by Natalie Ann
Aiden was sitting at a table with two other judges—regular judges of the one-hour show that rotated around. His makeup was being touched up and she fought not to giggle as he squirmed in the chair. If she snuck a picture of it and happened to send it to Ella, she wasn’t admitting. But Ella had begged her and since Ella had been so nice to her for the past few weeks, coming down and talking to her, having lunch together on their breaks with her and Aimee when their schedules allowed, she felt it was the least she could do.
Besides, she’d come to realize those five loved busting on each other. She’d heard they were thick as thieves and she believed it.
The three contestants were just brought out and explained the rules. They’d be creating a Thanksgiving-themed appetizer with a secret basket of ingredients for this first round. Then they’d move on to dinner and dessert. They were given several Mexican-based ingredients for this show. The winner of this episode would move on with the winners of two more episodes, and the final three would go head to head for the big prize of twenty-five thousand dollars.
Three hours later, the first taping was finally done. She didn’t realize it took that much work and effort for what should have been an hour. And even after the actual cooking was done and the winner named, she heard them talking about getting backroom interviews and then yelling for edits.
She thought the kitchen got loud and crazy on a Saturday night at Fierce, but it was nothing to the number of people running around this small space. She could see why Aiden would hate this. It was constant starting and stopping. Yelling orders and instructions.
The judges all seemed relaxed, talking to each other during breaks and stints of cooking. Aiden looked like he had no problem tuning all the chaos out around him. But by the time the filming of the second episode was done, her nerves were on edge. That episode had taken three hours too, but with the two-hour lunch break in between, she was beat. All she’d done was sit there. How did people do this?
“Are you ready to go?” Aiden asked her when he walked over.
“Yes. Wow, I don’t know how you sat still that long. Have you ever sat still that long before? At one point, I thought you were going to jump and grab the knife out of that one contestant’s hand and show him how to properly carve the turkey.”
“I was that obvious?”
“Yes. You didn’t notice the other two judges elbowing each other, then you, and laughing?”
He frowned. “They wanted to too.”
“Is that what you guys were talking about?” She noticed their heads down talking a lot and the camera zooming in on them.
“Yeah. I’m sure that will make the edits too. I had to fight back saying what I really wanted to at times. I’m too used to being in my own kitchen or around family.”
“You always watch your words. Everyone knows that.” She’d never seen him say anything that wasn’t appropriate in the kitchen before.
“Not around family I don’t. And not around you.”
Her heart started to race. Did that mean she meant almost as much to him as his family did? She wasn’t about to ask, least of all here. “Maybe you could lose a bit of that control later tonight in the hotel?”
“I can do that,” he said, threading his fingers through hers. She looked around to see if anyone was watching them, but no one was.
After dinner, they made their way back to the hotel room. She’d wanted to ask if Aiden had gone through her bag to know she had some lingerie in there, but didn’t. Instead she went into the bathroom and changed into the pale pink silk slip. It was the first time she’d bought anything like this and went for something middle of the road.
He looked up from her computer when she opened the door. He’d been using hers the whole time since he’d left his on his kitchen counter by mistake.
The smile he bestowed on her sent all those tingles of anticipation she used to feel on Christmas morning cruising through her body.
“So you did pack something special for me,” he said.
“You didn’t know?”
“How would I?” he asked, closing the lid on her laptop and setting it aside. He walked toward her and stopped, then spun his finger in the air in a twirling motion.
Like a puppet on a string, she did as he silently asked. He didn’t always have to talk for people to know authority when they looked at him. It seemed he pulled at more of her than she’d ever thought was possible. “You made a comment about it earlier.”
“Just a joke. I’m glad it’s not though.” He slid his hands down the cool silk gown that stopped at her upper thighs. It was probably meant to have all her private parts peeking out, but being so short, it covered her…barely.
As if knowing there’d be a bigger treat under it, he moved his hands up, bringing the material with him. “Oh yeah. That’s it.”
She turned around and let him view her visible cheeks. A G-string didn’t cover much at all. He whirled her back around and lifted the front. There was a tiny red heart covering her wonder zone. She’d thought the outfit was more cute than sexy, but by the look in his eyes, she was guessing he wasn’t thinking cute at all.
“I bought you matching bottoms.” His smile dropped and she burst out laughing. “Just kidding. Sorry, I don’t think I’d want to see that. Something about guys in G-strings just doesn’t do it for me.”
“Good to know,” he said.
“Do I need to undress you? Or can you handle it yourself?”
“I can handle it. Why don’t you go over there and wait on the bed for me?”
She walked over and lay on her stomach at the end of the bed, knowing the slip lifted and she was flashing her naked assets at him. She crossed her ankles and brought them up over her cheeks, then put her chin in her hands.
“That’s wrong,” he said the minute he took his shirt off.
“What’s that?” she asked, tilting her head to the side and grinning at him.
