Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 95256 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95256 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“My tasting tonight in Harbor Springs. The guy’s a wine collector, so he might have enough glasses, but I always bring extra just in case.”
“Oh right, the editor’s dinner party,” she said, because she listens to me when I’m talking. “I hope the roads will be okay. Your car can’t be much better than mine in the snow—Dex is already on me to get better tires.”
“Dex is on you every chance he gets,” I teased. Not only was Dex a former Navy SEAL, but he was a firefighter, dad to two young girls, and a dozen years older than Winnie, so protectiveness ran through his veins.
Winnie blushed. “But seriously, want me to ask him if he’ll drive you? He’s off work today and tomorrow, and the girls are with their mom. We could take you up there.”
“Thanks, but I actually already have a ride.”
“With who?”
“Gianni.” I frowned. “He was in here bothering me already this morning, and when he heard I was planning to drive up there alone, he went all Italian caveman and insisted that he needs to drive me.”
“That was nice of him,” Felicity said.
“I know. I’m highly suspicious.”
“Oh, come on,” Winnie scolded. “I know you two bicker like cats and dogs, and he does have a bit of an ego—”
“A bit of an ego?” I shrieked. “Has he told you about his Lick My Plate tagline—too hot to handle? Or how they played ‘Fever’ any time he was onscreen? Or perhaps you’ve seen him featured in People magazine’s Sexiest Chefs Alive issue?”
“Okay, but at heart he’s a decent guy.” Winnie wouldn’t give up. “He offered to drive because he cares about you.”
“He didn’t offer, Winnie—he informed me he would drive. He was bossing me around.”
“You could have said no,” she pointed out.
“I did say no!” Then I hesitated. “At first. But he scared me with all these terrible things that could happen, and I thought about being alone out there on the road in the freezing cold because no tow trucks could get to me. And apparently he has good snow tires on his big macho SUV.”
“I mean, he’s not wrong.” Felicity lifted her shoulders. “It will definitely be safer if you’re together.”
“Maybe it’ll be fun.” Winnie’s voice was full of optimism. “Maybe you guys can work through some of the tension in your relationship.”
I shook my head. “The tension in our relationship stems from the fact that he walks around here like he owns the place, and he knows it makes me crazy.”
“That’s the thing,” Winnie said. “You make it so obvious that he gets to you. Why can’t you just ignore him?”
“I don’t know!” I threw my hands up. “I tell myself that all the time. I wake up and say, I will not give him the satisfaction today, and somehow I forget that once he’s around me, and I end up all . . .” I fidgeted, trying to think of a word for the way Gianni could make me feel—something close to the truth without being the actual truth, which I didn’t even like admitting to myself.
“Hot and bothered?” suggested Winnie.
“Let’s stick with bothered.”
“Wow, he’s really got your number,” Felicity said.
“He does,” Winnie confirmed. “And personally, I have always thought all that heat and friction between them would make for a good time, if you know what I mean.”
“Not even if it was the end of the world and he was the last man on earth,” I said, grabbing one of the storage boxes. “Now you can make up for putting that horrible thought in my head by helping me carry these upstairs.”
Winnie giggled and grabbed one of the boxes. “I’m just saying, it’s kind of a shame all the sparks that fly when you’re in a room together can’t result in something other than frustration. Maybe if you guys just went at each other one day, you’d get along better.”
“She might be right,” Felicity said, taking the third box in her arms. “And he’s so passionate about food, I bet he’s passionate in other places too. And probably excellent with his hands.”
“Yeah. Just ask him,” I muttered, leading the way out of the tasting room.
But truthfully, I did like Gianni’s hands. After his butt, they were probably my favorite part of him.
For a moment, I imagined them skimming across my stomach or sweeping down my hip or sliding up my inner thigh.
A memory gripped me so tightly it stole my breath.
“Ellie?”
I opened my eyes and realized I’d stopped halfway up the stone staircase leading from the cellar and tasting room into Abelard’s lobby. “Sorry.”
I started moving again, offering no explanation and doing my best to shove the memory and the thought of Gianni’s hands on my skin from my mind.
It could never happen again.
THREE
GIANNI
Inside the small office off Etoile’s kitchen, I took off my coat and sat down at the desk. Leaving here by two o’clock meant I had a lot to get done in the next few hours—check yesterday’s sales and time sheets, do inventory, place orders, help Ellie load the wine and glasses she was taking to Harbor Springs into my SUV. I also wanted to run home and change clothes, just in case Ellie needed a hand pouring or the hostess needed help serving.