Hired: Cinderella Chef

Patrick woke up the next morning thinking about Darcy Parrish’s dark, hot rebellious eyes. There had been something magnificent and defiant about her even though he could tell that she was scared and bluffing beneath the bravado. Having raised three sisters he knew the signs.

Still, he had no business dwelling on the woman despite the fact that there was something compellingly beautiful about her. He’d found himself wondering how long her wheat-colored hair would be when freed from its ponytail and…what she was wearing beneath that red apron. He could see that she was slender, but…

“Stop it,” he muttered. This was completely inappropriate. She was his employee. For now, anyway, and he had sworn to help her.

Patrick nearly let out a groan. Why had he done that? His life was too busy right now and he was halfway out the door to a trip around the world. Now that his youngest sister was going off to college he was free to pursue his own interests for the first time since his parents had died and left him a guardian at age nineteen.

This trip was all he had wanted for years. He intended to grab opportunity with both hands, and nothing was going to sidetrack him, including a pair of lovely brown eyes. At twenty-nine he was still single and he had yet to sow any wild oats. He was going to do just that. Soon enough he would marry someone like himself, from his world with his goals. He would raise his own children. Angelise would be a perfect choice for a wife, and she seemed to feel the same about him. Not that they’d actually discussed marriage, yet. That would happen in time.

But for now, the family sporting goods business offered the perfect opportunity to do all the things he’d been wanting to do. The prospect of a multi-continent trip to promote the business while engaging in adventure sports for charity loomed large. No more avoiding the reckless pursuits he craved. No more being responsible for another person’s well-being. He wanted that new life, badly, and it was almost in his grasp.

Except there were just a few loose ends. Able House was one, and apparently Darcy Parrish was another.

“You’re an idiot, Judson,” he told himself. “She doesn’t even want your help.”

But she would have it. He’d taken on the responsibility of Able House not only as an example to his sisters of the value of diversity in one’s life, but also as an example of the duties of the wealthy to those less fortunate. The first round of residents had all been chosen as those most likely to be able to make their own ways eventually. Potential strong role models who might offer hope to others. It was clear why Darcy had been included. She was talented, bright and bold. But he’d heard her try to get Olivia to lie for her. He’d seen her anger. Something was wrong.

Having been the one to shepherd Able House into being, he had to make sure that wrong was made right. Whether he’d known it before or not, he now knew that Darcy was in his employ and that made him responsible for her.

When he left town, he had to be sure that Able House and its residents were safe from attack. He didn’t want any of his neighbors to be able to say “I told you this wouldn’t work” or “I told you this would be a problem” or “We don’t need any trouble bringing our property values down.” These were people’s lives, hopes and dreams that were at stake.

He’d been lax. He’d been concentrating on getting Lane off to college and then on his own issues. Having chosen Able House’s directors with care, he’d assumed that the brand-new facility had launched cleanly.

Apparently that wasn’t completely true. Darcy Parrish had more than just a smart, sexy mouth. She was willing to be insubordinate to an employer rather than meet a group of people who had only wanted to praise and admire her. That could be problematic for future employers. Because while Darcy clearly had talent and could be a success, that wouldn’t happen if she was unwilling to promote herself in the competitive Chicago culinary field. Patrick knew that Mrs. D. had hired Darcy because of her Able House connections. Her talent might never be fully recognized if she insisted on ignoring those who wanted to meet her. And that would be bad news for both her and Able House.

He wasn’t going to let that happen. He was going to help her. And he was going to get some much needed coffee, he thought with a near groan. Damn, but he needed coffee if he was going to face the woman with a clear head.

Patrick just bet that Darcy Parrish made coffee that would make a man beg. Probably not a good idea to let her know that she had the power to make him beg, not with that saucy attitude of hers, he thought with a smile.

Oh, no. That wasn’t how things were going to be.

“Let the games begin, Darcy,” he whispered as he went in search of his pretty chef.

CHAPTER TWO

DARCY’S nerves were totally on edge. When she’d finally returned to Able House last night she’d been unable to sleep for hours knowing that today was likely to bring another meeting with Patrick Judson. The memory of the man’s arresting presence had her mind spinning as she tried to think of some plausible reason she could give for not showing up. Unfortunately there was none. She was going to have to face the man.

“So what?” she whispered to herself. “He’s just a man.” And she had been working for him for a week. This should be no big deal.

Except it was. Patrick Judson was not only gorgeous and sexy, with a voice that made a woman think of…oh, things she had stopped thinking of a long time ago, he was also larger than life. And she was—eek!—going to be spending a little time with him.

No big deal, she repeated to herself again as she finally made it to work, bleary-eyed and tired. He’d probably give her a half-hour lecture and a few pointers and that would be it. Had she seriously worried that some rich guy was going to hang around with her and put her through her paces?

“Hey, Darce. So, I hear you’re going to spend the whole day with Mr. Judson,” Olivia said as Darcy came through the door.

So much for no big deal. “Who told you that?” she asked the young woman, but secretly Darcy was thinking, I am? The whole day?

“Mrs. D. told me that I would have to handle lunch alone.”

Darcy hadn’t run into Mrs. D. yet. She’d better go find out what was going on.

