My Name Is Desire: The Bad Baker Boys: Mark's Story

by Tonya Brooks

  “Desi, could you come to table seven,” the manager said as he poked his head in the door. “We have a VIP who'd like to meet you.”

  She sighed in resignation. Trouble or not, Lakeside was looking better by the minute. “I'm coming, Charles,” Desi handed the dish she was preparing over to her assistant and washed her hands before going into the dining room.

  She pasted a smile on her face as she neared table seven and it faltered when she recognized the man talking to the manager. Her steps slowed and she paled visibly. Dear lord, it was Kyle Chadwick! Quickly detouring to the left, she walked to the ladies room in a daze and splashed cold water on her face as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Desi looked as if she'd been shell shocked, which was a fairly accurate description of how she felt.

  She had imagined facing him again quite often over the years and now that she had the opportunity, the only thing she felt was apathy. Now that the initial shock had worn off, she realized that she wasn't the same naive young girl he had seduced and discarded all those years ago. She was a successful woman, well respected by her peers and she had nothing to prove to him or anyone else. The man meant nothing to her just as she had never meant anything to him.

  Her chin came up proudly and a determined gleam filled her eyes as she dried her face and walked back into the dining room as confident and poised as if she owned the place. “Good evening,” she greeted the two men with a saccharine smile.

  “Senator Chadwick, may I introduce our chef, Desiree Anderson,” Charles said proudly.

  “Hello, Desi,” Kyle said with the smile that had long ago made her heart flutter, but left her cold now. “It's been a long time.”

  “Senator,” she nodded cordially and refrained from commenting.

  “You know each other?” Charles asked in delight.

  “We're old friends,” Kyle replied as his eyes roved over her and recalled to mind the curvaceous body the shapeless chef uniform was hiding.

  “From such a brief encounter? We were acquaintances, at best,” she corrected him boldly, the smile never wavering, her eyes daring him to contradict her.

  Kyle laughed and suggested, “Perhaps I have fonder memories of our... brief acquaintance.”

  “I'm surprised you recall it at all,” she confessed.

  “I have an excellent memory,” he assured her with a knowing look. Kyle hadn't forgotten a thing about Desi and when he'd heard that she was the chef here, he had been curious to see her again.

  “Really?” she asked mockingly. If he did, it only served to prove he didn't have a conscience since the last time they met had been less than pleasant and he'd left her standing on the shoulder of the road in the rain.

  Charles was aware of the strange undercurrent between them and didn't like it. Desi knew better than to be rude to the guests and a politician was not to be antagonized for any reason. “We won't keep you any longer, Desi. I'm sure the kitchen will be in chaos by now,” he said by way of dismissal. Once she was gone, he began to apologize for her curtness. “I'm afraid Desi is a little out of sorts. Her daughter is out of town and she hasn't been herself all week.”

  “She has a daughter?” Kyle asked sharply. “How old is she?”

  “Kylie?” he asked, surprised at the question. “Ten or eleven, I believe. Pretty little thing. Looks just like her mother.”

  “What did you call her?”

  “Kylie,” he repeated absently and when the other man visibly paled, he asked, “Are you alright, Senator Chadwick?”

