Page 37 of Keeping Kara

She leaned her head into his touch and closed her eyes for a brief moment.

Everything she did blew Chaos away. Somehow, by some miracle, Nolan hadn’t crushed her spirit.

Chaos ran his thumb lightly over her warm cheek, where he imagined her tears had fallen. Then, slowly, he moved his hand to her hair, and gently ran his palm over its length. It was now clean and soft. It took every ounce of his control not to shove his hand in deep, tangle the blonde locks in his grip, and bring her toward him for a kiss.

They stared at each other for a beat, and Chaos wished he knew what she was thinking. He didn’t see fear in her eyes, which was a relief.

A knock at the door startled them both, making an amused huff escape her lips.

Grinning, Chaos reluctantly dropped his hand and turned to get the door. He tipped the woman delivering the pizzas and carried the boxes into the kitchen. He’d gotten two larges, a double order of cheesy bread, and of course the fried pickles Kara requested.

He had a small table next to the kitchen, but thanks to the delicious smell, he was suddenly starving and didn’t even want to wait to get plates or sit down. Kara seemed to be on the same wavelength, because when he opened one of the boxes, she helped herself to a slice and immediately brought it to her mouth.

She closed her eyes and moaned at the first taste of the gooey concoction.

The sound made Chaos stiffen…all over.

Fuck. He needed to get a handle on his libido. Kara wasn’t there for sex. And she shouldn’t have to deal with his out-of-control hormones.

Shifting so he wasn’t facing her directly, desperately trying to hide his erection, he grabbed his own slice of pizza and took a bite.

It was as delicious as her reaction made it seem.

Maybe it was the fact that it had been a while since he’d eaten. Maybe it was the near-death experience that made him appreciate the little things in life. Or maybe it was the company.

Chaos felt completely comfortable standing in his kitchen pigging out with Kara, matching each other bite for bite. The bread and pickles were also delicious, but it was the pizza that truly hit the spot.

They both managed to eat four slices of pizza. Kara started to transfer the leftover slices to the other box to put in the fridge, but Chaos stopped her.

“Wait, I have a container for pizza.”

She looked confused. “A container for pizza?” she echoed, as he crouched and dug around in one of the lower cabinets.

Chaos smiled as he stood, holding what he’d been looking for. It was a triangle-shaped silicone container, about four inches high, with an airtight locking lid. It was designed to stack pizza slices on top of each other. It saved a ton of room in the refrigerator and was one of the coolest inventions Chaos had ever seen.

“Holy crap, that’s genius!” Kara exclaimed, when he started putting the slices inside.

“Right?” he asked with a grin.

“Do I even want to know where you found that?”

“A social media ad, where else?” he told her.

“You’re on social media?”

Chaos shrugged. “I don’t doomscroll or anything, but my mom is on there, and it’s an easy way to see what she’s up to, because she posts a ton of pictures of her garden and homestead. It’s easy to stay in touch with her on there, as well.”

“Are you allowed to have accounts? I mean, I’m guessing the Army isn’t too keen on their super-pilots sharing things for the world to see.”

“I use my real name, which not a lot of people know. I post no personal pictures…hell, I barely post at all. I have a total of five friends on there, and my account is locked down. My profile picture is of a random cat I found online.”

“Oh, all right then. But how in the world did you see an ad for a leftover pizza container if you’re not on there much and never post? Isn’t that stuff all based on algorithms and stuff?”

Chaos grinned. He realized he was having a good time. The conversation was inane and had nothing to do with anything, but that’s what made it…nice. “Probably because my mom sent me an invite to an online Tupperware party as a joke. The algos took it from there.”

Kara giggled. “Yeah, that would do it. Well, however you found this, it’s awesome. I’m gonna have to…”

Her voice trailed off and she frowned, as if she just remembered she didn’t have a fridge to put leftover pizza in anymore. That she didn’t have anything.