The Hotshot Chef: A Billionaire Holiday Romance (International Bad Boys Set Book 3)

by JA Low

“Why are you freaking out?” Sebastien asks me.

  “One, because I slept over here in your room last night, which we both agreed we wouldn’t have sleepovers while filming. And two, Layla is coming to pick up the clothes in like two minutes, and if she sees me here like this, our little late-night orgasms are over.” I point at him as I pull my underwear up the throw on my dress, and chuck my hair up into a messy ponytail.

  I lean over and kiss him. “See ya later.” I poke my head out the door to double-check the coast is clear, which it is, then I step out of Sebastien’s room and try and act cool as if I haven’t fallen asleep in my co-star’s bed.

  I get to my door and twist the knob, but not before I hear my name.

  “Quinn.”

  “Ahhh…” I squeal at Layla’s voice right behind me.

  Where the hell did she come from?

  “You scared me,” I tell her as I hold my chest.

  Layla looks me over, her eyes narrow.

  “Are you just getting home?” She raises a brow in my direction.

  “What. No. Ha ha,” I chuckle. “I went for a walk,” I tell her.

  “Must have been a pretty short walk from Sebastien’s room to here.” She grins.

  Busted!

  “This might sound utterly unprofessional, but high-five, girl.”

  Um. Wow!

  “Don’t worry, Kevin’s not going to find out from me. My lips are sealed, but just be careful… the corridors have eyes,” she whispers. “And if Kevin finds out, that little romantic stunt last night is going to get worse,” Layla warns me.

  I knew it.

  “I really appreciate your discretion, Layla,” I tell her.

  She shakes her head. “Most people are rooting for you after the whole Chad thing. You deserve better. Anyway, I’m here for your dress and jewels, please.” I dash inside my hotel room and grab all the items she needs, then give them to her. “And don’t worry, I never saw a thing.” And with that, she turns on her heel and disappears down the hallway.

  As I close the door behind me, I grab my cell and quickly text Sebastien. Moments later, there’s a knock at my door. I open it, and I’m surprised to see Sebastien standing there. I nervously look around to make sure the coast is clear before letting him inside my room.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask.

  He reaches out and kisses me slowly.

  “What was that for?” Pulling myself away from him.

  “Just trying to calm you down.” He grins.

  “I’m glad you think this is funny.” My tone turns serious which makes him frown. “I mean as a man in the media, a sex scandal won’t harm your reputation at all.”

  Sebastien’s eyes widen at my words. “I don’t think this is going to turn into a sex scandal,” Sebastien tells me. “By the sounds of it, Layla isn’t going to say a thing.”

  “But she might for the right price or someone who isn’t as nice as her will. You do realize how this all works? You realize the number of people who probably sold you out on your show to the media.” These words give him pause.

  “You think someone on my show sold me out?” His shoulders slump a little.

  “The stories about things that happen on set, or with people from the set… how did you think the media finds out?” I raise a brow at him.

  He rakes his hand through his dark brown hair as he takes in my words.

  “I didn’t think I was that big a celebrity to have that happen.” He seems genuinely confused, so I reach out and touch his arm.

  “You’re on a TV show. No matter how big or small it may be, your personal life is gossip fodder,” I explain to him.

  “Shit! I’m sorry, Quinn. I thought you were stressing out for no good reason.” He begins to pace. “But shit! Things are starting to make sense.”

  “Produces and networks also release info if it means building attention for the season. It’s all about their best interests, definitely not ours.” Sebastien looks over at me, he takes a couple of steps, then kisses me again.

  “I’m all-in,” he tells me.

  What?

  “If they find out about us, I’m all-in.”

  I don’t understand what that means. He must see the question written on his face.

  “If it gets out, I’m not going to hide us. I’m not going to tell the press that it’s fake news. I’m going to say that Quinn Miller barreled into my life, and I’m so much happier for it.” He kisses me again. “Unless you aren’t comfortable with that, then I can sprout fake news.” He grins.