  “I'm fine,” he said and took a bracing swallow of wine before he rose. “Excuse me.”

  ~~~~

  Desi walked back into the kitchen appalled with herself. What did I ever see in that man, she wondered in disgust. Oh, he was still handsome but his charm was merely a facade. Kyle was as superficial as his smile and the realization that she had made love with him made her skin crawl. She found herself comparing him to Mark and she smiled in genuine satisfaction because Kyle failed miserably in every area.

  Mark could turn on the charm when it suited him but he was also a gentleman. When she had passed out on him, Kyle had taken advantage of the situation instead of taking care of her. Mark was sweet and caring and Kyle was a cold hearted bastard. She couldn't imagine him offering to take care of Kylie so she could spend a week with her best friend. Hell, he hadn't even wanted her to begin with. There was no way he'd teach her how to play football or take her to the amusement park. The man was a complete pig and dumping her was the nicest thing he could have done for her and her daughter.

  She looked up and felt her temper begin to rise when she saw him enter the kitchen and when he reached her, she asked bluntly, “What do you want, Kyle?”

  “To meet my daughter.”

  The knife fell from nerveless fingers as she stared at him incredulously. “I beg your pardon?” she asked in disbelief that he would dare make such a demand after what he'd done.

  “I want to see Kylie,” he informed her.

  “You stay the hell away from my daughter,” she hissed furiously.

  “Our daughter,” he corrected in satisfaction because she hadn't denied it.

  “She's not your anything,” Desi informed him quietly because the staff was watching them in avid curiosity. “Paul, take over for me, please,” she requested her assistant and led Kyle to her office where she slammed the door shut behind them.

  “Prove it,” he taunted.

  “I don't have to prove anything to you,” she denied. “Kylie is not yours.”

  “Then why did you name her Kylie?” he pressed.

  “Because I was naive enough to think I was in love with you,” she shot back. “I wanted her to be yours, so I named her after you.”

  He sat on the edge of the desk and shook his head. “You can't lie worth a damn, Desi,” Kyle assured her. “I know she's mine so you might as well save us both a lot of trouble and admit it.”

  “What kind of trouble?” she asked with a frown.

  “A paternity test will prove it,” he pointed out. “But there’s no sense in going through all of that when all you have to do is tell me the truth.”

  “Even if she were yours, what difference would it make?” Desi demanded. “Your father paid me to have an abortion and disappear because you didn't want anything to do with either one of us.”

  “I didn't know anything about that,” Kyle denied. “I'll admit I was angry and upset when you told me you were pregnant but once I calmed down, I went to see you and you'd disappeared. I searched for you for weeks before Dad admitted what he'd done. By then I figured it was too late, so I stopped looking.”

  Desi silently applauded his explanation. Kyle had said all the right things. He'd told her everything that a woman in her position would want to hear, but she wasn't naive or foolish enough to trust him again and she didn't believe him. “That was quite a performance,” she informed him coldly. “Unfortunately, I don't believe a word of it.”

  “I'm telling you the truth, Desi,” he said evenly. “I don't have any reason to lie about it.”

  “Neither do I,” she lied. “Kylie is not your daughter.”

  “Then whose is she?” he queried.

  “None of your damn business,” Desi snapped. “I've had enough of this ridiculous conversation. Get out of my kitchen and go crawl back under your rock, Kyle.”

  “Don't make me get a court order, Desi,” Kyle said seriously.

  “For what?”

  “For a sample of Kylie's DNA.”

  “You wouldn't dare!” she fumed.

  “Oh, I'd dare,” he assured her. “I'll do anything you force me to do to prove she's mine.”

  “Why?” she asked rawly. “What difference could it possibly make after all these years?”

  “My wife can't have children and I need an heir,” he explained. “If Kylie is mine then she's entitled to the Chadwick fortune. Wouldn't you like to see your daughter financially secure?”

  “Nice try,” she said
as she shook her head. There was no way in hell she'd buy that story. It was as artificial as his charm. “Now give me the real reason.”

  Obviously the woman wasn’t as gullible as he remembered, dammit. Kyle decided to level with her since nothing else was working. “The party is considering me as a candidate for presidential election. The fact that I don't have children is a sore point since they like to promote the image of a family man to the voters. It seems the public has more confidence in a man devoted to his wife and children.”

  “Even illegitimate children?” she asked doubtfully.

  “The PR guys would put some kind of positive spin on it,” he admitted as if it didn't matter one way or the other. “I need the kid, Desi.”

  “You can't have her,” she refused.

  “I hope you're prepared for a battle,” he informed her as he stood. “I won't give up without a hell of a fight and I never lose.”

  “You will this time,” she vowed.

  Kyle removed a business card from his pocket and tossed it on the desk before he walked to the door. “Call me when you come to your senses,” he suggested and looked her over from head to toe again. “Or even if you want to reminisce about our... brief acquaintance.”

  Desi wrapped her arms around herself and sank into the desk chair shaking like a leaf. This couldn't be happening, she assured herself. It had to be some horrible nightmare because it was too impossible to believe. Kyle couldn't want her daughter. My God, did he mean to try and take her away from her, she wondered wildly and covered her face with her hands.

  This could not be happening! She couldn't lose Kylie. Especially not to a heartless bastard who didn't give a damn about her except as a pawn to further his political aspirations. Grabbing her purse from the desk drawer, Desi dropped his business card in the paper shredder, went back into the kitchen and announced, “I'm going home. Paul is in charge.”

  “You can't leave,” Charles exclaimed anxiously. “It's the middle of the dinner rush, for God's sake.”

  “Would you prefer I quit?” she snapped, in no mood to deal with him or anyone else right then.

  His entire demeanor changed at the threat of losing her skill and reputation. “Get some rest, Desi,” Charles advised solicitously. “You seem stressed.”

  She laughed without mirth. “You have no idea,” Desi said as she moved past him and out to her car. She drove home in a daze as her mind sought a way out of this situation and found none. If Kyle forced her to have the test, it would prove that Kylie was his daughter and then who knew what he'd do.

