Page 14 of Recipe for Temptation

When his phone rang, he dug it out of his pocket and checked the screen. It was Drew Corbett, the executive producer of his cooking show.

“Hey, Mike,” Drew greeted him, brisk and annoyingly upbeat even at such an early hour. “How was the whirlwind book tour?”

“Great. I’m already looking forward to the next trip.” Michael winked at his dad, who shot him a look that said, You better be joking!

Drew laughed. “Sure. We all know how much you love being on the road.” He paused. “Not!”

Michael grinned lazily, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “What’s up, Drew? You calling to tell me the meeting’s been rescheduled?”

“Not at all. Actually, I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t forgotten about it. Figured you’d be sleeping off jet lag this morning, so I decided not to call you too early.”

Michael grunted and took a sip of coffee.

“Everyone at the studio is really excited about the new season of Howlin’ Good,” Drew said. “I think our viewers are gonna get a real kick out of the apprentice series. As you might imagine, we were inundated with contest entries from all over the country. We’ve finally gone through all of them and selected our five finalists.”

“That’s good.”

“Our test kitchen favorite was a curry chicken soufflé submitted by a woman from Houston,” Drew continued. “I think even you’d be impressed with the recipe, that’s how good it was.”

“Yeah? And you say she’s from Houston?”

“Born and raised.”

“What’s her name?”

“Hang on a sec.” The noise of rustling papers could be heard in the background. After another moment Drew came back on the line. “Here’s the file. Her name’s Reese St. James.”

Michael blinked. “Come again?”

“It’s Reese St. James.” Drew sounded puzzled. “Is there a problem?”

“No.” A grim smile curved Michael’s mouth. “It’s just…ironic.”

“What’s ironic?”

“I met a woman last night who claimed her last name was St. James.”

“Claimed?”

“Long story. Anyway, tell me more about this finalist.”

“According to her entry form, she’s an ob-gyn at Houston Methodist. She enjoys cooking as a stress reliever. She wrote that if she weren’t a doctor, she’d probably be a food critic.”

Michael went still. Could Reese St. James be the same woman he’d met last night? What were the odds?

“I already called to notify her that she finaled in the contest,” Drew said.

“You spoke to her?”

“No, I left a message on her voicemail yesterday. I was going to try her again this morning. She’s the only finalist I haven’t spoken to, and I want to make sure she’s available to fly here for the auditions on Friday.”

Michael frowned as a new thought occurred to him. If Reese St. James was the woman he’d met last night, had she known that she was a finalist in his contest when she showed up at the restaurant last night? If so, why hadn’t she mentioned it to him? Had she planned to seduce him in the hopes that he’d choose her to be his apprentice?

Only one way to find out.

“Why don’t you let me call her back?” he suggested.

“You?” Drew asked in surprise.

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