Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Redemption for Misty (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Pierce Securities Book 5) Read Online Free

of the little things about her. He had no clue what her favorite color was, her favorite movie, or if she even liked flowers. He needed to stop. Now.
    He was the one who backed up a step. “I’m going to go shower real quick, and then I’ll help out if you need me to.” A cold shower.
    He needed to get out of the kitchen before he took her over the counter, claimed her, and made her his.
     
    Chapter four
    Misty had planned a simple pasta dinner for tonight, since she was trying out a new recipe, but hadn’t counted on Chris being so damn hot and sweaty. Everything the man did was insanely hot. Sure, mowing the lawn in August with no shirt was normal, but looking like that? She’d nearly come unglued when she’d walked outside to ask him about grilling and saw that.
    And then she swore he’d gotten an erection from her apple strudel, judging by the bulge in his jeans. Not that she’d looked.
    Oh, who was she kidding? She loved looking at the man. He was hawtness personified. Like, if hawt were in the dictionary, there would be a picture of Chris, mowing the yard and licking apple strudel from his lips.
    Thank God he’d left to go shower before she’d done something embarrassing, like launch herself at him and lick his torso.
    Misty shook her head as the shower in his room started up. She wouldn’t picture him naked and soapy, running his hands all over his muscles. She wouldn’t.
    Instead, she would think about all the reasons it was a bad idea. His nickname was Nova, for crying out loud. Like, Nova, as in Casanova . He probably had a girl for every day of the month, without repeats. Yeah. Thinking of that was like getting doused with a bucket of ice water. She wasn’t really the jealous type, but she didn’t like to imagine Chris with other women.
    The thought soured her stomach, so she was completely lucid when he came back into the kitchen, fully dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, barefoot, with wet hair. She was totally in her right mind when she got a whiff of his shower gel, and a water droplet fell on her arm as he leaned over and tasted her sauce, his tongue licking his lips, leaving a wet trail behind. Yep.
    “What can I do to help?” he murmured in her ear, sending a shiver of awareness down her spine.
    “Uh, you can drain the pasta. Pour it in here. Mix it all up.” Yep. Totally coherent. She mentally high-fived herself for stupidity personified, and then started carrying the salad to the table.
    From where he stood at the sink, Chris said, “I think it’s cool you eat at the table every night. I like that, it’s nice.”
    “Thanks. If it were up to Andrew, he’d eat in front of the TV all the time. I don’t cook a good meal every night to have it consumed without thought while watching the news. It sort of forces him to appreciate me.” She laughed as she said it, remembering all the fights she and Andrew had had about her rule. It was the one thing she insisted on, and he’d begrudgingly agreed to do it. Now, she swore he looked forward to it. Andrew was never late to dinner.
    Chris walked to the table, carrying the giant pan with the pasta and shrimp with the sauce in it. She’d made too much, but the man ate like a bear, so she didn’t think there would be many leftovers. Misty had also noticed he woke up in the middle of the night and ate whatever was left from dinner.
    “How’s the shop going? I mean, I see you’re busy all day, but are there enough profits for donations?” Chris asked as he scooped himself a giant portion of the shrimp pasta and then salad onto his plate.
    “It’s going well. I’ve only been open six months, and I don’t think everybody understands my purpose yet. I’m still working on that. I have a Chamber mixer in a couple of weeks that I’m going to, and I’m hoping to spread the word there.” In fact, she was really nervous about the mixer. Misty really enjoyed her job, always had loved being a barista, but found talking about her own business