“You okay?” he asked, looking down at her curiously as he pulled back, wine bottle in his hand.
“I’m fine,” she squeaked out.
He reached up with his other hand, touching her cheek and pushing her sandy blond hair behind her ear. “You look tired,” he observed, brushing a thumb over the dark circles under her eyes. “Maybe you should take tonight off, go home and get some sleep.”
Since sleep was desperately needed, but not going to happen, she shook her head. “No. I’m fine.”
He leaned in closer. “You don’t look fine, Julia. What’s going on? Are you coming down with something?”
She breathed him in, thinking that he smelled incredibly good. But he was off limits. Just friends, she reminded herself. Good friends. Best friends, actually. And she didn’t want to ruin that friendship by being a ninny. “I’m fine. I promise.”
Thankfully, he pulled away and she sighed, her whole body slumping against the wall as he walked out, telling her something about Marilee’s dinner. She had no idea what he’d just said because of the ringing in her ears.
But he looked back at her, clearly expecting an answer. Since she had no idea, she smiled and nodded, assuming a positive answer was the best option. “Fine!”
“Okay, until later.”
She walked out, wishing she could just…she was stumped. What could she do? What was she supposed to do? She was madly in love with her boss and there was absolutely no good outcome! If she told Tony how she felt, she would ruin their friendship. And she loved him too much to lose even that small bit of happiness.
But something had to give.
Walking out of the wine area, she worked her way through the shelves, heading towards her office sanctuary. Unfortunately, she wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to where she was going and bumped into one of the shelves. The same stupid shelf stocked with improperly stored boxes.
“Julia!” Tony called in warning. But she was too busy trying to figure out what was going on. The next thing she knew, strong arms lifted her out of the way as big boxes toppled down to the cement floor. Right where she’d been standing only a moment ago.
Staring down at the pile of boxes, she wondered what would have happened if Tony hadn’t…
She looked up at him, her mouth wide with horror and…awareness. “Thanks,” she breathed.
His strong arms tightened around her, lifting her higher against his body. “My pleasure,” he replied.
His arms didn’t release her. In fact, they tightened and…he spun her around. No one was in this area of the storage room, but…it still felt incredibly good to be in his arms.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice rough and grumbly.
She opened her eyes and looked up at him. He was so darn tall, she had to lean her head way back. “Wrong?” At this particular moment, everything felt incredibly right. So right, she didn’t ever want to leave the circle of his arms. She could imagine staring up at him like this for the rest of her life.
“Yes. What’s wrong? You seem to be walking around in a daze today. I think you’re coming down with something.”
Yeah, she was coming down with something all right. A huge case of Tony-itis. A bad need for Tony to carry her off to a bed where she could let her fingers explore every inch of his incredible body.
Made sense to her! Probably not to the big guy, though. More’s the pity, she thought and struggled out of his arms. “I’m fine. I promise.”
He let her go, but continued to steady her until she got her feet under her. With his hands on her hips, he looked at her strangely, and she suspected that her cheeks were turning red. That was most likely adding to his impression that she wasn’t feeling well. “I’m sending you home. Mike can take over tonight.”
Huh? He wasn’t going to… “Home?”
“Yeah. Home. Something is wrong, and you’re not taking care of yourself. Go home. Now.”
“I can’t go home!” she gasped, horrified by the thought.
“Yes. You can! You’ve worked here for years and I don’t remember you ever taking a day off.” He looked at her strangely. “Come to think of it, have you ever taken a vacation?”
She stiffened, wondering where he was going with this. “Of course I have,” she told him stiffly.
“When?”
She thought back to the past few months. “Vegas with you last spring.”
He rolled his eyes. “Julia, we were in Vegas to film that cooking show! You worked sixteen hour days.”
She shrugged, dismissing his argument as irrelevant. “So did you!”
He huffed impatiently. “Yeah, but I took some time off.”
Julia remembered. She remembered the clingy blond who had plastered herself against him, dancing, wiggling, and giggling. She’d been so furious, she’d almost stomped her spike heel into the woman’s pretty foot. Instead, she’d left the club and gone back to her room.
“I took some time for myself,” she replied, thinking about the bottle of wine she’d consumed that night. Alone. And the hangover the following morning that she’d nursed. Also alone because Tony hadn’t shown up for breakfast like he’d been doing each morning. So Julia had sat there sipping coffee and imagining the buxom blonde in Tony’s arms, writhing in ecstasy. The jealousy hadn’t helped with her hangover.
“Tony, I don’t…”
“Go!” he commanded, then released her, stepping back and pointing towards the door. “And I don’t want to see you in here tomorrow either.”
“We’re closed tomorrow,” she snapped, wanting to punch him.
He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. “Julia, I know that you come in on your days off. So don’t give me that innocent look.”
She poked him in the chest. “The only way you know that I come in here is because you are here with me!”
He lowered his head. “The only reason I come in is to make sure that you eat something.”
She wondered if that was true. “So…you’re here because I’m here?” Was that significant?
He shrugged one of those yummy shoulders that she wanted to…cry on? Kiss? Run her fingers over all the delicious muscles? All of the above?
