Just One Taste (Topped #2)(19)

To ask her how she could possibly have tried to dump him after that kiss.

“She apparently tried to get them to assign her to someone else and Big Tag said no, so the man has your back,” Javi said.

Why was he pushing this so hard? The woman didn’t want him. He should accept that and move on.

There were other fish in the sea. Lots of them. Hell, he could likely even date someone here if he amped up the charm.

He turned back to his ovens, checking the timer for the hundredth time. “I’ll talk to him myself. If she wants another Dom, she can have one.”

He’d been looking forward to tonight. They were supposed to sit together and go over the standard contract before writing in their own clauses. They were supposed to start to talk about what they both needed. He’d been looking forward to that. He’d talked to her many times over the past year. He knew a lot about her. He knew her parents had split up when she was young and she hadn’t seen her father much after that. She’d been raised by a hard-working single mother who she loved dearly and talked to at least twice a week. She wanted a dog, but her apartment didn’t allow pets. He’d studied her, but they’d never talked about sex. It hadn’t been appropriate. The conversation tonight would be all about sex.

Would have been.

“You’re giving up pretty easily,” Macon said.

Eric hadn’t heard the big pastry chef come in. He turned and noticed Macon was accompanied by the new guy. Chef had recently brought in a sommelier. Sebastian Lowe was a tall, elegant man who seemed to think a three-piece suit was proper attire for a kitchen. He looked somewhat out of place amongst the crew of Top. Chef tended to hire ex-military men and Sebastian didn’t fit the bill, but according to his resume he was one of four master sommeliers in the entire state of Texas. He’d only been working for a few weeks, but he was quiet and efficient, never spending too much time with anyone on the staff with the exception of Macon.

“Do you have my plates ready?” Sebastian asked in his slow, Southern accent.

Sebastian was given a tasting plate of every item on the menu for the night and he paired the wines from there. He insisted on tasting even dishes he’d had before because according to him tiny variations in a recipe made a difference to his perfect palate.

“I set them out on the prep table for you,” Eric explained. After Sebastian had nodded and moved to the plates, Eric turned back to Macon. It looked like Javi wasn’t the only one who listened in. “What am I supposed to do? I can’t force her to be my partner.”

“Big Tag already did that for you,” Javi pointed out.

Macon leaned over and picked up one of the perfectly sliced green pepper strips, popping it into his mouth and munching before continuing. “Those have an excellent flavor. And Javi’s right. The hard work’s been done. Now you have to prove yourself.”

“And if she walks out?” He wasn’t sure that he could be the reason she was forced to walk away. He’d seen how excited she’d been the night before. She wanted to try this. She just didn’t want to try it with him.

“She won’t,” Macon assured him. “Look, don’t tell Ally I told you this, but Deena came by after she dropped off lunch at McKay-Taggart. She told Ally that Big Tag is an *—stop the presses—but that he made sense and she kind of ended up liking him, so she’s going to give it a shot tonight. You have your six weeks with her.”

They were a big old group of gossips and thank god for that. Still, after that kiss they’d shared, he’d been absolutely sure she would give them a shot. Instead, she’d gone straight to the big boss and asked for a change. “I don’t know. I might be opening myself up for a whole lot of heartache.”

“She’s not an easy nut to crack,” Macon replied. “She’s been through a lot.”

Javi looked up. “Yeah, what’s up with that girl? She’s so nice to everyone, but then she seems to push people away when they try to get close.”

“You tried to get close?” He could hear the hardness of his own voice. Yes, he got jealous. He was only human and Deena was a beautiful woman. Javi was six foot, well-muscled, and all Latin lover. More than one woman had found herself locked in a closet with Javi before she truly knew what she was doing.

Javi rolled his dark eyes. “Don’t get your back up. I asked her some personal stuff one night. About her ex. She got cold really fast.”

Javi obviously hadn’t done the same snooping Eric had. “She got married straight out of high school and put her * husband through law school. He promptly dumped her for a woman he met at his new firm.”

Macon stared for a moment. “Stalker.”

“I asked a few questions and did a little digging. I was curious.”

“Well, you’re right, but it’s worse than that,” Sebastian said, reminding everyone that he was there.

Eric turned toward him. He was finishing up his tasting and writing down some notes on a clipboard. “How would you know? You’ve been here a month.”

“In vino veritas,” Sebastian said. His sandy blond hair was slicked back, his clothes maintaining a perfection Eric would never know. He could wrinkle a T-shirt in four point five seconds. “When the rep from Hanover wines came in, she helped me taste. She didn’t understand the idea of taste and spit.”