  “Only if we’re found out because I’m not ready, Sebastien. I’m not ready for the scrutiny the media will bring with us being together.”

  “I understand.” He kisses me one last time. “We say something only if we are pushed.”

  I nod my head in agreement and give him a warm smile.

  We are back in Spain, and this time we are filming on a goat farm, which isn’t as glamourous as a chateau in France. Then they bring out the baby goats, the kids, and I lose my damn mind. They are the cutest things. The farmer hands me a bottle, and I get to feed them, and I’m dying from cuteness overload.

  “You need to buy baby goats,” I tell Sebastien while they hop all over me as I sit on a bundle of hay.

  “I don’t think you would finish my renovations if I did that.” He grins, playing to the camera. He’s probably right, though.

  “Or maybe it would help me work better since my endorphins are firing on all cylinders because I will start with my morning baby goat cuddles.”

  Sebastien laughs and shakes his head.

  Don’t worry, he bought the goats. We are filming that little project next week, where I create the most gorgeous barn for them.

  The farmer then takes us to the dairy, where we see how it’s set up, all the machinery, etc. This is something Sebastien is extremely interested in. He and the farmer talk about the milk and the cheeses he makes with it.

  “Quinn, would you like to milk a goat?” Sebastien asks.

  Of course, there’s one waiting for me, a metal bucket for me to sit on and the camera crew ready to go.

  “Sure. I’ll give it a go.” I take my seat, and the farmer explains to me exactly what to do. I put on a show about touching the nipple, then I start to milk. Go me! Sebastien leans over to inspect my work, and I squirt him with a teat. His face is covered in milk as he splutters about. I’m laughing so hard that I actually fall off the bucket I’m sitting on into the hay. But it was worth it seeing his spluttering face. Kevin tells us that it is television gold right there.

  Sebastien and I continue our nightly routine of walking around the property together, checking the progress the crew is making. I know Sebastien’s friend, Luis, is also working on the hidden villa, which isn’t being used for the television show.

  Over the last couple of weeks, things have progressed so quickly, but when there are hundreds of tradesmen on site, things do come along nicely. Work begins to slow when the camera crews are there day in and day out. Most nights, Sebastien drives me home after filming under the guise of it’s on his way home. No one bats an eyelid, and if it’s early enough, he cooks me dinner, and we sit out on the back terrace with a wine in hand and just look out into the darkness where the stars are our only source of light.

  We talk about work and life, it’s nice.

  I know I’m falling for him. It’s kind of hard not to when we are spending every waking moment together. The flutters in my chest when he’s around are more than apparent. We made a pact that we wouldn’t fall for each other. I already know that I’m on the road to Heartbreak Town with a population of one, but I don’t want to get off.

  39

  Quinn

  “I’m Quinn Miller, a home town Texas girl, who loves renovating old farmhouses.”

  “And I’m Sebastien Sanchez, award-winning Spanish chef…” he pauses.

  “And together we are working on the biggest project either of us have ever taken on.”

  W
e are reading our lines.

  “All while, Under the Spanish Sun,” Sebastien adds.

  “Perfect, guys,” Kevin calls from the sound studio. “We will insert bits and pieces of what we have filmed while on location, and the intro to your show is good to go.” He grins. “Now, Quinn, we need you to film some DIY scenes for us this week. If you can go with Layla, that would be great, and Seb, you have some on-location cooking pieces to do,” Kevin explains.

  Before we have a chance to say goodbye, Sebastien and I are pulled in different directions. Things are ramping up on-site now.

  “Right, so today we have you in these super cute denim dungarees, a white tee, and these awesome bright pink safety boots.”

  “Oh my gosh, I love them.” While I am admiring the safety boots, I think, Why shouldn’t women have cute work gear?

