Adam and Elle
If you’ve just come from my post More Than Just a Snack here’s that second snippet.
Shifting gears to a snippet from my currently in-editing-hell novel, Running the Asset, there’s a very different interaction. In the scene, Adam prepares a meal for Elle, and uses her hunger as a way to get her talking. It’s not just about slaking their hunger. It’s about the push and pull of their dynamic and the simmering romance beneath the suspense.
Adam’s eyes bored into her. “Get your arse into the chair.” Thankfully, he yanked out one of the more comfortable bar stools for her. He opened the fridge, rummaging around like he owned the place and had a right to touch all her things.
“Help yourself, why don’t you?” The moment he turned to look at her, Elle realised her mistake. The man had a gun and could move fast, and she seemed to have the uncanny ability to piss him off just by breathing.
He ignored her and returned his attention to the contents of her fridge. “What’s the deal with you and Dani? You act like she’s a kid who constantly needs you hovering over her.” He pulled out some cheese and some leftover chorizo.
“Look who’s got all the questions now.” She sat. Why was she poking the bear?
He grabbed a frying pan from the hanging rack above the gas hob and drizzled some oil into it. “She seems capable of living by herself.” He cracked some eggs into the pan and washed his hands, drying them as he waited for an answer.
There was no hope of her getting out of answering his questions, not if she wanted to go hungry as well as without sleep or a shower. “She had a hard time adjusting to civilian life.” That wasn’t true. “They left her to die out there.” Elle blinked back the tears that pricked at her eyes. “And she was so angry that I knew she was going to get herself jailed or worse.”
Adam nodded like he understood Dani’s need for revenge against the government that had abandoned her. “Did she ever manage to do anything?” He asked the question casually enough, moving the eggs in the pan while he kept an eye on her.
“Do you seriously think I’m dumb enough to incriminate my sister? Not that she did anything.” Not that she’d blame Dani for trying. Everyone involved in Dani getting caught up in that ambush deserved to suffer, and Elle was at the top of that list.
And now she’d gotten Rosa killed.
“Why do you look so guilty then?”
Shit. She had to be careful around him. Adam seemed just as skilled in reading people as Trevor —if not more so. “Rosa’s dead because of me.”
He nodded, not disagreeing with her or giving her any empty platitudes. “What happened with you two?”
Pain speared her, but she covered it with a shrug. “We were together, then we weren’t.”
Adam pointed to the cupboards behind him. “Plates?”
“Dishwasher.”
“There’s got to be more than that,” he said as he doled out the frittata between two plates. He slid one of the plates to Elle. “How long were you together?”
“Why do you want to know? Is this some form of torture?” She took a fork full of the eggy concoction and stifled a moan of pleasure. She could imagine possibly going for a guy like him in some alternate reality. Well, almost like him, he’d have to lose the attitude for a start.