“Yeah. I care about you.”
Care. She didn’t like that word. Not one little bit.
Angry, jealous, and frustrated, she wasn’t sure what to say. He looked pretty tough at the moment, but she could…nothing. Julia had no idea what she was going to do. She knew what she wanted to do, but jumping the man’s bones and begging him to make love to her was out of the question.
Hurt and exhausted, she pulled away. “Fine, I’ll go.” She hurried to her office fighting tears, grabbed her purse, and headed out the door, sure that Tony would let Mike know what was going on. She didn’t care. Not anymore. She couldn’t!
Because this just hurt too much.
Chapter 3
Two days later, Julia stepped through the doors of “Desire” and…stopped. Silence. Sweet, beautiful silence greeted her.
For a long moment, she simply absorbed the silence and the atmosphere of simple elegance. Maroon walls, white table clothes, brick floors…subtle decorating that added to the atmosphere of exclusivity.
Seven years. Julia leaned against the beautifully carved bar and thought about the past seven years. She’d started off as a floundering waitress, taking additional shifts as a dishwasher in order to put herself through college. Promoted to bartender, head bartender, assistant manager, and now she was the manager.
For seven years, she’d put her heart and soul into working here, learning everything she could about running a restaurant until she’d earned the top job. As manager of this beautiful place, she’d thrived! She loved this job! She loved the people who traveled here to dine at “Desire”, to experience the magic of Tony’s cooking. She loved LowPoint, Kentucky and all of the people here. She’d found not just a place to live, but a place to grow and heal. The people here were warm and welcoming, pulling her into their c
ommunity and helping her when she was down, letting her help them when they had problems. When something happened to one person here in LowPoint, it happened to everyone.
And now she was going to have to leave.
She’d spent the last two days alone, trying to come up with an alternative, but nothing had occurred to her. Nothing other than moving on, finding a new home. A new life. And trying to find another man to fall in love with.
Blinking rapidly, she refused to shed any more tears. Tightening her grip on her laptop, she tried to slow her breathing, knowing that she was going to walk into her office, print out her letter of resignation, and hand it to Tony today.
After the last few days, she knew that it was time. She couldn’t deal with him touching her, looking at her in that sweet, wonderful way, know that he made special meals for her, and that he…cared for her. Not when she loved him with her whole heart. She couldn’t do this to herself any longer. It wasn’t healthy, and she was bound to ruin their friendship if she stayed, loving him the way she did.
She wasn’t worried about finding another job. She received job offers from other restaurants at least once a month. None of those offers came close to what Tony offered though.
He was one of the most brilliant chefs in the world. Not to mention obnoxious and sweet, kind and horrible. He would tease her about anything and everything, then would sit down with her after closing, pour her a glass of wine and they’d talk. Just talk, laugh, and groan about the night’s activities and celebrate each small success.
She loved him. For seven years, Julia had been madly in love with Tony Itola. He was big, bad, sweet, kind, and…amazing. Tony could be the most obnoxious boss one moment, demanding more of her than she’d ever thought she could give, then turn around and make her a cake to celebrate earning an A on one of her tests for school. Or give her a massive bonus when she came up with a new idea for the restaurant.
She’d been gone for two days. Two long, boring days. She hated taking time off because…well, because it was exciting to be here, working with Tony. The man added sizzle to her life and she’d missed it being banned for two days.
“Feeling better?” a deep voice asked.
Spinning around, Julia’s mouth fell open as she watched Tony walk into the restaurant. Gunner, Ivy’s husband and a Navy SEAL, who looked like he’d just been dragged through the mud, was at his heels. Then Emerson, LowPoint’s sheriff and Marilee’s husband, looking equally bedraggled and finally, Rocco, who laughed, and slapped Emerson’s shoulder hard enough to make a normal man topple over. All of them were covered in mud, some had tears in their tee-shirts or sweatpants and Rocco even had a bit of blood seeping out from a wound on his cheek.
“What in the world happened to…” she stopped when Rocco, Emerson, and Tony looked at Gunner who looked smug with his massive arms crossed over his equally massive chest. “You dragged them through the mud again this morning, didn’t you?”
Gunner was stationed in Norfolk at the Naval base there. As a Navy SEAL, the man thought that he hadn’t worked out hard enough until his entire body ached. And that was fun to the crazy man who was married to Ivy, the famous photographer and a good friend of Julia’s.
Gunner only chuckled at Julia’s irritated expression. “Yeah, these wimps needed to be taught how to play.”
Tony chuckled even as he shoulder checked Gunner. “Follow me, boys. Time for my specialty,” and he led all of them into the pristine kitchen.
Tony washed his hands and arms, then pulled ingredients out of the massive fridge, stacking everything on the metal countertops while she stared in horror. “You can’t be in here like this,” she gasped, thinking of the mess that would ensue, not just from Tony’s cooking, but also all of the mud.
The man winked at her. He actually winked! “We could eat out in the dining room, but I know how pissed you get when we get mud on the chairs,” Tony replied.
