Page 28 of Under the Table

That hadn’t been Hope’s idea, but it was a fascinating one regardless. It made the voting far more anonymous, and better than mere opinion. Although, she was a glutton, and she wanted the straight up opinion.

Because she knew her food was damn good.

She knew the one thing she had going for her in life was her ability to put together different ingredients and make an amazing, mind-blowing dish. The temptation to walk over to Angelica and make a comment to her was so strong, to tellher how good she looked eating Hope’s food, to tell her how stunning she was in general when she wielded that power and control.

But she stopped herself.

That’d take everything a little too far, and the aftermath of their confrontation earlier was still ringing through her mind…and her body.

She could have sworn that Angelica was going to kiss her.

And oh, how Hope had wanted her to.

Just like that first true kiss in Angelica’s office in Los Angeles, when Angelica had cupped her cheek and her ear and pulled her in for not just one but three delicate and pure kisses. Except there was far more heat in Angelica’s gaze this time around, far less restraint.

How wild could she get when she was unleashed?

How passionate?

How loud?

Hope shivered, her entire body on the edge of something big, something extraordinary, something that she knew she couldn’t allow to happen. Because if Angelica were to kiss her again, then Hope wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop herself from taking everything that she wanted—everything that she’d dreamed of.

“The tally is in,” Angelica said loudly, catching Hope’s long-lost attention and forcing her to look from the owners to Rex sitting behind the cameras and near the monitors, and then to Angelica.

Perfect fucking Angel.

She shivered, a wetness forming between her legs that made her uncomfortable, and a desire to sayfuck itand kiss Angelica anyway. But those few moments of intensity in the conference room had been beyond anything that Hope had dreamed of.

She’d really thought that Angelica was going to do it. That she’d finally be the one to break whatever was between them.

“And the overall winner is Chef Lawrence.” Angelica clapped her hands together as the room burst with laughter.

Hope’s cheeks burned. She could barely even focus right now. She couldn’t keep doing this. They had to find some way of being together for work that wasn’t going to distract her to the point where she couldn’t do her job.

“The only dish where Gardenia staff won was the duck salad appetizer.” Angelica was clapping, smiling. She turned to Hope, a grin on her lips, and winked.

Oh my God. Did she actually wink?

Hope shivered, blinking suddenly and focusing on the room around her. The staff began to dissipate back to their designated areas to work. Hope took a step toward Angelica and froze.

“You didn’t win. You rigged it.”

Her shoulders went up, her jaw clenched, and she turned to face Johnny. “Excuse me?”

“You rigged it. Where’s the actual tally? There’s no way you beat out our classically trained chefs.” He put his hands on his hips and scowled, the deep lines in his face darkening, especially with what must be a spray-on tan he had going on.

“Do I need to remind you that I’m also classically trained?” Hope raised an eyebrow at him. “I spent seven years in France studying before I came back to America.” She crossed her arms, her lips pulling tight into a barely avoided grimace.

“I don’t believe you beat them.”

“I did.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. What was it that Johnny had against her?

“What’s the problem here?” Angelica slid in step next to Hope, glancing at Hope before turning the full force of her look at him.

“I think you cheated. You and her. You’re in on it together.”

Angelica pulled back slightly, no doubt just as taken by surprise as Hope was. “This was a contest that was run fair andsquare. In fact, the results were as anonymous as possible for this very purpose. All of production talked it over and decided on that.”