“But she said that it wouldn’t be too difficult,” Olivia continued. “Because Ms. Judson—Lane—is out shopping, and because Mr. Judson wouldn’t be here, anyway. He has a meeting with you. I guess his guests were really impressed. Maybe he’s even going to ask you to cater his wedding.”

“Wedding?”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot that you haven’t met Angelise Marsdon yet. She’s pretty hot.”

“I didn’t know Mr. Judson was engaged,” Darcy said. She thanked heaven that she hadn’t let her crazy attraction to her boss show. Not that it ever would have even occurred to Olivia that Darcy might be attracted to anyone. Many people, maybe even most, assumed that the wheelchair stripped a person of desire.

“Oh, he isn’t yet, but it’s pretty clear that he and Angelise—don’t you love that name?—are an item and that they’re made for each other. Now that Lane is going to college in a few weeks, and all of his sisters will be out of the house, he’ll be alone. That engagement’s gonna happen. I just know it. You’ll see. So, this meeting with Mr. J. is just about all that stuff last night, then?”

“Not a clue, Liv, but I’ll find out soon enough. Until then, I’m really not going to worry about it.” No, and she wasn’t going to bother thinking about Patrick Judson’s upcoming engagement, either. Still, Liv’s mention of her boss’s relationship with the apparently beautiful and hot Angelise Marsdon was a solid wake-up call, a smack upside the head, Darcy thought. What had she even been thinking about noticing the man’s eyes and getting all gooey just because he had a deep voice and a nice smile?

“Breakfast first,” Darcy said, forcing herself to stop dwelling on her boss’s ability to make a woman feel hot even when she was holding the refrigerator door open. “I am not going to let you get stuck with extra chores just because I have to leave the kitchen for a few hours. Let’s get started.”

But she had barely managed to get the coffee made when she felt a presence at the door and turned. Patrick Judson was just entering the kitchen, and the way he was studying her…

Over the past few years Darcy had grown to expect and dread the pitying looks people sometimes sent her way, or worse, the way they glanced away self-consciously, but this was different. There was genuine interest in his gaze. And something else that made her feel like blushing when she was just not the kind of woman who blushed.

Anger sluiced through her. She liked this job. She needed it, too. Romantic or lustful thoughts were off-limits, and not just because the man was practically engaged. It went deeper than that. She’d already had a man destroy her heart when she was at her lowest. Her career had been snatched away. She’d lost her baby and more. Everything she’d dared to reach for was gone, so she no longer risked dreaming. She grasped only for the attainable. And Patrick Judson? He didn’t even come close to being attainable. The man might as well have had a big, flashing Not For Darcy light on his forehead. Only a self-destructive fool would risk being attracted to him, and she was a survivor, not a fool.

Life had boiled down to the practical, the doable, and even if she had still been the type to indulge in romantic dreams, this man was way out of her league and would have been even before the accident.

“Excuse me for invading your kitchen before you’re done, but what can I say? That is one of the most incredible scents in the world,” he said, glancing at the coffeepot. “A man would do a lot for a cup of that. Is it ready?” he asked with a smile that would have coaxed a snowman into a sauna.

Darcy couldn’t help smiling back just a little. “It’s ready. Coffee is a major food group, you know.”

He grinned and that darn snowman melted a little more. “I see we share an addiction.”

Darcy’s body turned to fire. That deep voice and the way he breathed in the aroma of the coffee she handed him before he took a sip… Darcy could so easily imagine him nuzzling a woman’s neck, breathing in her scent and telling her she smelled wonderful.

Darn it, no, where had that thought come from? Instantly she tried to blank out her thoughts. Some men could home in on a woman’s attraction. She prayed that Patrick wasn’t one of them. “Breakfast will be ready in mere minutes,” she said, the words coming out in a rush. Thankfully the act of promising results “in mere minutes” was enough to get her back on track. The meal would have to be something uncomplicated. Omelets, she decided, with fresh vegetables and herbs and cheese.

“Sounds great,” he conceded. “And after breakfast, you and I have things to do. Would you dine with me?”

Mind reading men became the least of Darcy’s worries as she thought of sitting across a table from him. There was something about a meal that suddenly seemed very intimate.

“No,” she said, too hastily. “I mean, thank you, but no thank you. Work to do, you know. Olivia is on her own today. I need to…” To what? Olivia was more than capable of managing on her own when Patrick wasn’t around to be fed. When Darcy had arrived, the young woman had been relying on a cache of frozen casseroles the former cook had made up. There were still plenty of those.

But this is my kitchen now, Darcy reminded herself. And she didn’t like falling back on the former cook’s meals. So, there. She did have a good excuse for not eating with her boss. She wasn’t a coward.

“Work,” she repeated.

“Coward,” he said with a smile. “As your employer you know I’d give you a pass on the work, but…maybe work isn’t the problem? You told me that you don’t like being the center of attention. You must have thought I would grill you.”

Darcy blinked. “Would you have?”

He smiled again. “Not until after breakfast.” Then, he picked up his coffee, turned and left the kitchen. “A few minute’s reprieve, Darcy,” he called back. “Then you and I begin.”