Steamed (Steamed #1) (2 page)

Thankfully I was in great shape because I had to walk two
blocks to get to a new restaurant that had opened up. I didn't bring my car
because I knew I wouldn't have time for the gym after all the running around
and at least this way I was getting some kind of exercise.

The restaurant I was seeking out was the type of restaurant
that would be in direct competition with Jared's place. I was surprised to see
that the restaurant was wildly popular; but it was still new so only time would
tell if the popularity would stay. Business was clearly booming as there were
people lined up outside waiting for a table. Why had I not heard about this new
restaurant? My curiosity was certainly piqued. I would be curious to peruse
their menu for a moment. I approached the hostess stand and her smile
practically brightened up my day. I was all business however as I had a job to
do.

“Hi there! Table for one?”

Yep,
that would be the day.

“No. I'm here to speak to the owner.” I demanded.

“Oh, I'm sorry the owner is far too busy to speak with
anyone right now. We are a new restaurant after all.”

I bristled, “Excuse me -”

Suddenly a man stepped up and interrupted me. “Lisa, it's
okay. I can handle this.” The hostess rolled her eyes as if she was annoyed
that I got my way.

The man walked up to me with a warm smile and my mouth hit
the floor. Oh dear god, this had better not be my nemesis because he was good
enough to eat and I knew food. He was clean cut with a boyish grin. He was
wearing jeans and a V-neck T-shirt and I could see the definition of his
chiseled body through it like it wasn’t there. My mouth began to water the
closer he got to me. He looked me over curiously as if he was trying to figure
me out. Good luck there fella, better men have tried and failed. Though the
closer he got to me the warmer my body became. I wasn't sure what was wrong
with me. I typically didn't have such a reaction to men, but this one was for
the books. The way he was looking at me it was as if he was drinking me in. If
he was attracted to me I could use it to my advantage. I looked him over from
top to bottom; actually I could use him for a lot of things.

“Hi, I'm Link. How can I be of service to such a stunning
lady?”

I didn't speak at first. I was enthralled by the man and
couldn't believe he was flirting with me. How did someone become so
outrageously gorgeous? I cleared my throat, “Hi, I'm Gemma, Jared asked me to
come and see you.”

His brow furrowed, “Why is that exactly?”

“I'm his lawyer,” I said sternly.

I didn't bother to give Link my last name nor did I happen
to mention that Jared and I were siblings. My goal here was to instill the fear
of God into Link, not make him think I was doing my brother a favor.

Link scoffed and looked me over once again. “I'm sorry to
hear that. Jared is a crook and you should probably choose your clients a
little more wisely. You're not one of those ambulance-chasers too are you?”

I almost laughed at his joke except my blood pressure began
to rise. I couldn't believe he said that to me. What did he mean by Jared being
a crook? Why would he say something like that? Was Jared the crook in this
situation? I wondered if I was getting the full story from Jared. I'd kill him
if he sent me on this mission without giving me all the information. I should
have forced it out of him before I left, that would have been my best bet.

I glared at Link and said, “Look if you don't lay off of
Jared, there will be trouble. That much I can assure you. I'm good at my job
and if things get out of hand I won't be easy on you.”

He moved in close to me and we were practically breathing
the same air. He looked into my eyes with a piercing gaze. I felt my cheeks
flush for being so close to him. The damnedest thing happened to me as well; I
felt butterflies. The guy actually was making me nervous. Either that or I was
coming down with the flu.

“You do your worst, darling,” he said with a wink.

Was he flirting with me or just not taking me seriously in
general?

I threw my hands up in the air in frustration and turned on
my heel. I stormed out of the restaurant without looking back. I was afraid of
what I would see if I turned to look at Link. As I headed back to Jared's place
I felt very confused and a little... aroused.

Chapter Four

I was fit to be tied by the time I arrived back at Jared's
place. It was a nice cool breezy day but I should not have walked. Not because
I was tired or out of shape but because I was upset with Jared. I had to fume
about it the entire way back to the restaurant. Had I taken my car I could have
got to Jared sooner to yell at him. Considering that I knew very little about
the situation I wanted to strangle him even more. It was ridiculous that I had
gone to see Link without the full story, but I trusted Jared and maybe that was
my own fault. The only information that I had gone in with was that he wanted
me to give Link a warning… a threat to keep Link from doing anything to him. It
hadn't exactly worked out the way either of us intended.
Link
couldn't have been less intimidated by me, if anything I think my
aggressiveness just turned him on a little
. I hadn't expected Link to
look the way he did; I was grateful that he did but it certainly took me by
surprise. His good looks had thrown me completely off my game. Sure I had
expected a man but not one that I wanted to put my mouth on. He was so
incredibly hot that I had wished I had gone there on better circumstances. That
was the kind of man that I wanted in my bed, and I could easily see myself
spending a lot of time with him. Alas, it just was not meant to be. My brother
had gotten me involved in some feud with Link that would definitely make it
hard for me to get involved with him. It was all rather unfortunate
circumstances and Jared had just better hope he hadn't sent me on a fool’s
errand.

I walked back into Jared's restaurant and headed back to the
kitchen again. Jared was waiting there for me with a smile on his face. But
with one look from me, his grin started to melt. It actually drooped down into
a terrified frown.

“Don't grin at me.”

“What? What happened?”

“Well things didn't really go as planned so why don't you
tell me what's going on now? And hello, you could have warned me that the guy
was insanely hot.”

He stared at me dumbfounded, “How would I know if Link is
considered...insanely hot?”

I laughed, “Oh believe me, it would be obvious to everyone.”

“What does that have to do with anything? His hotness I
mean, like what are you talking about? You're supposed to be on my side.”

