Page 20 of Strike Fast

“This feels so fancy,” she said, smiling as she sipped at her wine. And decadent. Other than her husband, who hadn’t liked being in the kitchen all that much, no man had ever cooked for her before.

“Like I said, it won’t be gourmet.” He looked back at her over his shoulder, those stunning, deep blue eyes locking on hers. “But I hope it’ll make an impression.”

Mission already accomplished.Her bare toes curled around the rung of the stool she sat on. Mouth dry, she took another sip of wine. “Can I help with anything?” she asked when he went back to roasting the corn.

“Nope. Almost done here. Tell me about your day.”

“Just some meetings with my bosses, and I met my new flight crew. They seem great. One of them’s former air force, and the rest are former army. What about you?”

“We had the day off, but I hit the gym with my buddy Kai this afternoon.”

Since his back was mostly to her she allowed herself to enjoy the view, drinking in his broad shoulders and the muscles stretching the fabric of the shirt, the way his jeans hugged his trim hips and hard butt. Yes, she could appreciate all the time and effort Reid must put into keeping his body in that kind of condition. “He’s the big one, right?”

One side of Reid’s mouth turned up. “Yeah. He tried to invite himself over for dinner tonight, but he would have eaten everything I had and still been looking for more so I told him forget it.”

“Then I’m glad he’s not here, because I’mstarving.”

She hadn’t meant to make it into an innuendo, but when he looked over at her again, there was such heat smoldering in his eyes that it damn near made her stop breathing for a second. “Yeah? Good. I’m hungry too,” he said, his voice dropping an octave.

Oh my God.Could she even handle it if they wound up in bed together tonight? She wasn’t sure she’d survive it.

She sat there on her perch, greedily drinking in the sight of him moving so comfortably around his kitchen while he sliced the grilled corn kernels off the cob and mixed them with halved red grape tomatoes, diced avocado, black beans and whatever else he had in the salad bowl. Once he’d tossed it all together with the dressing he had mixed together in a glass measuring cup, he pulled a casserole dish out of the oven and sat it on the counter.

Tess leaned closer, inhaling deeply. “It smells delicious.” She couldn’t wait to eat it.

Wielding a spatula, he eyed her from next to the counter. “Just how hungry are you?”

Fifty-fifty chance he was talking about food. “I haven’t eaten since eleven this morning, so, pretty damn hungry.”

With a nod, he scooped out two steaming, golden brown enchiladas onto a plate and added a mound of the salad. “Let’s eat at the table,” he said, carrying her plate into the eating nook where he’d set the table and lit candles.

It felt romantic and intimate, and she couldn’t help but smile as she sat down. “This looks beautiful.”

“You’re the only woman besides Autumn to have ever eaten here, so I wanted it to be special.”

What did it signify, that she was the only woman he’d allowed into his inner sanctum, other than his daughter? She wasn’t likely to forget this anytime soon.

Once he was seated with his own plate, she raised her glass. “To surviving our recent deployment to Afghanistan.”

He smiled at her dark humor and tapped his water glass to her wineglass. “Cheers.”

“Mmmm, this is so good,” she said in between bites. How sexy was it, that a man as professionally accomplished as him could cook, too?

After dinner, she started to help him clear the table but he refused and refilled her wineglass before banishing her from the kitchen while he cleaned up. She sat on the leather couch opposite the TV and talked to him while looking around at the clean, uncluttered space as the anticipation about what might happen in a few minutes built inside her.

A few framed photos graced the mantel and side table. Mostly of him and Autumn at various stages of her life, including a recent one of them on their trip to Universal Studios. Autumn was atop Reid’s shoulders wearing a black robe and holding a wand proudly overhead, while Reid grinned up at her, hands securely locked around the front of her shins, his eyes hidden by a pair of dark sunglasses. It made Tess smile.

A few others of Reid and his teammates were scattered around as well. Then she spotted another photo on the mantel, and her heart squeezed. It had to be from his army days because Reid was wearing desert-pattern BDUs and clean-shaven, his arm around the shoulders of another soldier around his age.

Reid joined her a few minutes later with another glass of water. He sank down beside her, close but not touching her, and draped a casual arm along the back of the couch. “You could have turned on the TV,” he said.

“No, I’ve been looking at your photos. This one’s my favorite,” she said, pointing to the one of him and Autumn at Universal.

He grinned. “That was a great day. Worth every penny to see her face when we got to Hogwart’s Castle.”

“I’ll bet.” She paused to sip her wine, debating her next words, but finally decided just to say it. “Is that Jason?” she asked, nodding to the picture of him and the other soldier.

His smile slipped and he tensed a little. “Yeah. On our last tour in Afghanistan together.”

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