Passionate Chef, Ice Queen Boss / Rescued in a Wedding Dress: Passionate Chef, Ice Queen Boss / Rescued in a Wedding Dress

A future that Lorenzo had promised and then not followed through on? She hadn’t known he was married at first. She’d let herself fall in love with him before he told her. He’d been going to leave Marcella. He’d done that since. Why couldn’t he have done it then? ‘It was a long time ago and maybe we both have grown up since then.’

Maybe growing up was what allowed Lorenzo to finally get out of a marriage that had made him unhappy. At least he’d done that for himself.

And Scarlett had moved on, too. Perhaps they just hadn’t been meant to be together.

When she searched his eyes she thought she would see agreement. Perhaps softness. Maybe still that hint of teasing. She didn’t expect to see shadows. Such shadows that her breath caught in her throat and she uttered his name with a question in her voice. ‘Lorenzo?’

What is it? What’s brought that hurt into your eyes?

He swallowed and opened his mouth and for some reason her breath stilled as though she was bracing for something. But he just shook his head and gestured to her plate. ‘Are you finished? If so we should probably make our way back. There’s a lot of work still to do before the day is over.’

‘Y-yes. I’m finished.’ So, apparently, was this conversation if she didn’t try…‘If you need—’

‘I’m fine, Scarlett, but we do need to head back.’ He didn’t reject her care. The gentle expression in his eyes made it clear that he appreciated it. But he shut the conversation down, just the same.

Scarlett nodded. She wanted to think about his reaction, what it could mean, but he gestured for their bill and then there was that to settle.

They were on the road again in minutes and he talked about the pros and cons of paying more for local produce, and did it with enough commitment and interest that Scarlett had to throw herself into the conversation with him.

Really, he was only being sensible, doing what Scarlett should have done from the outset today. He was trying to keep them on a business footing.

So why did Scarlett feel that with each moment that passed the tension and consciousness between them, rather than lessening, became stronger until everything between them seemed to be exaggerated a hundredfold?

She could hear each breath he took. The radio was silent. Her own breathing sounded loud to her ears. Each of Lorenzo’s words felt like the brush of his hand against her skin. When they fell silent, Scarlett remembered times in their past that they had shared such silences. Companionable, sweet silences.

If she thought this was only affecting her, maybe she would have had a good chance of squashing it back, but it was in his eyes each time he glanced her way. It was in the clench of his hands around the steering wheel and the tight set of his shoulders as he tried so hard to keep their conversation moving and work-focused.

And safe.

When Lorenzo drew the van to a stop in the parking space at the back of the restaurant, Scarlett turned and gave him a subdued smile.

She was trying. She wanted to be wise. If he could try for that then the least she should do was meet him halfway.

Anything else was sheer madness anyway, even if her mind all but refused to consider this fact right now. ‘Thank you for the trip, and for letting me bounce all my thoughts off you. That was really helpful.’

Scarlett was proud. The words were coming out and making sense. Later she would be able to really and truly examine all the things they’d talked about. For now she said, ‘There are clearly some things I still need to address.’

In fact, she could even think of one of those things right now. ‘I need to speak with Luca about these issues with purchasing local goods. What happened with the olives in the end, by the way?’

And see? A sensible, interested question to arm herself with knowledge about that issue, too.

‘The grower replaced them with a decent grade and got a warning not to pull a stunt like that again.’ Lorenzo stepped from the van and, again, came around it to open her door for her.

His words were clear and to the point and if she hadn’t looked into his eyes Scarlett might have believed they could just be friends.

‘Good. The grower had better do the right thing next time.’ Lorenzo would see that he did. Scarlett felt quite confident of this. Confident enough that she didn’t feel the need to manage the situation herself. ‘I’m learning to trust you again.’ She uttered the words without forethought.

Perhaps they surprised him enough that he didn’t think to step out of her path.

Because Scarlett stepped down from the van and all but into his arms. They ended up practically chest-to-chest there in the rear area behind the restaurant. It was quiet and still out here, the van parked close to the back of the building. They stood between the van and a windowless section of wall.

