Chapter One: Sophia

I ought to have recognized.

The command in these eyes held the identical depth because the glare that gave me goosebumps each time I walked to The Dish workplace each morning. There was a bigger than life show on the facet of a constructing on tenth Road, every window of the skyscraper making a fearsome tribute to Desmond O’Connell’s likeness. Beneath his highly effective stance was ‘America’s Chef’, emblazoned with the time and date one may tune in and watch him rip individuals aside, in dwelling coloration.

I knew these eyes, the piercing inexperienced eyes that I may solely stand for a couple of seconds earlier than I backed down and seemed away. The dusting of darkish brown hair that was simply the correct quantity of tailor-made, but effortlessly swept throughout his brow. That robust, nearly noble jawline, set, highly effective, and intensified by his scowl. The flash of his muscular forearms, the broad shoulders, and now that I’d seen him, all of him, I knew that beneath the white chef’s jacket there was much more perfection.

I used to be intimately acquainted with his glistening abs, each agency sq. strong and stutter inducing. ‘What the hell am I doing right here?’ inducing. Particularly now that I knew that this bigger than life man who had a fame for chewing individuals up and spitting them out was, in reality, bigger than freaking life. He was the profanity spewing, two piece swimsuit sporting host of America’s Chef and a handful of reveals with the identical premise: take untrained, naked bones cooks, put them in a room, and allow them to duke it out.

Desmond O’Connell was additionally the one man that I let harm me, as a result of one way or the other, I felt secure with him.

I may inform from the way in which he was looking at me, slack jawed and fearful, he wasn’t feeling very secure.

My knee sang, throbbing the place I might related with the sting of the espresso desk. Reminding me of my current dive away from the reality. He is simply given me the story that might make me a family title. With a fast tug of his masks, he jogged my memory why I’m right here within the first place—and all the things I may lose.

If I did not write this story, I might miss the chance to be recognized for something apart from captions and tales about which superstar wore that dazzling, loopy costly costume finest. If I wrote it, I’d lose Desmond, together with any likelihood at exploring what this factor, this magic was between us.

Neither of the choices mattered for the time being, as a result of I could not assume, could not do a lot else moreover repeat his title.

“You are Desmond O’Connell,” I stated hoarsely, blinking at him in disbelief.

The primary time I stated his title, he’d locked his jaw like he hoped that I lived beneath some rock and would not acknowledge him. This time, he folded his arms towards his chest in a silent gesture that spoke louder than any phrases would.

This man would destroy me with out hesitation. With out care of something that occurred between us.

And our future? Please…so far as he was involved, the query could be, ‘what future?’.

My hair was free and in every single place, the darkish brown strands intent on doing the job my masks was liable for. Spilling into my eyes. Hiding what was beneath.

“I used to look at your present, however you is usually a bit…” I held onto the ultimate syllable, cautiously slipping my fingers via my cussed locks. I wanted one thing to do with my palms, some approach to channel the nervous power that was making me shake like I used to be coming down from some huge excessive. He wasn’t providing me any lifelines, his face as stoic and unmoving as if he had pulled his masks again on.

If we have been a pair, I might go to him. Shake him, try to ply him with attraction; one thing, something to get a response. However I saved my distance. The previous ten minutes had proven me simply how little we knew about one another outdoors of this room. Positive, the Web may spit out his birthday, the place he grew up, the primary job he had earlier than he started the journey to stardom, perhaps even an ex girlfriend or two. However these have been simply details. A census report. No quantity of Googling would assist me decide if the look on his face, or the absence of a glance on his face, meant that he was offended, hurting, or within the throes of another emotion. It would not inform me if I ought to simply minimize my losses and go away as a result of the chances of salvaging this, no matter it was, have been slim to none.

I scraped my tooth alongside my backside lip, combating the urge to go to him like I had earlier than he matched my reward of openness. I wished to go to him like I had earlier than, after I stopped him earlier than he picked up the acquainted weight of guilt about what occurred together with his ex fiancé. I wished to be near him, skim my fingers via his brown strands and look him deep within the eyes. Inform him the reality, the entire fact, and nothing however the fact.

And that fact was this: I got here to Hush beneath false pretenses, however after assembly him, Mary, and the opposite individuals on employees, I had pause about going ahead with the story.

And now, the one story I cared about, was our story.

One thing about the way in which he was trying proper via me made me really feel like it might be wasted breath. With my recoil, coupled with my ensuing awkwardness, I knew that he was regretting revealing himself. He was already backtracking, and I hadn’t stated something moreover his title and that I might watched his present.

I smoothed my palms down the entrance of my costume, grateful that for the primary time, my nerves weren’t manifesting themselves in sweat. As a substitute, the knots that often twisted my abdomen have been wrapped round my throat, robbing me of the flexibility to talk. To say one thing. To say what he wanted to listen to. To say what I wanted to say.

Simply inform him the reality.

I took a step towards him, the 5 ft that separated us all of the sudden tripled by the far-off look in his eyes.

I licked my lips and croaked, “I do not know what to say.”

That acquired a response from him, his mouth twisting in disbelief. “You do not have something to say?” His gaze nailed me in place. “You’ve got been a stream of consciousness since we met, Sophia. I present you who I’m beneath the masks and all of the sudden, you are speechless?”

“I’ve seen America’s Chef,” I stated with a low chuckle. “Absolutely you recognize the impact you’ve got on individuals.”

“So that you’re afraid of me.”

The person I might seen within the snippets of his cooking present appeared to thrive on that reality. The music would go nonetheless, or flip ominous because the contestants all seemed towards the door. He’d fill it together with his physique, all muscle tissues and affect in a darkish two piece swimsuit or one thing equally smooth. He’d communicate and everybody would fall quiet. He wore that energy with pleasure and he wielded it like a weapon.

However after I checked out him, I did not see any signal of satisfaction. There was no smug gleam in his eye, basking in the truth that one other one was properly on its approach to biting the mud.

He cared. I noticed it brimming in the way in which he checked out me. He checked out me like a person who wished to be seen, who wished me to know that he was a lot greater than what meets the attention.

I took his hand, static electrical energy bringing to life the fun that exploded in my chest. “I knew I used to be proper about you. That there was one thing extra taking place right here.”

He seemed down at our palms like he was in a daze, however when he raised his eyes again to mine, he by no means seemed extra positive of something.

How may I not take this leap? How may I not fall for him?

I cleared my throat and commenced the toughest half. “I feel I used to be fearful that I might let you know what I do for a dwelling and also you’d run screaming in the other way.”

He lifted my hand, nonetheless intertwined together with his, and pressed his lips towards my knuckles. “Sophia, except you are about to inform me you are a reporter and this was all for some story, I feel we’re good.”

My coronary heart, moments in the past so full and able to leap proper out of my chest, screeched to a halt.

The smile that was sneaking its manner throughout his face slammed to a cease too.

I by no means had a lot of a poker face. It in all probability did not assist that every one coloration had been drained from it, both.

“You are shitting me.” His tone was two notches beneath the attractive timbre that drove me wild. When he requested me for my coloration. When he requested the way it felt when he was inside me. However he posed no query now. It was clear that I would just answered the one query that mattered: is that this actual?

And now that he knew what I did for a dwelling, the reply, so far as Desmond was involved, was a convincing ‘no’.

We have been again to the primary evening we met, not in the primary room after I took out the douchebag, however after we noticed one another within the corridor and he actually was a stranger and he’d gawked at me after I tried to shake his hand.

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