Julia glared at Tony, who merely grinned victoriously at her as he easily cracked eggs, grated cheese, whisked in sour cream, whole cream, spices, and chopped vegetables.
The men were laughing, joking about their morning, all of them riding an endorphin high. That meant they’d be here for a while, devouring whatever Tony cooked for them in an effort to re-energize after Gunner’s brutal workout.
“How about some juice?” she asked, resigned to what was going to happen.
“That would be awesome,” Tony replied.
Julia shook her head with exasperation and walked back to the fridge, pulling out oranges. And since Tony was intentionally pissing her off, she decided to do the same. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bottle of orange juice ready?” she asked. Tony didn’t allow anything in his kitchen that wasn’t fresh. Including orange juice.
Immediately, she heard Tony’s growl and stepped out of the way before he could body check her. She’d learned over the years how he liked to retaliate, laughing when he missed getting his dirty hands on her silk shirt and wool slacks. Pulling out a tub of oranges and the juice press, she started squeezing orange juice, making enough for four huge men and then doubling it because…well, she still never understood how these men could absorb as many calories as they ate. And yet, there wasn’t an ounce of fat on any of them.
She giggled when Tony winked in her direction, making her heart melt.
Maybe she’d turn in her resignation tomorrow, she thought as she poured a huge glass of orange juice for each of the men, then a smaller one for herself.
“Enjoy the meal,” she called, picking up her juice and her laptop, heading out of the kitchen.
“Where are you going?” Tony called, grabbing her arm and spinning her around. The movement almost caused their bodies to collide. It was only through sheer will and skill developed over years of waiting tables that she managed to not spill the juice or drop the laptop…and avoid pressing her clean body against his muddy, sweaty one.
Even though she wanted to. Oh yeah, she wanted to touch him and feel his hard, amazing body against hers. Tony might love food, but he also loved working out. The mud and sweat were from running through the woods with Gunner and the others this morning, doing things that would put an ordinary person in the critical care unit.
“Why don’t you stick around?” Tony asked.
Julia looked up into his hazel eyes, wondering what it would be like to….
Mentally shaking her head, she straightened, resisting the desire to breathe in his scent. He might be sweaty and muddy, but damn, he smelled good! She’d gone through this three days ago and she couldn’t…wouldn’t…let her mind, or her body, go back there. She’d gotten her head on straight during Tony’s mandated two days off. She was ready to tackle the world again, and that world didn’t include pressing up against Tony in any way in the future. Making eggs a few mornings ago had been trouble, she wouldn’t do that to herself again.
“I’m leaving you manly men to your grunting and groaning,” she told him. “I have work to do.”
He stepped closer, blocking her way and…he should smell gross and sweaty but…he didn’t. He smelled incredibly good!
“Your cloud eggs are cooking now.”
She blinked and peered around him, her eyes going to the stove, then to the oven. “Cloud Eggs” needed to be baked, not cooked on the stovetop. “I thought you were making scrambled eggs.”
Tony jerked his head backwards slightly, in the direction of the oven. “I’m making scrambled for them, but I know that you like cloud eggs better.” He watched for the signs. Her lips softened, her eyes dilated. Yeah, he had her now. “I used that special cheese you like.”
Two days ago, he’d been too turned on to recognize the signs. It had been all he could do to stop his own body’s reaction, and he’d even failed at that. But with Julia absent over the past two days, he’d been able to think about the morning he’d taught her how to make an egg casserole. He’d thought about her reactions when he’d touched her. If what he suspected was true, he was going to move forward
.
Her breathless response was enough to make his body react strongly. Again.
She licked her lips. “I thought we were out of that cheese.”
He smiled, sensing triumph. “I keep a stash on hand, just for you.”
And bingo! Her whole body softened in reaction. He glanced lower, noticing that her nipples were pressing against the thin silk of her blouse. Damn, he loved her silk blouses!
“I put truffles in as well.” That was all it took. She rolled her eyes and turned back to the table, pulling up another stool.
“You don’t play fair,” she mumbled.
“Where’s the fun in that?” he asked, chuckling.
Julia wanted to scream when he smiled like that. She’d seen it too many times over the years, but never directed towards her. Or at least, not that she’d noticed. Too many other women in Tony’s proximity had been on the receiving end of that smile and she’d always cringed inwardly, jealousy hitting her hard.
Another reason to hand in her resignation, she thought as she pulled out her phone and started texting. While Tony continued to chop and mix, the other guys were talking and laughing about their morning adventures. By the time she put her phone down, the potatoes were sizzling on the burner behind him.
Ten minutes later, the doors opened and the noise level rose to insanity-level as seven screaming kids joined in the chaos.
Ivy, Marilee, and Daisy followed at a more sedate pace, while Tony bent down to catch several of the kids as they threw themselves at him, excited for a meal with their favorite “uncle”. Daisy’s two boys, Joseph at seven, and Mick at two, were the first through the door with Marilee’s oldest son, Joseph, being the first to attack Tony. Never to be undone, Ellie, Daisy’s only daughter at four, simply jumped on Joseph’s back, more than eager to join in the fun.
Seduced (The Lottery Winners Book 8) Page 3