Don't Judge a Bear by His Cover by Cassie Wright

Author:Cassie Wright [Wright, Cassie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-03-24T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

I take the opportunity to shower and switch into clean clothing while Torben is gone. The bathroom is just a little larger than a telephone booth, but the water is scalding hot and I manage to wash away the staleness of a day on the road. I put on a pair of jeans and a clean white shirt and am starting to dry my hair with a towel when there's a knock at the door. I peer through the window, see Torben holding a brown paper bag, and open it.

Immediately my mouth fills with saliva at the smell of hot fries and meat. Torben raises the bag as if he's justifying his appearance at my door, but then freezes as he looks at me. For a moment I wonder if there's a hole in my shirt or some kind of horrific smear on my forehead, but then Torben actually blushes and looks down and away, moving past me to set the brown paper bag on the small circular table in the corner.

Oh, I think, and feel myself flush in return. There's nothing wrong with me. The exact opposite. Seeing me with my hair wet and skin warm and damp from the shower got to him in some way. I'm suddenly nervous to close the door. In some indefinable way, Torben's more dangerous to me than Hrald. I push the door closed, lock it, and taking a deep steadying breath, turn to where Torben's pulling out a couple of large burgers and cartons of fries.

"There's a surprisingly good burger joint down the road," he says, keeping his eyes on the food. "I hope you're not a vegetarian?"

"No," I say, moving to sit, tummy rumbling. The food is still piping hot. I lay out napkins onto which I spill my fries, then tear open three packets of ketchup and festoon the fries as if they're Christmas decorations. "Not at all."

"Good," he says, sitting as well, and takes up the burger. It looks tiny in his hands, but I can barely hold mine together. Without looking at what's between the buns, I bite down, and am rewarded with a medley of rich flavors that make me groan with pleasure. Caramelized onions, barbeque sauce, heavenly burger, ripe tomatoes and some kind of rich, smoky cheese. I lean back, chewing happily, and we polish off our burgers in silence, both of us simply enjoying the good food and the fact that it's helping us connect on a safer level.

"Damn," I say at last, wiping my fingers. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Torben smiles, as if my gratitude in some way has salved his mind. We sit there smiling at each other, and slowly I become aware of the tension sliding back into the air, our eyes locked, my awareness of his body, of his lips and hands and everything rising and making it hard to breathe naturally all over again.

Torben coughs and leans forward. "So. My plans."

"Yes," I say, gathering myself.

"Fair warning. It's a simple plan, and possibly dangerous.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.