Delectable Desire by Farrah Rochon Read Free Book Online Page B

Hawthorne-Hayes, if it meant he’d get his way.
    Despite being a free spirit, Trina had done exactly as expected. When she earned her MBA this fall, she would step right into her role at Hawthorne-Hayes Jewelers, and be the perfect little daughter their father had always hoped she’d become.
    How appropriate that Lorraine, his mother’s namesake, couldn’t stomach the idea.
    “May I please be excused?” she asked.
    Her father didn’t speak, just gave a firm nod.
    Lorraine fought back angry tears as she walked to her room. The tornado of emotions rolling inside her made her want to burst out of her skin. There was more to life than just being heir to the Hawthorne-Hayes empire. She needed to do something with her life. Create something. She’d been blessed with a talent that she knew was not a fluke. She’d received enough feedback from people who had no idea what her last name was—patrons of Chicago’s art scene who had praised the soulful passion of her L. Elise paintings.
    Lorraine Hawthorne-Hayes wasn’t a jeweler. She wasn’t a businesswoman. She wasn’t a socialite.
    She was an artist.
    She needed to find a way to share her true self with the world, to actually do something with it.
    “Gosh, you are so pathetic,” Lorraine said with a sigh as she stepped out of her shoes.
    No, she wasn’t pathetic. She was just...lost. And confused.
    For the past five years, she’d gone to great lengths to present to the world a sophisticated woman who had it all together on the outside, but on the inside she was a complete mess. There was a war waging inside her, and she had no idea which side should win. Her loyalties were divided between what she wanted and what her parents demanded of her, and unfortunately, what should have been an easy choice to make had been complicated by her own stupid mistakes.
    She owed her parents everything. Without their help with the nightmare that was Broderick Collins, she would have been publicly humiliated, unable to show her face anywhere. A part of her felt as if she should just fall in line and be the dutiful socialite that her mother and father wanted her to be.
    But an even stronger part of her was yearning to allow her creative side to blossom.
    Lorraine washed the makeup from her face, put on her nightgown and slipped between the cool sheets on her bed. When she closed her eyes, she saw her father ripping up that document, and the tears she’d tried to stave off started flowing down her cheeks.
    That fellowship would have been the validation she’d been seeking, the proof that she was so much more than just her name. This battle between living up to her family’s expectations and living the life she just knew she was destined to live was exhausting. How would she ever meld the two?
    * * *
    Carter loaded the sheet pan into one of the bakery’s industrial-size ovens. Today was a rare day off for him, but he’d decided to come in and give Malik a hand in the kitchen. His original plans had consisted mainly of catching up on a couple of crime dramas he had stored on his DVR, but Carter knew he wouldn’t have been able to concentrate on television. For the past twelve hours, all he had been able to think about was how his date with Lorraine had ended.
    Having some random photographer snap their picture was strange enough, but why had she run like a scared rabbit? Last night, he had teased her about being in some type of witness protection program, but now Carter was starting to believe there was merit behind his joke. She refused to disclose her last name. She wouldn’t allow him to pick her up at her house. And she totally freaked out at having her picture taken. What other explanation was there for the mystery surrounding her?
    Carter emptied the remaining batter for Lillian’s Lemon-Raspberry Bars into a second sheet pan and slipped it in next to the first one, programming the timer on the oven’s computer panel. He carried the dirty bowls, beaters and spatula to the