The Perfect Ingredient (Dare Valley) (3 page)

She took the bowl he handed her and led him to the small table in her dining nook, not wanting the formality of the dining room. He sat across from her, and as if on cue, they both took their first bite together. Caramel soaked into her tongue, followed by the coolness of cream, the punch of cinnamon, and the warm banana.

“Yum,” she managed.

Another one of Chef T’s famous mega-watt smiles, which she’d seen on TV more times than she cared to admit. Yes, she watched his show…she couldn’t help herself.

He’d left the Peacock a scant month after their breakup. She couldn’t help but wonder if he’d returned to New York City because of her. Soon after, he’d landed his own cable show,
The Tattooed Chef,
on her favorite food channel, and she’d been glued to the screen ever since.

As a viewer, she could feed her addiction to his smile, his badass attitude, and lust over his rock-hard body. Even laugh as he made innuendos about food—something he was famous for. Along with the swearing.

“So tell me what really made you so afraid earlier?” he asked, something she hadn’t been expecting.

“It’s nothing,” she said, shoving another bite in her mouth. No way she was talking about it with him. First, it was personal, and second, he was alpha enough to handle it for her, which she didn’t want or need. As she’d told Rhett, she was dealing with it.

After her violent past, she needed to be strong enough to handle it on her own.

“I might not have known your real name until a few weeks ago, but I know you don’t scare easy. At least not so much that you’d keep a Louisville Slugger by the door.”

Well, she didn’t keep it by the door. She kept it by the bed, and she’d run for it the minute she heard the car in the driveway. Terrance was wrong. She might put up a brave front, but she scared way too easily after being stalked by an ex-boyfriend while in her M.B.A. program at Harvard.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she fired back. “And it’s not why you came over anyway. Aren’t you going to ask me what you came here to ask?”

He set his spoon aside, and she watched his ice cream continue to melt under the heat of the bananas. “Why did you leave like you did? Was it because I punched that guy who put his hands on you and called you a slut? You told me you weren’t upset about it.”

“I don’t have a very good reason.” At least not one she could share. His violence hadn’t been directed at her, but it had horrified her nonetheless.

“I deserved better than that note, dammit.”

When he drew another hundred out of his wallet, she had to stop from reaching for his hand to comfort him.

“We both knew our time together would end.” Except she hadn’t wanted that, which had only scared her more, giving her another reason to flee.

His mouth quirked up. “Did we? It might have started out that way, but I thought…”

Her heart thudded in her chest, and she set her spoon aside too, her appetite gone. He’d thought they had a future? Mr. No Commitment Chef T himself?

“I’m sorry.”

His eyes flicked up to hers, and inside their green depths she saw the hurt and vulnerability he never showed to the world. “Me too. Why didn’t you tell me about Elizabeth? I would have kept your real name secret. Rhett’s my friend too. I mean, I understand why you wanted to keep it quiet that you and your friend, Raven…ah, Jane, were his poker scouts and not just hot babes. The whole masquerade was pretty genius if you ask me. But I deserved to know.”

Their disguise had been genius. The three of them had concocted the plan together after Rhett offered them jobs as his scouts. Elizabeth and Jane, both Harvard M.B.A. graduates, had been eager to escape their lives—Elizabeth, because of Vince, the man who’d stalked her and told her he would kill her if she went out with another man and Jane, because of her controlling parents, who wanted her to work on her father’s political campaign. The arrangement had served them all well.

“Until last month, no one knew but our small circle. I couldn’t tell you because it would have endangered the people I love most in the world.”

He picked his spoon back up and made circles in the melting ice cream. “I suppose we didn’t talk much about the past when we were together.”

No, but she’d wanted to, and it had been a first. Relationships didn’t work, at least not in her experience. Certainly her parents hadn’t been happy. She’d sworn never to make herself vulnerable to another man after the disaster with Vince.

Yet Terrance had threatened to peel back all her barriers.

Which was, of course, part of the reason she’d left.

“Why are you here, Terrance?” she finally asked.

“At your house or in Dare Valley?”

“Dare Valley.”

