Secret Sauce

by Jill Sanders

  Since the day her sister had disappeared, she’d been on high alert. So when she turned one of the last corners towards the restaurant and felt a familiar zing on the back of her neck, she quickened her pace and ducked into an old candle shop. Spending a few minutes pretending to look at the wonderfully scented candles was hardly chore. A few minutes later, she stepped closer to the window to look out and see if she could spot the cause of the sensation. When the busy streets looked clear of her lingering past, she quickly bought a small vanilla candle and made her way to the Thai restaurant.

  She really did enjoy her work. A lot of people assumed that critics just got paid to eat food, but there was so much more to her job than just eating. She had to assess every aspect of a restaurant. She made her usual rounds to the restroom, usually trying to peek inside the kitchens, but that had caused her problems, so she left most of that information out of her reviews. Her trained eyes took in every part of the front dining area and the staff, down to the details of how the tables were set. When the food was delivered, she tasted everything. If she enjoyed it, she ate the whole thing. If not, she simply set it aside after critically thinking about what was displeasing.

  She ate in relative silence. If anyone were to look at her, they would think that she was a young woman who was lost in her own thoughts.

  This time she lucked out and, after finishing the entire plate, sat back and thought about a dessert she’d add to complete the wonderful meal. The job was heaven, except when it wasn’t. She didn’t like giving negative criticism, but it came with the paycheck.

  New York was one of the top restaurant cities in the world, and as an owner of a restaurant in one of the largest cities, you had to make sure you conformed to certain guidelines. She always looked at it as if she was doing them a great service in letting them know the areas they could improve upon.

  After having some of the best baked-coconut rice pudding she’d ever had, she walked back towards her apartment to write up her review. Pleased with the whole ordeal, she didn’t see the man who followed her half a block away.

  Trent walked into his apartment sweaty and feeling a little more confident that he’d found the person responsible for causing his business to lose steam for the past two months. Now all he had to figure out was why.

  After showering, he walked into his office and shot out an email to Ethan. Then he began a search of Marina Jensen. After almost thirty minutes, he realized he had hit another brick wall.

  Maybe her last name wasn’t Jensen? He widened his search, adding in the paper’s name. Still nothing. Oh, she was good, he thought as he shut down his laptop and looked at the clock. It was close to dinnertime, and he realized he’d only had a quick roll and some tea that day. Grabbing his jacket, he sprinted towards Manhattan Nights through the heavy rain that had started to fall.

  After talking to a few of his staff, he headed into the dining room and was shocked to see how few people were there. There were a few upcoming parties they were hosting this weekend in the larger private dining rooms, but they needed regular customers on weeknights to keep the place running.

  Grabbing a table, he ordered and looked around, wondering what was wrong. He doubted that one bad review could have caused all the customers to disappear.

  He ate his meal in silence and critiqued every bite as he watched every waitstaff member and every customer that walked through the door. When he was done with the meal, he thought about Marina and those damn sexy legs. Her dark coffee eyes held so many secrets. She’d said she’d seen him around, but he couldn’t ever remember seeing her. He doubted he’d pass up a woman who looked like her, at least not without talking to her, flirting with her, getting her number. It wasn’t as if he was going around picking up every good-looking woman in Manhattan, but if he’d seen her on several occasions, he would have noticed.

  Maybe she knew exactly who he was? Maybe that was the whole point? Since opening the restaurant, he’d had his fair share of women stalking him. The first year he’d been in business, he’d thrived on the extra attention he’d gotten from women. It seemed like he’d had a new one on his arm every weekend. Being a celebrity restaurant owner had its perks. The second year he’d been in business, he had slowed it down and had only dated a handful of women. In the last three years, he’d seen only four. His longest relationship had lasted only two months. It wasn’t as if he was getting burned out on women; he was just seeing the same pattern over and over and had started looking for something new. An image of Marina flashed in his mind.

  She was unlike any woman he’d dated in the past. For some reason, he’d always migrated towards tall, slender, and very blonde women. They had always been easy on the eyes and hot in bed, but nothing much to hold a conversation with.

  He wondered if Marina would be any different. One thing was sure—the woman had secrets. He was even more determined now to find out as much about her as he could. Even if it meant sleeping with the enemy. That thought caused him to smile. Friday couldn’t come soon enough.

  The week seemed to take forever to pass. There had been several things to distract him, such as approving the final touches on the Manhattan Nights II plans and hiring and firing a few staff members. It seemed that some of his staff found it amusing to post nude photos of themselves taken at their workplace online. It had been after hours, but that fact hadn’t let them escape his wrath. Teenagers. He’d sworn he’d never hire anyone under twenty again, but knew that wasn’t possible since most of his bus boys and cleaning crews were under twenty. Had he ever been that cocky? He laughed when he remembered some of the wild parties he, Mitch, and Carter had gone to in college.

  When Friday morning came, he filled his time trying to find out more about Marina. He was beginning to wonder if she’d given him her real first name. Ethan had yet to contact him, other than a short email telling him he’d look into the new information he’d provided.

