Yes, Chef (Sizzle & Burn Book 1)

by Linda Verji

  And she’d been scared. He still remembered the anxious expression on her face when she’d jumped away from him and the way she’d taken a step back when he’d moved toward her. Instead of chipping at Snow’s walls while she wasn’t looking and easing his way into her life, he’d brandished his sledge-hammer and practically shouted that he was coming in. Why wouldn’t she be scared?

  He blew out a long breath as he fought against his annoyance with himself. How was he supposed to come back from this? How was he going to keep her from running as far from him as she could? What if she’d already run? Aching and restless, he stared out the window, trying to come up with a plan to fix the damage he’d done last night. But before he could come up with one, his phone vibrated.

  He turned away from the window and strode back to his desk. His brow furrowed when he saw the caller ID but he answered anyway, “Hi, Aunt Patty.”

  “Why didn’t you come home yesterday?” His aunt immediately confronted him.

  Roman’s voice echoed in the background. “Ma, I told you he was-”

  “Hush!” Patty cut him off before turning her wrath back to Greyson. “I know you closed the restaurant early, so why didn’t you come home with Roman?”

  Greyson tried to think of what excuse Roman would’ve given to cover for him but came up blank, so he gave a half-truth. “I had to help out a friend.”

  “Which friend?” His aunt’s voice rang with cynicism. “Roman said you had to cater to some VIP clients.”

  “The VIP client is also a friend,” Greyson rushed to explain.

  “Humph!” Patty harrumphed then paused. Greyson knew that pause - she was thinking of a way to puncture his excuse. Fortunately she found none and instead said, “Well, you should’ve at least called. I made dinner enough for you, and now I’ll have to pack it up for Roman to bring it to you. It wouldn’t kill you to pick up a phone once in a while and let us know what you’re up to these days or to find out how we’re doing…” she went on and on.

  Greyson listened to her without comment. Mostly because she was right to be annoyed with him. He wanted to be the kind of nephew who called out of the blue to chat, but he wasn’t.

  His aunt was a good woman, as was his paternal uncle, Richard. The two had raised him like their son, and Greyson was beyond grateful. Still, Greyson had never been able to open up to them completely. Dropping in at the house announced, calling just to chat, saying I love you… were things one said to their family members. But he wasn’t a member of their family and couldn’t bring himself to act that way. He was the intruder who’d come in to siphon their limited resources.

  When Patty finally ended her tirade, he said, “I promise I’ll call you next time.”

  “No, I don’t want you to call.” She countered, “I want you to come home. When are you coming home?”

  “Um.” Feeling painted into a corner, he said, “Let me check my schedule then get back to you.”

  “That’s not good enough.” Patty announced firmly, “You’re coming next Sunday, you hear me?”

  He hesitated for a moment, but his aunt’s exclaimed, “Greyson!” forced him to surrender. He sighed. “Yes, Ma’am.”

  Patty ended the call several minutes later. True to her words, she sent Roman over to his house later the same evening with leftovers from the previous night’s dinner. Greyson was already half-asleep when his cousin barged into his bedroom at one a.m. with a bag holding several containers of food.

  “What am I supposed to do with all that?” Greyson said groggily as he stared at the bounty of food on the floor beside his bed.

  Roman clambered into the bed. “If you’d come with me like I asked you to, you wouldn’t have that problem.”

  “Hey!” Greyson turned to glare at him. “Get out of my bed.”

  Roman pulled the covers to his neck. “Go store that food. It will get bad.” His eyes closed, he added, “And Ma said that you should bring back the containers next week.”

  From experience Greyson knew that Roman wasn’t going anywhere so he didn’t waste his time insisting that he leave. He rose and carried the food out of the bedroom. After stacking the containers in his fridge, he came back to the room to find Roman seemingly asleep. Greyson settled beside him on the bed and switched off the light.

  Assuming that the late night visit meant Roman had something on his mind, Greyson murmured into the darkness, “You okay?”