He clicked the spoon against the side of the bowl and then let it fall. “Only Mac and a few other people I work with know, so I’m trusting you.”

Okay, that scared her. “Maybe you shouldn’t—”

“I’m on probation of sorts. I’ve been given a primetime cooking show that’s a mix of cooking and reality TV. The deal was set in place before the new president took over, and he’s trying to undo it, saying I’m a loud-mouthed, no-good SOB, who… Well it doesn’t matter. I fired back, living up to my reputation, and now he’s delaying my show. I have two months to prove I can clean up my act for primetime. No swearing. No innuendos. No fun. It sucks, Vix.”

That nickname, the one he’d always used for her, made her throat squeeze.

“Sorry, it’s going to take some time for me to remember to call you Elizabeth.” His smile came and left his face, like he was just as awash in old memories as she was.

“Anyway, I want this show. Badly. So when Mac called me to ask me for some recommendations for a new head chef, I asked him how he’d feel about me taking the job for a while since I wasn’t working. Then Mac threw back some ideas about me not only heading up the kitchen here, but having final say over all the menus for his four other hotels and the new one he’s building in Vegas…not to mention the top catering jobs. Of course, he also promised me the flexibility to do the show once it starts up and travel back and forth. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“That’s Mac. He might be a World Series of Poker winner, but his business acumen is second to none.”

“I couldn’t agree more. To sweeten the deal, we made an agreement for his hotel chain to become an exclusive vendor of my new gourmet food products, which are just launching. We’re also planning to launch niche gourmet products with my picture on them and the name of Mac’s hotel chain, but we need to work out the details before securing financing.”

“Congratulations, Terrance.”

“Not bad for a New York City street rat,” he mused and shoved back his chair to stretch his long legs out.

His rough upbringing had always been a touchy subject with him.

“And the whole hundred-dollars-a-word thing?”

“I was having a hard time controlling my language, so I decided only one thing would incentivize me. Money. Something I never had growing up and something I don’t ever want to be without again.”

That she understood, having grown up in a trailer park.

“Now let’s talk about you. Are you still happy with your job?”

She took another bite of melting ice cream and nodded. “Jane…uh, Raven…decided she wanted to play poker professionally after winning the big tournament last month, so now I’m Rhett’s main scout. We have to recast my proximity to him at tournaments since the ruse is up, and everyone on the circuit knows what I do, but I think we’ll find a balance. Jane still plans to help out here and there when there’s no conflict because she loves the work as much as I do, but now that she’s engaged to Matt Hale, she has a lot going on.”

“I’ve met him through his cousin Jill at the hotel. He seems like a nice guy. I’m happy for her, but I have to admit it’s an adjustment to see her as she is now. You…have more of a resemblance to Vixen than she does to Raven.”

Well, that was diplomatic. Her curves were natural, but Jane was reed thin and had been padded into a new shape to become Raven.

“Matt’s great. All of the Hales are.” And she was happy her best friend had found the happily ever after she’d always wanted and believed in. Not so with Elizabeth.

Something inside her had frozen after Vince.

“I’ve had a chance to meet Mac’s wife,” he continued. “She’s a pistol, but I have to say I didn’t see Mac marrying a cop.”

“None of us did, but she suits him perfectly, just like Abbie does Rhett.”

“Yeah. I’m glad it worked out between them. Rhett was devastated when she broke things off before.”

The two had dated in secret for a while—a fact not many people knew. Well, well. Rhett must have told him. She’d file that away for later.

“It’s weird to see Mac and Rhett settled down after all the fun we used to have together.”

Boy fun, he meant. “I imagine it is.” Yes, it was different for her too, and her best friend’s engagement was another big change. But she was finding her way, making new friends. Keeping active.

“How has it been for you, coming here?” he asked, crossing his arms across the chest she knew to be muscular and mouth-watering.

Part of her couldn’t believe he was sitting across from her at her kitchen table, talking casually as the clock ticked toward midnight. There was so much left unsaid between them, but she was surprised to realize he was one of those old friends with whom the passage of time held no meaning.

