King lived right beside them.
A few years ago, she had spent a lot of time daydreaming about this man. It hadn’t gone any further than that, of course, because her brother, Dave, had made sure to keep Lucas at a distance from her. Still, it hadn’t been easy to put Lucas out of her mind. He continued to sneak back in at unexpected moments. Seeing him again was only going to refuel those old daydreams and make not thinking about him even more difficult.
But he’d made himself very clear three years ago. He hadn’t been interested in her enough then to go against her brother’s interference and there was no reason to think that had changed. Besides, she’d been through a lot in the past few years. She wasn’t the easily charmed or foolishly romantic girl she had been.
Sure, her mind taunted slyly, that’s why your heart’s still pounding and your palms are damp. Because you’re so cool and controlled.
Frowning at her own inner turmoil, she missed what Lucas said and was forced to ask, “What?”
He pushed away from the car, stuffed his hands into his back pockets and repeated, “I said, I’m glad to see you’re teaching Kathy to cook. I’ve been to dinner at their place. Not pretty.”
Wryly, Rose was forced to admit, “She is … challenging. But she’s determined to improve, and that’s good for all of us.”
Nodding his head, he glanced at the skillet on top of her car. “Interesting advertisement.”
She knew what he must be thinking, but Rose liked her skillet. An artist friend had made it for her and attached it to the roof of the van. “I think it’s quirky.”
“That’s one word for it,” he said.
Instantly, her back went up. She’d had to defend her new business to her older brother, and she wasn’t going to do the same with Dave’s ex-friend. Which reminded her of the fact that Dave and Lucas weren’t even speaking anymore. So why was Lucas talking to her now?
She pushed windblown hair off her face and asked, “Was there something you wanted, Lucas?”
He looked at her for a long, silent moment, those blue eyes of his shadowed in the dim light. But his stare was just as powerful as it had once been, and Rose felt her heartbeat quicken again in response. It was an involuntary reaction, she told herself firmly, and refused to acknowledge it further.
“Actually,” he said, “there is. You teach cooking classes in people’s homes, right?”
“Yeah …”
“Then I want to hire you.”
She hadn’t expected that and wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. Lucas King was one of the wealthiest men in America. He could employ a dozen chefs and never once have to enter his own kitchen if he didn’t want to. So why learn to cook for himself?
“Why?”
He pulled his hands free of his pockets and folded his arms across his broad chest. “I should think that would be self-evident. I want to know how to cook.”
“Yeah, I get that,” she said, still not willing to believe that he was serious. “What I don’t understand is why you want to hire me.”
“Because I don’t want to have to go out to take classes. You coming to my home is more convenient.”
“Uh-huh.” She was thinking fast and trying to see the trap in what he was saying, but she just couldn’t. Maybe he was being sincere. Maybe he really did want to learn how to cook for himself and seeing her here tonight had just been a happy accident.
But even as she thought it, Rose told herself there had to be more to it than that. As far as she knew, Lucas and her brother hadn’t spoken in a couple of years. Though she had tried to find out from Dave what had gone wrong in their friendship, her brother hadn’t told her a thing.
All he’d been willing to say was that Lucas King was out of their lives and she had better leave it that way.
If Lucas felt the same, and she had no reason to think he didn’t, why was he trying to hire her?
“How much do you charge?” Lucas asked, splintering her thoughts.
She told him and he nodded. “I’ll pay you twice your usual rate.”
“What? Why would you do that?”
“For your undivided attention,” he told her. “I’d want you here every night. Teaching me.”
She took a quick breath and tried to put out the flickering flames in the pit of her stomach. Every night. Teaching him. It sounded way more sexual than it should have.
“I have other clients,” she told him, though the truth was, her new business was barely up and sputtering. Besides Kathy Robertson, there were only three other women who had hired her so far and they were only once-a-month commitments.
“Three times your usual rate,” he countered, his gaze fixed on her, his expression unreadable.
Rose blew out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. With that kind of money, she could get a running start on building her business. Yes, she didn’t have to struggle. She was a Clancy after all, and if she was in deep trouble, she would only have to tell Dave she needed money.
But she really didn’t want to go to her brother. And she’d already invested everything she had into her business. So it was sink or swim. Lucas’s offer would make it much easier to stay afloat.
“You’re not making it easy to say no,” she admitted.
“Glad to hear it,” Lucas said.
She took a deep breath and, shaking her head slowly, heard herself say, “I don’t know, Lucas. If Dave found out about this—”
“So,” he interrupted, “you’re still letting your older brother run your life, is that it?”
Her head snapped up, her gaze locked with his and a fast spurt of anger shot through her. “Dave has never run my life.”
“Not how he saw it.”
“Things change.”
“Do they?” Lucas prodded. “Then take my offer.”
Frowning to herself, Rose knew she was being manipulated and she didn’t like it. But she also didn’t like the fact that Lucas had a point. If she turned his offer down, she was kowtowing to the older brother who already thought he had a right to run her life.
Well, times had changed and so had Rose. She was a grown-up. She had survived the loss of her father, the disintegration of a bad marriage and the bossiness of a brother who thought he knew best. She could handle Lucas King and the still-sizzling attraction she felt for him.
“All right,” she said, holding out her right hand, “it’s a deal.”
His hand enveloped hers in a warm shake that sent tendrils of something deliciously wicked streaming through her system. He gave her a half smile and said, “Great. We’ll start tomorrow. Six work for you?”
He let her go but her skin was still buzzing from his touch when she mumbled, “Yeah. Six is fine.”
“See you then.” Lucas turned and headed back to his house and Rose watched him go.
Leaning against her car, she ordered her heartbeat to slow down and told her stomach to stop spinning. Neither of those commands had the slightest effect on her.
When he disappeared into his house, Rose shook her head slowly and whispered, “I’m in so much trouble.”
Two
“Real men don’t eat mushrooms,” Lucas pointed out the next night as he sliced into the tiny white buttons. “They’re not even vegetables. Aren’t they a fungus?”
Rose