Read Online Reckless by Kimberly Kincaid - Free Book Online Page B

would change her mind. “But I sure don’t have to let you perform it in my soup kitchen.”
    She angled herself to move past him and head for daylight, but the pantry space was barely wide enough for both of them to stand side by side. Alex slipped around her with one deft move, stepping directly into her path as he blocked both her forward progress and the door frame with his body.
    â€œOh!” Her hands flew upward to avoid a complete collision, palms landing smack over the leanly muscled expanse of his chest. Without skipping a beat, Alex reached beneath her elbows, wrapping his fingers over the backs of her arms and pulling her close to keep her steady.
    Talk about a plan destined for epic failure.
    â€œCould you just put your machete down for one minute so we can talk about this?” he asked, his exhale moving past her ear in a warm puff as he lowered his chin to look at her. His heart thumped, fast and steady against her fingertips, and the unexpected intimacy of the contact sent a streak of heat all the way down Zoe’s spine. Her pulse jumped to match his, and she refused to look away even though her face prickled with what had to be an obvious blush.
    â€œThis is simple risk analysis. I need people I can rely on in my kitchen. If you can’t take this job seriously enough to get it done right, then we have nothing to talk about.” She pushed out a couple of rapid-fire blinks, grounding herself in reality despite the fact that Alex’s callused fingers showed no signs of imminent departure from the backs of her arms.
    â€œAnd what if I can?”
    â€œYou can’t,” Zoe argued, and God, she should’ve known better than to think that her soup kitchen would mean anything to a firefighter like Alex.
    Still, he didn’t relent. “If I can fix this mess, will you give me another chance?”
    She shook her head. “Alex, I—”
    â€œZoe, listen.” His voice dropped, brittle and tight. “I’ll find a way to get it done. But I can’t lose my job, which means you can’t boot me. Please. ”
    The words took a straight path to her sternum, kicking the air from her lungs without the argument she’d intended to use it for. Alex’s eyes glittered, dark blue and determined in the dusky light shining down from the bare bulb over their heads. His normally cocksure demeanor was nowhere to be seen, replaced instead by an expression so oddly intense, Zoe’s pulse sped even faster through her veins.
    For just a stop-time sliver of a second, Alex Donovan was vulnerable.
    And she could either give him one last chance, or she could sign his walking papers out of her kitchen.

Chapter Five
    Zoe shifted her weight to the heels of her kitchen clogs, scanning, then rescanning the pantry for even the tiniest hint that merely an hour ago, the place had been a food-borne bacteria factory just waiting to prove the old adage that sharing was caring.
    But she couldn’t find a single one.
    â€œSee?” Alex leaned a sculpted shoulder against the door frame, his cocky smile back in place and even brighter than before. “One hundred percent clean and sanitized, just like I promised.”
    â€œHmm.” She ran her fingers over the edge of the shelf in front of her, a ripple of shock working its way through her chest at the freshly scented air and the smooth, scrubbed surfaces. Ruler-straight rows of cartons and canned goods stood organized and ready to go, and as she dropped her gaze, even the buffed brown floor tiles seemed to gleam under her feet. “Well, it certainly looks up to code.”
    â€œWow, Zoe. Don’t oversell it.” Alex’s grin remained perfectly intact as he pushed off the door frame, gesturing grandly through the light shining down from overhead. “Come on. Don’t even try to tell me that the best you’ve got is ‘it looks up to code.’”
    â€œIt’s pretty clean,”