“Audience? We have a live audience today?” Koka asked, inwardly cursing. He didn’t like the pressure of retakes being done in front of a crowd. Today, he also didn’t like the idea of them watching him with Sabine.
“Yes. We figured we’d pan to their faces now and again to get an assessment of their interest in a guest’s interaction with you,” Edwina explained.
There was little more he could say against it since people were already taking their seats, so Koka nodded and went back to laying out what he would need on the shelves below his counter.
***
Wearing what had to be half a tube of red lipstick, Sabine trailed slowly down the Seattle Live corridor behind the assistant they had sent to collect her. She put a nervous hand on her stomach and breathed out in relief as she felt the waist of her dress still snugly holding her in. It boosted her confidence greatly to feel her body so well restrained inside the fabric.
Taking Joe’s advice, she had bought a dress that was red and full. The dip in the front was more cleavage revealing than her normal clothing, but she had decided a ‘what the hell’ attitude would serve her best. She at least looked sexy and hot from the waist up. She just hoped one chocolate-eyed male agreed.
“Just walk around the curtain, Ms. Blakeman. Try to ignore the audience. They tend to react to anything new, but they’ll settle down in no time once you become part of the set. Most say they forget about them as the show progresses.”
“Thank you—and thanks for the advice,” Sabine said, smiling goodbye at the intern as she proceeded forward.
But as she stepped out into the open set, everyone was suddenly invisible to her except for the man in a blue button-up shirt wearing an apron with Kiss The Sexy Chef emblazoned across his wide chest. With sleeves rolled to his elbows, Koka looked ready for kitchen duty. When he turned around and bent to retrieve something from a lower cabinet, his khaki slacks molded way too excellently to his extraordinary rear. Excitement zapped most of her remaining brain cells. A fine sheen of sweat suddenly challenged the mineral powder they had brushed on every inch of her exposed skin just minutes ago.
Her sigh over her feminine reaction must have alerted him to her presence because Koka’s head snapped up as he turned and looked for her. Then when he saw her, the man who obviously didn’t care what anyone thought just stopped and stared. His assessing gaze raked every inch while her face turned the same color as her dress. How in the world did he have the ability to affect her with just a look? If she hadn’t felt her job credibility was on the line, she might have pretended to be sick and fled from the intentions in his gaze.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sabine could see that many of the workers on the set had stopped their tasks as well. But they weren’t looking at her. Oh no. They were looking at Koka staring at her while he remained frozen in place.
Mentally pulling up big girl panties that she wished she could reach under her skirt and adjust for real, Sabine walked forward until she stood just on the other side of what appeared to be a long counter with a sink built into it. Clearing her throat, she put on her brave face and spoke.
“Hello, Chef Lake. Good to see you again.”
Koka nodded at Sabine’s lukewarm greeting, unsure whether or not he still had the power of speech after staring at her so long. He cleared his throat like she had, just to be sure. “Nice dress—really nice dress. It suits you.”
Ignoring the reaction of her body to his compliment, Sabine searched for professionalism. “So where do you want me?”
Koka’s gaze went down to Sabine’s red heels and back up again. “We better save that answer for later or this show is never going to get taped.”
“I meant for the show,” Sabine hissed. “Will you please stop staring at me? Everyone is looking at us.”
“I’m trying to do just that, but it’s nearly impossible. Now I understand why you were hiding yourself, Ku`u Lei.”
He grinned at the flash of annoyance in her gaze.
“Come around the counter. You’ll be standing in the kitchen area with me during the show. They taped an X on the floor where you’ll be most of the time.”
“Can I sit until we get started?” she asked. She walked slowly around the counter until she could smell his unique aftershave again. Her stomach fluttered and her pulse jumped at his nearness. He brushed against her arm as he pulled a stool over to her marked spot.
“Here you go. If you want to take those pretty shoes off, I don’t mind,” he said, pointing to her feet. “I’m wishing I could do it for you. I would like that very much in fact. They make you look very sexy.”
