Hedipped his head down, crowding me with the entirety of his body. “That’s why Ineed you to do it again,” he snarled. “I would do it myself if I fuckingcould.”
Theworld disappeared behind a curtain of red and all I saw was this arrogant chefI wanted to kick in the shins. I opened my mouth to scream at him, but hepressed his hand against my lips before I could make a sound. Ignoring the hatelasers I was shooting out of my eyes, he leaned even closer, dropped his voiceto a whisper and pleaded, “Please, Kaya.”
Itwas the stupid please that disarmed me. And the matching tremor of his voiceand hand. Son of a bitch. I hated this man, I reminded myself. He annoyed theever-loving hell out of me and treated me like I was less than. The duck wasfucking perfect, but he’d said please, so I would reluctantly redo my perfectduck. Goddamn him.
Butthat didn’t mean I wasn’t going to fight back. Faster than I could talk myselfout of it, I opened my mouth and bit his fingers. He pulled back, shaking themout. Our shocked expressions had to mimic each other.
Oh, my god. I just bit my boss!
Iturned around to run away, possibly out of the building altogether, maybe eventhe city, when his hand at my waist stopped me. His mouth moved next to my earand I felt his lips brush against the sensitive flesh of my earlobe.
Hiswords were steel, gritty, deadly serious, but I could barely focus on them withthe press of his hot hand against my waist and his impossibly soft lips againstmy ear. “Careful, Ky,” he warned in a deep, throaty voice. “I bite back.”
Helet me go or I escaped, I would never know which of us moved first. But wesprang apart like cymbals after they’d crashed together in a symphony-endingcrescendo and staunchly ignored the open-mouth staring of our coworkers. Idoubted they’d overheard him whispering in my ear, but they saw it happen.
Thenext time I brought him the duck breast it was unarguably perfect.
Hedidn’t comment. And I didn’t comment. And the duck went out and the dinerdidn’t comment. At least not negatively.
I wasdetermined to totally focus on my job for the rest of the night and completelyforget about the weirdly hot moment between us in the middle of the kitchen andthe frantic butterflies still swarming around in my stomach.
Myresolve lasted for all of twenty minutes when he found a problem with my filet.I decided that I was safe to hate him all over again.
Chapter Five
Aweek later, an incessant buzzing woke me from the deepest sleep. I groped theother side of my gigantic bed in search of it. The last remnants of my dreamflickered in and out of my consciousness. Fingers in my mouth. Biting, but notin a mean way… A hand at my waist… under my shirt… sliding up toward mybreasts… then changing direction and heading to an even better place…
Thebuzzing stopped and started again. I woke up all the way this time realizingthe vibration was my cell phone.
Growlingat the king-size bed that seemed a little ridiculous for a single girl, Ifinally cracked open my eyes and found the damn thing buried in my pillows. I’dforgotten to charge it. Crap.
That’swhat I got for falling asleep reading on my Kindle app. This bed was one of myfew big indulgences. I was a wild sleeper and sometimes even this king didn’tfeel big enough. But I preferred to fall asleep in the very center andunfortunately my charging cord didn’t reach this far.
Hopefullywhoever had decided to disturb me at the ungodly hour of eight-thirty in themorning didn’t need more than eleven percent of my cell battery to convey theirmessage.
“Hello?”I asked, sounding like an eighty-year-old chain smoker.
“Uh,can I speak to Kaya, please?”
Thevoice sounded vaguely familiar, but since coffee wasn’t in play yet my brainwasn’t up to the task of figuring out who it belonged to. “This is her.”
“Ohmy God, Kaya?”
“Uh,yes.”
Thevoice burst into laughter. “I thought you were a man! Did I wake you up?”
Ipushed up on my elbow and tried to decode what was happening on the other endof the phone. “Yeah, you did wake me up.” I yawned, opening my mouth as widelyas humanly possible and asked, “What guy?”
“I’mso sorry, but I seriously thought a man had answered the phone. Like maybe youhad an overnight guest and he’d answered your phone.”
Notan awesome way to start a Friday morning. “Who is this?”
“Vera.”
Vera?Why was Vera calling me? More importantly, why was she waking me up withinsults?
Iyawned again.
