“Risotto?” I snorted. “Please. It’s unoriginal. Besides, it looks like a pile of vomit dumped on the plate. All that beige. No one’s going to be taking pictures and bragging about that.”
Grey made a face. “I wish you hadn’t said that about the vomit.”
I laughed. “Don’t worry,” I said. “You can order mine. Do your orders count, too?”
“I would like to say no, but…” he winked slyly. “After all, I am the contest’s judge.”
“Then maybe the judge would like a plate tonight when I’m serving?” I asked. “I only have a few orders to get through. I can handle one more.”
It was Grey’s turn to laugh at my confidence – and the way I’d described over twenty orders of the scallops, along with all the other orders we had to prepare for other dishes from the menu, as ‘a few’. “Only if you serve itpersonally,” Grey said, his eyes raking over me suggestively. “I’d love to see you in my office.”
Holy shit, Beau was right. This is one horny asshole. “To eat, right?” I joked. “I don’t want my beautiful food to go to waste.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I’m very hungry,” Grey said, making no secret of his long stare towards my groin.
I laughed again. My dick didn’t even twitch at the thought of it. Grey simply wasn’t my type. “I’d better make a move here,” I said, dropping the flirtatious tone for something more casual so he knew I was ending the joke. “We’ve only got a little while left before service, and someone just added an extra plate to my orders.”
Grey chuckled and shook his head in amusement, leaning the other way to look around the kitchen. Seeing that he had accepted the end of the conversation, I quickly ducked past him.
I’d been chopping a lot of vegetables into very precise squares for the mosaic. I needed something to take the edge off.
I walked casually past Grey as if nothing was the matter and headed for the walk-in. I closed the door behind me and quickly cast around for a tray of more veggies – I’d learned from the last time that Nikolai almost caught me. Keeping my attention on thedoor, I grabbed the bag of pills from my pocket and shuffled one out into my hand.
I thought about it for a millisecond and shook a second one down to join it.
I had the bag back in my pocket when the door opened behind me, and I moved the pills to my mouth fast – hiding the gesture in a reach for the tray. I’d swallowed them dry by the time I turned around.
Grey was standing there with a smirk on his face.
“Here?” he said. “Don’t you think we’d be better off in my office? Or at least somewhere warm?”
I stared at him for a long moment. His words made his intentions obvious, but I was having trouble seeing how he came by them.
“I came in to get some more vegetables for prep,” I said.
“Uh-huh.” Grey sidled closer to me, leaving the door open behind him. “You don’t need to play hard to get, you know. It’s just us now.” His hand drifted up to brush through my hair and I ducked away.
“I’m serious,” I said. “I told you I need to get on with plating. You didn’t think that was a come-on, did you?”
He had thought it was a come-on; I’d already figured that out. The look that passed over his face was just confirmation. “You’re a tease,” he accused. “What, you’re trying to get me all worked up so I can’t resist you? I’m here, already. It’s done. No need to keep playing.”
“I’m not…” I sighed and set the tray down. I had a feeling it could end up being a casualty if Grey continued not to take no for an answer, and I didn’t want to waste food. “The flirting? It’sjust flirting. I’m just a flirty kind of guy. That’s it. I don’t mean anything by it.”
“Oh, come on,” Grey said, making an expansive gesture. “It’s justsex. A guy like you enjoys sex – I can tell from the way you are. You enjoy casual fucks, and lots of them. You’re going to turn down one more that could get you the job you’ve been wanting so much?”
I stared at him. He was so open about it. If I slept with him, I got the job?
Fuck that. I wanted to get the job because I was a good chef. No other reason.
At least I knew now, from Beau’s insider information, that Rafael was never going to sleep with Grey, either.
“Mr. Monaghan, let me make myself clear,” I said, deliberately going formal so that he would remember our respective roles here. “I’m not going to sleep with you. You’re my boss, and that would be very inappropriate. Nor would I ever sleep with you if you stopped being my boss just to try and get in my pants. I’m not going to sleep with you. Not even for the job.”
Grey tilted his head. For a man who had just been rejected, he looked strangely calm about it. “How about a blowjob?”
I stared at him with my nostrils flaring until he lifted his hands and backed off.
“Whatever,” he said. “You want to make Head Chef the hard way. Fine by me. Let’s see who wins.”