Becoming friends with him had been a surprise before, and in some ways, it had scared her as much as their passionate sexual connection. She preferred to keep things simple and unemotional with men. Easy. Maybe she and Terrance could be friends now, setting aside their emotional baggage.

Except she also wanted him to sweep the plates off the table and lift her onto him so he could kiss her senseless and rock her world. Not exactly friend-like.

“Dare Valley is different than Vegas, there’s no denying it. But it’s growing on me. I love being here with Jane and Rhett, and there are more wonderful people they’re bringing into my life. I…have a family here,” she finished and looked down at her lap.

She’d never had a real family growing up, so Jane and Rhett had become one. Even the town’s famous family, the Hales, was making room for her, and all because she was the best friend of Matt Hale’s fiancée.

“I’m glad you found people you could belong to,” Terrance murmured, and his voice was so gentle, she couldn’t help but meet his eyes.

Yes, he knew about that desire to belong. Both of them had lived on the outside for most of their lives before finding the passion that transformed them—his home was in the kitchen, hers in the poker dens where fortunes were made and lost.

For a while, she’d wanted to belong to him and ignore everything she’d ever come to know about betrayal and loss and fear at the hands of a man. But her fear had proved too powerful.

“I should go,” he finally said and stood.

She rose and walked him to the front door. Her hands seemed to hang awkwardly by her sides as she watched him pull on his hiking boots. Part of her wanted to reach out and embrace him, just one more time, so she could feel the hard muscles of his chest against her cheek, smell his scent of spicy, erotic cologne mixed with the aromatic smells from his kitchen.

But she couldn’t.

When he touched his finger to her cheek, doing what she could not, her heart rapped hard in her chest, and she had to clench her fists at her sides not to reach for him.

“I was so mad at you,” he whispered, tracing her cheek. “I thought for sure we were going to go eight rounds tonight, but seeing you scared—whether it was me or someone who frightened you— made all of that disappear. I don’t know Elizabeth Saunders like I did Vixen, but I want to. I hope we can at least be friends. We have plenty of friends in common, and it’s a small town. We did pretty well at that before.”

Her regrets hung heavy in her belly. “I like the idea of us becoming friends again.”

“Friends it is.”

He held out his hand to seal the pact with her, but when their hands met, he held hers longer than necessary. When he released her, she rubbed her palm on her pajama pants to erase the tingling sensation there.

“I’m sorry I left you like I did, Terrance. You’re right. You deserved more from me.”

The side of his mouth tipped up, his scar wicked sexy. “Well, it seems we’re going to begin anew. I’ll see you around.
Elizabeth.”

The way he said her name with his sin-chewing-marbles voice, one she’d never imagined to hear cross his lips in person, made her sway forward.

A special light came into his eyes. “Good night.”

When he walked out, she closed the door and slumped against it.

Vixen might have come to terms with never being with Terrance again, but Elizabeth Saunders clearly hadn’t.

Chapter 3

The town’s most popular coffee shop, Don’t Soy with Me, was Elizabeth’s favorite place to meet up with Jane these days. Her friend’s fiancée was running for mayor, so Jane was often downtown helping Matt’s campaign staff. The primary election for mayor was on May 1, less than a week away. The coffee shop, owned by Matt’s cousin Jill Hale who now worked for Mac with Terrance at The Grand, was the perfect place for them to rendezvous. Like usual, it was bustling with locals, students from Emmits Merriam University, and transplants like herself. The music playing over the speakers was bluesy, the atmosphere vibrant with its red and yellow accented walls, and the coffee and food were downright decadent.

“Hey,” Jane said as she gave Elizabeth a half hug and dropped down in the empty chair at the table Elizabeth had been lucky enough to snag.

“Hey, back,” she replied, not wanting to burst out the news that Terrance
freaking
Waters had finally come by her place last night. If she did, they’d never get coffee and food. “Let’s leave our stuff here and get in line to order.”

They hung their jackets on the chairs and took their place in the long line. Elizabeth smiled at a few college boys who were staring at them. They were attracting a new kind of attention now that the whole town knew they’d been Raven and Vixen.