“Looks like someone had a good time last night.”
Lauren winced at the daylight that flooded into the food truck as Amy opened the door and climbed inside. She regarded her employee for a moment and then returned to her steaming-hot cup of coffee. “I guess.”
“You were out late,” Amy noted. “Drinking and schmoozing with Royal’s elite, no doubt.”
“Yes. I got home very late and I had several martinis. So you’ll have to excuse me if I’m not leaping for joy this morning. I’m exhausted, I have a headache and my feet still hurt from the ridiculous heels that woman picked out for me. I should’ve just worn my Converse under the dress. No one would’ve seen them but me.”
“Well, even hungover you still look amazing,” her friend told her. “That makeover they gave you was something else. If it wasn’t for that early-morning sneer I recognize, I couldn’t be certain it was really you.”
It was too early and Lauren was too tired to be flattered by Amy’s backward compliment. “Very funny. I suppose I do clean up alright, but looking hot doesn’t do me any good when it comes to being a chef.”
“I don’t know about that. I’d say you’re hot enough to get a Food Network show, now.”
Lauren perked up in her seat at the ridiculous statement. “A TV show? I can’t even get the capital raised for a restaurant. No network executive is going to be interested in giving me a television platform.”
“Not with that frown. But you should’ve hit up some of those people at the party last night to see if they wanted to invest.” Amy slapped down the Sunday paper onto the stainless steel counter with a chuckle. “It seems like it was quite the shindig. They raised a fortune for the Wingate Charity. Those rich folks know how to party. And write checks. You should’ve held your hand out.”
Lauren reached for the paper and scanned the article on the front page about the masquerade ball. Most of it was about the charity and the good works they were planning with the funds raised at the event. The photo above the fold was of the event coordinator, Beth Wingate, and a man in a familiar wolf mask identified by the article’s author as her brother and the CEO of Wingate Enterprises, Sebastian Wingate.
The information hit her gut with a dull thud that threatened to send her coffee back up. She’d thought she might never know the identity of the man she’d been with last night. And had figured that perhaps it was better that way. After all, last night was a moment in time between two people that could never be replicated. Trying to would only ruin the memory of what they’d shared.
And yet, now that she’d looked down at the name in black-and-white print, she couldn’t ignore what she’d seen. The genie wouldn’t go back into the bottle once it was out. Her mysterious lover was none other than the man at the center of all the town drama lately. Lauren didn’t know much about the Wingates and couldn’t pick them out of a lineup if her life depended on it, but she’d heard the name more than a few times recently. The family had been accused of drug smuggling and other ugly things and the whole town was buzzing about it.
No wonder her mystery man had looked so irritated on the phone when she’d first laid eyes on him.
That was just Lauren’s luck. She has a whirlwind romance with a rich, successful guy and it turns out that he’s really broke and on his way to federal prison. She should’ve taken the hint when her suitor was wearing a wolf’s mask. No good could come from that. Every fairy tale proved that much.
“So tell me everything,” Amy pressed.
“I’d rather hear about how things went with the trucks last night.” Lauren had left her two precious Street Eats food trucks in her trusted employee’s hands on the busiest night of the week. That was a far more important topic to discuss.
“Well, Javier’s truck got robbed at gunpoint and my undercooked shrimp gave ten people food poisoning, but I think it went well enough, all things considered.”
Lauren looked at her friend and the deadly serious expression on her face. She knew it meant nothing—Amy was notorious for messing with her. “Seriously. Come on, now.”
“Everything went fine.” Amy relented with a heavy sigh. “The biggest drama of the night was running out of chicken kebabs pretty early. Other than that, things went smoothly and Javier made the nightly deposit, no problems. Now, tell me about this fancy shindig. I’m dying to know how it went for you.”
“We’re not here to gossip. We’re here to head over to the farmers market to get fresh produce for this afternoon’s menu.”
The other woman just shrugged. “There’s no rule that says you can’t spill your guts while we peruse the day’s vegetables. Come on, I entered you in that contest. No fair to go and not share every delicious detail with me.”
“You should’ve come as my plus-one if you were so interested,” Lauren said as she picked up her coffee and shopping list. She stopped by the door to grab her foldable handcart so she could haul back vegetables.
“Someone had to run the trucks,” Amy sassed from over her shoulder. “And besides that, no one has ever gotten into the good kind of trouble with their friend clinging on.”
