WARRIOR (CROSSFIRE SEALS, #5) Read Online Free Page B

Mink said helpfully. “Pink French toilet water.”
    The two of them laughed.
    “Be careful, boys, she has Ranger brothers,” Lulu said, as she came in, arms loaded down with plates.
    Mink got up and went to help her. “Yeah, we heard. That’s why your friend keeps sniffing so suspiciously. Rangers are notoriously smelly.”
    Kit grinned. She was going to have some great lines for her brother when he got home. “No wonder he calls you guys cupcakes. Afraid of a little dirt.”
    “What? I’ll have you know...”
    “Remind me to let you smell my...”
    “I’ll show him my cupcakes...”
    The men all protested together after that and Lulu and she exchanged grins as they rolled their eyes.
    “So easy,” Lulu mouthed. Aloud, she said, “Aunty Clementine said to join in and eat, Kit. Everything’s been taken care of already.”
    Kit went to serve herself. Honestly, this place ran like clockwork and there wasn’t much she could do to help out. The hard work would come when they started moving the furniture. Lucas pulled out a chair across from where he was seated.
    “Thank you,” she said. “How’s breakfast?”
    “Good,” He helped scoot her chair in, leaned down and continued, “I like the tattoo on your lower back. How did you get it and what do you do for fun?”
    His tone was low and intimate. It made her heart go pitter-patter. There was no polite back-and-forth inane conversation with this guy. “You know, there’s such a thing as social niceties,” she said and secretly grimaced at how prim she sounded.
    “48 hours don’t allow for social niceties.” He leaned closer. “I want to get to know you better. That’s being nice, right?”
    Kit spooned sugar into her coffee. “Nope. I call that rude. Desperate, even. Are you a desperate man, Lucas?”
    “Sometimes.” He went back to his seat. “But I’m not there yet.”
    She studied him as she took a sip. He gazed back at her, a serious expression betrayed only by the tiny quirk of his lips. Most women would find that directness very unsettling, but it was a refreshing change for her. Her job required her to use words carefully, to interpret what others meant when they said things a certain way. There were no such games with this man.
    “Forty-eight hours?” she asked. “I thought you were in town for three days.” Lulu had supplied that piece of information.
    The small quirk of his lips was now an amused curve. “It was my secret weapon. I was keeping the third day for desperate measures.”
    She laughed and took a bite of her bagel. “Or maybe you’d be resting up, tired out by all the moving.”
    His smile widened even more. He had beautiful straight teeth. “It depends on how much moving we do.”
    Gulp.
    Thankfully, Lulu appeared with a tray and sat next to her. She deposited some toast onto her brother’s plate, then turned to Kim.
    “The trick is to keep his mouth occupied at all times. Then he can’t bother you with inane conversation.”
    “You know, Mink tells me the same thing about you,” Lucas said.
    Mink was drinking his coffee and started choking. Dirk helpfully thumped his back. Lulu tossed all three of them a glare, daring them to continue the conversation, but Lucas just ignored her, catching Kit’s amused gaze with his. Laughter lines crinkling the corner of his eyes betrayed his enjoyment of his sister’s discomfiture.
    “Do you have the same problem with my sister, Kit?” he continued. “Yak, yak, yak, yak, yak.”
    Lulu reached over and smacked his arm. Just then a couple of guests came into the dining room.
    “Good morning!” One of them greeted.
    There was a chorus of ‘good mornings’ and everyone settled back to eating. Kit breathed out a sigh. It wouldn’t have been good if they had come in a few seconds later in a middle of a sibling food fight.
    As if reading her mind, Lucas said, in a low voice, “Don’t worry. We really know how to behave.”
    Lulu snorted and whispered, “Yeah, like