“You wearing that and trying to look like an innocent little schoolgirl in that pose. So, so wrong.”
“I told you I wanted you to lose a bit of your control tonight.”
He whipped off the rest of his clothes and hopped on the bed, then rolled her over, coming down on top of her. He stretched her arms over her head, pinning her in place and dropping his lips to hers.
“I had no intention of losing my control tonight. I don’t lose it often, but there is something about you that just makes me want to throw all caution to the wind and be someone else for a night.”
“I just want you to be yourself. I don’t want you to hold anything back. To stop yourself from feeling what you want. What you think you need.”
He pushed back a little, looked into her eyes and then held her stare and released her hands. “Then you won’t care if I do this?”
Her little teddy was ripped right down the middle before she had an idea what he was going to do. That he’d even do that at all. Yeah, this was going to be one hell of a night.
“Scared?” he asked her.
She gulped. “No. Looking forward to what else you had in mind.”
He didn’t leave her waiting long. Flipped her over on her stomach again, pulled her up on her hands and knees and shifted the string out of the way, then entered her swiftly.
It was all-consuming. Everything she’d thought Aiden was from day one. He was possessing her, taking her over and bringing her to a wild place she’d never expected from him.
“Tell me to give it to you hard,” he told her.
Wow, guess no holding back on his words, so she wasn’t going to either. “I’m not some doll you need to be careful with. I want you to fuck me. Hard like you are. Harder if you want. I can take it. I can take all of you. I want all of you.”
There was a greater meaning behind her words, but she wasn’t going to acknowledge that now. Not when he was slamming into her like a beast let loose in the wild. Like a starving wolf zeroing in on his prey and pouncing. Like someone she’d never expected him to be.
; Like a man she was falling in love with.
He was gripping her hips, but it wasn’t enough to stop them from sliding toward the edge of the bed. Suddenly he was gone. Out of her and she was feeling the loss in more than one place.
He didn’t make her wait long though. He just picked her up and put her on her feet, her palms on the bed, and pushed her head down, lifting her butt in the air even more.
Should she be embarrassed that she was flashing more of her body to him than she’d ever done to another person before? That she was putting herself on display for him to look, touch and take?
If she was supposed to be, she wasn’t. She was flying high right now.
She’d made Aiden Fierce lose control.
Her.
Not some fancy fake woman that was rubbing up against him like an alley cat in heat at the studio today.
Not some other employee in the kitchen that was always flirting with him.
No. It was her.
The tiny Italian from the wrong side of town. The one who didn’t have much more than a name that only seemed to mean something to a small number of people.
Someone who’d been accused of a lot of things in her life and never got to follow her dreams.
A person that fought so hard to stay out of the limelight was being thrust in it today. Right now.
Aiden was there behind her. Then entering her again and showing her all the reasons he chose her over anyone else.
“Oh my God. You’re so deep,” she said.
“I know.” Her body was shaking as he started to slide in and out of her, more controlled now. She wanted him to lose it again, but it felt too good to have him stop what he was doing. “Am I hurting you? Please tell me if I am. I’ll stop, but I don’t want to stop.”
“Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop. Go faster. Harder.” His breathing was starting to pick up, his fingers almost pinching her skin. “Do I need to start talking dirty to you again to get you to lose control?”
“Shut up,” he said. “I just want to feel this.”
She bit back the giggle that wanted to escape. Well, she asked him to let loose. “Aiden,” she said, her voice rising. She wasn’t really talking, but she couldn’t stop the noises coming from her mouth. “Slide your hand under and touch me.”
He didn’t answer her, but he did as she asked. His hand slid underneath the heart that wasn’t in the way at all, then found just the right spot and started to rub hard and furious. Exactly how she liked it, how she wanted it, and how she needed it. Then he pinched her and she squealed. It was more forceful than she thought, but damn it all if it didn’t send her spiraling out of control, shouting out his name while he lost all the discipline he’d exhibited in the past.
She’d caused that. Her. And that was answer enough on why it was her and no one else that was here with him.
Your Dream
Wednesday morning, they were sitting in the plane waiting for takeoff. He was itching to get back home.
Did he love the few days he’d had with Nic? Just the two of them being together, free to be themselves? Yeah. He loved every bit of it. And he was starting to think he was falling in love with her.
But he was missing his kitchen and his family.
It always surprised him that he could go away for a few days and miss them so much, but for two years he’d pretty much traveled the world without a problem. Without feeling like part of him was empty.
Of course, back then he’d been on a mission just like the rest of them were. They’d talked nonstop, told each other what they were doing and learning. Planning, even so far away from each other.
They’d all had this unified goal and that came before everything else. Before their personal lives. Before their need to see each other. Before all the mistakes they’d made.
Now that he was home, now that they’d achieved so much of what they all wanted, it seemed they couldn’t leave again. That they all left at the same time back then, all went their own ways, made it easier to be apart, because everyone but Brody was gone. They were all feeling the separation and could relate to each other more. A bond not many people experience in life.
