Free The Encounter by Kelly Kathleen

door, but found it wide open with the sound of his car squealing in the driveway. It always makes that noise when you cold start it and then he was driving down the street with his cell phone attached to his ear. Picking up the phone, I still got just a dial tone and then I turned and ran straight into Chance.
    The hard muscles of his chest stopped my forward momentum and my hands were pressed up against his stomach.
    He didn’t have a shirt on and looked like he had been working out. There were droplets of sweat on his chest and his face was flushed. I was kind of hoping that his condition was because of being in close proximity of me. “I heard a noise and thought that something was wrong.” It was then that I remembered about the painting crashing against the floor and he probably thought that somebody was attacking the house and came to see if he could lend some assistance. “I was up anyway and I guess I should go and put my shirt on.” It was obvious that the noise had made him move quickly, forgetting about his half naked state, not that I was complaining.
    “You don’t have to on my account and I was just going to the kitchen to have breakfast, if you want to join me. I would suggest that you stay away from the windows, but I think that you already know that.” He was still standing in front of me, the door was open and if Diana was standing at her window like she always is, there was no telling what she would say or do. Reaching back, I grabbed the doorknob and closed the door before Diana could see anything that she could use against me.
    “I could eat, but why don’t you let me cook for you.” I was one lucky girl and now had two guys that could cook, when I could barely boil water for the coffee. “I think that I could manage to make an omelet, just as long as you have the eggs and some of the fixings to go along with it.” He wasn’t even bothering with putting on a shirt and I wasn’t going to ask him to. The longer he was without the shirt, the better it was for me. Come to think of it, I wasn’t wearing all that much myself and I could almost feel his eyes on me as I made my way towards the kitchen
    Watching him at the stove, I marveled at the fact that he could work his magic in the kitchen, even though he probably had his hand in killing people with those very same hands. “I never did learn to cook and I suppose I should find time to learn. It would be nice to make a home cooked meal without microwaving it from an easy and convenient box. I’m not saying that there aren’t meals out there that are worth eating from a box, because I have had some wonderful meals like that. The last few weeks, I’ve been eating alone and you can imagine that I wasn’t exactly up to trying my hand at making something for myself.”
    “Cecily, it might seem weird that I am proficient in the kitchen, especially considering my line of work, but I have my mother to thank for that. She thought it was a good idea for a man to know how to cook, clean and do his own laundry before he was at the age of 10 years old. In the times that I could be out playing with my friends, I was baking cookies and, actually learning how to make some of the finer delicacies including beef Wellington and lobster risotto. My mother was an accomplished cook and even though she didn’t take any formal training, she was by far something of a whiz in the kitchen. My father wasn’t exactly loving and it didn’t matter what she put in front of him, he would always find something to complain about. I think that was the reason why she left us in the first place.” I was learning a little bit more about Chance and what made him the man he is today.
    “I’m sorry that you didn’t have a good childhood and I’m very sorry that your mother left you so young. I guess she thought that she could leave you and you could take care of yourself with everything that she taught you. She basically made it so that you could stand on your own 2 feet