She looked up into his eyes and he looked down into hers and…that was the end of it. The end of days of working with each other and suppressing all sorts of things and today not managing to suppress them.

Scarlett didn’t know who kissed whom. She didn’t know who made that first infinitesimal move or whether they both did.

All she knew was their lips pressed together in the seclusion of the back area. Lorenzo made a soft sound in the back of his throat.

Their hands rose and arms locked around each other. This wasn’t a one-second press of lips against lips and a hurried and startled breaking away. This was the rest of that first kiss. The completion of that first kiss. A giving and taking and offering and receiving that seemed to touch on so much more than a shared attraction or a past closeness.

Scarlett kissed Lorenzo and completely forgot where she was. She forgot her position as Financial Manager of Rosa, forgot that potentially someone could happen along out here. She forget everything except the taste and the touch of him as they held each other close and he kissed her as though he had starved for the taste of her, had needed this intimacy with her. Had to have it for the sake of his soul.

Oh, these were dangerous thoughts for Scarlett to have. Dangerous, wanting-to-leap-to-conclusions-that-she-shouldn’t-leap-to thoughts. They dissipated anyway into pure sensation before Scarlett could do more than feel the drift of them through the recesses of her mind. Her hand rose and her fingers cupped the nape of his neck. Strong muscle shifted beneath her fingertips as she stroked them softly over his warm skin.

Lorenzo’s hands firmed at her waist and their kiss deepened, became an expression of urgency and need that felt more immediate and necessary than ever before.

‘I have missed your taste, the touch of you, the scent of you.’ He murmured the words as he pressed kisses to the column of her neck, the side of her jaw and across her cheek. Finally, before his mouth closed over hers, he added, ‘I have missed you, Scarlett. More than I understood. More than I understand now.’

‘Lorenzo.’ His words were beautiful to her ears and Scarlett gave herself up to kissing him, to the belief in his need for her. She gave and gave and Lorenzo gave back to her, worshipping her mouth with his lips, gently caressing her arms and back and shoulders until she wanted to stay in his arms and never leave.

Would Scarlett have ever thought to stop that kiss?

It wasn’t a question she could answer because a sound nearby broke them apart like…guilty lovers. In that first moment, Scarlett realised it was only a bird rustling through the branches of a tall bush at the edge of the area.

And then her mind began to function again and she became truly aware once more of their surroundings. She’d kissed Rosa’s head chef in plain view of anyone who might have happened out the back door of the premises. She’d kissed Lorenzo and Lorenzo had kissed her right back, as though all of their past hadn’t happened and she hadn’t been forced to navigate her way through the pain of him totally betraying her back then.

What on earth had she been thinking?

‘I—I need to work on the books.’ Scarlett uttered the words without any real idea of what she was doing or saying. She needed to escape. That was all she knew.

From what had just happened, from dealing with how it had made her feel, from addressing the issue of…this, whatever ‘this’ was, altogether.

She didn’t wait for him to argue the point or question her or anything else. Something told her he wouldn’t have. That he felt just as surprised and taken aback by their actions as she did. They were actions they might have taken five years ago when stealing kisses and being together had felt so exciting to her. And then she’d had to deal with his revelation that he was married, his explanations about the broken state of that marriage.

His promise to make all things right in his world so he and Scarlett…

Not now. You’re not thinking about that now.

Scarlett glanced every which way about her to ensure as best she now could, after the fact, that they had indeed not been observed in that compromising few moments, and she hurried into the restaurant by the rear door and shut herself in Luca’s office, where she proceeded to bury her head in bookwork.

Deeply!

To the point where she had no space to think about anything else whatsoever!

And can you continue to ignore all your thoughts and hope that will be a true answer to anything, Scarlett?

To not only the issue of Lorenzo, but of family, too? Do you want to be close to them, or don’t you?

Yes, she did, and Scarlett was trying. These things took time!