  ~~~~

  “You need a lawyer,” Josie said when she explained the situation to her. “Why don't you talk to Luke? The man went to Harvard, so he's gotta know how to get you out of this mess.”

  “If this went to court I could lose Kylie,” Desi said fearfully.

  “No judge in his right mind would rule in his favor after what he did to you,” the older woman assured her.

  “You're forgetting he's a US Senator with a hell of a lot of connections,” she pointed out. “He could take her away from me.”

  “That's not going to happen,” Josie said firmly. “Luke will think of some legal loophole to fix it. You just wait and see.”

  Long after Josie had gone to bed, Desi paced the floor and worried and tried to think of a way to keep Kyle away from her daughter. When she ran completely out of options, she lay down on Kylie's empty bed and cried again. Thank God her daughter was safely hidden away in Lakeside where Kyle couldn't get to her.

  Desi sat bolt upright. That was it! She'd move to Lakeside. If Kyle couldn't find her, he couldn't have the test done and take her daughter away. Without a thought to anything else, she raced into her room and grabbed the phone from her purse with hands that trembled. She flipped through the contact list and found Mark's number.

  ~~~~

  The sound of his phone vibrating on the nightstand woke Mark and he reached for it blindly. “What?” he growled in a sleep husky voice.

  “Mark?” a soft feminine voice asked tremulously.

  Blurry eyes managed to focus on the alarm clock and he saw it was after three. “Desi?” Mark asked groggily and forced his sleep and alcohol clouded brain to work. “Honey, what's wrong?” He knew it had to be something bad for her to be calling him at this hour.

  “Is the offer still good?” she asked desperately. “For the restaurant?”

  “Yeah,” he said as he sat up and disturbed the woman who had been draped across him.

  “Mark,” she complained sleepily.

  “Sorry, honey. Go back to sleep,” he said without thinking and heard Desi's gasp of shock. Ah, hell. She knew he was sleeping with someone else. An unfamiliar pang of guilt pierced him deeply.

  Desi realized what she had disturbed as well as what time it was. “I'm so sorry, Mark,” she hastily apologized in embarrassment. “I shouldn't have bothered you. I wasn't thinking. I didn't even realize what time it was. I just picked up the phone and...”

  Mark got out of bed and walked naked through the studio apartment to sit down on the sofa while she rattled on nervously. “Desi, it’s alright,” he cut into her rambling apology and raked a hand through his hair. “Just calm down and tell me what's wrong.”

  “It's Kyle,” she said brokenly.

  “Who?”

  “Kylie's father,” she clarified and burst into tears. “Oh, God. He wants to take her away from me.”

  “Like hell,” he barked as anger chased the fuzziness from his brain. The son of a bitch had a nerve if he thought he was gonna take Kylie away after what he'd put Desi through.

  “He's going to get a court order to prove she's his,” Desi said tearfully. “I can't lose her, Mark. I can't let him take my baby away from me.”

  “You won't,” he assured her. “No one is going to take Kylie.”

  “He won't get the chance if he can't find us,” she reasoned. “Opening the restaurant in Lakeside is my only option to get away from him.”

  She was going to disappear again, he realized. With technology being so advanced these days, Mark knew there was no way she could hide from the man if he wanted to find her, but he wasn't about to share that. Desi was too upset to think clearly anyway. Besides, if she and Kylie were here, he could make sure the other man didn't get near them. She could be damn sure of that.

