Page 34 of Worth Every Risk

“Guess so.”

He looks at me funny. “You’ve got a bit of sauce.” He indicates a spot on his face.

“Oh.” I swipe my cheek with my hand.

“Wrong side. Here.” He points, and I try again, but his grin tells me I’ve missed. He laughs. He really is quite cute. His expressions are so joyful, it’s contagious. “How can you manage kids if you can’t even keep your face clean?”

I’m laughing too now, wiping my face with my fingers again. “It’s your fault. It was so delicious I couldn’t eat with dignity. Did I get it?”

“Nope. I’ll get it.”

He comes round to my side of the island, sticks his thumb out, and swipes it over my cheek. His hand is still on my face when—

“Good evening.”

Alec jerks his hand off me like I’ve burnt him, and the two of us turn to see Mr Hawkston standing in the doorway.

“Am I interrupting something?” he asks.

Alec’s eyes fill with something approaching fear. They widen and fix on me, before darting back to Mr Hawkston. His mouth opens, but no sound comes out. Apparently, I’m not the only one Mr Hawkston renders speechless.

“Oh, no,” I blurt. “Alec made the most delicious sandwich for me. I hadn’t eaten properly.”

Mr Hawkston says nothing, but keeps staring at the two of us. The silence is painful, and this time it’s Alec who speaks.

"Nothing happening here, Mr Hawkston. Just food. That’s what I do best. Just food.” He holds up his hands like Mr Hawkston is pointing a gun at him. “Absolutely no fraternizing among the staff. I don’t find Aries attractive that way.”

What the hell is he talking about?

A bemused look passes over Mr Hawkston’s face before he nods. “Make sure you clean up properly. And Aries?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Try and feed yourself at a reasonable hour so you’re not distracting Alec here from his work.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure. Sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“Join me in my office in ten minutes.”

Mr Hawkston’s expression is severe. My stomach falls twenty feet. This must be about the sauna. Fear breaks like a storm down the middle of my body, turning all my bones to mush. Myfingers gripping the kitchen island, and the stool beneath me, are the only things preventing me from collapsing. I take a few deep breaths as we listen to Mr Hawkston’s fading footsteps.

Then I turn to Alec, forcing a smile on my face. “And I thought I was bad for rambling. Why’d you say all that?"

“Crap. I don’t know.” Alec is furiously wiping down the surfaces and scraping crumbs off into his open palm. “Sorry. You’re very attractive. Obviously. But he was looking at me like he was going to murder me for touching you. It freaked me out. I’ve never seen that look on his face before.”

Hope begins to swell inside me, like the sun rising over the horizon.Shit."That’s ridiculous,” I say, as much for my benefit as for Alec’s.

He gives a mock shudder so big that the sleeves of his chef’s jacket quiver. “Seriously though, that was not pleasant. He was like one of those King Kong gorilla creatures, staring me down before he ripped my head off.”

My mind whirls.Was he really looking at us like that? Like he was angry at the suggestion of intimacy between me and another guy? “Is there a rule about staff having relationships?”

Alec shrugs and begins rinsing out the cloth he’s been using at the sink. “Not really. But I don’t think Mr Hawkston would like it. Or maybe it’s you he wouldn't like having a relationship with other people. Did something happen?”

My heart hammers. “What? No. Like what?”

“It just felt weird, is all. And now he wants you to see him in his office?” He grabs a pen from a shelf over the sink and yanks my arm, scrawling what I assume is his number on the inside of my wrist. “I swear I’m not cracking onto you, but if anything happens… or you need someone, call me. And if you want to get out of the house at any point, you can come see me in the staff block. I wouldn’t want to share a house with that broodingmonster.” He jerks his thumb in the direction Mr Hawkston went.

“You’re kind of freaking me out. He’s not a criminal, is he?”

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