Free Into the Fire by Amanda Usen

he’d discovered beneath his older brother’s bed when he was twelve, and suddenly Lila was naked in his imagination, rubbing honey on her thighs.
    “Jackson?” she called over her shoulder, already halfway across the dining room.
    He grinned. His subconscious had provided an excellent antidote to stress. Every time Lila pissed him off, he’d picture her naked. It would save his teeth and restore his good humor at the same time. There only drawback to this plan—his erection. “Be right there. Make yourself at home in the kitchen.”
    She shrugged and disappeared through the door.
    When she was out of sight, he stood up and walked across the room to the bar. He grabbed a clean apron to cover himself. When that didn’t do the job well enough, he pictured a starving kitten, but since he didn’t really like cats, nothing happened. Starving puppies? Abused orphans? C’mon, boy, is that the best you can do? He snorted as his father’s voice in his head produced the desired result—an instant wilt. At least his father’s scorn was good for something.
    He pushed through the door and entered the kitchen, where Lila had already grabbed an apron and wrapped it around her waist. “What took you so long?”
    “I had to call my lawyer,” he lied.
    She yanked the reach-in open with such force he decided not to mention his lawyer in her presence lest he risk having to call the repairman. For several long minutes, he stood behind her while she examined every component in the cooler. “Got spoons?” she asked without turning around.
    He handed her a basket of tasting spoons as well as an empty basket for the dirty ones. Impatience built inside him as he followed her through the kitchen, watching her explore every nook and cranny. He wasn’t sure what was going on in her head, but she looked at each dish in the dish room, every liquor in the bar, all the ingredients in dry storage, and countless containers in the cooler. Her hair was tied in a knot on top of her head, and by the time she was finished, he had memorized the shape of the back of her neck.
    Lila bent to reach lower in the cooler, and Jack shut his eyes. She might drive him crazy with her superior attitude, but Lila Grant had a fantastic ass. When he was sure she was standing upright again, he opened his eyes. He hadn’t thought much further than getting her to agree to help him open Inferno. Now he realized he had another problem on his hands—his dick didn’t understand his relationship with Lila had undergone major changes. Not that a couple of hook ups qualified as a relationship, but whatever, she worked for him now. He had to focus on something in the kitchen other than her ass.
    Since their agreement was temporary, he couldn’t leave her to explore the kitchen on her own. Any changes Lila made to his menu would get him through the rest of the summer and fall, maybe even winter, but he needed to be able to deconstruct her magic in order to create future menus. Nope, he was going to watch her every move. His father wouldn’t be breathing down his neck for at least a week, and with Lila in the kitchen, his menu was all but fixed. All he had to do was pay attention.
    …
    Lila was stalling. She could feel Jack’s intent gaze on her. Was he waiting for her to bend over and pull a new, improved menu out of her ass? It wasn’t going to happen. In fact, she had no clue how to fix his menu.
    Because it wasn’t broken. In fact, it was brilliant, and she loved it, but she couldn’t very well say that, could she? Not when it was so much fun to let him think she hated it.
    She closed the door of the last reach-in and carried her spoons to the dish room. Jack followed her, of course. “Back off, Jack. Don’t you have anything better to do?”
    “Not at the moment, since you’re doing my job. I don’t want to miss all the magic.” Why did he sound pissed off? She was the one who was scrambling to figure out how to improve a menu that was already