Sizzling in Singapore (A Carnal Cuisine Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page A

last night that you'd be my boss and you should have allowed me to make the choice of whether we should...whether I wanted to..."
    " Fuck me senseless?" His smile infuriated her. "We were very good together. I can't say I've ever had better."
    " You were deliberately deceptive. I don't appreciate it at all."
    " You certainly seemed to appreciate it last night."
    Mae felt a little tingle between her legs in spite of herself. "Last night was a mistake and is now history. I'd be very grateful if you could manage to keep it to yourself. I've worked hard for the respect this crew grudgingly gives me. They would love to have something like this to tease me mercilessly about. I don't want my authority eroded by some meaningless incident"
    " You have my word that I won't reveal our dirty little secret," Nick said. Mae sensed a touch of bitterness in his voice.
    " You have absolutely no right to be peeved with me," she said indignantly. "You used me with the full knowledge that we'd be working together."
    " I think you'll have to agree that the 'using' part was entirely mutual."
    Mae was tempted to explain that her behavior the night before was very much out of character for her and that she didn 't jump every man's bones. But as angry as she was, she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of thinking that there was anything special about him. It was better for him to continue assuming that it was completely normal for her to have passionate sex with a random stranger.
    " Okay then, we used each other. But you're the one who was deceitful."
    " I said I was sorry. As you won't let me make it up to you in the manner I would very much like to, what mea culpa would satisfy you?"
    " None. I mean, nothing. I mean I accept your apology. Let's just move along from it, okay?
    When you 're ready, I'll introduce you around." Mae covered her confusion with an all-business-now attitude. She made a quick exit with a forced tight-lipped smile that looked more like a grimace. She was determined to put up a mature front even if she was suffering a combination of anger at his deception and embarrassment that she was now going to have to work beside Nick for the foreseeable future. If I can't look at him without remembering last night, he certainly won't be forgetting either. This is what happens when I step out of my comfort zone! Now I've got a boss who thinks I'm a complete slut. And there's nobody to blame but myself. Damn, damn, damn!
     
    ***
     
    Nick spent the rest of the day sequestered in the office. Not only was he physically slammed from the jet lag, he was also licking the wounds to his male pride. No matter how much a man fancies himself a love 'em and leave 'em kind of guy, it stings when the shoe is on the other foot. Nick was surprised that it hurt just a tad when Mae dismissed their passion so casually. Obviously, she was simply the kind of woman who used men for sex when she felt like it and could walk away . Figures, she's got to have brass balls to do her job so it follows that she'd have a guy's attitude toward getting some. Point made, Chef Mae.
    It irritated him, but he had to admit to himself that somehow he felt a real sting by her rejection of any further intimacy. It seemed more than obvious that Chef Mae could put their tryst in the pool in the 'meaningless event file' in her world. Nick wondered why she had such an effect on him. He'd had casual encounters with beautiful women before. And she wasn't even that beautiful. Her nose was a tad too long, her lips a tad too full. Her body was perfect, if you liked the tiny type. Yes , he told himself, I've had more beautiful women. Was it her passion? Her abandon? Why does she keep intruding on my mind? Try as he might, Nick could not dismiss the chemistry between them easily. And, now that he knew her position in the kitchen, he also had to admit to himself that he was intrigued.
    Nick himself had held the chef de cuisine title at the San Francisco Elysium before he stepped