"Who does that!?" Tracy yelled at the empty apartment. She wasn't sure if she was referencing herself or Mr. Hayes. She flung her shoes on the floor near the door, feeling a perverse satisfaction at the way they banged the floor. He had paid for this apartment, not her. The scuff didn't bother her at all. She knew in the back of her mind that she would regret it later, but for the moment it felt like a small way to get back at him.She pulled the dress over her head and threw it on the floor. She went in the bathroom and slammed the dials until hot water came out. She wanted to break everything she touched just to get the frustration out of her system. She stepped into the steaming water and let it wash over her.Hot tears poured out, her frustration and pain finally releasing in the hot water. How could he do this to her? She screamed at the water, wanting to know why he would choose to hurt her like that. He knew that Jenna sparked a small jealousy in her, but to keep throwing it in

Once Jenna and her father were safely off with the security detail, Mr. Hayes turned to Tracy. "There is one person I can give up control to," he said. He leaned in for a kiss.Tracy stopped him, her hand on his broad chest. "You obviously don't trust me, Mr. Hayes."Hurt crossed Mr. Hayes' face. He was still pretty calm for having almost been killed. "I definitely trust you, Tracy. I've never trusted anyone like I trust you.""I don't believe it," Tracy said, sounding as hard as she had during their first sexual encounter, when she had left him tied up in the bed. Only this time, she wasn't pretending. This time, she was legitimately angry. “If you trusted me, I wouldn't have had to threaten to make a scene. You trusted Jenna more than you trusted me today and it nearly got you killed.”"What do I have to do to prove it to you?" Mr. Hayes asked. His eyes were gray as he watched her, waiting for her to tell him what to do.Tracy grabbed his hand and walked down the stairs. Mr. Hayes s

A thundering crash echoed through the empty kitchen when a towering stack of brand-new, stainless-steel sauce pans toppled over."Damn it," Tracy mumbled, just in time to step out of harm’s way.The stack of cookware, worth thousands of dollars, hit the red tile floor so hard that pans flew in every direction.By the time the last pan stopped clattering and dancing, Tracy could feel a rising tide of frustration in the pit of her stomach. There wasn’t much time left before the restaurant – her restaurant – was set to open, and it felt like absolutely nothing had been done. The kitchen needed to be set up, the employees still needed to be finalized, the design crew still had to finish work on the dining room. And what made Tracy more nervous than anything was her appointment with her new head chef: Gordon Baxter.An esteemed chef with dozens of prestigious awards under his apron, Gordon had only agreed to work for Tracy for a salary that ate up much of the restaurant’s start-up budget.

The morning of Tracy’s meeting with Gordon Baxter was a frenzied rush of activity, as she had tons of things to do. She was a nervous wreck. Everything that she did was done with half her mind elsewhere, leading to more than one disaster. The coffee machine overflowed after she dumped way too much coffee grounds into the basket. Her solitary piece of toast, the only thing that she thought could stomach, burned into a stinky, square puck.Even her lowly hair brush wasn't immune. Some time earlier, Tracy had accidentally turned on a flat iron that she’d left out. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she hadn’t left her brush sitting on top of it. When she stepped out of the shower, she was met only by a molten puddle of plastic and rubber.If this is how today is going to be, she thought to herself, maybe I should just go back to bed.Mr. Hayes, who had gone out briefly that morning, walked back into their bedroom and spotted Tracy sitting on the edge of the bed, wrapped in a plush cotton to

When he was gone, she turned back to the kitchen."What are you working on now?" she asked, watching him with wide eyes. He grinned at her, and the heat of his gaze made her core heat."Ah," Gordon reached into a metal bin and scooped up a small ball of rice. "I made some risotto yesterday and stuck it in the cooler overnight."The way that he moved around the kitchen so effortlessly was amazing to Tracy. Seeing anyone perform a skill that they’ve mastered was a treat, but seeing a chef on her payroll do his thing was even more rewarding. There was an easy dexterity in the way that he handled his tools that was fascinating to her, almost entrancing.Gordon pressed his thumb into the ball of creamy rice, forming a little divot."So I take it and form the risotto around a piece of this amazing buffalo mozzarella that I found just a block from here. Then it gets breaded and fried up really quick."He quickly made five more before dropping them all into a bowl of bread crumbs and tossing