“Okay, Kerrison, let’s just calm your butt down now.” She put down her briefcase and took a deep breath. “First things first, change out of this monkey suit.”
Glad she’d had the chance to straighten up the place the day before, she went into her bedroom. She chose a pair of black jeans and a lavender polo shirt, slipping into them and tucking in the shirt and buckling the thin, leather belt. Her reflection looked back at her, and she smoothed her fingers over the dark denim surface and watched as her breathing pulled the soft cotton of her shirt taut against her body. “Well, these aren’t as baggy as they used to be, that’s for sure, but I guess it looks okay.” The jeans fit snugly around her body, attesting to her past few weeks of culinary indulgence, but the effect wasn’t as bad-looking as she’d feared.
As a matter of fact… Kerry blinked at her reflection. Maybe Colleen was right, I’d taken things a little too far. Both Susan and Ray had told her she looked a lot healthier and more relaxed since she’d started working for Dar, and she supposed that was true…if she looked at herself objectively, that is. She was sure her parents wouldn’t agree, though. She straightened her shoulders and ran her brush through her hair. To hell with them, she suddenly decided, as she opened the collar of her shirt a little, exposing her thin golden chain which held a tiny teddy bear charm. “Let’s see. A touch of perfume?” Yeah…
She pulled open her top drawer and removed a small bottle, taking off the top and sniffing it. “Mmm.” She put a bit on her fingertip and touched it behind her ears, then put a playful dab down her cleavage. “God, I feel like a damn teenager on her first date.” She giggled at herself and put the bottle away, then met the steady green eyes looking back at her from the mirror. “I guess it is, in a way, though, because this is the first person I…” She stopped and took a breath. “The first person I’ve ever really cared about.” She gave Tropical Storm 259
herself a little nod of acknowledgment. “There, I said it.” She turned. “Right, Pooh?”
The stuffed, smiling bear held out his arms invitingly. “Not now, maybe later.” She shook a finger at him, then she went back out into the living room and glanced around, making sure she’d remembered not to leave out her laundry or anything like that. “Looks okay,” she told the fish, then she went into the kitchen and stood for a moment, crossing her arms over her chest and thinking. She likes Oriental. Let’s see…I could do fried rice, and… Oh, right, I’ve got that skirt steak. I can stir-fry that with vegetables. Okay.
She was busily chopping things up when a soft knock came at the door and she felt a teasing jolt in her gut. “C’mon in, it’s open,” she called out. The knob turned and she heard someone enter. “I’m in the kitchen.”
Soft footfalls crossed the carpet, and then Dar was just there, in the doorway, filling it. The dark-haired woman had traded her suit for a pair of white denims and a blue tailored shirt, which sported a small bumblebee embroidered on the left breast. She was also carrying an amber bottle, which she held up. “Picked up a little addition,” she advised, her eyes going over Kerry’s slim form. “You look cute,” Dar complimented her a smile.
To hell with them. Kerry smiled back. “Thanks. You look pretty nice yourself. I like the bee.” She peered at the bottle. “Oh, that was a great idea. If you want to let it cool down a little…” She motioned with her head towards the refrigerator.
Dar put the bottle on a shelf and peered inside, half turning and giving Kerry a mischievous look. “You sure have a lot more in here than I have in mine,” she remarked as she closed the door and wandered closer, peering over Kerry’s shoulder. “What’s that?”
“Sauce.” Kerry added a bit of flaked red pepper. “It’s going to be Szechwan beef when I finish.”
“That sounds tasty,” Dar responded, her breath tickling Kerry’s ear.
Oh boy. “Dar? Has anyone ever told you, you’re a really distracting person?”
“Me?” Her boss’s blue eyes widened in surprised innocence. “Um, well, no, actually. I’ve been called a lot of things, most of them nasty, but distracting has never been one of them.”
Kerry blushed and laughed a little. “Well, you are,” she said. “You make it very hard to concentrate.”
Dar looked puzzled but not displeased. “Okay. Well, I don’t want you to cut yourself. I’ll just sit quietly over there.” She ambled over to the small table in the kitchen and slid into a seat, resting her elbows on the surface. Kerry’s reaction to her was just so…different , Dar reflected as she watched Kerry return to her task. She’d always been used to people coming on to her, and she wasn’t shy in doing the same in return, but the combination of sweet affection and barely veiled desire she saw in Kerry’s eyes was something she’d never experienced before.
It was warm, and nice, and she found herself tumbling helplessly under its spell. Distracting? Oh yes. She was finding it very hard to keep her thoughts focused for any length of time, and even when she did concentrate, she found herself taking little side trips into wondering what Kerry was thinking, or 260 Melissa Good what she was doing, or… Dar sighed. Like right now, for instance. She found herself perfectly happy to just be sitting here in Kerry’s presence, watching her prepare dinner. It was such a strange feeling. She watched Kerry’s shoulder blades moving under the soft cotton of her polo shirt, and she let her eyes wander down the slim form, appreciating the curves.
“Nickel for your thoughts.” Kerry spoke, not turning around.
Dar burst into helpless laughter. “Uh, let’s skip that, huh?” She felt herself slightly tongue-tied, and she realized Kerry was having the same effect on her that she was having on the younger woman. It was getting out of control. “So, where’d you learn to cook?”
Kerry heard the hesitant confusion in Dar’s voice, and smiled quietly to herself . Glad it’s not just me. “Well, it’s expected in my family. My mother doesn’t work, she’s always stayed home to take care of us,” she explained. “I had Home Ec and all that in school, but I kind of developed an interest in it when I was in college.” She added some chopped vegetables to her fried rice and stirred it. “We’d have get-togethers. A bunch of us would rotate who cooked.” She glanced behind her and smiled. “When you have a group of critics like that, you learn fast.”
“Ah.” Dar nodded, then rested her chin on her fist. “My mother was an all-right cook, I guess,” she mused. “I never learned, though. I was…probably overly involved with sports and things of that sort when I was growing up.
We spent a lot of time on military bases, too.” She shrugged. “I like hot dogs and French fries.”
“I never actually had a hot dog before college.” Kerry heated up her wok and poured a little oil in it. “Did you ever want to be in the military?”
After a long silence, Dar finally answered in a reflective voice.
“Unfortunately, my father raised me to believe there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do. In the military, there are qualifiers to that.” Another long pause, and then she said, “I wanted to do what he did.”
Kerry nodded. “They wouldn’t let you?”