A SEAL in Wolf’s Clothing Read Free Page B

asked, again looking around for something to write a note she could pass to Joe.
    “Chicken,” he said.
    She spied her notebook on the bar near the phone, but she remembered having taken notes on her prospective guests. She didn’t want to flip it open and worry Joe might catch sight of it. She couldn’t recall what she’d written about him, but she thought she’d said something about him sounding sexy. And he did. Even more so in person. But she didn’t want him knowing that.
    Her groceries notepad was sitting on the coffee table, though. Before she could skirt the counter to get it, she saw Joe staring in the direction of the bedrooms. Had he heard someone also? She planned to make it sound as though she didn’t believe anyone was down the hall. Then when the intruder least expected it, she’d take Joe with her to investigate. But she didn’t want Joe to alert the man that they were on to his game, if he was there.
    “Homemade potato salad to go with the baked chicken?” she asked, hoping he’d go for the potato salad since it was one of her favorite dishes that she made from an old family recipe.
    He shifted his attention back to her. “Potato salad sounds pretty good.”
    “So what do you do when you’re not on vacation?” She hoped she sounded subtle enough—she still was doing her mate investigation, despite whatever was going on down the hall—as she grabbed the notepaper and pen, shoved them in her jeans pocket, and returned to the kitchen.
    “I’m a business consultant,” he said.
    She seasoned the chicken thighs with lemon and pepper spice, set them in a baking dish, and started cooking them. Once the chicken was cooked, all she’d have to do was take out the glass bowl of potato salad, and the meal would be done. She’d sprinkled the potato salad with paprika to make it more visually appealing and because she loved the subtle, spicy taste.
    Afterward, she pulled the pen and notepaper out of her pocket and scribbled a really quick note as she said, “Business consultant.”
    That didn’t say a whole lot about him, but that’s all he had told her when he’d called to reserve the cabin.
    He smiled and waved a hand at her notepad and pen. “Taking notes?”
    She glanced up from her note writing and could have kicked him. How was she going to secretly slip him a note if he was going to tell the world what she was doing? “I just noticed I’m nearly out of baking potatoes so I’m adding them to my grocery list.” She hoped he hadn’t seen the bin full of potatoes and would say something about it, too.
    She had tried not to sound peeved, but his lifted brow indicated he was amused by the terseness in her voice, and she wondered if he thought he’d guessed that what she was doing had nothing to do with writing a grocery list. Just a list of what she found appealing in him. She gave him an annoyed look. “Did you want something to drink? Wine? Beer?”
    He shook his head. “Don’t drink anything hard.”
    “Oh. Water? Tea? Soda?”
    “I’ll have water.”
    Before she could slide the note to Joe, he asked, “Is Hunter around?”
    Her fingers stilled on top of the note on the counter, and she stared up at him. “You know Hunter?”
    This was so not good. If he had been friends with Hunter, he’d surely tell her brother what she was up to. And Joe wouldn’t be a viable candidate for a mate. But she didn’t remember meeting him before. Why hadn’t she met him if he was a friend of Hunter’s?
    “Sure. So… is he around?” Joe raised his dark brows in question. He had a hard, angular face, made more severe by his short-cropped hair. But his eyes and mouth gave her the impression that he was smiling covertly.
    She felt uneasy. As if she suddenly had a spy in her midst. Someone who would reveal what she was up to before she could get away with it. On the other hand, if he didn’t know that Hunter was off on his honeymoon, maybe he hadn’t been in contact with her brother for a