  Roman was silent for so long that Greyson thought that he might actually be asleep. But then he flipped onto his back and said, “Monica is married.”

  Monica, Monica, Monica… Greyson racked his brain trying to remember who that was. Roman went through so many women that it was sometimes hard to keep up. He tried, “The blonde model?”

  “No, that’s Danica,” Roman said. “Monica’s the redhead with an ass that could stop traffic.”

  “Oh, that Monica.” Greyson turned his head to look at his cousin. Though the room was dark, he could still see the other man’s silhouette. “I thought you were in it just for the sex? You two weren’t even exclusive.”

  “I know. But I would’ve loved to know if I was banging another man’s woman.” Roman was silent quite a while before he asked, “Is there something on my forehead that says ‘open for crazy women’?”

  Well aware of his cousin’s woman problems, Greyson said, “Nah! You’re just unlucky.”

  “One time is unlucky,” Roman said. “But this is my second married woman. Then there’s Lexie with the fake pregnancy, and Hailey who tried to sell our sex-tape. Let’s not forget Thea…”

  Greyson settled deeper into the bed to listen to his cousin’s problems. Roman would’ve been the best person to whine to about how Greyson had messed up with Snow last night and get advice on how to move forward, but he was preoccupied tonight. Greyson would just have to figure it out for himself. Hopefully, he hadn’t completely screwed up his chances with her.

  CHAPTER 6

  The next day was busier than usual. With Eddy having his day off and Oscar claiming an emergency, the kitchen was short-staffed. Considering the situation, Snow should’ve been fully occupied with thoughts of how to get food from her station to the dining-room on time. Unfortunately, Greyson held the top spot in her thoughts.

  It was strange how one day somebody could be practically a living mannequin, and the next they could be the only thing you could think about. That’s not to say that Greyson had been a mannequin to her, but she hadn’t been quite as aware of him as she was now.

  He hadn’t done anything out of ordinary today; hadn’t smiled at her suggestively, hadn’t held her gaze for a long uncomfortable moment, hadn’t brushed past her just so their bodies could touch. He was the same head-chef he always was; barking out orders and pushing all of them to cook faster and better while still managing to run his own station seamlessly. Yet even then, Snow couldn’t keep her eyes from wandering towards him.

  She watched him plating the food with his usual quick efficiency and remembered how it’d felt to have those same fingers smoothing over back. She watched him moving fluidly from hers to Vina’s stations to check if either of them needed any help and she remembered how it’d felt to have that hard, muscular body pressed against hers. She watched him giving instructions and remembered how it’d felt to have those lips moving against her, tasting her. And the way he was staring at her right now and calling her name brought back images of how…

  Wait! Was he talking to her?

  Snow quickly yanked herself from her errant thoughts. “Huh?”

  Greyson’s brow furrowed in annoyance. “Are you daydreaming in my kitchen?”

  “Um… No, Chef,” she returned quickly, though that was exactly what she’d been doing.

  “Then why are you still tossing those scallops when they’re obviously ready?”

  Snow’s glance shifted downwards to her pan. Sure enough the scallops were looking as ready as ready could be. Twisting her lips in a sheepish smile, she said, “Sorry, Chef.”


  “Bring them over.” An ominous note in his voice, he added, “And they better not be overdone.”

  Fortunately, they were not overdone but the glare Greyson gave her when she handed him the pan said their kiss was definitely not on his mind. She stood at the counter, staring at him a minute longer to see if he was really as unaffected as he was acting. For her troubles she got an irritated, “Why are you still standing here? Table seven won’t cook for itself.”

  “Yes, Chef.” She quickly scrambled to her station and got back to work pushing out orders as fast as she could. But even then Greyson stayed on her mind.

  She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed that he was acting so, so… so normal. Obviously it was a good thing that their kiss hadn’t affected their work relationship, but how was he able to act like it hadn’t even happened when she couldn’t? Or maybe it hadn’t affected him as much as it’d affected her. Maybe the kiss hadn’t been as good for him as it had been for her. Maybe…

  “Stop staring at him like that-” Vina bumped her elbow into Snow’s side effectively jerking her out of her thoughts. Lowering her voice, she added, “- otherwise everyone will know that you two kissed.”

