Free Detect Me by Selma Wolfe Page A

Apparently she slept in t-shirts, because all she wore was an oversize shirt that skimmed her mid-thighs.
    A burning smell reached Mark’s nose and he hastily turned his gaze back to the frying pan.
    “Grshnrk,” Nikki mumbled. She snuffled and ran her fingers through her hair, which Mark knew because he’d immediately abandoned the pancakes to look back at her again. It seemed impossible to look away.
    She blinked heavily, and then seemed to come awake. Nikki’s pretty eyes flew open wide and her hands went to the hem of her shirt, tugging it down.
    “Um,” Nikki said, looking more awake but completely flustered. Mark wished he didn’t think it was adorable. Sexy he could deal with. He lived in New York, there were supermodels walking down the street past him every day. But adorable? That was definitely trouble. “Hi? Good morning. I sort of forgot…”
    “Pants?” Mark couldn’t help suggesting. Nikki glared at him.
    “That you were here,” she finished. She shuffled away back to her bedroom, still pulling at the hem of her shirt. “But yes, also pants. I’ll just go… fix that.”
    A few minutes later she emerged from her bedroom, now looking properly awake and clothed. Mark immediately missed those bare legs, but even Nikki’s relatively modest outfit of jeans and a simple white tee drew his eye to her curves. He was getting the feeling that maybe he wouldn’t be able to look away from her no matter what she wore.
    “Pancakes, as promised,” Mark said, trying to break the stream of thoughts flowing through his head. He tilted the pan to let Nikki see the slightly burned evidence.
    Nikki looked at the pancakes for a moment, and then at his arm. A small furrow formed in the middle of her forehead. She looked concerned. About him.
    It had been a long time since someone had been concerned about him.
    “Should you be doing that? Is your arm hurting?” Nikki moved forward to stand beside him and peering at the bandage, which was thankfully still white and clean.
    Mark shook his head and grinned at her, slighty self-conscious. “Trust me, I’ve had worse,” he said.
    Nikki’s frown didn’t go away. “That so?” she said quietly. “How much worse?”
    His blood froze in his veins and suddenly he felt cold. He put the pan down on the stovetop.
    “Bad enough,” he said, wishing he could go back five minutes ago to when Nikki was stammering and he’d felt happy.
    Mark could feel Nikki’s eyes on him, but he stared determinedly at the pan.
    After a few moments gentle fingers brushed his good elbow.
    “Breakfast looks great,” Nikki said. She tugged at his arm and Mark followed without stopping to think about it. She led him the few steps across the kitchen to sit at the small table in the corner. “You’ve done the hard stuff. Sit down and give me a sec; I’ll grab the syrup.”
    It was strange and unfamiliar, sitting there in comfortable silence and eating. What Mark remembered from cohabiting was yelling and claustrophobia. But maybe it had been better at the beginning. It must have been, right? This was probably just an illusion too.
    “These are great,” Nikki mumbled through a mouth of pancake.
    “Hope so,” Mark said, glancing down at a sticky mass of syrup and butter. “I make it at least once a week.”
    “Wow. You must really like pancakes.”
    He nodded. “It’s partially that. Mostly it’s that I don’t know how to cook anything else.” He couldn’t help a grin when Nikki snorted.
    There were only a couple flapjacks left and their forks rested on their plates. Nikki stood and started to gather up the plates and cutlery.
    “So…” Nikki dropped the silverware into the sink with a rattle and turned around, bracing herself against the kitchen counter. She worried at her bottom lip with her teeth. “What next? I mean… Ghost’s still out there. What do you think she’s going to do next? Not that… well, I guess it doesn’t have anything to do with me,