d felt triumphant, his body tight, knowing he all but had her in his

arms.

Then there was a scream, and she’d flown past him. She was such an

accomplished snowboarder that she’d had no problem handling the textural

differences between snow and sand. And she’d seen the source of the

scream, the injured boy, half a second faster than he had. It was enough to

make any man feel slow. Stupid and slow.

Which was exactly how Viktor had felt pacing the tent of the boy’s

family as his uncle, a doctor trained in Marrakech, worked on the boy’s

ugly compound fracture with his limited instruments at hand. Viktor had

looked down at the sobbing boy, wishing he could do more than order a

helicopter on his satellite phone, wishing they didn’t have to wait so long,

and most of all, dreading the long, jarring journey the boy would face

traveling t