“How can I be on your side when I have no idea what's going
on? You sent me in there ill prepared for Link.”

“You don't have to get so worked.” He was laughing now.

There was nothing about that situation that I found funny in
the least little bit. “No? I don't? The guy is calling you a crook. A crook,
Jared! Why is that? What the hell is going on? You better start explaining
yourself before I really get worked up. Or walk out on you, so you pick.”

“Okay, okay. I will fill you in on the details. Link
actually used to work here a few months ago.”

“Are you serious? How did I miss that one? I've never met
him before.” I tried to think back on the guys I had met from the kitchen. None
of them had been insanely hot. I imagined once again his chiseled body but this
time without a shirt...and pants. Easy girl! He's not the naked chef! But hell,
he should seriously consider the position. I could even help him to practice
posing. I shook my head briefly trying to shake the image from my head. I was
starting to lose all sense of my surroundings thinking about Link and his
chiseled abs.

I knew I would have recognized someone so attractive. I
would have had my brother introduce me to Link immediately and then he would
have been all mine.

“Well like I was saying he didn't work here for very long
and you and I don't usually hang out in the kitchen. When you come here we sit
out front.”

That was true enough. I usually sat at the bar and had a
drink if I came to visit Jared. “Okay fine, so something obviously happened
between the two of you so fess up. What is your big issue with Link?”

“Well you don't think it's weird that a chef is working for
me one minute and then the next minute he can afford to open up a fancy
restaurant of his own?”

I sighed. “You did it…and lots of people find ways of making
their dreams come true. Not all chefs stay chefs. This industry has a huge
turnaround as you well know. It's no big surprise that if a chef has talent he
is going to want to move on to something bigger. It's the ones without the
talent that typically stay put. And in regards to the money, he could have
family money or even a loan. There are lots of ways people find money to open
up their dream businesses. So what's your point?”

He looked at me blankly though he shouldn't be surprised; he
knew I was long winded. “Wow...anyways...well when Link was working for me he
stole one of my secret recipes and sold it to a food manufacturer for a boatload
of money. That is how he opened up that fancy restaurant that now happens to be
my competitor. It wasn't a loan and it wasn't family money.”

“Are you kidding me? Are you sure? How do you know all
this?”

“Of course I'm sure; Link is the crook Gemma, not me. People
talk, that's how I hear things.”

“Well I'm done being the lawyer for you, that whole thing
was just ridiculous and a little pointless.”

“Gemma, I need you, please.” He looked so sad that it was
hard to stay mad at him.

“For what? Why won't you just hire a real lawyer? If it
comes down to legalities, it's not like I can do anything for you. I can only
pretend, so what is the point of it? Link wasn't even fazed by my appearance;
he could probably smell that I wasn't a lawyer.”

“Look I just need you; please just do this for me.” He
looked down at his hands while he said it. I stared at him wondering what I was
missing. Jared was acting so strangely. Was I being lied to? I really couldn't
tell. Shouldn't I be able to tell when someone so close to me lied to me? I had
my doubts about the things that he was saying to me. Jared and I were so close
but I had never known him to lie to me. But something was definitely going on.
I couldn't put my finger on it quite yet. But there had to be something. This
whole lawyer idea of his was bizarre and I didn't really even get the point to
the whole thing. If anything it was just humiliating and a little annoying for
me. I didn't want to have any further run-ins with Link either. I was going to
have to try and figure out what my brother was really up to. I just hoped I
wasn't going to be disappointed in him.

Chapter Five

By the time I got home I was pretty exhausted from all of
Jared's shenanigans. The guy really knew how to get me worked up. I couldn't
believe that I had allowed myself to get tangled up in that kind of nonsense.
It really said something for how much I loved my brother that I would allow
myself to get involved in the dispute he had with Link. What was worse was that
I wished I wasn't involved in the feud because I would have really liked to get
involved with Link on a few different levels. And the whole situation with
Jared, it was all so shady that I wasn't sure what I should believe. I could
totally understand why Jared would be angry if Link stole a recipe and then sold
it, but if that was the case then why was Link calling Jared a crook? It just
didn't make any sense to me. I felt like I still didn't have the whole story
and if that was the case, why? Why wouldn't Jared fill me in on all the details?
I would stand by him no matter what. I just wanted to know what was going on.
It wasn't too much to ask. There were plenty of reasons to believe Jared and
yet something ate away at me. I just knew that something was off about the
whole situation. I didn't like it one bit; my gut was telling me that something
was wrong.

Looking around my home, I beamed at what I saw. I had done
very well for myself and it had a lot to do with the fact that I knew a lot
about money. I lived in a luxury high-rise condominium that I had purchased a
few years back. It had all the luxury a girl could want including a hot tub and
none of the hassle of owning a home. I had a beautiful patio instead of a
balcony outside of my condo where my hot tub was located. I had worked really
hard to live the way that I did and I was very proud of my accomplishments. I
wanted the same thing for Jared but some way or another he always managed to
get wrapped up in messes. I loved his restaurant and knew that it was good for
him but the war he had with Link was only going to cause him trouble. I could
only hope that there was a simple solution to whatever problem he faced.

I went into the kitchen and opened a bottle of wine. I was
somewhat of a wine connoisseur so I knew the best wines to satisfy my palette
and I had an expensive palette. I was practically obsessed with Chateau Montelena
or Ciacci Piccolomini; red wine was my absolute delight. I poured some Chateau
into a glass and swirled it around. The crimson liquid lapped up the sides of
the glass, calming me. I brought the glass up to my nose and I took in the
aroma of the wine. I loved to come home after a day of work and relax with a
couple of glasses of wine. It always relaxed me before bed in the most perfect
way. I was very happy in my life, there wasn't too much that I would change
about it.