No Reservations (Special Ops: Tribute Book 1) by Kate Aster Read Free Book Online

alongside what looked like some
kind of crab mixture.
    “Right on time,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at
him.
    “I smelled bacon.”
    “You did.” Her chin tossed in the direction of a plate of
bacon on the counter. “Help yourself. I made plenty.”
    “I need to warn you. I have a tendency to fall for women
over bacon.”
    “You and all men. I figured bacon is usually a crowd
pleaser. It might be a little overdone. I don’t quite have this down pat yet.”
    Reaching for a piece, Maddox watched her read a recipe that
looked like it was printed off the internet. “What’s that?” he mumbled, his
mouth full.
    “Well, it’s supposed to be a crab stuffed omelet. But I
think I lack the technique. My first two attempts to fold the omelet over made
it look like scrambled eggs.”
    “Oh, omelets are easy,” Maddox said, shoveling the last of
his slice into his mouth and reaching for the rubber spatula. “You just need to
loosen up the sides a bit.”
    Truth be known, he’d made a few omelets for women before—a
page ripped from his playbook. Make a girl an omelet the morning after, and
post-breakfast sex was a pretty sure thing. So with that kind of enticement,
Maddox had developed quite a skill over the years.
    He moved closer to her and the warmth from her body made his
skin sizzle like the eggs in the pan, reminding him just how long it had been
since he’d gotten laid. Between leaving the Navy, packing up for his move, and
laying the groundwork to open a new business, his sex life had somehow fallen
by the wayside.
    Maybe it was time to fix that.
    He glanced at her, and the sight of her lips so close to his
made him hungry for something more than bacon, and that was damn stiff
competition.
    And speaking of stiff…
    Giving himself a slight shake, he checked himself
internally. The omelet. Yeah, that’s why he was standing so close to
her. He eased the sides of the omelet off with the rubber spatula. “There. Now
you just need to fold it over gently. Do you mind?” he asked, resting his hand
over hers as she held the handle of the pan.
    Her spine stiffened, reminding him that this was not some
girl he was hoping for a hook-up with. She was an innkeeper—an innkeeper
who was graciously letting him stay here even though she hadn’t planned on
having guests. And even if he did see attraction flash in her eyes when she
looked at him, he knew little to nothing about her. She could have a boyfriend
for all he knew.
    Somehow, the idea of that rankled him.
    With his hand still over hers, he forced himself to take a
half step backward. “Now just give it a gentle flick of the wrist. Like this.”
He moved the spatula, so that one third of the omelet lifted from the pan and
folded onto the middle. “And now do the same on the other side.” With another
flick of the wrist, a perfectly shaped omelet was formed.
    “Wow. Nice.”
     “If you fold it in thirds like that rather than in
half, it’s foolproof. I’m pretty good at this,” he boasted.
    “You are.” A grin perked up the right side of her mouth. “But
apparently not good enough to notice that I hadn’t put the crab filling in yet.”
    That’s what I get for showing off , he thought. Scowling, his eyes tracked
toward the bowl of crab mixture along side the stove. “Um, yeah. Didn’t I tell
you that I prefer my crab-stuffed omelets without the crab?”
    “How convenient. I happen to have one here that’s perfect
for you,” she said with a snicker, sliding it onto a plate and handing it to
him. “So, what time did you go for a run?”
    “About 6.”
    She groaned. “I hope all my guests don’t get up so early.
I’ll never make them breakfast in time.”
    “That’s late for me. Comes from being in the Navy so many
years, I guess. I get more done in the morning than some people get done by
noon.”
    “Where’d you run?”
    “Oh, just over the Navy Bridge and in and out of a few
neighborhoods that border the Severn. I found a rental