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

‘It’s a lovely day for a swim.’ Scarlett pushed her lips up into a very, very natural and completely relaxed and not at all overly conscious of him smile. ‘Do you teach classes out here or something?’

‘The board wanted to discuss that possibility with me.’ His eyes were narrowed.

Against the sun, Scarlett told herself, and refused to acknowledge that his gaze had followed the movement of her hand, had tracked the rest of the way to touch on her messy knot of hair before it travelled gently over her face and bare shoulders.

‘Um, well, that sounds interesting.’ She glanced at her cousin, whose gaze was passing from her to Lorenzo and back again.

‘With what they wanted, I’d have considered it a conflict of interest against my work at Rosa.’ He gave a shrug. ‘So unfortunately I had to turn the offer down.’

‘I see.’ Scarlett should have thought of the possible threat to Rosa straight away.

Well, it would be nice if she could think anything beyond wanting to swim over to him and speak at a much closer level, wouldn’t it? One that involved ignoring the presence of the others in the pool, and preferably allowing their lips to meet…

So much for telling herself that first kiss had been some random thing, like tripping over and falling onto his mouth or something. Maybe she should have examined that first kiss and its impact on her, rather than trying to pretend it hadn’t happened. Would that have better equipped her for now?

Failing that, Scarlett had another highly appropriate plan to implement. ‘I must take advantage and do some laps before we have to leave.’

She uttered the words as though to Isabella, and made an odd waving motion with one hand. ‘Excuse me. Do feel free to talk amongst yourselves.’

And with this obscure blessing handed to Izzie and Lorenzo, who both probably stared after her as though she’d lost her mind at the bottom of the swimming pool, Scarlett set off to do laps.

Perhaps until she swam herself into oblivion.

At least until she would no longer be conscious of Lorenzo’s presence in such an everything-else-fades-to-black kind of way.

Izzie wouldn’t have noticed anything all that odd in Scarlett’s reactions to Lorenzo, would she?

Scarlett increased her pace, churning through the water as though by doing so she might somehow escape all of her thoughts.

She decided Izzie would not have noticed, and, not only that, Scarlett didn’t have to think about anything. Not Lorenzo, not family, not her guilt over Jackie, not sending herself to Australia for years and years and then coming back here with all sorts of hopes apparently tucked away inside her like unexpected add-ons that she shouldn’t have stuffed into her mental suitcases.

Stroke, breathe. Stroke, breathe.

Scarlett focused one hundred, no, two hundred per cent of her attention on her movements through the water.

And pushed every other distraction right out!

Chapter Five

‘THERE has to be an answer somewhere. I just know it’s there, but I can’t zero in on it.’ Scarlett murmured the words beneath her breath, mostly in the hopes of getting them out of her head.

Her swim earlier this afternoon felt aeons away. Night had fallen outside the restaurant while she slaved away in Luca’s office inputting financial information onto a computer system to bring Rosa’s paperwork side of things—kicking and screaming if necessary—into the twenty-first century.

Well, it had been a big day. Scarlett had come out onto the terrace that adjoined with Sorella’s terrace for a breath of air, even if that air was still quite warm and balmy.

There was nobody out here at this time of night, and in fact, though the terraces joined, there was an air of disuse about both of them.

She had to stop this nonsense when it came to Rosa’s head chef. She had to stop it right now, if not sooner. It just wasn’t right that she still could react to him that way when he’d broken her heart, let her down so badly.

Yes, but he’s also been the epitome of a fabulous head chef since you’ve been at Rosa. He’s committed to the restaurant. You saw how wonderful he was with Dante and that whole situation. Isabella thinks the world of him.

Maybe Lorenzo had changed.

And, well, five years on…

She’d heard on the rumour-mill, during her last trip over here that the new head chef at Rosa was single, so he’d done the right thing in the end and got out of that loveless relationship. That meant he was free now.

Just what do you mean by that, Scarlett? Free for you to get involved with a second time? Are you nuts?

She wasn’t crazy but Scarlett was still somewhat attracted to Lorenzo. That didn’t have to be an issue, though!

‘Here you are. I thought you might have still been holed up in Luca’s office.’

Lorenzo’s words were low-pitched, in tune with the quiet atmosphere out here. Scarlett’s reaction was for her pulse to skip before she turned slowly to face him.

‘I came out for a breath of air.’ She had been working in Luca’s office for a lot of hours.

‘Well, now you can have something to refresh you at the same time. Don’t worry.’ He pressed one of two glasses of red wine into her hand.

Their fingers brushed as Scarlett automatically took the drink from him. She tried not to notice the warmth of his fingers, the familiarity of taking a glass from him. The quiet of the night around them or how it felt good to stand here with him, just the two of them. ‘Worry?’

‘About the expense.’ He gestured with his glass. ‘I’m not costing the restaurant money. A patron bought this whole bottle, had us uncork it, and then ended up leaving without touching it.’

‘Oh. Yes. Very good. Well, thank you for the drink.’ She said it rather assertively and took a sip. Scarlett would not reach for the ribbon in her hair. It was navy blue this evening, velvet and soft and…comforting.

Not reaching.

Don’t need to feel comforted.

Doing just fine holding up all by myself.

Not tempted by Lorenzo, either.

Totally not thinking about being kissed by him and how that one brief kiss only made me want—

Nothing. Scarlett wanted nothing from Lorenzo aside from good cooking. ‘I thought you’d be in the kitchen. Has the clientele eased off already?’

‘Not only has it eased off, the evening is over, Scarlett.’ He sipped from his own glass of wine.

‘Really?’ Scarlett’s gaze dipped to the strong column of his neck, to the bob of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed the rich red.

What was she doing? Letting herself enjoy Lorenzo’s company? Lorenzo’s words finally got through the fog of what she decided must be over-tiredness messing up her normal thought patterns.

Scarlett frowned. ‘Has the restaurant closed?’

‘Yes. It’s just as well I check the building thoroughly before I leave. You might have ended up spending the night out here.’ He leaned one arm against the railing that edged the terraced area. ‘Did you even eat the meal I sent in to you earlier?’

‘I did. Thank you.’ Every day Lorenzo made sure she ate. He took care of her that way, even when she had her head down for hours and hours, like today. ‘I want to get Rosa into a truly successful position and keep the restaurant there.’