  “I’m not st-” Snow paused to shoot her friend a shocked look. On a hushed whisper, she asked, “How do you know that he…” She glanced nervously at Greyson, who was on the other side of the kitchen, before turning back to Vina. “… that he kissed me?”

  “April,” Vina said simply.

  Why was Snow not surprised? She asked, “When did she tell you?”

  “The moment you dropped her off,” Vina said. “I mean literally the moment you dropped her off.”

  “Someone should sew her mouth shut,” Snow grumbled under her breath.

  “Was it good? I bet it was good.” Without pausing and now staring at Greyson, Vina added, “With lips like his there’s no way it wasn’t good.”

  “It was… okay.”

  Vina burst into sudden laughter. “Yeah, right!”

  “Go away.” Snow shoved her friend back towards her station.

  Vina turned as if to say something more but Greyson cut in. “Vina, what are you doing there?”

  “Just borrowing a skillet, Chef.” Her eyes dancing with laughter, Vina darted back to her station.

  The rest of lunch service went by in a flurry of orders, food and heat. By the time they sent out the last plate, Snow was ready to get out of the hot kitchen and off her feet. She, Vina and April were about to leave for the park not too far from Tellers when one of the waiters stopped Snow. “Greyson wants to see you in his office.”

  “Me?” Snow’s eyes widened and her heart bumped nervously against her ribs.

  “Yeah, you!” The waiter nodded.

  “Ooh! Greyson wants to see you in his office.” Vina waggled her eyebrows suggestively once the waiter was gone.

  “It’s probably about the kiss.” April clasped a hand over Snow’s elbow as she advised, “Just tell him it was a mistake. Make it clear that you’re in a committed relationship and that it can’t happen again.”

  “What a bunch of hogwash.” Vina grabbed Snow’s other arm. “You’re a free woman who’s on the market because douchey Charming didn’t know what he had. Tell Greyson you want him to do it again. Heck, just ambush him and kiss him yourself.”

  “I’m not doing that.” Snow laughed as she disentangled herself from her friends’ hold. “He probably just wants to chew me out for being so distracted during lunch service. I’ll see you two later.”

  Despite her flippant response to her friends, anxiety fluttered in Snow’s tummy. Her thoughts raced with restless curiosity as did her pulse and heartbeat. What could he want to talk about? The kiss? Something else? Either way, she’d be alone with him in his office. All alone!

  Get it together, Snow. She gave herself a mental slap as she took the stairs then crossed the short hallway that led to his office. Greyson had shown that he was quite capable of acting like nothing had happened between them. She could do it too. After taking a deep breath to steady herself and straightening her shoulders, she knocked on his door.

  “Come in.” His voice filtered through the wood.

  She tentatively pushed the door open and peered in to find him seated on the edge of his desk facing the door. Almost as if he’d been waiting for her. “You wanted to see me, Chef?”

  “Yes.” He gestured for her to enter the room.

  Greyson’s office was a large space furnished in leather and oak, giving it a distinctly masculine yet still warm atmosphere. The only odd thing in the office was the extensive action figure collection sitting on a display-shelf on the far right wall. The collection held superhuman characters like Dracula, Hulk, Green Lantern and others.

  Most people found the collection odd. Greyson was so calm, collected and mature that he didn’t seem like the type to collect action figure of all things, and be so protective over them. However, Snow found it amusing. It was good to know that under that unflappable exterior, Greyson had a childish side to him too.

  Once she was in the room, he ordered, “Close the door.”

  Snow did as instructed but stayed close to the door. His face was so expressionless that she immediately surmised that he wanted to talk business – not pleasure – and her nervousness eased somewhat. However, his next words sent that nervousness shooting right up the Richter scale.

  “Can I take you out on Thursday evening?” he asked.

