Free Skinny Bitch in Love by Kim Barnouin

spices to the food processor, and then got busy slicing scallions and then shallots. I found myself moving a bit closer to him. My right arm brushed against his left one, and a freak tingle shot up my spine. From his arm .
    “They were good listeners.”
    He looked right at me, and we just oogled each other for a very long moment. Dammit.
    I nodded, trying to break whatever this crazy thing was that was happening between us. “Yeah, animals are amazing listeners. I grew up telling our chickens and dogs and cats my life story and my sob stories.”
    “I can’t imagine you had an awkward period,” he said, peering into the pan, where the spice-dredged tofu sizzled on low heat.
    “Actually, I did. Before braces and filling out some I looked like a bucktoothed pole.” He didn’t need to know that until I discovered Frizz-Ease as a fourteen-year-old, I also had Bellatrix Lestrange’s hair, only blond.
    “Well, it seems to have worked out okay,” he said, looking right into my eyes again. “You can’t tell me you’re not seeing anyone.”
    A little jolt spiked up the back of my neck. “Nope.”
    “Well, that must mean you’re getting over someone, then.”
    I turned to face him. “How do you know that?”
    “Because you’re beautiful. And passionate about what you do. Like I said, you’re doing your own thing, Clementine. It’s very attractive. So if you were interested in a relationship, I’m sure you’d have one.”
    I turned back to the pan and added the veggies. “Something ended six months ago. Badly—for me, anyway. So I put blinders on and focused on getting promoted to sous chef and chef, and I thought it worked. But then—”
    I stopped talking. He didn’t need to know every detail of my life.
    “But then what?” he asked, stepping closer until he was right next to me, his back to the counter, our shoulders touching.
    He didn’t move. And neither did I.
    “Someone blindsided me again and I got fired from a top restaurant. That’s why I’m trying to get the Skinny Bitch biz off the ground—being a personal chef, offering cooking classes so that one day I can open Clementine’s No Crap Café.”
    “So do you think The Silver Steer and your Skinny Bitch world can coexist on Montana and 14th?”
    I smiled. “I wouldn’t have thought so, but maybe.”
    He lifted up my chin with his hand and leaned down and kissed me.
    “You just kissed me,” I said like an idiot. Duh.
    “Yeah, I did. Couldn’t help myself. I guess that means we’re not enemies anymore.”
    “I never said that .”
    He laughed. “I’ve always liked a challenge.”
    Yeah, no kidding. And remember that, Clem. A zillionaire who gets everything he wants? Of course, he’s interested in the vegan who doesn’t worship at his feet like every other woman probably does. Remember that. Live it. Don’t be lured. “You know what I find challenging? Making sure blackened tofu doesn’t get so black that it’s burned to a crisp,” I said, turning off the burner and plating the stir-fry. The tofu was fine, but I wasn’t.
    “I’ll let you focus on your work,” he said, staring at me for a moment. “I’ll get out the stuff for the portobello burger. I admit I like the sound of that better than the tofu stir-fry, but my chef—Walker—says both will definitely move.”
    As he opened the refrigerator, I could still feel the imprint of his lips on mine.
    And then he was standing in front of me, kissing me again. Instead of taking my own advice, instead of not being lured, I kissed him back. Hard.
    The doorbell rang, and Zach went on kissing me as though someone wasn’t obsessively pressing the bell over and over.
    Like a girlfriend.
    “It’s like someone knows you’re here and isn’t giving up,” I said, heart unexpectedly plummeting. I shouldn’t care.
    The bell would not stop ringing.
    “Excuse me,” he said, looking pissed.
    He stepped outside and closed the door behind him, so, of course, I went right to the