Under Cover 'Love'

Chapter 9: Sea shores and stories

Nathan painted an impressive picture, with food lined up in pans, on the griddle, his too small apron and flour coating his right cheek. After an hour of 'bonding' with Kristina, we decided to walk inside and check on him. She walked up to him, inspected his food, mumbled something about "lucky girl" then announced that she was going to shower and come back for dinner. I walked over to one of the barstools at the island and sat down, observing him quietly stirring a pot.

His back was turned towards me and I blushed as thoughts of him cooking shirtless, with the apron on, came to my mind.

As if he could sense my pervy thoughts, he turned around, his eyes fixed on me. He took out a small spoon and dipped it into a red sauce, which resembled marinara sauce, and blew on it, bringing it towards me.

"Taste," he commanded, pushing the spoon towards me, "what is it missing?" I looked up at him leaning forwards as he carefully brought the spoon towards my mouth and I opened my lips to taste a little of the sauce. Closing my eyes, I thought about it and couldn't find anything wrong with it, it was delicious, and replied, "nothing." He scrunched his face up and looked at me, a small smile coming to my face, as if he was dissatisfied with my answer.

He then took the same spoon and tasted the remaining sauce on it. Now it was my turn to scrunch my face at him, not expecting him to do that at all. A strange heat moved through my body, in response to the action, going straight to my stomach.

"Pepper," I said to him, "it needs pepper."

He appeared to be satisfied with my answer and reached for the bottle of cayenne pepper, throwing some into the sauce and turning his back to stir it again, leaving me to admire the muscles and scold myself while creating more pervy thoughts in my mind.

A few minutes later, a black car pulled up, bringing me out of my daze. The passenger exited the vehicle and walked towards the door of the kitchen. Emilio walked in, taking in the scene before him. He raised an eyebrow at Nathan, who was finishing up his meal preparation while I observed him. He acknowledged us then went upstairs to his room I presumed.

About a minute later he turned off the stove, covered the pans and started removing the apron. He walked towards me and I laughed at him, realizing he still had flour smeared on the right side of his face.

"What?" he questioned.

I shook my head at him and said, "You have a little..." and touched my right cheek. Crinkling his forehead, he swiped his left cheek and I laughed harder. Seeing his expression, I reached up and wiped it off his face, my bent fingers tracing along his cheek, the slight stubble contrasting with the softness of my hand. I glanced at his eyes and saw him watching me, the blue irises almost obstructed by narrowed eyelids. I was momentarily captivated at the darkened blue hue, which seemed to happen every time I looked into them.

I looked away and wiped the flour off my hand.

"We should wait for Kristina and Emilio to eat... You want to sit outside by the pool?" I asked him, my voice coming out a little hoarse.

He nodded at me and we both walked outside to the loungers to wait for them in companionable silence. About half hour later, they came down to the kitchen and we all shared a meal. Everyone complimented Nathan on his meal, which was surprisingly delicious; crusted chicken, grilled vegetables and pasta in marinara sauce. I washed up the wares with Kristina helping me, and then Nathan and I retired for the night. At least where Emilio and Kristina were concerned.

I had wanted to go outside and sit on the beach all day, as I had not done that since we arrived at the villa, and tonight I planned on doing just that.