Danger Mine: A Base Branch Novel Read Online Free PDF

she’d happily meet his every request.
    An agitation altogether foreign settled under Khani’s skin. She gnawed her lower lip. The powdery taste of cosmetics pricked her tongue. The new lipstick she’d bought—MAC’s Lady Danger—probably stained the front of her teeth red and had her mouth looking like a well-used hooker’s. She cut her gaze to the cooler of fish at the bar and ran her tongue along the front of her teeth.
    “All set.” Street pulled out a chair at a table against the wall. His open hand offered her to sit, while his expression offered nothing. “I ordered you a water, edamame, and a nigiri tray. Do you want anything else?”
    “Yes.” She pulled out the chair across from him and sat facing the street…both of them. Who the hell named their kid King Street?
    “You are something else.” He shook the crooked smile of his face and sat.
    “I want to know how you know what I order,” she demanded.
    “I asked the waitress.” Street pressed his elbows onto the table and held his palms together. The callused skin of his hand caused her own to dampen. His strong brow dipped. He looked at her with hooded eyes. “Anything else?”
    “Why are you really here?”
    He smiled for the first time. It held more mischief than humor. “I can’t say.”
    “Or won’t.”
    “Can’t. You know how it is. Classified is classified.” He whispered the last of it.
    “Are you transferring?”
    Street held her gaze for a full minute without moving or saying a word.
    Oh, she played strong and silent with the best of them. Talking wasn’t her strong suit anyway. She relaxed back into the chair and scrutinized him as closely as he studied her. Mystery shrouded this man and not in the I-wonder-what-his-hobbies-are kind of way.
    Bloody hell. Mystery led to intrigue. With the way he fucked he didn’t need to add to the temptation. She feared the answer would only pull her deeper under his spell.
    The waitress brought two waters and steaming towels for their hands. She lingered by Street, and then collected his towel and finally hers. “I’ll be right back with your appetizers.”
    The sounds of the low conversation, fidgeting, and mastication filled the silence of their table until the college student, or drop-out, returned. This time she carried two baskets of edamame along with her freshened face and now visible cleavage. Racist or not, Khani hadn’t thought Asian chicks had cleavage. Apparently everyone did, but her. The waitress sat the food in front of each of them and batted her lashes toward Khani’s dinner companion.
    Khani straightened in her seat so quickly the young woman severed the string of drool she leaked over Street and looked at her. “You can leave now.”
    The waitress’s mouth opened, but no words came out. Her eyes jumped from her to Street in rapid succession, before landing on Khani. She stepped backward. Her foot hit the chair at another table. The move must have bolstered her courage. She rebounded. “I didn’t think you two were together.”
    Street leaned closer, his eyes intent and mouth curved.
    Loath to answer the unspoken question for fear of pleasing either one of them with her answer, she planted her forearm on the table. Her hand crowned with a fist widened the waitress’s eyes, but also screwed up the woman’s mouth in defiance. Her long, board-straight hair fanned as she turned and stalked away.
    Great. Now the little bird would spit on her food. Or worse.
    She snapped her gaze to Street. “You enjoy that?”
    “Immensely,” he grinned.
    Khani gawked at the food. “How much do you think I eat?” In the excitement, she forgot about her silence. Blast it.
    “Not nearly as much as I do.” He removed both baskets from the mound of green pods, and then plucked one from the bowl. His lips parted. The end of the husk disappeared into his mouth. He pulled the thing out slowly, dragging his lips over the skin as he had her skin too long ago.
    Fuck it all.
    In no mood for