Mountains of Dawn

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Days passed slowly for Tanya when Kevin wasn't around. She missed him constantly, then worried she might slip and tell him the truth about her situation. He asked too many questions, refused to believe her lies, and taunted her with them. He seemed to test her. Fear and insecurity told her she could lose him.

To take her mind off her paranoia, she decided to paint his portrait. She drew several quick sketches, each one capturing one of his many mercurial expressions, then waited for his return with impatience. She needed the real thing, Kevin in the flesh, so she could make the portrait come to life.

As soon as she saw Kevin's Alfa Romeo enter the driveway of his villa, she wrapped the sketches in plastic and hurried to him. A storm blasted through the hills, with the wind tugging at her plastic-wrapped package. Cold rain stuttered from the sky to wet her hair and run into her face. She ran.

Kevin yanked the door open and pulled her into his arms. "My Lady of the Lake," he laughed, then kissed the raindrops from her eyelashes. "Look at you, little soggy critter that you are, soaked through. Come in here, I'll dry you off. What's that you have?"

Through chattering teeth, Tanya said, "The beginnings of your portrait. Here." She pushed the package at him, and pulled the rain water from her hair with her fingers, working the curls back into place, and mopped at her face. "Wet…goodness, that was sudden."

"That's all?" Kevin asked, looking at her sketches.

"What?"

"I said, that's all you've done, and in three whole days, too?"

"All? What did you expect?" She stood, wet and annoyed, her hands on her hips.

"Well, a complete portrait, of course," he said, his grin wide.

She ran across the room and threw herself on him, dripping wet and making him equally wet, and pummeled him with her small fists. In between laughing, he hugged her tight to him and kissed her. "I missed you," he said, as he always said on his return.

Wrapped in a big towel, Tanya sprawled on the rug.

"Tanya, we have to talk." Kevin lay besides her.

"We are talking."

"No, you know what I mean. We have to do some real talking."

"Real? Do you mean we've been fake talking until now? Fun!"

"Tanya, stop, I'm serious. You have to tell me the truth. At first, it was a fun game," Kevin paused and stroke Tanya's back. "It was the best game I've even played in my entire life. But now, you mean too much to me. I have to know the truth."