Feel the Heat (Hot In the Kitchen) by Kate Meader Read Free Book Online

got all up in his grill on a London street. Lili obviously didn’t have the dramatic flair to go toe-to-toe with Jack Kilroy.
    “Ah, but still he stares.” Tad grinned, interpreting her apprehensive expression correctly. “Worried your lady bits might go into shock, babe? I know it’s been a looong while.”
    “Maybe he’s not my type,” she said, shooting for haughty.
    “Liar,” he said, then more casually, “We could make it interesting.”
    “How interesting?”
    “Fifty bucks says you can’t close the deal before he leaves town.”
    She shot him an impatient look. “How about twenty minutes on your hog?”
    Tad answered with the family stare-down, a skill learned by all DeLucas while still in the cradle. “I’ve told you before, Lili. I don’t think you can handle that much power.” Her cousin had a Harley but refused to let her ride it. It was much more fun to take potshots at what he called her “tin cup runabout.”
    “Forget it,” she said, turning away.
    “Okay, ten minutes. But it doesn’t matter because you’re such a chicken. You won’t go for it even if it’s offered up on a platter.” He sloped off to attend to a couple of cougars who had just stalked up and dug their claws into the bar.
    Chicken . More like Little Miss Do Nothing, and though she knew Tad was only teasing, it still stung. Now that her mom was better, Lili should have been back on the life train, next stop grad school. Two years ago, she had plans to blow this Popsicle stand and finally transform into the person she had dreamed of as a tortured fat girl. Future Lili would be poised, self-assured, successful. Achieving an acceptable comfort level with her body should have instilled a similar confidence in her mind, but there were always those lingering doubts—about her artistic talent, her self-worth, her place in the world.
    Until she got her restaurant back in the black, her place was at DeLuca’s, doing everything in her power to ensure the family’s future. Even if that meant enduring her father’s viselike grip on the business and her dreams. She sighed. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was a new life.
    Minutes later, Lili spotted a teed-off Gina approaching the bar with a bottle of wine in one hand, a corkscrew in the other, and a face that even her extremely patient fiancé might have reservations about. While her cousin shook and gesticulated her way through an explanation to her brother, Tad, Lili ambled over to see how her meddling services might be best employed.
    She placed a protective arm around Gina’s shoulders as the girl spluttered, “They…they shouldn’t talk like that to people. I know he’s a freaking genius chef, but that wine costs a lot of money. Telling me to toddle off. There’s no need to be rude, you know?”
    Lili’s hackles rose as she contemplated tearing Jack Kilroy a new one. If that big shot big mouth with his behemoth restaurants and über-sensitive wine palate thought he could waltz in here and look down his British nose at everyone, he had chosen the wrong night to do it—and the wrong family to mess with. She pivoted quickly, only to bump chest-first into the object of her next tongue-lashing, who was doing a wonderful impersonation of a Stonehenge monolith.
    He stepped back just as she placed a hand on his chest to…well, to stop him, she supposed. Mercy, if he wasn’t incredibly solid and warm and undeniably male. He was definitely going to hear it. Once her brain unwarped and she could think straight.
    She raised her eyes using his shirt buttons as her road map and blinked when she reached his face. He really was the most handsome man she had ever seen in person—movie-star gorgeous—and briefly her resolve wavered. But that shit-eating grin was enough to straighten her spine and snap her back to mountain pose. Yay, yoga.
    “The next time you want to act like a card-carrying jackass with one of my staff, you should ask to see the manager.” Her cheeks