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Terri collapsed onto the bed and took in her new surroundings. Here, she felt safe and secure, sheltered from the storm brewing outside. Here, she could almost forget that she had any worries, or that her soon-to-be ex-husband was probably out to kill her, or at the very least make her life a living hell. Here, Terri could relax, and she would be forever grateful to Luke for making that possible.
Doing her level best to ignore the warm feeling blooming in the center of her chest, Terri unzipped one of the bags and got to work finding a place for all of her things. When she finished with that chore, which took her no time at all, she fumbled with what to do with herself next. As if to answer her unspoken question, her stomach growled loudly.
Venturing into the kitchen, she pulled up short and willed herself into the shadows as she watched the scene play out before her.
Luke, in nothing but a pair of low slung exercise shorts, moved around the kitchen, pulled out an oversized pan, and set it on the stove. He poured a bit of oil inside, swirled it around and set the flame to high. Pivoting around, he opened the fridge, thought about his next move, then pulled out a container, a bottle filled with brown liquid, and a selection of vegetables.
Emptying one of the containers into the pan, Luke turned his attention to the vegetables and started chopping them. Terri leaned against the wall, watching raptly. She had never seen a man so at home in a kitchen before.
Then his deep, rumbling voice split through her daydream like the crack of a whip.
“If you’re going to watch, you might as well help,” he said without looking up.
Surprised and somewhat chagrined, Terri strode to his side with a false air of confidence. “What do you want me to do?” she asked, glancing at the sizzling pan, which held a mound of white rice.
“Can you cook?”
“Sometimes.”
Luke snorted. “What can you cook ‘sometimes’?”
Terri shrugged. “Toast, eggs…I’m a much better baker, though.”
“You bake?” he asked with a lift of one thick eyebrow.
“Yes, very well, too, thank you very much.” She was smiling, and the easy feeling she got while around him both warmed her and worried her. She’d never had many friends, and there were so many reasons she shouldn’t be friends with Luke. He was her boss, for starters, and she couldn’t forget that as long as Randy was gunning for her, Luke was also a target. And the tiny spark of attraction she might be having toward him? Well, she wasn’t even going to acknowledge that.
“Well, since I can’t trust you with the stove,”—he handed her the large knife he’d been using to chop the vegetables—“you can take over the helm here.”
Terri got to chopping, being very careful of her fingers, which made her slow, but she liked having all her digits so kept her pace. Behind her, Luke added the brown liquid, which had turned out to be teriyaki sauce, and a delicious aroma punched her in the gut, causing her stomach to rumble.
“Geez,” Luke said, coming up behind her. “What have you done?” Baffled, Terri looked down at the pile of carrots but couldn’t find a problem. Positioning himself behind her, Luke reached around, placing his hands over hers, and cuffed the hand holding the knife. “Like this,” he said, his breath fanning her ear.
Terri couldn’t think clearly with him standing so close. Luke guided her hand, making perfect, thin slices through the carrot. “Large chunks don’t cook up well in a stir-fry,” he explained. “The smaller the better.”
When they finished with the carrot, he pulled a large onion over and began slicing through that, too. Tears stung her eyes and her nose began to run, but Terri refused to break the connection, enjoying the sensation of being held far more than she should.
“Do you smell that?” Terri asked a while later, wrinkling her nose. “I think its smoke.”
With a curse, Luke broke away, dashed to the stove and yanked the pan off the burner. “Well,” he said, using a wooden spoon to move the slightly burned rice around, “I think it’s still edible.”
“Good to hear, because I’m starving.” She brought the expertly chopped vegetables to him and watched as he plopped them into the pan and returned it to the fire, this time keeping an extra close eye on it.
When dinner was ready, they took their plates to a small seating area overlooking the dark forest beyond, and Terri curled up, resting her plate in her lap. She moaned at the first bite, too wrapped up in the explosion of rich flavor on her tongue to be embarrassed. “This is really good,” she said around a mouthful of food.
Luke broke into a grin. “Thanks. Don’t forget you had a hand in it.”
“Hardly,” she scoffed. “You forget that I needed help to slice a simple carrot.”
“They’re good carrots,” he said appreciatively, then popped one in his mouth and winked at her.
Her heart did a backflip.
Dropping her gaze, Terri focused on eating, or at least tried to. Being around Luke was messing with her equilibrium. In just a few short hours, she was already losing sight of why she was here. Her husband was hunting her down, and despite how safe she might feel under Luke’s watchful eyes, there was nowhere that she could run that Randy wouldn’t follow. It was only a matter of time before he caught up with her, and there was no doubt in her mind that he was going to make her pay.
