Recipe for Temptation Read Online Free PDF Page B

have the last word!
    “I know this may be hard for you to accept, you arrogant son of a bitch, but you’re not God’s gift to women. Believe it or not, there are a few of us who are perfectly capable of resisting your charms.”
    Pausing at his car door, Michael glared back at her, his eyes hard and glittering in the night.
    Reese wasn’t finished. “I’m so glad I found out what an asshole you are before I wasted another second of my time watching your damn show. And you wanna know something else? I’ve always liked Bobby Flay better, anyway!”
    Before Michael could respond, she slammed the door hard enough to give the neighbors something to talk about.
    As far as she was concerned, being fodder for gossip was a small price to pay for the sweet satisfaction of having the last word with Michael. After the abominable way he’d treated her tonight, she’d take whatever victory she could get.

Chapter 3
    M ichael was still in a foul mood when he woke up the next morning at his father’s house, where he often spent the night to keep Sterling Wolf company.
    To burn off steam, Michael threw on some sweats and went for a run through the idyllic Stone Mountain neighborhood.
    He couldn’t get the woman from last night out of his mind. Every time he replayed the encounter in his mind, he grew more angry and disgusted with himself. But what bothered him more than anything was that he couldn’t shake the nagging suspicion that he’d been wrong about the woman. Maybe she’d been telling the truth after all. Maybe her last name really was St. James, and somehow Griffin had gotten her confused with the Houston food critic.
    Michael’s cell phone rang as he returned to the silent house. He dug it out of his pocket and checked the caller ID. It was Drew Corbett, the executive producer of his cooking show.
    “Hey, Mike,” Drew greeted him, brisk and annoyingly upbeat even at such an early hour. “How was the whirlwind book tour?”
    “Great,” Michael muttered, heading toward the kitchen to start breakfast before his father woke up. “I’m already looking forward to the next trip.”
    “Of course. We all know how much you love being on the road.” Drew paused.
    “Not!”
    Michael grinned wryly. One of the drawbacks to being a celebrity chef was that he sometimes felt like he did more performing than cooking. Although he understood that touring and promoting his brand were vital to his success, he often wished he could leave that stuff to someone else so he could focus on what he enjoyed most: cooking. He loved being a chef. He loved rising to the challenge of creating unique, delicious meals that would satisfy even the most finicky eaters. He loved the pressure-cooker intensity of the kitchen. He loved taking a new cook under his wing, and he thrived on the camaraderie he shared with his staff. Hell, he didn’t even mind the long hours. Being a chef was physically, mentally and emotionally demanding.
    And he wouldn’t trade it for the world.
    After taking a swig of bottled water, he asked, “What’s up, Drew? You calling to tell me the meeting’s been rescheduled?”
    “Not at all. Actually, I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t forgotten about it. I figured you’d be sleeping off some jet lag this morning, so I decided not to call you too early.”
    “Thanks,” Michael mumbled.
    “Everyone at the studio is really excited about the new season of Howlin’ Good, ”
    Drew said. “I think our viewers are gonna get a real kick out of the apprentice series. As you might imagine, we were inundated with contest entries from all over the country.
    We’ve finally gone through all of them and selected our ten finalists.”
    “That’s good.”
    “Our test kitchen favorite was a curry chicken soufflé submitted by a woman from Houston,” Drew continued. “I think even you’d be impressed with the recipe, that’s how good it was.”
    “Is that right? And you say she’s from