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“With pleasure.”
He nodded with visible appreciation. “I’d like to see that. I’m so used to women pulling the usual girl trick and barely eating on the date. I know they’re hungry. I can hear their stomach rumbling while they pick at their salad. I figure when they get home they raid their refrigerators. But offer them a buttered roll and they’ll practically stab you with their unused steak knife.”
“I’m a chef. Food is life. I’m always eating.” It wasn’t a pretty statement. Or the kind of thing most women would say to a man on a date, but it was true. To drive the point home, she tore off a piece of the focaccia bread the waiter had put on the table and dipped it in oil and herbs. “And I’m not scared of bread,” she added before taking a bite.
“I like it.” He took a piece of bread for himself. “So how do you stay so slender if you aren’t pathologically afraid of carbs?”
She hardly thought of herself as slender, but she would accept the compliment. “Stress, for one thing. I’m on my feet for hours in the trucks. When the trucks aren’t open, I’m shopping, prepping, catching up the books and inventories. My pedometer tops twenty thousand steps most days. I also have an elliptical I try to get on regularly to get my heart rate up and burn off the day’s overindulgences.” She raised up the glass of red wine she’d chosen. “Like this. After all this Italian food, I will have to do an hour when I get home or in the morning for sure.”
“I sit at a desk all day,” he admitted. “Or I did practically from college graduation until now. Now I just sit around the house at a loss of what to do with myself. I used to swim, but the pool was taken with the family home. I play golf or tennis from time to time, but it’s not enough to really count. Thankfully, a good metabolism seems to run in my family. We’re all fairly slim.”
“Lucky. I have to work at it, but it helps that I’m also incredibly picky when it comes to food. I’ll eat almost every fruit, vegetable, grain and meat known to man, but if I don’t care for the way it was prepared, I’ll spit it out and waste the calories on something better. Processed, canned boxed junk usually isn’t worth it to me. I grew up on that stuff and now I can’t stand it. But give me a beautiful slice of imported cheese, some crusty artisan bread, some ripe fruit and good wine, and I’ll eat every last crumb without fail.”
Sebastian smiled another wide, genuine smile. She was getting used to seeing those out of the more-relaxed version of him. “I like it. You cook and you eat. You’re beautiful. Smart. Sexy.” He reached out for her hand and ran his thumb over the back of it before bringing it to his lips. He pressed his mouth to her skin, his gaze never leaving hers. “And you’re dating me.” He seemed surprised somehow by that fact.
Lauren’s mouth fell open and she nearly groaned aloud at the feel of his lips against her skin. She managed a nervous laugh and pulled her hand away while she still had the willpower to do it. “I-I don’t get it,” she stuttered. “You flatter me while piling on yourself. Why wouldn’t I be interested in you?”
He sighed and sat back to take a large sip of his wine. “This isn’t exactly the greatest year of my life. Things are different now, but there was a time where I was downright arrogant. Cocky, even. Women were lucky to catch my eye and more than once I’ve had women fight over me. The Wingate boys have always been a hot commodity in Royal.”
“You have a brother?” she asked.
Sebastian seemed to stiffen in his seat for some reason. “Yes,” he said. “I have a younger brother, Miles. He’s off the market now, however. He’s lucky to have found Chloe. Now he doesn’t have to look at a woman and see that look in their eyes.”
Lauren flinched. “What look is that?”
“Like I’m tainted somehow. I don’t know how closely you’ve followed what’s going on with my family, but it’s not good. I’ve gone from the CF—I mean CEO of my family business and living on a huge estate to losing everything. My job, the company, our family home... It’s all gone. I’m not sure we’ll ever fully recover. At this point, I’m going to be lucky not to end up in an orange jumpsuit.”
She hadn’t realized their situation was as dire as all that. No wonder he was so serious and uptight when she showed up at his door. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to trust anyone if she were in a mess like that. “Prison? Wow. That is serious stuff. I’ve heard a little bit, but I haven’t paid much attention to it all. I’m usually too busy to focus on town gossip.”
His jaw tightened as he nodded. “Are you going to look at me that way, now?”
There was the slightest flicker of vulnerability in his green eyes as he asked the question. Everyone must have turned their backs on Sebastian and his family. It made her heart ache to think of that. But she understood how it felt. She’d never been truly accepted by the elites in this town. Most of them ignored her and the ones that didn’t were downright cruel. She only fit in when she was wearing a mask. Her dreams of having a successful, high-end restaurant in Royal were just that. Dreams. Unless she could find a way to make them love her food enough to overlook her lack of social pedigree.
She was a great chef, but she wasn’t a miracle worker.
Lauren looked him straight in the eye. She was known for being brutally honest, although it usually involved food critiques. She wouldn’t lie to boost his ego, but he would have to be honest with her, too. “Are you guilty of anything you and your family are being accused of?”
“No,” he said sharply, and his spine straightened defiantly as he spoke. Every inch of his body suddenly seemed to tighten with the audacity of the allegations. “Someone has gone out of their way to ruin us all and I don’t know why.”
“I believe you,” she said softly. And she did. She didn’t know much about Sebastian, but she trusted the man sitting across the table from her. Maybe she shouldn’t, she had a bad habit of being too naïve when it came to men, but she did. “Then no, I won’t look at you like you’re tainted. As long as you give me the same courtesy.”
“Of course. Why would I look at you that way?” He seemed genuinely surprised by her stipulation.
Apparently the tale of the infamous school dance at the club hadn’t reached him. He was older and perhaps hadn’t heard about Dunk Tank, or at least didn’t realize Lauren was one and the same. He didn’t see her as an outcast or an interloper into his world. She was grateful for that. He was one of the few that saw her just as she was.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the waiter coming with the arancini and squash blossoms. The perfect way to end the current line of conversation.
“No reason,” she said with a dismissive smile. “I hope you’re hungry.”
Seven
Sutton had never been so elated to read a piece of paper in his whole life. He supposed he could only be more relieved to read the charges against his family were dropped. But since that wasn’t likely to happen, he would be happy enough with this.
Lauren Roberts’s background check came back sparkly clean. Miles had gone above and beyond researching her and hadn’t come up with anything questionable. She had no contacts with their company or competitors. Nor had she received any large payments from a mysterious source. Which proved she wasn’t a spy or out to ruin his family, best anyone could tell.
It was a huge weight off his shoulders. He liked Lauren. A lot. He’d been enthralled by his mystery lover, but surprisingly enough, getting to know the woman behind the mask was just as exciting. If this background check had held adverse information about her, he would’ve been extremely disappointed.
But now that he knew for certain, he was faced with an ugly truth. He was the only liar in this relationship. Sebastian’s suspicions were based on a lack of chemistry, but that hadn’t been a problem for Sutton because Lauren was his masked lover. Sebastian’s girl was still out there somewhere, so they had no real reason for switching places on Lauren.