  When he dressed for the evening, he thought of all the ways he could get more information from her. But since he thought she knew exactly who he was, he’d have to do it smoothly.

  If she really did know he was the owner of Manhattan Nights, then she would know exactly why he had asked her to dinner. He had to play his next move very carefully. First things first—he had to find out if she knew who he was. Then he would be able to move onto finding out why she was trying to ruin him and Manhattan Nights.

  Chapter Four

  Marina was nervous. She’d changed outfits at least a half dozen times. Julie sat on her bed, watching her patiently and giving her opinion on each outfit. Finally, Marina settled on her classic beige dress. The material twisted around her, giving off the appearance that she had more upstairs than she did. She finished off the outfit with some of her favorite jewelry and her sexy open-toed, high-heeled sandals.

  Looking at herself in the full-length mirror, she smiled. She’d taken the time to curl her normally straight hair. Her bangs accented her eyes, as did her make-up. She dabbled on some of the expensive French perfume her sister had sent her from her trip to Paris a few years back, and then dashed on her deep rose lipstick as she stood at the front door mirror.

  “I really appreciate you letting Tommy spend the night,” she said to Julie.

  “Don’t worry about it.” Her friend smile at her. “They’ll be crashed out in front of the TV before I know it. You just have a fun time.”

  Just then, Tommy, Mark, and Juan came running in. Both of Julie’s boys looked like her, however Juan had the darker skin, hair, and eyes of Julie’s ex-husband, where Mark had light blond hair like Julie’s high school sweetheart.

  “Mom, can we goooo already? We want to show Tommy our new games,” Mark said, looking inpatient.

  Julie rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “In just a few minutes.” Then she looked over at Marina. “Go, have a great night.”

  Marina hugged her, then knelt down to Tommy and hugged him. “You be good for Julie. Don’t ask for sugary snacks and make sur
e to brush your teeth.”

  “I know, I know.” He pushed her away a little when she held onto him too long. “I’ll be good.”

  She kissed him on the cheek, leaving a little smear of pink that she wiped away with her thumb. “Night.”

  Grabbing her silk purse, she dashed for the door, trying hard not to look back. This was the first night in a year that she’d be apart from him. She’d had Mark and Juan over to spend the night before, but hadn’t let Tommy spend the night down the hall once in the past year. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Julie; she didn’t trust herself to be away from him for that long. Her sister had entrusted her to watch over him until she could return and she took that job very seriously.

  As she walked the two blocks towards Via Dante’s, she took several deep breaths to try and calm herself down. She’d been on plenty of dates, but they seemed like ages ago. She’d dated Steven for almost a year prior to getting Tommy.

  What should she talk about? She started wondering if she was going crazy. This is just a date, she tried telling herself over and over. Then she remembered who it was with. Hot runner, Trenton Walker. She knew nothing about the man except that he jogged almost every day and looked damn sexy doing it. She’d been almost infatuated with the man since the first time she’d seen him over a year ago. He’d been her fantasy man, and now she was going on a date with him.

  Stopping at the front doors of the restaurant, she took a moment to straighten her skirt and make sure her hair and lipstick were still in place using the reflection of the glass doors.

  “You look beautiful,” a deep voice said behind her.

  She gasped a little and spun around. He looked even sexier in dress clothes. She’d never seen him dressed up, since he’d always been out running and had been wearing sweats or shorts.

  “Thank you.” She couldn’t help but smile back. “You look great in clothes,” she blurted out, realizing too late what she’d said.

  He chuckled and took her hand. “Thank you,”

  “I mean real clothes.” She blushed even more.

  His smile grew more as he nodded. “Shall we?” He pulled open the heavy doors.

  She nodded and thought that maybe she shouldn’t speak for the rest of the night, to avoid embarrassing herself even more.

  They were seated at one of the tables near a large gas fireplace. The intricate stonework reached up two floors. There were balcony tables that looked down on the main floor. The low lights and the candlelight around the room made everything look dreamy.

  “Do you come here often?” he asked, looking around.

  She shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve been here a few times. I absolutely loved their Soupe à L’oignon last time I was here.” She smiled as she read over her menu.

  When she looked up, he had a sparkle in his eyes and she realized he’d been watching her very closely.

  “Have you ever eaten here?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “I’ve been sticking closer to home. Although I’ve been told I need to get out more.” He smiled at her and she felt like she was missing the joke.

  “So, what do you do for a living?” She set her menu down and tucked her fingers together under the table. When she felt nervous, she tended to fidget and this was the best method of keeping it at bay.

  He tilted his head. “I’m in the service business. How about you?”

  She’d thought about this. It wasn’t as if she liked going around lying to everyone, but giving a vague description of her work had been the best course.

  “I’m a writer.” She smiled and picked up her menu again.

  “Really?” He sounded interested. “Books?”

  She chuckled. “No, although I’ve always wanted to.” She set her menu down again. “Service? As in waiter or something else?”

  His smile faltered for a moment, and then he nodded. They were interrupted by the waiter as he took their orders, and when he left, Trent steered the conversation in a different direction. The rest of the night, the conversation flowed smoothly. She’d tried to get more information about him, but the more she tried, the more he wanted to know about her, so she’d backed off and allowed him to lead the conversation.

