Page 36 of Reckless
Whether it was his sexy smile or thereallysexy confidence that fueled the gesture, Zoe couldn’t be sure. But rather than giving in to the blush begging to take over her cheeks, she looked Alex right in the baby blues with some confidence of her own.
“Good, because I just got started with you, pretty boy. The rest of these peppers aren’t going to dice themselves, and we’re going to have a dining room full of hungry people in an hour. So, are you going to get to work on your meal prep, or are you just going to talk about it?”
Alex’s jaw unhinged, but the shock quickly fell prey to his deep-bellied laughter. “Far be it for me to turn down a challenge.” He reached into the carton for another pepper, but just when Zoe was about to let herself enjoy an internalgotcha!he tacked on, “So, you think I’m pretty, do you?”
He delivered the words with just enough suggestion to catch her unaware, and the blush she’d held at bay roared over her face without remorse.
“It’s a figure of speech, Alex. The same as you calling me ‘Gorgeous.’” Her blade flew over the mushrooms on her cutting board with a quick-firetat-tat-tat,but despite her flashy knife skills, Alex refused to be distracted.
“That’s not a no,” he drawled, and all at once, whatever it was that had made her toe the line with him in the first place came charging back to dare her right over the edge. Even though Zoe knew he was a firefighter—one with unflagging loyalties to both the job and her father—something dark and forbidden and utterly magnetic made her put down her chef’s knife and move right into Alex’s personal space.
“No,” she said, hearing the traces of velvet in her voice, watching his eyes darken to a near navy blue as he heard it, too. “That’s not a no.”
He froze into place, so close Zoe could see his pupils flare, and there was no softening the keen edge of the thrill in her blood at the desire banked behind his stare. “Zoe.”
“Alex. I wish you would?—”
His fingers were on her lips, quelling the rest with a single stroke. “You should be careful what you wish for.”
But the connection of Alex’s fingers, still hot on the center of her mouth, took her from bold to brazen in the span of a breath. “Is that what you want?” she asked, catching his hand in hers. “For me to be careful?”
“No. It’s not.”
The answer vibrated through her, and despite the caution sensors clanging full-bore in the back of her mind, Zoe wanted him to say it again.
Because careful was the furthest thing from what she wanted.
But then a familiar set of footsteps echoed, first on the floorboards of the dining room, then on the kitchen tiles at the pass-through door, and Alex and Zoe flew apart like smoke in a stiff wind.
“Hey, you two.” Tina stopped just past the threshold, clasping a manila file folder over the front of her purple blouse with a smile that didn’t come close to reaching her eyes. “I’m sorry to interrupt. I know you’re in the middle of breakfast prep.”
“You’re not interrupting,” Zoe chirped, just a beat too fast and a shade too bright. But then she registered the look on Tina’s face, and her friend’s troubled expression hijacked the heat from Zoe’s veins to replace it with concern. “Tina? What’s the matter?”
“We’ve got two new residents, Rochelle and Kenny. They’re mother and son, but there are some extenuating circumstances about their stay. Social services brought them both in about an hour ago.”
Alex’s brows winged upward, his attention clearly as focused on Tina as Zoe’s was. “Isn’t five in the morning a little unusual for that kind of thing?”
Tina nodded, the half-moon shadows beneath her eyes growing more pronounced with her frown, and Zoe’s pulse did double time as her co-director turned toward her, all business. “Everything about this one is unusual. Look, I know there’s a staunch rule against food leaving the kitchen and the dining area. I also know there are good reasons for those rules.”
“There are,” Zoe said, calling up the city’s code in her mind. It was strict for any number of reasons, not the least of which was proper sanitation and to keep residents from hoarding food. “The health department regs are pretty cut and dried, Tina. We’d have to have a damned good reason to violate food service rules and risk getting written up. Or worse.”
“Well, we might have one. Kenny’s father, Damien, beat Rochelle senseless two days ago, and she’s terrified he’s going to come here and find her.”
Zoe’s stomach pitched at the same time Alex went triple-knot tight at her side. “Jesus,” Zoe breathed. “Did she file a report?” If social services was involved, chances were good that the police were, too, but domestic cases were dicey. Zoe had heard of way too many women refusing to file out of fear.
“The doctors at the clinic called in the FPD. Apparently this wasn’t the first time they’d seen her, and her injuries were…more significant this time,” Tina said, pausing to dip her chin in agreement at Alex’s muttered curse before she continued. “Of course, Damien posted bail after spending twenty-four hours in the tank. Social services is trying to place Rochelle and the little boy with some family in Grand Rapids. But for right now, we’re the only bed they’ve got.”
“And how old is the kid? Kenny?” Alex asked.
Tina slipped her thumb and forefinger over the bridge of her nose. “Five.”
Zoe reached out for the counter in front of her, gripping the stainless steel in an effort to steady the emotions flinging themselves around in her chest. “Okay. Millie and Ellen will be here in a few minutes, and I’ll get them on food prep for breakfast service. Alex, I need you to get the dining room set up.”
He nodded, no hesitation. “I can tell Millie and Ellen what’s going on when they get here, too.”
“Thanks. I’m going to make two hot meals and bring them over right now, Tina. Then you and I can connect after breakfast to get a longer-term plan in place for how to handle the rest of their meals while they’re here. Let’s get this woman and her son fed and cared for.”
“Thanks, sweetie.” Relief washed over Tina’s face, loosening her shoulders. “Normally, I wouldn’t ask you to break the rules, but this woman is terrified to leave her bed.”