They climbed out of the food truck and Lauren slammed and locked the door behind them. “Whatever,” she muttered, turning in the direction of the farmers market and pointedly ignoring that Amy had been absolutely right in her assessment.
“Whatever? That’s all I get?” Amy kept her pace at Lauren’s side, her long, blond ponytail swinging in the breeze as they walked. “You know I’m not letting this go, right?”
“Have you ever?”
“No,” Amy quipped.
That was about right. Amy was a dog with a bone and she always seemed to think she knew what was right for Lauren. She stayed out of the business affairs and let Lauren take full rein over the menu, but when it came to her personal life, her best friend had a lot to say about it.
Thankfully, the farmers market was busy and loud. “When we’re done,” she promised. “I’m not talking about it here. Pick out a nice crate of sweet potatoes and a couple bushels of tomatoes and onions. I’m going to get broccoli, cauliflower and check out the apples.”
They met up about fifteen minutes later near the booth of one of the local ranchers. They usually had a nice selection of locally raised, harvested and smoked meats, and today was no exception. Lauren got a dozen eggs, a large pork shoulder, chicken breasts and some nice, thick-cut bacon.
“What’s on the menu for today?” Amy asked as they hauled their wares back to the trucks.
“I don’t know yet,” Lauren admitted. She had to see what looked good and what was seasonally at peak. Then she would find a way to combine it all into a few dishes for the next day or so. “I was thinking of some chipotle sweet potato fries for a start. Maybe pair it with barbecue chicken kebabs since they did so well yesterday. I might change up the spices a little. Carnitas tacos with a bacon crema and fresh tomato salsa. Perhaps some spicy deep-fried broccoli and cauliflower to go with it. Apple hand pies for dessert. I’ll have to look at what we have and think on it some more.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Once everything was hauled into the truck, they started cleaning and prepping for the day. Lauren was relieved to fall into the familiar drudgery of her work routine and not have to think about last night for a little while longer. They were up to their elbows in a crate of sweet potatoes when they heard a knock at the window.
Lauren approached the serving door, preparing to tell whomever it was that they wouldn’t be serving until 11:30 a.m., but found Gracie Diaz there with a smile on her face and her favorite pumpkin spice latte in her hand. The newest Royal millionaire was one of Street Eats’s biggest fans. She used to show up at the trucks at least a few times a week, after work with the Wingates. Now that she didn’t have to earn a living, Gracie had been a bit scarcer. Lauren missed her coming by and was glad to see her again.
“Hey, Gracie,” she said, sliding open the window. “Haven’t seen you in a little while. How’s the millionaire life been treating you?”
“It’s—” Gracie hesitated for a moment with a conflicted expression on her face “—not what I expected. But I won’t complain about something like that. No one has any sympathy for my problems anyway.”
Lauren nodded. The path to Gracie’s lottery win had been complicated, but now she could hopefully enjoy the fruits of her success. “More money, more problems, right? Well, if you get tired of rich people and feel like hanging out with us lowly food truck cooks, you know how to find us.”
Gracie held up her phone. “I always know where you guys are parked for the day, even if I can’t make it over. And you’re not a cook, Lauren. You’re a chef. An amazing chef. The food trucks are a means to an end and one day you’re going to have a restaurant without wheels. I know it.”
“From your lips,” Lauren said with a smile.
“I’m surprised you’re going to be open today, though. You went to the masquerade ball last night, didn’t you? I’d heard you won that contest, so I half expected you to close the trucks down for today and rest. That was a late night for everyone.”
She had no idea. Lauren had gotten a whopping four hours of sleep after slinking home and lying in bed for longer than necessary, thinking about what she’d just done. It had been the single most erotic encounter of her entire life. Every time she closed her eyes, she could feel his hands on her body again. It took hours for the adrenaline to wear off and allow her to sleep at last.
“It was more exciting than I expected it to be when I won the contest. I had a good time,” she said, avoiding any unnecessary details. “How about you?”
Gracie smiled with a wistful look in her eye. She looked down at her latte and took a sip, avoiding Lauren’s gaze. “It was fun. It almost felt like the kind of night that could change your life forever if you’d let it.”
