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She turned back to face him, but her attention was focused on placing her fruit in a bowl on the island. “Maybe you should come in sometime. I could get a table for you and your girlfriend.”
He grinned at the forced casual tone of her voice and the way that she wouldn’t meet his eyes. She was fishing for information.
“No girlfriend,” he said, not wanting to leave her in any doubt about his willingness to take her to bed. In fact, it was all he could think about right now.
“Oh.” She looked at him now, and the glint in her eyes made his cock twitch inside his pants. “Then maybe I can cook for-”
She was interrupted by the shrill ringing of a cell phone, and Sam clenched his teeth in annoyance as he pulled the damn thing out of his pocket.
It was Alek. He couldn’t ignore this call.
Damn it.
“I have to take this,” he said, already standing and walking towards the door. He regretted the interruption, but work had to come first. Before walking out of the apartment, he turned back to get another look at Lexi even as he accepted the call. She lifted a hand to wave at him, and he silently promised himself that he’d find an opportunity to be alone with her soon.
3
LEXI
Lexi couldn’t decidewhat she wanted more: a shower, a nap, or a meal. All three were so damn tempting as she stepped out of the elevator and walked down the hallway to her apartment. She had just finished a ten-hour shift at the restaurant, and the day felt even longer than it was because of the way she was striving to prove herself.
She wasn’t just the new boss of the kitchen, she was the enemy in the eyes of about half the staff. She’d worked as a sous chef at a restaurant in Misso City owned by the same company as Salted, so when it came time for them to hire a new head chef, she was offered the job with an impressive relocation bonus.
What she didn’t know was that there was a line cook at Salted that wanted the position. Hector was a good cook, but he hadn’t been doing it nearly as long as Lexi. She’d been cooking professionally since she was eighteen years old, giving her a decade of experience. If Hector and his friends in the kitchen could get over their bitterness about her landing the job, she believed that she could teach them all a few things that would make them even better chefs. But that would require that they show her some respect.
So far, all she’d gotten from them was a grudging acceptance as the person in charge.
Hopefully, working hard to prove to them all that she was good at her job and deserved it would change some of their attitudes over time. At least, that was her theory. So, she’d been coming in early to get a headstart on prep and staying late to help with cleaning. It was exhausting.
Tonight, the restaurant owner insisted that she leave right after the dinner service was complete, allowing her staff to clean things up. She was happy to oblige. She’d worked a full week without a break, but she was scheduled to have the next two days off. Resting and maybe exploring her new city a bit were the only things she had planned.
Once she reached her apartment, Lexi kicked off her shoes by the door and headed straight for the bedroom. Sleep could wait, but a shower definitely couldn’t. As she was stripping out of her black pants and the white T-shirt she wore under her chef’s jacket at the restaurant, her stomach clenched from hunger.
The restaurant kitchen was so hot that she had no appetite to eat when she took her break earlier in the evening. She’d barely eaten all day, and it was catching up with her. So, she took her cell phone into the bathroom with her, placing an order for a food delivery while she waited for the shower to warm up.
Stepping under the hot water, she let out a long sigh as the warmth seeped into her muscles. Lexi fully relaxed, her stress melting away as she stood there for a while, time slipping away from her. Steam was thick in the air by the time she finally started washing herself. She went through the motions, her mind running through the specials she wanted to implement when she returned to work in two days. She wanted to do something impressive to prove her worth to her staff, and she hoped that a parmesan crusted Chilean sea bass would do the trick.
As she thought through the recipe she wanted to create, her stomach gave another unpleasant reminder of its emptiness, and she hurried through the rest of her shower, remembering that she had food on the way. When she was done, she rushed through drying herself with a towel and slipped into a silk robe that fell to her knees. It was red with black trim, and it clung to her damp body.
She was standing in front of the bathroom mirror and towel-drying her hair when the sound of the doorbell told her that the food had arrived. It was sooner than she expected, so she rushed into her bedroom and ripped open the drawer with her lingerie. She’d just grabbed a pair of black panties when the doorbell sounded again.
“Fuck it,” she muttered, slamming the drawer shut and rushing to the door of the apartment. She didn’t care if she wasn’t decent. She didn’t want her dinner to walk away while she struggled to get dressed fast enough.
She grabbed the wallet from her purse and opened the door. The smell of delicious Chinese takeout hit her in the face, and she smiled at the delivery guy as she handed over the cash and took the food. The delivery guy started to walk to the elevator as she looked inside the bag to make sure everything was there. He’d almost reached it when she realized that she forgot to tip.
“Wait!,” she called out, pulling her door closed as she hurried down the hallway.
She didn’t think much about what she was wearing until the man’s eyes flickered down to her chest. Her silk robe didn’t provide any support and her breasts were all over the place. She could feel her cheeks heat as she wrapped an arm around her chest, holding out some cash with her other hand.
“Your tip,” she said.
“Oh, thanks.”
She walked back to her apartment as he got on the elevator, eager to eat her dinner. She grasped the doorknob, but it wouldn’t turn. Her stomach somersaulted.
No, no, no.
She couldn’t be locked out. Not like this. She didn’t have her phone or keys. She was barely even dressed.
