HeartsAflameCollectionV Read Free

mere breath away from the tender
skin of her palm, a blush rose to her cheeks. She suddenly wanted to see what
that mouth might feel like on her skin, not just her palm but everywhere, and
all over again, she could feel the sheer animal magnetism that drew her in.
    She stood stock still for a few moments after he
finished, and then, slowly, he took a clean napkin from the pile on the counter
and fastidiously wiped her hand.
    “ You don't know where I've been,” he said with a
wink. “Maybe you shouldn't go hand-feeding strange men, miss.”
    “ I didn't go hand-feeding anyone,” Apple said,
waking up enough to be indignant. “You're the one who made me into a... a
dinner plate!”
    His eyes flared up at her words, and she realized
that though he had dropped the napkin, he was still holding her hand. His thumb
came up to stroke the sensitive inner skin of her palm, and he chuckled.
    “ There are traditions,” he said softly, “all over
the world, where people say that the best meals are eaten off the bodies of
beautiful women...”
    Apple laughed shakily. “ I... I suppose you never worry about finding
beautiful women,” she said, her voice soft and husky.
    “ Well, you might be surprised, but once in a very
great while, they get brought to my kitchen, and I want nothing more than to
feed them...”
    Apple shuddered at the soft, insinuating words, but
the idea of herself as a beautiful woman was too much. She laughed shakily and
drew her hand back. “ Well, tough luck, 'cause right now all
you have is kinda cute and still really hungry.”
    Instead of being frustrated, he simply laughed and
took a step back, something that made a keen lance of disappoint pierce her
heart. She scolded herself that handsome men weren't interested in dumpy little
artists and returned to the plate of food he had prepared.
    She let him coach her through Japanese curry
(delicious), Greek grape leaf rolls stuffed with rice (too bitter for her), and
Vietnamese spring rolls (amazing). He knew where every ingredient came from,
and he told her about them until her head spun with the distance that the food
she ate had traveled and the spices that exploded on her tongue.
    Finally, she pushed the empty plate away and
sighed. A part of her wished that she could simply sit in the kitchen forever
with this man and simply listen to him talk. Instead, she knew that there was a
gallery full of people who were likely looking for her, and that she had hidden
herself away long enough.
    “ Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much, that was
amazing.”
    “ I strive to please,” he said with quick little bow
that managed to be just the right amount of courteous and ironic. “Least I
could do for a lovely woman who showed up to brighten my night.”
    She laughed self-consciously. “ You're going to have to quit that,” she said. “Seriously. Someone's going to take you seriously if you say
stuff like that.”
    He raised a dark elegant eyebrow at her. “ If I say that you're lovely and beautiful long
enough, do you think you'll believe me?”
    “ I think that if you keep saying that, I'm going to
start saying what I think too.”
    “ I'm absolutely terrified,” Bellaron said drily. “Go on then, gunslinger. Give me your best shot.”
    Apple put her hands on her hips, her chin tilted up
and a wide grin on her face. The much needed food had given her back a lot of
her bravado, and maybe she felt like teasing a little.
    “ I want to talk about how good looking you are,” she
said. “I want to talk about how big you are and how much I like that, and how I
can see old scars on your hands and how hot that is. I want to talk about how I
bet those hands know their way around a woman's body.”
    Apple was gratified when Bellaron looked surprised, and she waited for what he had to say.
    “ I... you know, I don't know why I thought you were
shy.”
    “ Probably because I was starving. Now that I've gotten some of your
amazing food in me, I could