Burn (Heat #1)(22)

Tyler steps forward but I still him with a hand to his chest. "Don't bother, Chef. He's not worth it."

Brendon ignores Tyler as he brushes past me. "I'll be waiting for you, Den. You give me the word and the job is yours."





CHAPTER 22


"We should talk about the job offer, Cadence." Tyler shoves his hard through his hair. "Ignoring it won't make it go away."

"Actually ignoring it will make it go away, Chef." I cover my face with my hands. "Brendon was being an *."

"Trevino is an *." He crouches in front of me, his hands resting on the arms of the wooden chair I'm sitting in. We'd come to small office at the back of the restaurant after Brendon left. Tyler's consoling me now in virtually the same spot he f*cked me. "Did you know he was going to be here?"

I angle my face toward him as I drop my hands. There's no accusatory note in his tone, but there's something. I don't know how much of my exchange with Brendon he overheard, but whatever it was, he should have known, based on my body language and the vein pulsing in my neck, that I was angered to see my ex-boyfriend.

"I had no idea."

His face softens. "He upset you, didn't he?"

He did. I don't want to feel anything in relation to Brendon but when the front of the house manager walked into the kitchen when I arrived, twenty minutes early for my shift, she announced that there was a special someone waiting for me. I quickly realized those words were Brendon's and not hers.

I was tempted to let him sit alone in the dining room while he picked at the halibut, but cowering in the corner when faced with an ex-lover is not something I'll do.

When I walked up to his table, the smug look of satisfaction on his face was nauseating. Ever since he landed the executive chef position at Axel, his self-image has been skewed. He may be good behind a stove, but it doesn't excuse him from being a decent human being.

"I'm fine." I shrug.

"Was he serious about offering you a senior chef's job?"

If the question wasn't laced so heavily with surprise, I wouldn't be as taken back as I am. "He was serious, yes."

"Just in title though, right?" His eyes pierce into mine. "He wants you to go back to him so he'll give you the title of senior chef. Is that what the offer was about?"

No, the offer was about the fact that Brendon and I would cook for hours each week in the small, cramped kitchen at his apartment. We would pick each of our original recipes apart until we found just the right balance of flavors.

When we were both happy with it, Brendon, a senior chef at the time, would present the dishes to the head chef at Axel. They're rave about the flavors and more often than not, those dishes would make it to the permanent menu.

Brendon never gave me credit, even when I insisted on it.

When he landed the job as executive chef at Axel, he was interviewed for a feature article in the Times food section. The reporter asked about his inspiration, he said it all came from within him.

I wanted to understand but when weeks passed and I had to stay up all night to revamp the menu because Brendon panicked when he couldn't get it right, I knew that I couldn't keep hiding in his shadow.

Caring for Brendon wasn't the same as loving him. I never loved him. We weren't a duo in any sense of the word. We are two chefs who both want to rise to the top.

When I finally realized that it felt like Brendon would always have one foot on my neck holding me down, I ended our relationship.

He made my life at Axel hell after that, giving me the most menial tasks to take care of. I couldn't flourish with him at the helm then and I sure as hell wouldn't flourish there now.

I left because I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my soul for my career. Brendon didn't say it today, when he was offering me the senior chef's position, but there's a caveat attached to it.

He wants me back in his bed and by his side. He needs my creativity and passion to fuel his own success. I dug myself out of that once, I'll never go back now.

"You still have a lot to learn, Cadence." He crooks the corner of his mouth. "You're a fantastic chef but you're not ready for a senior chef position. He wants more from you, doesn't he? Brendon wants you back in his life."

"I don't care what he wants." I rest one hand on his shoulder as our eyes meet. "It's over. Brendon and I will never work together or be together again."





CHAPTER 23


"Your day off is on Tuesday. I thought we could go up to the experimental garden together."

I tilt my head back so I can look up at his face. It's flushed. The sheen of perspiration that covers his forehead and cheeks extends to his chest. His bottom lip is plumped and swollen from the pressure of my teeth as I bit it. He looks well f*cked, which makes perfect sense since that's what he is.

He came over to my place after Nova closed. He wanted to see me, he said on the phone. His voice was insistent and impatient. The need in it, reflected what I'd felt inside.

We hadn't been intimate since Brendon made his unexpected appearance at Nova last week. I thought it would end there, but persistence drove him to show up again, two days later with a handful of poppies and a bottle of my favorite Cabernet.

I turned him away at the kitchen door with Tyler looking on. He talked about seeing me on television and it igniting something within him. I told him, literally, to get lost, and he did, with his gifts in hand and his anger barely controlled.