Turn
up the Heat
Second Chances # 1
Second Chances # 1
By: Serena Bell
Releasing July 14, 2015
Loveswept
Blurb
For readers of Jill
Shalvis and Susan Mallery, USA Today bestselling author Serena Bell teases all
five senses in this poignant, tantalizing novel of fantasies long hidden . . .
and finally indulged.
Aspiring
chef Lily McKee noticed Kincaid Graves the first time he walked into the dingy
diner where she waits tables. With his ice-blue eyes and primal tattoos, his
presence puts Lily on edge—and reminds her of all the unfulfilled longings she
isn’t pursuing while she’s stuck in this dead-end job. Without a doubt, the man
is dangerous to her long-term plans of leaving town and hiring on at a real
kitchen—and yet, she hungers for him, if even for just a taste.
Kincaid
didn’t come back to his coastal Oregon hometown looking for a good time or a
good meal. The ex-con has a score to settle, old wrongs to set right. But Lily,
equal parts innocence and insight, brings out an impulsive side of him he
thought he’d left behind in the past. And it only takes one intense moment of
weakness between them to make him consider the possibility of an entirely new
future—and the promise of passion beyond either of their wildest dreams.
“Dinner rush is just starting. You will be in ten
minutes. Look, I’m not giving you a choice.”
“Of course you’re fucking not.”
The men glared at each other, then turned to her.
Lily knew better than to look like she was waiting
for an invitation. She grabbed an order ticket and got to work.
Of course it was the ticket for Booth 9. Her
mystery man. He’d ordered a burger.
She let herself wonder, just a little. If he’d do it. If he’d pin her, hold her, boss her, own her. Wondering wasn’t doing. There
was no harm in wondering.
She’d told herself that after what had happened with
Fallon, she needed to give herself space. She’d told herself: No men in Tierney
Bay. Do the job, make the money, get out.
The anger coiled now. The sense of betrayal.
Do the job, make the money, get out.
And yet, every time her mystery man came in here
and she took in his size, the hewn-wood solidity of him, the ripple and surge
of what he’d built under the surface of his skin like a barely contained
threat, she wanted to rewrite the rules. And that was before he turned that
cool blue gaze on her, stripped her to the skin and then barer still, and dared
her something she didn’t have a name for.
She’d promised herself. And in her head, she’d promised her
mother and her sister, who had given up so much for her.
And her father, who had given up everything.
So that meant she could wonder, but that was all.
But it wouldn’t be breaking the rules to cook for him. To grill
him a burger and watch him eat it. She’d seen him eat a few times, like he was ravenous
and barely restrained, but savoring every last nuance. Watching him eat would
be only a consolation prize, but it would be a damn good one.
Unfortunately, she’d had a few of Tierney
Bay Diner’s hamburgers, and they were nothing to write home about. That would
dampen the fun of feeding him, for sure.
It would take her ten seconds, no more, to fix
that.
A few chopped onions, minced garlic and parsley,
Worcestershire sauce.
She dared a glance, and there he was. Icy-lake
eyes, full lips, the slashes of cheek and jawbone, a day’s stubble. Not reading. Watching her.
They’d done this too many times for her to pretend they
weren’t doing it. She looked right back at him, held his gaze, and heat
flared in her, like the shimmer of air over the grill.
She oiled the grill and formed the patty, the sound
of her hands loud as a slap in her mind but drowned by sizzle and the clang of
metal and the god-awful eighties XM station playing on infinite loop.
In a few seconds she was flipping her own burgers
with her left hand and clearing space for sausages with her right.
She brushed cooking oil on the grill—but someone
had substituted lemon juice in her oil bottle and the whole thing caramelized
in an instant.
Behind her, Hadley snickered.
Screw him. She
scraped the grill clean, time wasted, and started over.
On his next pass, he knocked her elbow when she was
salting, and she seared his forearm with a metal spatula she’d been heating on
the grill for just that purpose.
He jumped a foot and his jaw tightened, but he
half-grinned, too. He knew the score. It was every man for himself in the
kitchen. Every woman, too.
She’d be poised for his next attack, but somehow, some
way, she’d prove herself in here. This was how you did it.
Meantime, she wouldn’t let him distract her.
Wouldn’t let him break her rhythm. The smack of patties on her latex palms,
the swish of spatula against grill surface, the dance she was part of now as
her brain tracked tickets and entrees, ingredients and subassemblies. What
needed to be started and what needed to be finished.
Booth 9’s burger was up, and she watched it get delivered.
He took a bite, then looked up from the burger and met her eyes. It was there:
gratitude and worship, hot and dark as sex. Like no one had ever really fed him
before.
She loved that. She couldn’t help her smile.
Someone stopped by his table, breaking her line of
sight. Markos. He’d been moving around the diner, stopping to say hello to regular
customers and to check on people to see if they were enjoying their meals.
Markos and her mystery man began having an animated conversation, pointing to
the burger. Removing the bun.
Shit.
A cold hand fisted in her stomach.
Markos left Booth 9 and headed straight for her.
“See me in the storeroom.” Markos’s thick-featured face was angry, his voice
low and mean. “Hadley, watch her station.”
She followed Markos into the storeroom.
“You messed with my food.”
“I—I—”
“We don’t put fucking onions and parsley in the
hamburgers. Or anything fucking else.”
The real rage in his voice surprised her, set her
back on her heels despite herself. “I was— Did he not like it?”
Because she knew he had. She’d seen him finish the
last bite a moment ago and lick his fingers, which had sent a shiver of lust up
her spine.
“That’s not the fucking point. You don’t mess with my
food. You don’t try something new. I tell you what to cook, you cook it. Except
you don’t, because it’ll be a frigid day in hell before I let you back in this kitchen.
Get outta here. Go do what I hired you to do.”
He held out his hand and she shed her apron and
hairnet and returned them to him.
She went back to the floor. Tears stung behind her
eyes, but she ordered them back. Be tough. Show no weakness.
Or as one of her favorite teachers—a woman—had once
said, Pull on
your big-girl panties and turn up the heat.
Link to Follow Tour: http://www.tastybooktours.com/2015/04/turn-up-heat-second-chances-1-by-serena.html
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23568227-turn-up-the-heat?ac=1
Goodreads Series Link: https://www.goodreads.com/series/147029-second-chances
Author Info
USA
Today bestselling author Serena Bell writes
stories about how sex messes with your head, why smart people sometimes do
stupid things, and how love can make it all better. She wrote her first steamy
romance before she was old enough to understand what all the words meant and
has been perfecting the art of hiding pages and screens from curious eyes ever
since—a skill that’s particularly useful now that she’s the mother of two
school-aged children.
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Ebook copies of:
·
CLAIMED by Stacey Kennedy
·
MY OBSESSION by Cassie Ryan
·
DEEP AUTUMN HEAT by Elisabeth Barrett
·
TAKE THE FALL by Marquita Valentine
·
YOUR TO KEEP by Serena Bell
·
SWEET THE SIN by Claire Kent
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2 comments:
Thank you for hosting TURN UP THE HEAT
Thank you so much for hosting Lily, Kincaid and me today! :-)
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