  “The restaurant is yours so don't even worry about it,” he responded. “And Kylie is safe here with me.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief, but her voice was still shaky when she said, “I don't know how to thank you, Mark. I don't know what I'd do if...”

  “Don't even think about it,” he said soothingly. “Everything will be fine. I promise.”

  Once she had calmed down and ended the call, Mark walked back to the bed and looked at the woman sleeping peacefully. Having no desire to climb back in bed with her, he dressed and let himself out of the apartment. He drove home and went upstairs to check on the kids before he went to his room, took a shower and climbed into bed.

  He replayed the conversation over in his head and recalled Desi's reaction when she had realized he was sleeping with another woman. She had been shocked, which was understandable enough. It was just as well that she knew, he assured himself. If Desi did have any designs on him, this should make her realize they were futile. Mark was a player and had never pretended to be anything else.

  But it was his reaction that troubled him. He'd felt guilty as hell, as if she'd caught him cheating on her, which was ridiculous. He had absolutely nothing to feel guilty about, dammit. Mark had never been faithful to a woman in his life. He'd never had a reason to. He understood the rationale behind it but he'd never felt the need to put it into practice. Hell, he'd never even met a woman that could keep him interested for more than a few days.

  No one but Harley had ever been able to do that. Mark truly believed he could have had a real relationship with her if she hadn't been in love with his brother. Harley had always kept him guessing. The wo
man had been completely unpredictable and he never knew what she was going to do next. She still was, he thought with a grin as he recalled her jumping on the back of the motorcycle in her wedding gown. But that hadn't been meant to be, and he'd come to terms with the knowledge years ago.

  Desi was a lot like Harley. The woman definitely kept him guessing. When they'd discussed the restaurant Sunday night, he'd been certain that she was going to turn him down and then tonight’s phone call had convinced him that she was only doing it out of desperation. Mark didn't care what her reasons were. He just wanted her in Lakeside where he could take care of her.

  Take care of her?

  Whoa, where the hell had that come from? Yeah, he felt the need to protect her from Kylie's father but that didn't mean anything, he assured himself. To all intents and purposes, Desi was alone in the world and she needed someone to help her out. Someone that she could trust and rely on to be there for her at three o'clock in the morning. Much like Kylie relied on Jed to protect her from a storm. She needed a friend.

  Mark frowned at that. He didn't want to be her friend. Well, he did, but he wanted a hell of a lot more than that. He wanted Desi to be the woman in his arms when he woke up and not the substitute he'd slept with because she had red hair and reminded him of the woman he hadn't been able to forget.

  Sonuvabitch.

  The frown deepened because he realized that was exactly what he'd done. He'd slept with whats-her-name because she'd reminded him of Desi. It was no wonder he'd felt guilty when she called. He sighed wearily and punched his pillow in frustration. Mark was pretty damn sure he could have a real relationship with Desi, but she came with too many strings attached.

  It wasn't that he minded the fact that she had a daughter. Hell, he adored the girl. She was a handful, but Kylie had won him over with little effort and there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for her. However, the simple truth of the matter was that she needed a father and he just wasn't cut out for that. Although he'd done a pretty decent job taking care of her this week, he admitted with satisfaction.