Dangerous Secrets by Moira Callahan Page A

was learning. She did tug on his hand, though, and led
him into the kitchen.
    He got out of her way as she went to the fridge and
bent over to dig around. His eyes dropped to her sweet ass and he smiled. That
was a view he could get used to, preferably with her naked, but it was still a
stunning sight.
    “Here.” She held out some vegetables to him. Moving
in, he took them and set them on the counter as she continued to root around.
More things were held out until she straightened and turned to face him.
    Looking at the assortment of items he frowned.
“What exactly are we making?” he asked curiously.
    “Not a clue,” she told him with a grin.
    “Oh, good,” he said. “So glad
that one of us knows just what we’re doing.”
    Mallory laughed and gave his arm a light punch.
“Have a little faith. I do this for a living, you know. Besides, some of the
best things can come out of throwing a few pieces together in a pot.”
    “Yeah, that’s never worked well in my experience,”
he told her.
    “Ah, but I know what I’m doing. I know what flavors
work well together and complement one another. Just because I’m not sure what
it’s going to be in the end, doesn’t mean that it won’t taste good,” she said.
“Besides, I do have a vague idea, just not sure if I want it to go there or
not.”
    He was confused, so he just gave up. “All right,
lead forth then. What do you want me to do?”
    She grabbed a knife and cutting board and handed
them to him. “I need you to chop up an onion, a pepper, three stalks of celery
and dice up the tomatoes. Big chunks for the hard items, about the size of the
pad of your thumb, little chunks for the tomatoes that end up about the size of
the pad of my pinky.” She held the finger up to show him the size.
    “Hard items first and then the tomatoes last,” she
continued. “I’ll do up the other items and get the meat browning at the same
time.”
    Figuring he’d asked for this by offering, he moved
down the counter to a clear spot and got to work as instructed. As he chopped
he could feel her watching him from time to time. But he wasn’t anywhere near
as skilled with a blade, for cooking anyway, as she was, so he kept his eyes on
his fingers. He did kind of want to keep them all attached.
    Every now and again she’d come collect whatever
he’d chopped up and then went to the stove with it. Whatever she was making was
starting to smell really good.
    When he finished, Trent washed his hands and rinsed
the board and knife off. He was tempted to peek into the pots she had going,
but resisted. He didn’t know what she’d do if he did, so he leaned a hip to the
counter to watch her instead.
    “You’re staring,” she said with a smile.
    “Yup, I am.” He chuckled.
    “Why?”
    “Why not?”
    “Trent?” she muttered, shooting him a look.
    “You’re damned sexy,” he said in a low, intimate
tone. “I like watching you while doing your thing. It’s hot.”
    She rolled her eyes at him as she stirred the one
pot. Stepping back, she looked to the clock. “Dinner should be ready in about
fifteen.”
    Nodding, he reached out to pull her into his arms.
Wrapping her up, he lowered his head to nibble on her lips. “Whatever should we
do to occupy ourselves?” he asked her.
    “I don’t think we have time for that , ” she said with a laugh. “At least, I hope it won’t only
take fifteen minutes.”
    It took him a second to catch up with her thought
process, but he reared back to glare at her when it finally clicked. “It will
damn well take more than fifteen minutes,” he promised. “I intend on having you
at my mercy for hours, at the very least.”
    “Hours, huh? Didn’t think it was possible,” she teased, wrinkling her nose up
slightly.
    “Listen here, woman,” he said, before laughing.
“Damn, but you’re horrible for my ego.” Hugging her close, Trent rested his
chin on her hair.
    “Just trying to keep you honest is all,” she told
him, slipping her