She was startled by her on-point observation. What did she mean by that? Gracie couldn’t even look her in the eye as she said the words. Had she seen Lauren with Sebastian last night? It’s possible that Lauren was the only outsider who hadn’t recognized the infamous CEO on sight, even with his mask. Perhaps the whole town’s tongues were wagging about her torrid hookup in the billiard room and Gracie was giving her a heads-up before it all hit the proverbial fan.
If that was the case, she might need to reach out to Sebastian and do some damage control. Seeing him again would be a scary and exciting prospect. His woman in red was long gone, but she would have to do it. She’d worked very hard to build her business and she didn’t want one night’s indiscretions to ruin it all. She’d gone to that party to make connections, not to become gossip fodder.
She pushed her worries aside for the moment. Right now she needed to focus on getting the menu going and getting the staff prepped for the trucks going out today. But sooner or later, Lauren would have to face the music and track down Sebastian Wingate.
It was a Monday morning. Typically one of the busiest mornings of the week. And yet Sebastian Wingate had nothing to do. He’d gotten up early, as he always did. Ran a few miles. Then showered, had some coffee and ate his breakfast. Now he had run out of things to do with his time.
Sutton had already left the house. He’d gone into town to talk to his lawyer about one of the cars he was trying to sell. His twin seemed much more comfortable with his free time. At least, he was better at finding ways to fill the hours. Sebastian was counting down each minute that went by until their reputation and board positions were restored. Then life could get back to normal.
It would happen. He kept telling himself as much. But until then, he needed something to do with his time. Maybe he could make a few calls and round up some guys to play eighteen holes over at Pine Valley. He picked up his phone and realized quickly that everyone he knew was at work.
Frustrated, he finished off his second cup of coffee and put the mug into the sink. He had to get out of this rental house before he went stir-crazy. Grabbing the keys to his BMW from the counter and his jacket from the hall closet, he went to the front door and flung it open—completely scaring the hell out of the woman standing there, about to ring the doorbell.
Sebastian had nearly collided with her in his haste. “I’m so sorry,” he said, taking a step back into the house while they both recovered from the unexpected near miss.
He took the moment to study the unanticipated visitor. Once the flush of excitement faded, he noticed that the woman standing on his stoop was quite pretty. The sun made the honey highlights in her brown hair shine. She had full lips and a full figure beneath the leather jacket and clingy jeans she was wearing. But he didn’t recognize her.
“It’s my fault,” she insisted. “I’ve been standing here working up the nerve to ring the doorbell.”
“I’m not sure who you’re looking for, but we just rented this house,” he explained. She looked at him like she knew him somehow, but he couldn’t place her.
“Actually, I think you’re the one I’m looking for. Are you Sebastian Wingate?”
Suspicion suddenly crept into his mind. He hated that he had started looking for dark intentions in everyone he met, but it couldn’t be helped. Someone had set his family up and, until they found out who it was, everyone was a potential suspect. “If I said that I was Sebastian Wingate, would you serve me a subpoena?”
The woman’s dark eyes grew wide with surprise. “No! A subpoena? Not at all.”
Her reaction seemed genuine enough. “Okay, then. Yes, I’m Sebastian Wingate. What can I do for you?”
The woman seemed to grow a little more nervous as he looked at her. She chewed at her full bottom lip anxiously for a moment before taking a breath and seemingly steeling her nerves. “My name is Lauren Roberts. I own a couple food trucks here in town. Street Eats, if you’ve heard of it. I specialize in high-end, local ingredients, in a fresh, easy-to-eat style...”
Sebastian nodded as she continued to talk, although he wasn’t certain why a lady who owned food trucks was coming to see him. She certainly wasn’t hunting down investors, or if she was, she hadn’t done her homework. The Wingates were not the honeypot they’d been only a few short weeks ago.
“...none of that is really important—” she stopped at last to take a breath “—I’m actually here because you and I, um, met at the party Saturday night.”
Sebastian met a lot of people at the party Saturday night. But judging by the way the woman was looking at him expectantly, this had been no ordinary meeting.
“You and I—” she hesitated again “—slept together.”
Now it was Sebastian’s turn to be wide-eyed with surprise. Saturday night had been amazing. One of the most incredible nights of his life. But he hadn’t anticipated the mysterious woman to just show up on his doorstep. That was a gift he had never expected to receive.
“Oh, wow,” he said, anxiously running his fingers through his hair. “Please come in.”
Lauren stepped into the house, waiting as he shut the door and escorted her inside to the living room. “I know you were on your way out, so I understand if you can’t talk right now.”
