Sugar Rush Read Online Free PDF Page B

it’s not going to do you a bit of good in getting whatever it is you came here to get from me. And don’t bother telling me you just chose some dinky island off the coast of Georgia as a remote set for your show and, lo and behold, what a coincidence I happen to now live on that same island. Obviously you came here on purpose. I just can’t figure out why. You know why I left, why I’m here. Nothing about that has changed. I’m not coming back.”
    “Is that why you think I’m here? To get you to come back to work for me?”
    “What other reason could you possibly have? I can’t even figure that out. Your show is a smash hit, consistently the highest rated food show ever on television, I think I read somewhere. I keep in touch with some of the staff at Gateau, so I know Adjani is doing an amazing job running the kitchen and menu, and you’re doing just fine without me there.”
    “You’re right, I don’t need you on my television show. And Gateau is surviving, yes, and doing as fine as can be expected without you.”
    “Then why—”
    “Because, Leilani.” He walked fully into her kitchen, meaning to stop a few feet from her, simply wanting her to understand how earnest he was, how sincere. Somehow, though, he ended up not stopping until he was right inside her most personal space. It was a place they’d been many times with each other, elbow to elbow. But never face to face. And never for personal reasons.
    “Because?” she repeated, her tone not nearly so strident.
    And her jaw, when he placed his finger beneath it, wasn’t nearly so tightly clenched. In fact, he was certain he felt a slight quiver. Or was that him?
    Her skin was remarkably soft ... how had he refrained from touching it for so long? Up close he could see the light scatter of freckles against her newly golden cheeks, and found himself surprisingly enchanted by them. He wanted to lean in, breathe in her scent, taste her, touch ... fully engage every one of his senses. Wallow, revel, drown. “It’s quite simple, actually, my irrationally irritated former compatriot.” He was forced to employ a rather remarkable level of restraint just to speak at all and not simply take what was, finally, right in his hands. He drew a thumb lightly across those cheeky freckles and smiled into the dearly missed, familiar blue of her eyes. “I’m here because I’m not doing fine without you.”
    He’d sworn he would take it slowly, so she would understand what he was thinking, feeling ... and hopefully find something of the same inside herself. It was critical, crucial, that he give her the time and space to be certain of him, of herself. That plan swiftly deserted him. He did manage to lower his mouth slowly ... but even that was a close call.
    She didn’t stop him. Nor, he realized, when he finally touched his lips to hers ... did she respond to him. At all.
    He lifted his head.
    Her gaze was fixed on his. Her mouth, still tightly shut.
    Bloody hell .
    What a blooming idiot he was, risking what might have been his one best chance. What he regretted even more was that the seconds were stretching out like their own little individual chasms of time ... and every one of them was awkward. They’d never once been awkward with one another.
    “I don’t know what this new game is,” she said finally, her words slow and as precisely measured as a knife across starch. “But please, don’t ... ever ... do that again.”
    “Leilani—”
    “I have work to do.”
    He spent another second or two weighing the relative merits of trying to stand his ground and make her understand everything that was going through his mind, but one look in her eyes had him deciding retreat might be the better part of valor. For today.
    Her continued anger he could have accepted, even if he didn’t understand it, which he didn’t. Hell, even indignant fury, though he’d never had it from her, he could have handled, certain he’d get to the root of it eventually. But the