he countered. “We’ll each prepare a dish and see which one tastes better.” He hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her in close, leaning down to brush a kiss to the side of her neck. “Come on. I’m hungry.”
They went into the kitchen, and Yaseen started pulling things out of the cupboards. He found lamb from the market in the fridge, along with everything he’d need for a simple savory sauce. He set it all out on the counter, then turned to find Kara getting a bag of rice down from a high cupboard.
“Rice?” he teased. “You think you’re up to that challenge?”
She sashayed past him to the spice rack. “I’m more than up to the challenge. If you keep staring at me like that, you’ll never have your dish done on time.”
“Oh, is there a time limit?” He caught her up close to him again.
“Not fair,” Kara said. “You can’t pin me in place, then expect me to cook.”
“Can’t I? What if I do it like this?” He spun her gently, slowly, over to the counter and turned her away from him, so her body pressed up against his.
Kara leaned back against him. “This might be fine, but with the cooking, I’ll need room to bend.” She bent forward just enough to drive Yaseen wild. “Do you think you’ll be able to stand it?”
He stepped away with a low groan. “If the house was completely empty, I’d have you on that counter.”
Kara clicked her tongue. “You will not. This is a competition, Yaseen, and you need to take it seriously.”
He threw himself into cooking, shocked to find himself enjoying it. It helped that Kara made a point of brushing against him at every opportunity. He made a point of kissing the back of her neck every time she went by. He delighted in the goosebumps that rose on her skin and the way she laughed, low and breathy.
It wasn’t quite an hour and a half later when they sat down in the small dining room, one with a picture window looking out over the mountains. Yaseen served his lamb dish and Kara served her rice. The fragrant scent lifted from the plate and made his stomach growl.
“Oh.” Kara tipped her head back, eyes closed. “It’s so good. I underestimated you. You do know your way around the kitchen.”
He took a bite of her rice, rich with spices and dotted with golden raisins and pine nuts. It tasted as good as it smelled. “So do you.”
“I wonder if the baby will inherit any of our cooking skills.” Kara smiled down at her plate. “I suppose that’ll be up to us.” Her eyes flicked up to his and back down. “Do you think you’ll have time to teach our child to cook, or will all your other responsibilities make that impossible?”
“I don’t think much is truly impossible if you put your mind to it,” said Yaseen. He looked into her eyes. “For instance, it wouldn’t be impossible to open up that envelope from the doctor and find out whether we’re having a girl or a boy.”
Kara sucked in a breath. The anatomy scan had been almost two months ago, and she hadn’t wanted to know. “I’ll find out when the baby is born.” He didn’t see irritation in her eyes, only amusement. “Why do you want to know so badly?”
“The fewer surprises, the better,” he told her.
“Do you have a bad history with surprises?”
“I prefer to know,” insisted Yaseen. They went back and forth for the rest of the meal, eventually circling back around to the kids on the football field. When the food was gone Yaseen stood up and cleared the plates. The two of them went back into the kitchen and tipped all the dishes into the sink. He filled it with water and took a cloth from beneath the sink, washing each one. Kara stood at his side to dry.
He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Is this what a normal marriage is like?”
She giggled. “Our marriage will never be normal.”
“We can make it into anything we want it to be.” He’d never believed it until this moment. “Maybe this is our normal.”
Kara stepped closer, tipping her face toward his. He leaned down and kissed her. She tasted his bottom lip with her tongue, and his body leapt in response. Kara flicked her eyes down to the front of his pants. “Leave the dishes, Yaseen. There’s something we need to do in