“No, no,” he insisted. “I was just going to get out of the house for a little while. I have time.” Nothing but time, actually. Especially for the vision in red that had been on his mind since she walked out on him that night. “Please have a seat.”
She chose the armchair, so he opted to settle into the couch beside her. “Can I get you a drink or something?”
“No, I’m fine, thank you. I just came here to talk to you for a moment in private. I didn’t realize who you were until I saw your photo in the newspaper the next day. When I saw your name there, I knew that I needed to come see you and explain—”
“Explain what?” he interrupted. As far as he could recall, what had happened between them was the textbook definition of one thing leading to another. They couldn’t have stopped it from happening if they’d tried.
“To explain to you that everything I did that night was out of character for me. I don’t want you to think that I’m the kind of woman that normally acts that way.” She shook her head as the embarrassed pink returned to her cheeks.
“That’s not the kind of thing I normally do either,” he admitted. “I leave the escapades to my brother. But with everything going on, I was out of sorts and acted uncharacteristically. Under normal circumstances, I’m more of a gentleman. Considering that we didn’t take off our masks and I didn’t even get your name... Well, that’s very unlike me.”
Lauren sighed, seeming to relax a little bit. “I just wanted you to know that, in case people started talking about seeing us together and tongues started wagging.”
“People are always talking about me, so I’m used to it,” Sebastian replied. Though it was worse than normal lately. “But like I said, I’m not a one-night stand kind of guy. It sounds like you aren’t either, so what about going out again?”
It hadn’t been what he thought he would propose when they sat down in the living room, but faced with the prospect of this fetching woman walking out the door again, he realized he couldn’t bear it. “What about dinner? We can get to know each other better. Maybe Saturday night can turn into more for us.”
Lauren seemed a little stunned by his proposal, but she recovered quickly with a smile and a nod. “That would be nice. My trucks don’t run Wednesdays, so that’s one of the few evenings I have free.”
“Okay. Wednesday night it is.” He reached for his phone and they exchanged numbers. “I’ll see if I can get us reservations at The Glass House around seven and then I’ll text you to confirm the time. Send me your address and I’ll be by to pick you up.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Lauren insisted.
“Of course, I do. It’s a date. We may have put the cart before the horse, but I intend to correct that and do things right this time around.”
“Alright, if you insist.” Lauren stood up suddenly, prompting Sebastian to do the same. “I guess I will see you Wednesday night, then.” She thrust out her hand toward him to say goodbye.
It seemed a ridiculously awkward and distant gesture between two people who had been as intimate as it gets, but as they’d said, they were both different people that night. They were starting over without masks and alcohol to muddy the waters. While a friendly hug or a kiss on the cheek might be more appropriate, he wasn’t going to push her for more and run her off a second time. He reached out and shook her hand softly, and then escorted her out the door.
As he shut it behind her, he looked down at his hand and frowned. Something wasn’t quite right.
He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something had changed between them since Saturday. At the club that night, he couldn’t stop touching her. There was something magnetic between them that drew him closer every time he tried to pull away. Every graze across her bare skin sent sparks through his whole nervous system. He’d never felt something like that with a woman in his entire life.
That couldn’t all be chalked up to alcohol and the novelty of masks. That was chemistry, plain and simple. And chemistry wasn’t something that was there one day and gone the next. It pulled you back again and again, even when you knew you should stay away. That was the kind of passion and desire he’d felt for the dark-haired beauty he’d held in his arms that night.
And now it was all gone. Kaput.
He hated to admit it, but Lauren might as well have been a random stranger at the office or the store. Pretty, no doubt. Personable, albeit nervous. But when he’d shaken her hand, there had been no tingles, no chills. Her hands were soft and nicely manicured, but if he had closed his eyes and touched her, he wouldn’t have said she was the woman from the party.
And yet she’d shown up on his doorstep insisting that she was the one. No one else knew about what happened that night but the two of them. So if Lauren said she was the woman he’d shared the evening with, it had to be true.
Sebastian hoped perhaps the chemistry would return once they became more familiar with each other and she could finally relax. Maybe a glass of wine would take the edge off and their attraction would flow freely again. He’d been given a second chance and he wanted more than anything for his masked beauty to be back in his arms.
But if the blazing attraction didn’t return, Sebastian would be sorely disappointed.