Page 44 of Midnight Secrets

Blake would have the connections to have the house watched by a drone or even by a Keyhole Satellite but Kearns didn’t dare ask. That’s what he was here for. It was a cushy gig and there was more on the horizon and Kearns didn’t want to mess it up. This Joe Harris had pushed the panic button and he and his buddies put the bitch in lockdown.

So he’d go buy himself a small GoPro camera and stick it in the grass in the lawn across from her and monitor the vidcam. It was the only thing he could do.

Besides lie to Blake.

So she was fucking a SEAL. So what? She was still shaky on her feet, still the same woman. What could she possibly do that would endanger Blake?

Nothing. Kearns had had a setback, that was all. Setbacks were normal. He was coping. No need to report anything to Blake. He’d just continue his Portland existence like before and pad the reports.

* * *

“I really wantto thank you guys again,” Isabel said for the billionth time as she put something else amazing on the table. What was it? Joe leaned over to pull in the smells. Something stuffed with stuff and covered with stuff. “I really appreciate what you did for me today.”

Silence except for chewing.

Joe swallowed and touched her arm. She looked so anxious, as if she had this huge debt to pay down. It hurt him to see her like that. The truth was that the three of them had had fun setting up the gear. A lot of it was bleeding edge that they’d be using again.

He pointed to Metal and Jacko with his fork. “They’re not answering because they’re too busy stuffing their faces.”

“Oh man.” Metal speared something small and brown. “What is this?”

Isabel smiled. “Warm gorgonzola-filled dates.”

Metal’s eyebrows shot up. “Whoa.” He speared another four of them, put them in his mouth and moaned. “I want the recipe for everything on this table.”

“Sure. I have everything on file. I’ll email them to you.”

“Metal cooks,” Joe offered.

Metal shook his head. “Not like this, I don’t. Man.” He rolled his eyes. “This is like another kind of activity. Not cooking. Something else. Magic, maybe.”

She giggled then covered her mouth. Yes. That’s how Joe wanted to see her. Exactly like that. Blushing with pleasure.

For a second he was blindsided by a sudden intensely sensory memory of Isabel blushing during a climax. He remembered his face buried in her hair, her hands clutching his shoulders, her sex pulsing around his dick. It punched him, hard. He froze, barely breathing while his dick, which didn’t need oxygen, stiffened.

Not here. Not now.

Joe was pretty good at compartmentalizing. He could put lust where it belonged, in the box labeled Off Duty. He controlled his dick, it didn’t control him. Except right now, in front of his teammates.

But fuck. Just look at her! So amazingly beautiful, creating magic in the kitchen. Metal was right. She was magic herself. The way she moved, the way she spoke, the way she freaking breathed.

All the sounds in the room faded. He couldn’t hear Metal or Jacko or Isabel, he couldn’t hear the cooking sounds coming from the kitchen. It was like one of those movie scenes where the sound cuts out and everything goes into slo-mo.

And Isabel simply glowed, no other word for it.

Metal said something, and the sound of his voice came from very far away.

“What?” Joe said.

Metal frowned. Joe wasn’t known for being slow. “I said Isabel should continue her blog, it was fascinating.”

This time Joe frowned. “You had a blog?” he asked Isabel.

Caught off guard, her face froze. “Yes,” she mumbled. “It feels like a long time ago.”

“It was famous.” Metal forked up a bite of a chorizo omelet that was fluffy, incredibly light, amazingly tasty. “An old high school buddy of mine ended up a chef. When I went back home a couple of years ago, he showed it to me. The blog that day was part one of the history of bread and damned if it wasn’t interesting. I read the blog off and on ever since.” He pointed his fork at Isabel. “You really should continue it. It had a huge following.”

“How big a following?” Joe asked.

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