Being back together, it was harder to go away. Even for two days. It just dawned on him he hadn’t talked to his family at all, not since he’d left on Sunday night. That had to be a first.
“What are you thinking?” she asked him.
“That I haven’t heard a word from anyone since we left. That’s odd. No one has even texted me.”
“You’re just realizing that now?” she asked, smiling.
“Yeah. I was focused on the show during the day, then you at night. I had no time to think of anything else.”
“Okay,” she said, laying her hand on his thigh. “That’s pretty sweet.”
He leaned down and gave her a kiss on the lips because she was silently begging him to do that as she puckered up. “I can be a sweet guy.”
“You can and you are. But if it makes you feel any better, your siblings have all been texting me.”
“What?” he asked. He’d noticed her on her phone a lot during the tapings, but just figured she was bored and searching around on the internet, or playing games.
“They didn’t want to bug you, so they were all asking me how you were doing. I sent them some pictures.”
“Of what?” he asked.
“You’ll find out when you get home. They wanted pictures of you on set.”
He could only imagine what those pictures were. “Speaking of pictures…can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“I noticed a bunch of pictures on your computer. Your screensaver rotated through them.”
“Yeah,” she said, looking unsure.
“They were really nice. Beautiful. More like artful. It made me want to reach in and pick the plates up and taste what was on them.”
They were all close-up shots of food from various angles. Some of them looked like they were in motion. Sauce being poured over meat. Filling being pushed into a cream puff. Chocolate dripping from cookies that were being dunked. These weren’t pictures taken by an amateur.
“That’s a good thing.”
“They’re your pictures, aren’t they? Your photos?”
“The food?” she asked.
“Yes. But the pictures too. I recognized Moretti’s in the background. It didn’t matter it was fuzzed out, I still remember the place now that I’ve seen glimpses of it.”
“Yes,” she said quietly.
He didn’t know what to make of her demeanor. Nervousness with a touch of fear? “Nic, they’re stunning. Why didn’t I know you could do that? Why didn’t you say anything?”
He wanted to be hurt that she didn’t share that with him, but he held it back. Maybe she didn’t feel the same way about him that he was coming to feel for her.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It hadn’t come up.”
There was more to it than that. “I think you need to start taking pictures of the food at Fierce. Cade hires out for people to do that and they can’t seem to find the feeling of the food. You know it. You see it because you feel it yourself.”
“I’m a cook,” she argued.
He snorted. “There is more to you than being a cook. That’s it, isn’t it? That’s your dream. Photography?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve made comments in the past about cooking not being what you wanted. Moretti’s not being where you saw yourself. You did it because you needed to for your grandparents. And now you’re cooking because you need a way to support yourself and them. But it’s not what you want, is it? Not really.”
“I need my job, Aiden.”
She didn’t get it. “I’m not asking that. Your job isn’t in jeopardy if that is what you’re thinking. I’m asking you if photography is your dream.”
“It was. But sometimes things are just that, a dream. It can be a hobby for me again sometime.”
“Why not now? I’m t
elling you, Cade is going to wet himself when I show him these pictures.”
“Please don’t,” she said urgently.
She looked like she had tears in her eyes. “Why?”
“I can’t take those pictures anymore. Not right now.”
“Again, why?”
“I don’t have my camera. It was lost in the fire.”
“Buy another one,” he said. How hard was that?
“Aiden. If you broke a knife, would you just go to the store and buy another?”
“Of course not. I’m particular about those things. You know that. Most chefs are.”
“Yeah, and they’re expensive too. I worked years to buy the camera I had, along with all the filters and lenses. Everything. I carried it around in a case like I was some big shot. I had these marketing plans for the store for my grandparents. My mother stole it all away from me. I can’t just go out and get another camera. It’s a lot of money that I don’t have right now. I’m still trying to pay off the debt for my grandparents that was left from the fire.”
“Insurance didn’t cover that?”
“No. I know I said that before and that is what they believe, but it’s not true. I’m not going to tell them and burden them with it. I’m young and have plenty of time for dreams. They lost theirs. I couldn’t let them keep paying for the sins of their daughter.”
He let it drop. He could see she was getting defensive and it wasn’t what he wanted. He’d talk with the others once he worked it all out in his head.
***
Nic was struggling to hold her tears in check. Maybe she’d secretly hoped Aiden would notice those pictures and comment on them, but after the first day when he hadn’t, she just figured she thought more of herself than she should have.
Her grandparents always praised her photography. So did others when she had fliers printed up. But maybe they were just being nice to her. Just trying to boost her confidence.
Then there was the embarrassment of telling him why she had to give it up. Why she couldn’t do what she lived and breathed the way he did in the kitchen.
That a part of her was lost in the fire that day that she wasn’t sure she’d ever find again, even if she did have the equipment.
