In The Arms of a Stranger by Kristen Robinette Page B

Despite herself, she smiled as she turned toward him. “I’m almost hungry enough to gnaw through this can.”
    He grinned. “As entertaining as that would be, it’s not necessary.” He walked to a kitchen drawer and withdrew a metal can opener and fork, then came to stand beside her. “Pears, is it?”
    â€œYes, thanks.” Dana handed him the can, and he went to work on it, his large hands dwarfing the can. She glanced up at him.
    â€œSix-four. Since I was fifteen.”
    â€œOh, I wasn’t…” Dana took the can when he offered it to her. “Okay, I was wondering.”
    â€œI know.” He passed her the fork. “I would offer you a dish to put those in, but there aren’t any.”
    â€œYou keep doing that.”
    â€œOffering you a fork?” Luke watched Dana’s expression go from confused to charmingly irritated.
    â€œYou seem to know what I’m about to say, about to do.”
    He intentionally hesitated, waiting until her gaze slid upward to his. He wanted another look at her eyes in the daylight. They were an unusual shade of gray blue, but their color wasn’t what fascinated him. It was the way they expressed her thoughts. It wasn’t any wonder he knew what she was thinking. Hell, those eyes made her an open book.
    The thought surprised him. After all, he’d had more suspicions than he’d known what to do with last night.
    Luke watched her fork a dainty bite of pear and wondered how she managed to look sophisticated eating out of the can, with its jagged lid and faded sides. But she did. And, despite her ladylike demeanor, she didn’t make any bones about being hungry. She immediately slid another bite of the juicy pear into her mouth, catching a syrupy drip on her index finger and sucking it off. Luke felt his body harden with such intensity that he physically winced.
    The fantasy that slid, uninvited, through his mind was totally out of place. He had no business thinking of Dana Langston as anything other than a potential victim, someone who needed his protection. But the effect the simple gesture had on him couldn’t have been stronger if she’d planned it. His thoughts stilled, traced their way back to his earlier suspicions before he dismissed them. There was a fine line between fact and instinct, a line Luke normally walked with ease. Normally.
    A piercing cry cut the silence, and both Luke and Dana jumped. The baby was awake. Dana plopped the half-eaten can on the table and headed for the hallway, just as Luke made his way around the table and did the same. They collided, and the force of the collision knocked Dana against the wall. Luke instantly steadied her, catching her against his body in the shadowy hallway. He clenched his teeth against his body’s instinctual reaction to her nearness, to the distinctly female scent that assaulted his senses as his hand snaked around her waist.
    This wasn’t going to do at all, he realized. Not at all. “Sorry,” he muttered through clenched jaw. “Are you okay?”
    â€œYeah.” Her gaze lifted to his for a moment before drifting to the holster that was slung across his chest. She pulled away from his grasp and continued down the hall.
    Luke let her go, running his hand through his hair and willing his body to return to normal. Had it been so long since he’d been with a woman that he’d begun to react as out of control as a sixteen-year-old schoolboy?
    He could hear Dana in the next room. She was whispering to the baby, comforting him. Luke took a deep breath and joined her. “How is he?” he asked as he rounded the corner and saw Dana gently lay the baby back against the mattress.
    â€œTo be honest, stinky,” she replied.
    Her eyes were lit with amusement and something that Luke couldn’t quite define. Something maternal that made him want to do nothing other than watch her. Maybe it was that the tender moment