Melting Into You (Due South Book 2) by Tracey Alvarez Read Free Book Online Page B

is.”
    “Oh, you’ll love it. It’s meat sauce, cheese sauce, and pasta all baked together. It’s sooo yummy, and my mamma makes the best lasagna in the world.” Zoe gave her friend a quick, one-arm hug. “Not just on the island but in the whole world .”
    “Ah, Zoe, that’s very sweet. But tonight we’re not having my lasagna. Tonight, we’re having Ben’s las agna.”
    “What?” Ben dropped the carrot and it rolled under the kitchen table.
    “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day—”
    Kezia bit back a giggle as he clapped a palm to his forehead.
    “Show him how to catch fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” She finished the old Chinese proverb.
    He dragged his hand down his sagging jaw, stubble rasping as his fingertips reached his chin. “You want me to make lasagna?”
    “Ben can’t cook.” Jade’s brow scrunched.
    “The kid’s right—I ruined two packets of instant noodles the other day. Burned the pot black.”
    “Today’s as good as any to learn,” Kezia said firmly. “Zoe, grab another apron for Ben.”
    Zoe ran to the clothes hooks by the back door and grabbed the Kiss the Cook apron Kezia had bought Shaye for Christmas. She held it out to Ben.
    “He can’t wear that!” Jade’s eyes popped.
    Ben read the slogan and rakishly wiggled his ey ebrows. “I can too.”
    He tugged the apron over his head and puckered his lips at Jade. “Give us a kiss, Jade?”
    “No. You look funny!” But a giggle slipped out from behind the hand Jade clasped to her mouth.
    Ben struggled to knot the ties around his waist, so Kezia step ped forward.
    “Here, let me.”
    She brushed away his hands and looped the ties into a bow, her knuckles grazing the warmth of his tee shirt. The heat tickling her knuckles transferred to her cheeks. Somebody turn on the air-conditioning! Kezia turned away and selected a knife from the block.
    “How about we start with something easy? Like di cing onions.”
    “Surely I can’t screw that up.”
    “Just don’t chop off a finger.”
    The girls disappeared into Zoe’s room again, and Kezia retrieved a pot from a cabinet and placed it on the stove.
    Ben picked up the knife and sliced off the shoot and root. Predictably, his eyes teared-up while he sliced through the first onion half. Mamma would’ve wept in despair at the chunky, uneven cuts. Luckily, Kezia wasn’t a purist and even luckier, after years of cutting onions, she remained virtually immune to the fumes.
    Squinting against the onion’s onslaught, Ben arched away from the chopping board and sighted down his nose to line up the next slice.
    “Wait—” Kezia tore off a paper towel from the roll and with one hand on his forearm for balance, rose on tip-toes to dab his cheek. “You’ll cut yourself.”
    Wiry muscle flexed under her fingertips as she pressed closer to blot his streaming eyes. The hairs on Ben’s forearm tickled her palm, as if they’d risen to attention.
    Oh . Her left boob squished against his biceps. Oh, merda.
    The knife clunked on the chopping board and she tried to pull away. Ben’s hand clamped over hers. He took the paper towel from her numb fingers and wiped it across his reddened eyes.
    “Better?” She aimed for a light tone as s he tugged to get her hand back.
    No such luck. His grip tightened. Well, she could at least keep her nipple from poking a hole in his arm.
    Kezia arched her upper body away, but made the mistake of looking into Ben’s face.
    His eyes, while red-rimmed and shiny, glittered with more than onion tears. A spark, fierce and explosive, flared out from his gaze and sizzled through her system. She froze, every nerve ending on high alert, caught b etween the urge to retreat further but locked in a timeless dance of wills.
    “I’m not one of your brothers, Kezia.”
    “No.” Her pulse fluttered as his thumb swept over her knuckles.
    Ben shifted, and somehow she found herself trapped between him and the counter, the hard edge of it pressed into