  “If you love the boots, the network has also got you your own pink tool belt with your own set of pink tools, including a tape measure, hammer, hard hat, and so on.” I squeal with delight like a little girl at Christmas. I always wanted the pink gear, but Chad always said it looked unprofessional for me to be walking around in all pink workwear.

  Screw you, Chad! On Wednesday’s, I wear pink workwear.

  I walk onto set. They have set me up in one of the buildings that are finished but aren’t part of the show—it’s my little DIY heaven.

  “Oh my God,” I scream. Staring back at me is an entire toolbox wall set up in pink. I rush over and run my hands over the drawers and drawers of metal toolboxes in all different shapes and sizes. It looks like any man’s dream garage tool area, just in pink. “How?” I ask, turning to Layla.

  “You can thank Kevin for all this.”

  I can’t believe it. Everything is exactly what my dream tool shed would look like. It’s totally over the top, but I love it.

  “He wanted to showcase that the building is not just a man’s domain and that women can dominate, too, while looking cute.”

  Love, love, love.

  Holly, the girl who’s running digital behind the scenes asks if she can snap me posing with some of the products.

  Jo, the associate producer and Kevin’s right-hand woman, walks into my she cave. “Do you love it?” she questions.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” I reply, which makes her laugh.

  “Great. I know the company is talking with your manager, Carmen, about maybe being the face of the product. She wanted to see what you thought of the products before using them,” Jo explains.

  When Chad left me, he took my entire crew as well, which included my manager, Todd. Thank goodness Lettie put me onto Carmen, who is a boss bitch, and is working overtime securing whatever endorsement deals she thinks are necessary. Her goal is to make me the highest-paid female on the Lifestyle Network, my goal is to recoup all the money Chad stole from me.

  So, I spend the next couple of weeks filming my segments on upcycling wine barrels. I show the viewers how to create a fire pit out of one. Coffee tables. Bar benches.

  Then I repurposed the Cava bottles we found in one of the old barns that the vineyard used to produce and turned them into lamps. I also found a heap of old corks and added tiny LED lights into the core and clumped probably about one hundred of them together to create a gorgeous chandelier.

  I have missed these types of projects, and it’s been good to get back into the swing of making items the way I want them to be and not being told how to do it.

  Unfortunately, at the moment, Sebastien and my schedules have not been the same. He has been traveling around Spain filming his segments about the gastronomic delights of Spain for the past three weeks while I’ve been toiling away at the property. We’ve been able to catch up every night either briefly or for long talks on FaceTime.

  I’ve missed him.

  Really missed him.

  There I have said it.

  Well, he said it first, and I followed. It’s been almost two months since I packed up and came to hide out in Spain, but honestly, it feels like I’ve always been here. The longer I’m in Spain, the more it’s beginning to feel like home.

  I’ve finished filming and decided to head down to Sebastien’s hidden villa on one of the golf carts to see how it’s coming along. It’s been a little over a month since work started. I passed the rows and rows of vines on either side of the road, the striking mountain ranges are in front of me, and behind that are bright blue skies. It’s gorgeous.

  I have a sense of coming home the closer and closer I get to the villa. When I turn the corner, I am amazed at how much work has been done. The overgrown gardens have been cut back, exposing the beauty underneath, the vines that had begun to grow over the building have been torn away and exposed gorgeous sandstone color stone walls with old wooden shutters covering the windows. Who knew they were there?

  The terracotta Spanish-style roof tiles have been power-washed, and people are fixing the tiles that have broken over the years of neglect.

  I wave to them as they work away in the hot sun.

  Pushing open the front door, the sound of power tools fills my ears. Dust and chaos are everywhere inside the home, but so much progress has been made. I walk around the workmen and head outside to the garden, so I won’t be in their way, and before me is a large hole in the ground where there once was a pool. It had been covered over with wood, then mounds of dirt and grass, judging by the pile of rubbish on the side. Concrete has already been laid and is curing.

  “It looks pretty good, doesn’t it?” Sebastien’s voice comes from behind and surprises me, making me jump. His arms reach out to steady me, I turn around and look up into his handsome face.

