Deep Autumn Heat (24 page)

A hard, tight knot formed in Lexie’s stomach as she read the note. It was violent and dirty. She couldn’t imagine Paige writing something so insidiously awful, nor could she picture the woman staking out her place. “This wasn’t here when Seb and I left last night.”

Seb scanned the note, a grim look on his face. “We’re going to get Cole out here the moment he gets back into town. I don’t know if he told you, but he’s in Boston for the week. In the meantime, I think it’s best if I stay with you at your place.” Seb turned to Buster and looked him in the eyes.

“What? Why is this being decided between you two? Don’t I get a say?” she asked indignantly.

“No,” both men replied in unison.

The eye contact between the two men remained unbroken for a long moment, and then Buster nodded his head.

“Just like that, it’s decided?” Lexie asked incredulously. No one answered her. “Well,” she huffed, “I object. This is ridiculous. You can’t unilaterally decide that I’m not safe by myself. He’s not coming home with me.” She crossed her arms under her breasts and sat back in her chair defiantly.

“Lexie,” Buster said gently, “please do as we ask. It would kill me if something happened to you. You’re like.…” He cleared his throat. “You’re like my own daughter.”

Lexie’s eyes grew misty. How could she stay angry at him? “Oh, Buster,” she said, reaching across the table to take his hand. “I’ll do it.” She turned to Seb, a harder look in her eye. “But you had better watch yourself.”

“I’m just here to help, Spice. Now,” he said with a roguish smile, “let’s go home.”

Over the next few days it was business as usual—the ebb and flow of the breakfast, lunch, and dinner services and the final preparations for the full launch of LMK Catering. The recipes had been finalized, the menus printed, the contracts drawn up, and the website updated.

On Tuesday afternoon, Pru Miller had stopped by to talk about the menu for her party. Though only part-time residents, Pru and her husband, Harry, were two of Star Harbor’s most influential citizens. They spent the school year in Boston, where their son was in grade school, but they were in Star Harbor all summer and a good number of weekends throughout the autumn and spring. Lexie was extremely pleased that Pru had loved the new additions to the menu. They’d decided on a preliminary menu for the party, with an agreement to revisit everything ten days before the event was being held. The best news was that Pru had written her a sizeable advance check.

Lexie was flying high. Unfortunately, though, her supplier was back to being unreliable. On Wednesday morning she’d needed to scramble to get supplies from Martins’ Market. Furious, she’d called the supplier, who’d given her a sob story about his truck breaking down.

“Buster, I don’t know how much more we can deal with this. Art keeps letting us down. I’m seriously thinking of cancelling our contract with them and citing breach.”

“Talk to Marlene Russbaum before you do anything,” Buster grunted.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll do that.” But she’d been so busy with her extra catering duties that she hadn’t found the time to call her lawyer.

True to his word, Sebastian had been staying with her at her cottage. Each morning he’d drive with her to work. Then he’d head to the docks, pick up his motorcycle, and go about his business. Lexie still wasn’t sure what, exactly, he was doing on his extended vacation from New
York, but he sure seemed busy. At night, he’d park his bike, walk to the LMK, and drive home with her.

When Seb first brought up the idea of living at her place for safety, Lexie had thought that having him in such proximity would be oppressive—her house wasn’t large by any stretch of the imagination and Seb was a very large man. But living with him was exactly the opposite of oppressive.

She enjoyed being in his company. He was rakish and charming, and regaled her with fascinating tales about his travels abroad. For the first time in their growing relationship, he was focused less on seducing her than on getting to know her, and he was turning all of his considerable charisma to the task. She could see why he—out of all the notable chefs around—had been picked to host a new television show.

Lexie couldn’t deny that it was comforting to have him stay with her when there was so much uncertainty about her safety. Having a large, imposing man constantly by her side did wonders for her sense of security. It was almost like having a live-in bodyguard.

On Thursday, Cole returned to Star Harbor. As he had promised, he’d ordered the surveillance camera before leaving for Boston, and he told her he would install it later that evening. By design, the only people who would be working when he arrived were Lexie and Buster. And Sebastian, who seemed to be at the LMK after six every evening.

At ten that night, Lexie was finishing up a few samples for the Star Harbor Harvest Festival when she heard a knock on the back door. Sebastian, the only one with clean hands, went to answer it. Drying her hands, Lexie followed him to the doorway, where Luke and Cole were standing.

“Hi, guys,” Lexie said. “Come on in.”

Both men stepped into the kitchen, and Lexie realized that Cole was giving Sebastian a long, searching look.

After several long moments, Cole broke the silence. “Good to see you, Seb,” he said in his deep voice, holding out his hand for a shake.

Seb’s mouth broke into a wide smile, and Lexie let out the breath she’d been holding. Seb shook his brother’s hand. “Welcome back, Cole.”

Then the two men stopped pumping hands and embraced, slapping each other on the back. Luke, Buster, and Lexie exchanged smiles. When the brothers were done, Cole turned to Lexie. “The lady of the hour,” he said. “Hope you’ve been well, Lexie.”

“Very well,” she responded. Cole resembled Sebastian in so many ways, it was interesting to watch them together, to compare their looks and mannerisms.

“Luke and I will get everything set up for you tonight,” Cole said. “You ready to catch this guy?”

“More than ready. Buster told you another note came while you were away, right?”

Cole winced. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that. It looks like you were in good hands, though,” he said, giving a nod to Buster and Seb. “Buster, why don’t you show me where you think the camera should go? You’d mentioned installing it underneath one of your apartment’s windowsills. If we put it there, it’ll have a clear view of the back door, right?”

Buster nodded. “Yep. I’ll show you. We need this to stop.”