“Stop doing that. You’re embarrassing me,” Sabine hissed. “I’m a woman over forty. My face is not supposed to be red all the time.”
“That’s a matter of opinion. I happen to think that’s a good thing,” Koka said, staring down at the part in her hair when she looked away. “No one can hear us. Your body mic is not turned on yet. Are you truly embarrassed by my feelings for you?”
Sabine snorted. “There are a hundred strangers staring at us right now, wondering what the hell we’re whispering about. Actually, I’m more worried about what they’re thinking.”
Koka grinned. “I’m sure some are wise enough to figure it out. I am trying to behave, Sabine. I’m only saying a fraction of what I’m thinking.”
“Try harder. You’re making me nervous. If I screw up, my boss and her boss are going to fire me,” Sabine declared.
“Anthony? I don’t think so. I found him to be a very accommodating man. That’s a good trait in people you do business with,” Koka said.
“Yes, well—that’s what you said you admired in women too,” Sabine said sharply. When Koka laughed, she felt stares on her again. “See? They’re all looking at us.”
“They’re probably growing more and more curious about how long it’s going to take me to act on my attraction to you. I feel like I’m broadcasting it with my eyes, but I do not think I mind. For the first time in a long time, I am happy to be openly connected to a woman.”
Uncaring of anyone’s judgment, Sabine reached out and smacked his arm as hard as she could to get him to stop staring. Her hand stung from the impact of slapping muscles that felt like rocks. Instead of yelping in pain, the smug bastard gave her a grin instead.
“Where’s a good ball bat when you need one?” she grumbled.
“You don’t need to be angry to touch me, Sabine. You have my permission to touch me all you want,” he said. “And I seriously can’t wait for my turn to touch you back. I suggest we discuss it as soon as the show is over. I missed you even more than I realized. I really wish you’d taken my calls.”
Sabine’s mouth dropped open in surprise at his suggestion of touching her, which went beyond dating and straight to the possibility of fulfilling the fantasies she had been having about him. Her brain suggested a smartass response, but only a tiny squeak actually escaped her throat. A woman’s voice nearby interrupted the inner debate she was having about how best to kill him.
“Hello, Sabine. I’m Edwina Winston. We spoke on the phone,” Edwina said, her mouth twitching at the glare the woman gave a grinning Koka.
“Nice to meet you. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable just now. Chef Lake was being rude and his particular brand of smartassness brings out the worst in me,” Sabine said. “I promise to ignore him better once the cameras start rolling.”
“Don’t spare him any punishment on my behalf,” Edwina said. “He gets treated like a prima donna by enough people. It’s fun for me to see him get chastised for his bad behavior.”
“I am ready to begin, Edwina. You can go back to producing now,” Koka declared.
Sabine snorted at his bossiness. “Who died and make you the big Kahuna? I’m a guest. She’s the producer. She’s just doing her job.”
Koka lifted his eyebrow. “Do you defend everyone?”
“No. I almost never defend anyone because it always gets me in trouble. Case in point,” Sabine d
eclared, sweeping a hand to include the whole set of his show. “I felt sorry for you at the auction and ended up with the wrong Todd. Now you’ve blackmailed my boss to get me here. Don’t even try to deny that’s what you did.”
“Why would I deny it when it is true?” Koka asked with a shrug.
“If you two want to defuse the sexual tension between you before the cameras start, you can use my office. You still have twenty minutes,” Edwina said.
“There’s no tension of any kind between Chef Lake and me. Everything is just peachy,” Sabine said, her voice quiet and firm.
Beside her, Koka chuckled.
“Stop laughing or I’ll tell Pekala on you,” Sabine ordered.
Edwina laughed at the well-placed threat. Pekala’s opinion was the only opinion Koka really cared about. Apparently one date was all it had taken.
