Read Online Guarding the Treasure by J. K. Zimmer - Free Book Online Page A

brushing hers as he sat down beside her on the floor.
    “Thank you, and thanks for the wine.” She held the bottle up, exposing the bottom. “Look, we’ve almost finished it.”
    He smiled as he took the bottle from her hand. He, too, held up the tinted glass, a surprised look settling on his face.
    “You know, for two people who don’t drink, it certainly didn’t take us long to finish it,” he joked, lightly shaking the contents back and forth. “But hey, it cost less than forty bucks,” he said, trading the bottle for her hands. He bent, lightly kissing her fingertips. “Whoa,” he said, feeling his head spin. He lifted his face to meet Sophie’s. His eyebrows rose. “My thoughts are a little muddled right now,” he said, trying to blink his confusion away. “But Sophie, all I’ve been able to think about this evening is that I’m so glad to be with you. A week in New York was too long to be away.” Without another word, he leaned in and kissed her exposed neck, allowing his lips to travel, his hands following right behind to her shoulders.
    “I felt a little lonely this past week, too,” she said, trying to decide if she wanted to move from his embrace.
    He pressed his lips to hers, trying to make the kiss last. She pulled away with no explanation, offering only a shy smile.
    “Kevin, let’s look at the next entry in the diary. I marked it,” she said, reaching for the book. “Here it is. The entry we talked about the last time you were here.”
    “Right now?” he asked, feeling the sting of second place to a book. He rubbed his hands over his face, trying to remember what they had read last. He couldn’t concentrate. His mind was swimming with aroused emotion and cheap wine, the combination of which was doing things to his entire body, things that had nothing to do with books, professors, or trips. He wanted to touch this woman, to continue where they’d left off just seconds ago. Why couldn’t she see what he was feeling when he looked at her? Why did she always conveniently change the subject or worse yet, move away? The woman drove him crazy.
    Sophie pointed to the middle of page twenty-nine. “Can you make any sense of it?” she asked as she pushed the diary into his hands.
    Kevin pulled away and slumped into the couch, the diary planted in his right hand. Sophie waited a minute before joining him. He propped the book up against his knees and began to focus in on a few key words.
    “This looks like the final line of someone who’s dying. I only recognize a few of the words, but it says that she enjoyed her life, her regrets were few, and she will love her children to her death. There are a few more sentences, but I don’t recognize the words, Sophie. Sorry.”
    Kevin turned the page, and then flipped back again to page twenty-nine, his brow furrowed. “This is interesting,” he said, putting the diary on the coffee table and sitting up to get a better look. “See this?” He pointed to an entry on the next page. “The handwriting is different on page thirty than it is on page twenty-nine.”
    Sophie examined the writing. “You’re right, but how can that be?”
    “That’s simple. The owner of the diary died, and someone found it and started using it, but the bigger question is who?” He tapped his fingers on the table. “It could be someone in the family, or perhaps after the person died, it was given away and a stranger used it. We’ll be able to find out as we read the entries that start on page thirty.”
    Kevin felt Sophie’s eyes on him, not the diary. He turned his head. Her eyes held an element of surprise—or disbelief. He wasn’t sure, nor did it matter. At that moment, she was thinking about him, he could tell.
    “You’re beautiful, Sophie.” The declaration came unexpectedly from his lips, without thought, without intent, simply natural. Kevin leaned toward her, wrapping her hair in his hand, slowly pulling her close to him. His lips touched hers.