Chapter 19
(The Tongass. Wednesday, early.)
When Dace woke up she was snuggled against Paul’s chest. It was just the two of them; she didn’t know where Jonas had gone. She could hear Paul’s heart beating. She smiled, relaxed, contented to listen to the steady sound. She was pretty sure Paul was still asleep.
It gave her courage to touch — well maybe not courage, that was too strong a term — but she smoothed her hand across the muscles of his chest. Even through his shirt, she could feel the hard muscles of his pecs. He was firm and youthful — Dace stopped that thought. She didn’t need to compare him to her husband. That was in the past; this was now.
Paul was not a big man, just under six feet tall, and that much height was because of his mother. His Tlingit relatives were shorter than