“Honey, let me tell you about this man. If you keep that chastising stuff up, he might do you right here on the counter if he takes a mind to. The Sexy Chef is starting to look determined and everyone around here knows what that means. He’s used to getting his way.”
“Well, he’s in for disappointment with me. And there’s nothing like that going on between us. You have nothing to worry about,” Sabine insisted.
“Well that makes one of us, but it’s not me he’s giving the look,” Edwina said with a wink, shaking her finger at a still grinning Koka before she walked away.
“We’re changing the subject. What are you cooking on the show today?” Sabine asked, desperate to find a normal footing.
“We are making grilled pineapple and pork chops in memory of our dinner together,” Koka said. “Please don’t lick the fork when I feed you. Between that and the dress, I do not think I can control my animal nature enough to behave. A man can only be so good and then he snaps.”
“If you try to feed me on camera, I swear I will bite you,” Sabine warned.
Koka froze again as a clear picture of her biting him appeared in his mind, though it probably varied greatly from how Sabine was visualizing her threat.
“After the show,” he said hoarsely. “Everything I want must wait until after the show.”
Sabine smacked his arm again, standing to pace as she shook her stinging hand.
***
When Edwina yelled that the show was a wrap, Sabine took off at a fast clip to escape.
Between the seventy thousand boob grazes from his arms reaching across her in the small kitchen set and being tortured by the smell of Koka sweating aftershave under the hot lights, she was all done. There was no more fight left in her arsenal of denial. Every molecule she possessed was vibrating and turned on and ready to pounce.
The moment the cameras started, Koka had launched into teacher mode and talked smoothly non-stop as he moved effortlessly through his preparations. Of course the show’s magic was that he’d cooked the final food in advance, so really he was just going through the preparation motions for the audience. For her part, Sabine had answered every question he’d asked her. She had also let him feed her from a fork. It had made her so hot for him that the stupid red lipstick threatened to melt off. Now her entire body ached with a longing worse than she could remember ever having for a man.
And the torture didn’t stop with the physical. She was mentally confused too.
Why in the hell was Koka so stoic and depressed all the time if he could command a show and an audience with such simple grace? He had a voice like music, a panty-dropper smile when he bothered to use it, and enough charisma on camera to run for a damn political office.
She couldn’t figure him out—not that she wanted to figure him out.
But damn. Who was he really?
Sabine dashed into the first women’s restroom she came to in the corridor. It turned out to be a tiny one-room version. Sighing in disgust at her reflection in the tiny mirror, she pulled a handful of tissue from the roll to remove the remaining seventeen layers of goop from her mouth. When she was done, her lips were still stained with color but at least felt liberated. Grossed out by the red gloss covered wad in her hand, she tossed it in the trash with a sagging sigh of relief.
Her hand was on the door to leave when Koka pushed it open and sent her staggering backwards on her stupidly tall heels. She floundered and ended up grabbing the sink to keep from falling into the toilet.
“Whoa . . . don’t fall,” Koka said softly. He closed the door quietly behind him as he crowded his enormous bulk into a room that was barely large enough for her.
“What the hell are you doing? Did anyone see you come in here?” Sabine yelled.
Koka looked at Sabine in relief because he’d thought she’d run away before he could talk to her. He put out his fingertips to touch her now naked mouth. “Mahalo nui loa. I’m so glad you removed the lipstick. It was beautiful, but I do not need such adornments to want this.”
Then he stepped into the woman he craved and did what he’d been dying to do since he first saw her two and half long hours ago. He slid his hands around her waist and pulled her to him while he bent and closed his mouth over hers. The fact that it was still slightly open in shock was a happy accident that he silently thanked the goddess for. He nibbled across her plump lower lip and whispered love words while she moaned in his arms.
“E Ku'u Aloha. I am going to teach you to speak Hawaiian. It is the language of my heart and all my best words must be said in it.”
When he let her mouth be free for a few moments, Sabine giggled at what he had said and hid her face in the center of his shirt. “I don’t care if you become the next Iron Chef and make national TV. You can’t just barge into a woman’s bathroom and attack me. It’s not fair, Koka.”