  By the time dessert was delivered, she’d found out that he lived alone in an apartment he’d renovated a few years back, he played baseball with some of his buddies from Princeton, where he had attended, he was born and raised on the East Coast, and he had a sister Rachelle, who was ten years younger than him.

  She still didn’t know exactly what he did for a living, but judging by his clothes and the fact that he’d attended Princeton, she doubted that he was a waiter as she’d been led to believe.

  By the end of the date, Trent was growing frustrated. The woman knew how to sidestep a question. She was also toying with him about knowing who he was and what he did. Did she think he was buying it?

  He sat across from her in the low light of the room. Most of the dining guests had left, causing the room to feel more intimate. Her hair and eyes sparkled in the firelight. He couldn’t explain it, but every time he saw her chest rise and fall, he wanted to hold his breath in anticipation. Which got him thinking that it had been too long since he’d been with a woman. Not that Marina wasn’t attractive. Hell, he couldn’t remember seeing anyone sexier than she looked sitting across him now.

  If he was going to get to the bottom of why she was trying to ruin him, he had to keep his wits about him, or so he kept telling himself.

  He needed to play his cards very carefully.

  One thing was for sure—by the end of the evening, he knew he had to see her again. She’d built up a hard shell on the outside and it would take more than one dinner to crack it.

  He was telling her a story from his college days to keep her from asking more questions. She laughed, and the rich sound sent waves of desire spreading throughout his entire body.

  How could a laugh do that to him? Damn, he thought when she looked down at the silver watch around her thin wrist.

  He looked at his and was shocked at the time. Looking around the room, he realized that only a few other people sat in the dim room. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I’d kept you so long.” He stood and walked over to pull out her chair for her.

  “Oh, it’s no problem.” She stood and smiled at him. “I’ve really enjoyed our time.”

  “Me too.” He took her hand as they walked towards the doors. “I’d like to see you again.”

  She looked over at him and smiled, then nodded. “I’d like that.”

  He quickly calculated. “I’m pretty busy this weekend.” Then he had an idea. “Do you like watching baseball?”

  She chuckled. “I’ve never seen a live game, only on TV.”

  “Really?” He smiled and held open the door for her. “Perfect.”

  When the cool evening air hit them, he saw her shiver.

  “You’ve forgotten a coat.” He tsked at her as he took off his dinner jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.

  “I guess I was too anxious about dinner to think ahead,” she whispered as she looked up at him.

  He couldn’t help but smile. The sweet scent of her perfume hit him, causing his libido to jump. He pulled her closer on the dark sidewalk and let his hands linger on her shoulders. Her hair was in loose curls around her face, and her short spiky banks accented her dark eyes. Then he glanced down at those lips again. They’d been begging for his attention all night with their strawberry coloring, their fullness. He’d wondered all night if they tasted as good as they looked. Before he knew what he was doing, he’d dipped his head to find out.

  When his lips touched hers, he forgot all about who she was, about why he was there. His only thought was to take more. To somehow enjoy every centimeter of the soft lips under his.

  Her hands came up as her fingers pushed through his hair, pulling him closer as he angled his lips over hers. When he used his tongue to taste the sweetness of her lips, she met his move, and he felt a strong flash
of desire as they tasted and played with each other.

  He ran his hand over her hair; its silky softness called to be touched. Running his hand below the heavy curls, he cupped her neck and felt her shiver again. Her body was pressed up against his and he felt her breasts press against his chest. He had to have more, he told himself.

  Pulling back a little, he looked into her eyes. “Come back to my place.”

  Her eyes were closed, but when he spoke, they cracked open. He could see the desire in the dark crystals. Then she shook her head and blinked.

  “I can’t. Not yet.” She looked up at him and he could see fear there.

  He sighed and for a moment his mind cleared, then screamed at him, What are you doing?

  He nodded, not trusting his mouth to relay what it needed to. He wanted to pull her closer, to peel that sexy, tight dress off her curvy body, but instead he stepped back and took hold of her hand. “At least you can let me walk you home.”

  Her smile faltered. “I’ll take a cab.”

  He nodded as they stepped to the curb. “If you want, we have a game tomorrow in the north fields at Central Park at one.”

  She nodded. “I’d love to watch.”

  He couldn’t help but smiling. “Great. I’ll see you then.” He waved a taxi over. As she got in, he leaned down and placed another kiss on those sweet lips. “Goodnight, Marina.”

  “Goodnight.” She smiled back.

  He stood there and watched as the cab drove down the street and took a left two blocks down.

  So much had happened in the last few minutes that he needed the cool air to clear his mind. It was almost six blocks to his place and now he’d be walking without his dinner jacket, since she’d forgotten to give it back to him. He didn’t mind. He had a closet full of the things.

  His mind kept flashing back to that kiss. It had been a long time since he’d kissed someone and felt what he’d felt with Marina. Actually, he realized it had been a long time since he’d kissed anyone. He calculated it and realized that the whole review fiasco had put a huge damper on his love life. Four whole months had gone by without him going on a single date.