  Wait, what? For a moment, she thought she was hearing things. The fact that his expression didn’t change as he asked the question only made her more confused. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Can I take you out on Thursday evening,” he repeated helpfully.

  Yup! She’d heard right. But maybe she hadn’t understood the question right. “Take me out? Like on a date.”

  “Yes.” Amusement danced in his blue eyes. “Like on a date.”

  Her breath whooshed from her lungs as shock stiffened her muscles. A full frontal assault was the last thing she’d been expecting when she’d walked into his office. Most men beat around the bush… said, something like they liked you before working their way to asking for a date. Then again, Greyson wasn’t most men.

  Rubbing her forehead and trying to gather her thoughts, she mumbled, “Oh, I see. Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  “No, I mean, not okay.” She stumbled over her words.

  “Not okay?” His eyes widened in question. “You don’t want to go out on a date with me?”

  “No, I mean, yes.” God! Where were the right words when you needed them. She wasn’t making sense even to herself. Lowering her eyes to the floor, she said, “Give me a second here.”

  She was keenly aware of him watching hers as she pulled in a long breath and reeled in her scattered thoughts. When she was confident that she knew what she wanted to say and could say it without tripping all over her words, she lifted her gaze back to his. “What I’m saying is I can’t.”

  “Why can’t you?” Greyson folded his arms over his chest. “Because of Charlie?”

  She almost laughed. “No.” Like Vina had said, he was officially a non-factor. Snow continued, “You’re a good guy and a good kisser-”

  “Good?” Greyson’s eyebrows shot up and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

  “Fine. A really good kisser,” she corrected herself even as her eyes flitted to his mouth – that tempting mouth that had almost driven her to distraction. Immediately, her own mouth dried up and she had to flick her tongue over her bottom lip to wet it. When she lifted her gaze back to Greyson, she found him watching her intently. The wicked glint in his eyes had her lower stomach tightening in a sensation that was definitely not nervousness.

  Focus, Snow. She forced herself back into the conversation by saying, “But we’re employer and employee.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  Wasn’t it obvious? She gave him a pointed look. “What happens if it doesn
’t work out? If we break up, things could end up being extremely awkward between us.”

  “You’re getting way ahead of yourself.” His lips twitched as if he was holding back a grin. “I only asked for a date, not a relationship.”

  Instant embarrassment flooded her. Look at her assuming that he was looking for a relationship. Sure, she’d only been in one relationship all her life but that didn’t mean that she was naïve. There were many other reasons why people dated, like… sex. Her eyes flew to him. Was that what he was looking for?

  Before she could ask him, he continued, “Besides that, we’re both adults. We can handle any awkwardness without letting it affect our work relationship. Look at how we worked well today despite what happened on Sunday.”

  Speak for yourself, buddy, Snow mentally scoffed. However, she was unwilling to let him know how much their kiss had affected her, so she came back with, “It’s not just that. The timing is all wrong.”

  “The timing?”

  “Yes.” Her voice strengthening with her confidence, she explained, “I just got out of a relationship and I’m not ready to get into a new one.”

  “Like, I said. I’m not asking for a relationship. I’m just asking for a date.” Greyson rose from the desk. He closed the distance between them in two strides. The moment he took her hand in his, her pulse skipped, her breath caught in her throat and her awareness of him shot through the roof. She was keenly aware of the electricity that danced where their fingers met, of how intoxicating his scent was, of how close together they were. One step and they’d be close enough to kiss.

  His voice lowered and deepened as he coaxed, “Think of it as an evening between friends. We’re friends, aren’t we?”

  Were they friends? She’d never felt as hot as she felt now when she was with any of her friends. And none of them had ever made her want to take a step closer, lift up on tiptoes and…

  “It’s just one date, Snow.” Greyson cut into her errant thoughts. “Just one.”

  Maybe it was his closeness that melted her resistance. Maybe it was that sexy, smooth voice that confused her. Maybe it was that ‘please’ that weakened her. Either way, she found herself looking up at him and letting out a breathless, “Okay.”