“What does fair have to do with this? Seeing you in that dress stole my sanity. The kiss was what we both have needed for hours—or at least it was what I have needed. I’m sorry if you didn’t want it as much as I did,” Koka said.
“Humility? You’re actually trying to play the humble card? I bet you don’t have a humble bone in your entire muscled body,” Sabine said. “What the hell am I supposed to do with you?”
Her joking insult netted a result Sabine hadn’t anticipated. Koka wrapped a firm hand in her hair and held her head while he kissed her hard and deeply. It robbed her of breath as well as the ability to tease him further.
When he turned her loose, she wobbled back on her heels again. In response, he slid hands up her waist until they held the sides of her breasts. He stroked and she thought she might pass out from the pleasure.
“Please date me,” he said. “I am dying without you in my life, Sabine.”
“You don’t even know who I am,” Sabine exclaimed, shaking her head.
His answer was yet another mind-blanking kiss, but the hands dropping to her outer thighs jarred her back to reality. He kept her mouth pinned to his as he flipped up her skirt. Then he ran his large, talented hands under it until he cupped her backside like he already owned it. Knowing Koka, he probably thought he did. Another urge to giggle rose up but she bravely fought it back. He usually took her humor as encouragement.
“Your hands gripping me desperately is not just dating, Koka. That’s sex. I like sex and I like you. I’m not going to stand here while you squeeze my butt and pretend I don’t like it. I’m just still not sure this is a good idea.”
She lost her breath again when Koka bent her backwards as his hands squeezed and lifted her to rub against an erection as hard as his biceps.
“What is dating if not an exploration of a connection? I need you, Sabine. This is a truth. But I want your company too. That is even more important in ways I can’t explain well. I haven’t laughed since the last time you made me do so,” Koka said.
Sabine rubbed herself against him, so close to the edge of madness that little stars danced behind her eyes. It had been years since she’d had a lust-induced orgasm. “You chasing me into the bathroom is going to make me infamous. Don’t ask me to trade my reputation and my career for sex with
you.”
“Do you think this madness is all just you? My brain shut down the moment you rubbed against me and I still know nothing. Was that your way of saying yes to a date?” Koka asked hoarsely.
He groaned loudly as he pulled her soft, ready-to-yield body flush against his throbbing, anxious one.
“If you’re going to keep chasing me into bathrooms, something has to give. Will Pekala be okay if you come to my house for dinner?” Sabine asked instead of answering directly.
She was trying really hard not to move. Dry humping The Sexy Chef in a bathroom was not going to be the story she recalled about her first post-divorce sexual encounter. No matter how hard or amazing or clever his hands were, even a horny divorced woman had to exercise some restraint.
Koka nodded. “Yes. I think my grandmother will be happy that I will not be sulking any longer. I have avoided my kitchen because it was filled with too many happy memories of you.”
Sabine groaned at his admission and wrapped her arms around his massive shoulders, sliding her hands up into his freshly cut hair. “Stop. I’m seduced already. My panties are ready to drop. You can quit flirting now.”
Her confession had him tightening his grip on her. He put his face in her hair, close to one ear. “Wear the dress for me tonight. Please. I want to enjoy it in private.”
Sabine sighed and wondered if he seduced all his women with his pleading commands.
“Okay. I’ll wear the dress,” she said, inwardly shaking her head at her weak-kneed answer.
Koka eased away from her and nodded. His tension was both increased and eased by Sabine’s invitation to come to her house. “Why don’t you squeeze around me and leave? I need a few moments.”
Sabine nodded at the unrepentant, and very masculine, look on his face. “I don’t cook like you, so you may regret saying yes.”
“Never,” Koka said firmly. “Now go while your panties are still in place.”
Sabine snorted at his intimate comment, but didn’t argue as she traded places with him in the small room. She whispered a soft good-bye before she walked out the door.
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