Slow Burn by V. J. Chambers Read Free Book Online

No more coke. No more bars. No more running away from you.”
    “Good,” he said.
    I smiled at him.
    The corner of his mouth tugged up. I guess that was his version of a smile. “Sun’s coming up. Time for bed.”

Chapter Three
    Griffin sat up groggily on the couch. “It smells like bacon.” I could swear there was a note of suspicion in his voice.
    “That’s because I’m cooking bacon,” I sang from the kitchen. I was making what I liked to call Big Breakfast. I didn’t bother cooking breakfast most of the time. I skipped it. I wasn’t generally hungry when I first woke up, and I wasn’t a big fan of most breakfast foods. Too sweet. But every now and again, I liked to make breakfast. Big Breakfast meant bacon, scrambled eggs, and hash browns with jalapenos, onions, and tomatoes. The whole thing was a bit of an undertaking.
    I’d barely gotten started. I’d hoped to be further into the ordeal before Griffin woke up, but he seemed to be a light sleeper. I guessed, overall, that was a good thing.
    “You cook?” He looked skeptical.
    “I cook,” I said. “I cook very well, as a matter of fact.”
    “Sure,” he said. He ducked into the bathroom.
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” I yelled after him.
    He emerged a minute later. “Nothing. Just that I’ve been here for two weeks, and I’ve never seen you cook.”
    “Well, I don’t cook every meal or anything,” I said. “It’s work, and I’m very busy with my classes.”
    He laughed.
    “I am!” I glared at him. “Haven’t you seen me studying a lot this week?” It had been a week since he’d rescued me from Rusty at Clint’s house. I’d been a very good, very boring little girl for days now.
    He shrugged. “You’ve been reading a lot.”
    “That’s my class work.”
    “Okay, okay,” he said. He peered over my shoulder at the stove, where the bacon was sizzling away. “I guess it smells okay.”
    I shoved him. “Step back, all right? I am going to deliver the best Big Breakfast you have ever eaten. You are going to be kissing my toes after you taste this.”
    He grinned at me, probably the biggest smile I’d ever seen on his face. “We’ll see.”
    “You
will
see. You’re never going to forget this.”
    “Anything I can do to help?”
    I shook my head. “I’ve got it under control.”
    He lounged up against the wall next to the refrigerator in his usual spot. Man. He was really an expert at lounging. I tore my gaze away from him. Why did he have to be so beautiful, anyway?
    I chopped onions, trying to put any thought of his relative attractiveness out of my head.
    “So, what made you decide to cook breakfast?” he asked.
    I transferred the onions into the skillet with the hash browns. “No reason.”
    “Uh huh.”
    He didn’t trust me, did he? “Go amuse yourself. I’m cooking here.”
    Within twenty minutes, I was finished. I arranged our plates—a generous helping of eggs and hash browns for each of us and four pieces of bacon each. I carried them into the living room and handed one plate to him.
    I set my plate down on my coffee table and went back to the kitchen for forks. When I brought them back, he was already eating bacon, holding a slice in his fingers.
    “I brought you a fork,” I said, handing it to him.
    “I can’t eat bacon with a fork,” he said. “It crumbles when you try to spear it.”
    Maybe he was right. I settled down in a chair and picked up my plate.
    Griffin dug into the plate of food right away.
    I watched him eat, smiling. There was something kind of satisfying about cooking food for someone. I hadn’t made Big Breakfast for anyone except Eric. He’d been a vegetarian, though. No bacon, which was really a tragedy, if you asked me.
    I had to admit, Griffin was eating with a gusto I’d never seen before.
    “You like it?” I asked.
    He nodded, mouth full. He swallowed. “It’s all right.”
    “All right? You’re eating like it’s going out of style.”
    “I always eat fast,”