Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81113 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Waking her up with my fingers between her legs and driving her wild before sliding into her from behind, fucking her roughly, my hand wrapped around her throat as she buried her face and those noises of hers into the pillow. Then going downstairs…
I bet she made a mean breakfast.
No matter how hard I tried - no pun intended - Stevie stayed on my mind all through the day. When I finally got to the restaurant I found myself praying it was busy not for financial reasons but because I needed a damn distraction from her. I needed an excuse to stay away from her or I was worried I’d do something stupid like bend her over a table and fuck her, not caring who was around, just wanting to make her scream and moan.
I didn’t have a whole lot of hope that I’d actually have a busy restaurant to walk into. The weekends were a busy time for any restaurant, and they were still better than our weekdays, but the traffic had slowed down significantly. I stopped at the host stand to check our log books on OpenTable and…
Hey.
We actually had a few reservations. Not many, but it was better than having none, which was how we’d been looking lately. That was… that was good. Word must have gotten around from last night. News traveled fast in this city, just like any other.
Maybe things were looking up - and if they were, then I knew who I had to thank. Stevie.
It was probably stupid, but hey, maybe she really could change things around. She was determined enough for it, anyway.
My plan to stay away from her evaporated and I strode back to the kitchen, eager to see her again. I had to, like an itch I couldn’t scratch, deep in me down to my bones. I knew this was nothing short of dangerous. I was attracted to her more than I’d been attracted to anyone in so long, I could hardly stand it. It was like my body was on fire and I had to let it burn, couldn’t put it out.
As I got into the kitchen, I halted, lightning striking my chest, a growl bubbling out of my throat.
Cameron, Mr. Charismatic himself, was standing on the line, his arm around Stevie’s shoulders as he motioned towards the grill, saying something in a voice low enough that I couldn’t pick it up across the space.
Stevie started to laugh in response to whatever he was saying, and Cameron grinned in triumph. He leaned in a little closer and said something else.
I might not have been able to tell what he was saying, but his body language spoke fucking volumes. He was flirting with her.
I couldn’t even begin to process the feeling at first, it was so strong and so unexpected. I hadn’t been like this in three years, hadn’t felt like this in three years, not since I found Theo fucking my wife.
Jealousy.
Chapter Eight: Stevie
Cameron was… one of those guys who thought he had it all. Who thought that everyone wanted him and all he had to do was say a few smooth words and they’d be his.
If he thought that I didn’t know what he was doing, or that I liked it, he was going to have another thing coming.
He put his arm around me as I was trying to get the steaks ready for the night, telling me that Theo had told him that the perfect grill temperature for a steak is 480 degrees.
Right. Yeah. Thank you. I’m the head chef and I went through culinary school but I definitely need a server to tell me how to cook a steak.
Ugh.
“I’m way hotter than that,” Cameron said. “I could cook a steak just by touching it.”
Okay, that was such an awful pun it was actually kind of funny. I laughed, and then—Cameron leaned in.
“I feel like we got off on the wrong foot,” he told me, his voice warm. “How about I make it up to you? Take you out for drinks, we can get to know each other… see what else we can learn about each other…”
Oh for fuck’s sake.
I was just about to get his arm off me and tell him I was his damn boss and no fucking way, when I felt another presence coming towards us.
Growing up, I loved watching those nature documentaries about lions and other big cats. And sometimes, one random lion would try to make a move on a lioness that was in another pride.
The way the male lion would stalk towards his rival was exactly what I sensed in Michael now as I turned and saw him striding towards us. Holy shit. I swear my knees nearly buckled.
“What are you doing on the line?” Michael barked, looking at Cameron like Cameron was spitting on the steak. “You’re supposed to be working the front of the house. I don’t want to see you lounging around and I especially don’t want to see you trying out your worn, corny pickup lines on my kitchen workers.”