Free Just One Taste (Kimani Romance) by Celeste O. Norfleet Page A

sudden the fervent passion slowed to seductive teasing once again. He tenderly embraced the smooth curve of her neck, cradled the back of her head and dipped his forehead to hers. He waited a few moments, then he leaned back. “Maybe we should go inside.”
    She nodded. “Yeah, good idea,” she said, taking his hand and leading him down the narrow path to the front door. She opened it and walked into complete darkness. She toggled the light switch, but nothing happened. “Hold on. The bulb must have blown out.” Seconds later a light came on in the small living room. “Come on in,” she said, “and have a seat. I’ll be right back.” She turned on the sound system as she walked by. Smooth jazz began playing instantly.
    Chase walked into the small living room and looked around. It was the perfect beach cottage with distressed oak floors, scatter rugs and whitewashed walls with matching wainscoting. There were two large, white linen, overstuffed loveseats separated by an oblong coffee table topped with several cookbooks, one authored by Nikita Coles. He picked it up and thumbed through the pages.
    It was a mixture of colorful food and table settings, photographs, recipes, party planning guides and anecdotal suggestions for avoiding kitchen disasters. He turned to the page with a photo of Nikita laughing with a man at her side. Chase recognized him instantly. He was her ex-fiancé, Reed Blackwell.
    He knew the story. Nikita and Reed were engaged but he had apparently wanted to still play around. Reed walked out on her the day of their wedding, then returned five days later married to his best friend’s sister and begged Nikita to take him back. She refused. When his family found out that he’d given Nikita land and this cottage as an engagement gift, they were furious and demanded it back. She refused and the courts all sided with her since she’d legally bought it from him for one dollar and a kiss. That same land was now worth millions and even more to Titan. Chase shook his head. “Hell hath no fury…”
    “Hey, remember me?”
    He turned, seeing Nikita standing in the archway holding a bottle of wine, a corkscrew and two glasses. The lights behind her made her glow in stunning brilliance. He smiled in pure admiration. She walked over to see what he was holding. He turned to the front cover. “Your cookbook looks pretty interesting,” he said. “Where can I get a copy?”
    “Unfortunately you can’t. It’s out of print now. But it did pretty well a few years ago. Wine?” she offered.
    “Sure.” He put the book back on the coffee table and took the bottle from her. She held the glasses as he opened it and poured, then placed the bottle down. She handed him his glass and he held it up to toast. “Here’s to releases.”
    She smiled, toasted and sipped her wine, then sat down in one of the comfortable love seats. He sat beside her. “You’re a very private man,” she said. He nodded. “I have a feeling you know a lot more about me than you let on. But I don’t know much about you.”
    “You didn’t search me on the internet?” he questioned.
    “Yeah, I did,” she admitted freely. They both knew everyone searched Google for everyone. “But there’s not a lot of personal information listed on you—only a lot of business stuff that seems to bring up more questions than they answer. For instance, it doesn’t mention an ex-wife or an ex-fiancée, so I assume you’ve never been in a committed relationship.” He nodded. “There was something that mentioned that you were in an accident recently.”
    “I was. My car hit some ice and I slid into a tree.”
    “Are you okay?”
    He smiled and nodded. “Yes, I’m fine. It happened several months ago. What else do you want to know about me?”
    “You have a slight accent. Where are you from originally?”
    “I was born in Alaska. When I was two weeks old my mother moved to Europe for a new start. I’ve lived in France, Switzerland, England,