Page 37 of Sensuous

“Great. Thanks.”

She gives me what looks like a sympathetic smile before moving on to the next contestant. I turn to Emma to see her let out a heavy sigh.

“I got Angus. I hope he’s in a better mood than he was the other day when someone took his knife. I’m not sure I can handle an angry Scot.”

“You’re going to be great. I got Mr. Wonderful. He’s probably thinking up the hardest dish in the world for me to make,” I say, forcing myself to look miserable.

“You can do this. Just remember you got this, okay?” she says in a sweet voice I appreciate, even as I feel sort of guilty for having to lie to her.

“Thanks, and you’re going to do terrific with Angus.”

She leans over and says in a worried voice, “God, please don’t let him ask me to make haggis. I’ll barf all over if he does.”

That does sound disgusting, but I force a smile for her so she doesn’t go into this exercise dreading it. “He hasn’t lived in Scotland since he was a kid. He told us all that, right? So I bet he’s never even had haggis.”

“From your lips to God’s ears. Seriously.”

I watch her slowly walk toward Angus and turn to glance over at Alex. He flashes me a grin and waves me over, obviously forgetting we’re supposed to be mortal enemies. I stop myself from giving him a smile and narrow my eyes to give him an angry glare.

Now we get to see how good my acting skills are.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Alex

When Kat givesme one of her death stares, I don’t understand why she’s acting like this after what happened between us last night. Forget the kiss. Not that I want to, but maybe she’s regretting that part of our time together. I thought we made a real breakthrough last night with our conversation.

She walks over to my station like it’s the worst thing she’ll ever have to do and lets out a heavy sigh of what seems like utter disgust. “Well, we better get going on this, I guess.”

I don’t know what to say, but then she gives me a tiny smile and I understand what’s going on. She’s pretending to still hate me. Okay, I can work with that.

“Why don’t we try not to be one another’s nemesis for today, all right?”

That gets me an eyeroll and another tiny smile. “Fine. Whatever. So what do you want me to make?”

Quietly, I whisper, “I brought some of that porcini pork tenderloin for you. It’s in my car. It turned out great. You should have stayed to have some.”

I don’t mean that to be a double entendre, but I wouldn’t have had a problem if she stayed last night and we did more than kiss. Kat gives me another little smile and pretends to be angry.

“That’s so nice of you. I can’t wait to taste it,” she says, her tone of voice kind but her face full of hate for me.

“You know, my brain doesn’t know how to process someone sounding nice but looking like they want to tear my head off. It’s a little confusing.”

She looks down at my knives laid out on the countertop and whispers, “I know. It’s weird for me too. It’s like my mind can’t keep things straight. I want to match my voice to my expressions, but if I do that, things will be all off.”

I see Maria and Shane watching the two of us, so I tighten my face and curl my lips into a sneer as I ask Kat, “What would you like to make today?”

In her surprise that I’m asking and not ordering her to do what I want, she turns to face me with a pleasant smile on her face. “You want me to choose? I figured you were going to have something in mind.”

Shifting my gaze to the left, I say, “We’re being watched, so that look on your face now is going to make the producers think we’re suddenly best friends. You better glare at me or something.”

Suddenly, she barks, “I don’t care what you think you are, Alex March. You aren’t better than me, so just tell me what the hell you want me to make and be prepared to be impressed!”

Jesus, this bizarre saying things you don’t mean and expressions not matching what’s being said are going to get us both in trouble. I can’t decide if I’m supposed to snap back at her or just keep my mouth shut.

I see Maria and Shane turn their attention to Angus and Emma, giving us a break. Everyone else can’t stop staring at us,though, after that outburst of Kat’s. They’re all looking over at me like they expect me to bark back something nasty at her.

Lowering my head to pretend like I’m looking for something, I say in a low voice, “You know how you said I’m perfect last night and I told you that’s absolutely not true. I think we’ve found something I’m downright terrible at. Acting. All this pretending to be something while I’m actually feeling quite the opposite is giving me a damn headache.”

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