Imaginingmyself at the helm, I knew I would rip apart the current menu and put mysignature on every dish, drink—every inch of this place.
Bythe time I reached my car sometime after eleven p.m., my cheeks hurt fromsmiling so much. I shouldn’t be this happy. Especially since I hadn’t cooked asingle thing today. And yet, I couldn’t help it. Sarita had so much untappedpotential, so much sparkle that had been tarnished by bad leadership andlaziness.
I wouldtake this place to the next level. And then I was going to give Lilou and Wyatta fucking run for their money.
Chapter Seven
“Ineed Sunday off again.”
Wyatt’scold, hard stare found mine across the expo station in Lilou’s kitchen. We werethe first two to arrive atLilouWednesday morningand this was the first chance I’d had to chat with him alone.
“Areyou on the schedule?”
Ibraved his glare and shook my head. “No.”
“Thenwhy do you keep double checking with me?”
Mynerves turned angry at his tone. Like always, this guy had the ability to takeme from zero to sixty in approximately three seconds. “Because I’ll be the oneblamed if you need me and I don’t show up.”
Heleaned forward on his hands, bringing us closer together, trying to intimidateme with his size. But I wouldn’t be intimidated. I mimicked his pose and leanedtoward him. His eyebrows rose at the same time his eyes dropped to my lips,totally throwing me off my game.
Notthat I would let him know that.
“Oh,I always need you, Kaya.” His head dipped closer. “And I always blame that onyou.”
Myheart jumped in my chest and then took off in a sprint. Something warm andforeign pooled in my belly, some long-forgotten instinct that my brain couldn’tname. My vocal chords got on board too, dropping my voice to a softer, sultriertone. “That seems unfair.”
Hisgaze trailed to my lips again. “It’s not my fault. Maybe you shouldn’t make meneed you so badly.”
Butterfliesexploded in my stomach, like surprise firecrackers thrown in a poor,unsuspecting mailbox. My body leaned towards him involuntarily, pulled in bythe deep tone of his voice and the way his brown eyes had gone dark and hot andso utterly hypnotizing. My body was shaky and overly warm and practicallyliquid with lust. Good thing my brain still worked. I was able to throw back asassy, “Maybe you should find someone else to fulfill your needs.”
Hishead dropped again, separating our mouths by only inches. If I wasn’t so short,our faces would be smashed against each other right now.
“We’vealready tried that and it hasn’t worked. It’s got to be you.”
Ishook my head, trying to get a grip on reality. Did he mean in the kitchen? Orsomething else? Something else was crazy right?
Thiswas Wyatt, my biggest problem. And if you asked him, he’d say the same thingabout me. Our dislike was obvious by the way his body was leaned all the way overthe counter toward me and the way I was pushing up on my tiptoes to get closerto him. It would be clear to anyone that saw us how much we couldn’t stand eachother.
Mybody jerked awake with the keen awareness that I was enjoying every second ofWyatt’s attention. I pulled back and smoothed out my tank top, trying to findmy equilibrium again.
Iwas reading too much into this. Wyatt meant he needed me here. In the kitchen.Because I was amazing at what I did. And I was his sous chef. Of course, he reliedon me.
“Youshould probably figure that out then, Wyatt. I’m not always going to be aroundyou know.”
Theheat left his eyes as quickly as it had appeared, and he pulled back intostanding, looking more pissed off than ever. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Hotand cold. Fire and ice. Blazing to glacial in seconds. That was Wyatt. He wasthe same way in the kitchen. He was never calm or even-keeled—his bestattributes when he’d been sous chef for Killian. Now he was volatile. Like anactive volcano buried under layers and layers of ice.
I’dnoticed the change the minute he stepped into his new position. He wasn’t thesame guy I’d cooked next to for years, the same kid that had a lot of growingup to do before his meteoric rise to fame. He was different. More intense, morefocused, more… demanding.
Iturned my back on him and started unrolling my knives. Shrugging to diffuse anyremaining tension, I said nonchalantly, “It means that I won’t always work hereas your number two, Wyatt. I want a kitchen of my own. I’m bound to move oneventually.” Sooner than that, hopefully. But he didn’t need to know all thedirty details. He could find out when I handed over my two weeks’ notice withundisguised glee.
“Yeah,eventually. Maybe. Until then… I mean, I thought we talked about this. I needyou here, Kaya. You taking a bunch of days off isn’t working out for me.”
Ascoffing laugh dislodged itself from the back of my throat. “Oh, I’m so sorryto inconvenience you, Shaw. I’ve taken one day off in more than a month, but ifyou need me to hold your hand that badly, forget I ever said anything. You saythe word and I’ll be here. Every single night. And hell, why stop there. If youneed me to babysit you, I could spoon-feed your meals too. And pick out yourclothes every morning. Tuck you into bed at night. Whatever you need, chef. Ilive to please.”
Hewas behind me in the next second, his hard body pressing against mine, trappingme against the cool stainless-steel counter. I should have been outraged. I wasa tiny female and he was a giant man. I should have been intimidated.
