Danger in Paradise by Katie Reus Page B

want to help?” he asked as he chopped the zucchini.
    “Sure, where’s Zara?” She didn’t mind cooking, but she wondered where the eccentric older woman was. It would be nice to have a little barrier between her and Luke.
    “I thought I told you. She’s on her way back to Jamaica. She was only here to help get the house ready.” He didn’t look up as he spoke.
    “Oh…right.” Her stomach did an annoying little flip. They were alone. Not that it mattered. She was a consummate professional. Or at least that’s what she kept telling herself. So why did her stomach tighten with need when she looked at him? And why did she keep envisioning what it would be like to be tangled between the sheets with him. Hell, who needed sheets or a bed when there was a kitchen table right here? Gritting her teeth, she mentally shook herself. She’d never had a runaway libido before, but Luke made her want so bad she ached.
    Rolling her shoulders, she pushed down those thoughts. “Is it all right if we eat in here, then? That dining room is so formal.” And intimate.
    “Definitely. I don’t know why she insisted we eat in there last night.” He chuckled and tossed vegetables in the frying pan.
      She grabbed lettuce and other foodstuff and began to prepare a large salad. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Luke move around the kitchen. He was dressed casually in dark jeans and an olive green polo shirt.
    With deft hands, he diced vegetables, then grabbed a new knife and started slicing up fresh fish. She wondered if he often cooked for other women, then dismissed the thought as a surprising jolt of jealousy surged through her. It didn’t matter.
    She doubted he realized it, but he hummed an off-key ballad that had a hauntingly familiar sound. As if he knew she was staring at him, he glanced over from where he stood at the counter. She froze as his dark gaze swept over her. His look wasn’t blatantly sexual, but there was no doubt in her mind that he was aware of her. Very aware. She wondered if he was even aware of the way he was watching her. Clearing her throat, she turned and began setting the table. She just wanted to eat and get the hell away from him.  
    He probably wouldn’t do anything about it and that was just as well because she certainly wasn’t going to make a move on him. It wasn’t in her nature. Hell, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been on a date. And getting involved with someone she worked with was a definite no.
    “What’s that you’re humming?”
    “It’s an old Russian folk song. I don’t know why it’s stuck in my head.” He shook his head and returned to what he was doing.
    “You don’t have an accent, but you are Russian right?”
    He nodded. “Yes. My parents immigrated before I was born.”
    “Any brothers or sisters?”
    “No.”
    He was an only child just like her. She started to comment when the lights went out. Her heart stuttered. It wasn’t raining or storming, but she also didn’t know how well electricity in this region held up. “Is this normal?” she asked.
    The two oversized kitchen windows let in a few muted streams of light. Dark reddish hues covered the patch of visible sky, and she could barely make out the shadows in the kitchen. Luke moved across the room with a liquid grace that surprised her. He put a finger over her mouth.
    Instantly she tensed. If he was worried, she should be, too. She grabbed a knife off the kitchen table. In the dark Luke nodded so she knew she’d done the right thing. He motioned that she should follow him.
    He squeezed her free hand and they quietly exited the kitchen. Feeling along the wall, they crept toward the stairs at the front of the house. Earlier, she’d seen the outline of a gun under the back of his shirt so she wasn’t sure what he was doing since he already had a weapon. Her first instinct was to run out the back door instead of being trapped in this house, but she trusted him enough to