  I’ve missed him.

  My heart flutters wildly in my chest. He reaches out to caress my face, and we are lost in our own little world. The workmen surrounding us disappear, and all I can see is him.

  “I’ve missed you, Quinn.” As he leans forward and kisses me for the first time in public, I’m so caught off guard that I let him. He wraps his arms around me, pulling me closer to him. My chest against his as his mouth against mine makes my knees weak.

  “Wow, that was a greeting.” As I smile up at him, he places a kiss on my forehead.

  “I’m so happy to see you again. I feel like I’ve been gone forever.” He picks me up and swings me around in his arms which, of course, makes me giggle.

  “I’ve missed you, too.” I chuckle as he places me back down on unsteady feet. “Your home is really taking shape, and it looks amazing. I just thought I’d pop down and check up on it. I didn’t think you were coming back till tomorrow?”

  “We finished early. Thought I’d check up on the work before coming to find you. Why are you not working?” he asks.

  “Because I’m awesome at my job and don’t have to do too many takes.” I grin.

  “I’ve seen what you’ve been up to on Instagram. I can’t believe you made all those things out of old wine barrels.”

  “I found so many old farm machinery parts, too. They are my next project,” I tell him. “How did you do exploring with Kevin?” I laughed when I found out Kevin was going to be his location producer.

  “We had fun, he’s a good guy. A little full-on, but nothing I can’t handle.”

  “Aw… I bet he offered to keep you company at night?” Running my fingers up his chest, one by one.

  “The only thing that kept me company was my hand and your Instagram account. Now, come on, let me take you home. My hand is sick of helping me.” Sebastien grabs me by the hand and pulls me back through the villa.

  Someone’s in a hurry to get lucky, and I can’t wait.

  40

  Sebastien

  Two months later

  “We did it!” Kevin raises his glass high in the air. “I cannot thank you all enough for making this project the success it is and will be once aired.” He looks out into the crowd.

  Today was the last day of filming, and tomorrow the Americans all pack up and begin to head home. Quinn and some of the set de
sign crew have set up for our farewell dinner in the restaurant for the first time. They have moved all the tables together to make a couple of large, long tables down the middle of the restaurant.

  The chandeliers made out of twisted wine barrel metal have been hung in pride of place down the center of the room. They almost look like sculptures.

  At first, when she pitched me the DIY stuff, I thought it would look cheap and homemade, but Quinn proved me wrong. It’s beautiful and elegant and saved me a load of money not having to fit out the restaurant with overpriced art and design.

  “Quinn… Sebastien,” Kevin calls us to the head of the table. “Sorry, I know you’re busy in your new kitchen, but please join me.” He grins. “Now, I have to give these two a very big shout out because if it weren’t for them, none of us would have spent the summer in Spain.

  The crowd nods and cheers in agreement.

  “This was such a special project, and one I think we can all agree was the best we have all worked on.”

  The crowd goes crazy again. I think the copious amounts of empty bottles on the tables means the crew has enjoyed the evening, and it’s well-deserved.

  “Now, I don’t want to toot my own horn...” Kevin states, and the audience laughs, “… but I think we have a ratings winner on our hands here, guys.” Kevin wraps his arms around Quinn and me. “We are taking this show all the way to the top,” he screams, and everyone hollers.

  “Wow, Kevin! Not sure how I can follow that,” Quinn starts, and the crowd chuckles. “But I’ll keep it short and sweet.” She looks out at the crowd, all happy and smiling. “This show, and y’all… every single one of you…” her eyes land on me, “… ended up being the biggest surprise in my life. Months ago, I thought my life would never be the same. I was wrong.” Tears begin to well in her eyes. “I was broken, alone, and didn’t know which way was up.”

  Kevin cuddles her as the tears begin to flow more freely.

  “Then, y’all came into my life…” she looks at me fleetingly, “… and put me back together again.”