“Good. Why don’t the three of us go up to your apartment and we’ll get this thing hooked up.” Buster nodded again and went to wash his hands before leading Cole and Luke upstairs.

As soon as they were gone, Sebastian embraced Lexie from behind. “For your sake, I hope this gets resolved soon, but for my own, I hope he’s never found.” When Lexie twisted in his arms to look at him indignantly, he was grinning. “Just kidding, Spice. But I do love staying at your place.”

Lexie sighed and turned her body so that she was facing him. She smoothed her hands over his broad chest. “I just want this to be over. These constant threats have been so unsettling. And the attack—” She looked down and shook her head. “I don’t even want to think about it anymore, but I can’t escape it. It’s like an anvil of doom is hanging over me wherever I go in this town.”

“Maybe that’s the problem.”

“What is?”

“This town. Maybe you should leave Star Harbor.”

Lexie jerked her head up. “What?”

“You heard me,” he said steadily.

“Leave Star Harbor?” she echoed. “But where would I go?”

“Come back to New York with me,” he said, a current of excitement in his voice. “I could show you the city, my restaurant, my life. You’d love it.”

“Sebastian,” she said slowly, still reeling from his offer, “that’s very generous of you. But my life is here. My work is here. I can’t just pick up and abandon it.”

“I’m not asking you to abandon it. Just to take a long-overdue vacation. When was the last time you actually had one?” he demanded.

“It’s been awhile,” she admitted, “but the timing is terrible. I’m about to launch my catering business, I have an event coming up in two weeks, and after that— But I’ll think about maybe coming over Christmas and—” She stopped suddenly, struck by a horrible thought. “Are you going back to New York soon?” she asked.

Seb looked at her squarely in the eye. “Yes,” he said.

“When?” Her voice came out as barely a whisper.

“I extended my break as long as I could, but I talked to my agent a few days ago. She wants me back there next week to do some more brainstorming for the show.”

“So that’s what you’ve been doing all week,” Lexie said softly. She wasn’t surprised. Seb was far too enterprising to have been sitting around doing nothing.

“Yes and no,” he said. “Watching you prep your new dishes really inspired me. You were so passionate, so driven in the kitchen. You had such fire—I could see it in your eyes. It made me want to work on my own ideas, so every day I’ve been working on Val’s boat while you’ve been at the LMK. I’ve never been so fruitful in my life, and I have you to thank. But it’s not just the show. I need to get back to my own restaurant.”

“So you want me to go to New York with you as what? Your muse?” she said, trying to
pull away from him.

“No, Lexie,” he said, holding her firmly. “That’s not it at all. I won’t deny that you inspire me. It’d be impossible to exaggerate the effect you’ve had on restoring my passion for cooking. But you’re more—much more—than that to me.”

“What am I, then?”

Sebastian smiled down at her. “Why, my lover, of course.” Then he kissed her, instantly warming her mouth with his own. She allowed him to coax her lips open, and reveled in the first taste of his probing tongue. It darted and stroked with an intoxicating rhythm.

Need shot through her faster than she ever thought possible. Her breathing grew rapid, ragged. She opened her mouth wider, welcoming him to plunder, to take, to taste what she had to offer. Her nipples hardened against his chest, a silent entreaty to touch.

And touch he did, cupping her breast gently in his large hand, as he massaged her soft flesh. She was rising fast, but he was right there beside her to catch her if she fell. She knew that about him, now. He never took her to a place that he himself wasn’t willing to go. He was an easy, talented, and generous lover. And she felt sure that she would never grow tired of him.

Lexie ran her hands over the wide planes of his chest, feeling his muscles tic beneath her fingertips. His body heat radiated into her hands, and she felt as well as heard him moan. Knowing he was as aroused as she was had the dual effect of exciting her and raising her temperature.

At that very moment, she heard voices outside the kitchen door. She had enough clarity to realize that the two of them should not be caught in such a compromising position. She placed her palms flat on Sebastian’s chest and pushed. Reluctantly, he stepped away from her. His eyes were heavy-lidded with sensuality and his full lips curled into a wicked smile.

“Later,” he promised, just as Buster, Luke, and Cole walked through the door.

If any of the men noticed anything strange about Lexie or Sebastian’s expressions, they wisely kept their observations to themselves.

“We’re good to go,” Luke said. “Everything’s set up and the feed is on.”

“Great,” Lexie said. “Thank you so much for doing this.”

“It’s what the Star Harbor Sheriff’s Department is here for,” Cole said. “Let me know when you receive another note, and we’ll check the feed. Hopefully we’ll catch this bastard.”

Lexie nodded.

“Good night, everyone,” Cole said as he walked to the door.

“ ’Night,” Luke echoed, following him.

“Good night. And thanks again,” Lexie responded.

“See ya,” Sebastian said, waving.

After the door shut behind them, Lexie tried to get back on track. It wasn’t easy to keep focused after her little interlude with Sebastian, but she managed to plow through. It was midnight before she and Seb were out the door, driving home to her little cottage by Harper’s Pond.

The fifth of October dawned crisp, clear, and bright. It seemed as though all of Star Harbor had come out for the Harvest Festival, hosted on the first Sunday of October every year since the town’s founding in 1639. Local growers, craftsmen, and artists all displayed their wares on the large town green. In recent years, as the town had grown, merchants were also invited to set up booths or displays.

Lexie had set up her booth—really, just a small table laden with samples and print material—between the booths for Star Harbor Mutual Life Insurance and Martins’ Market. She didn’t know how much traffic Star Harbor Mutual would drive toward her booth, but she suspected that many townspeople would stop by to give their regards to Joanne and William Martins.

Lexie had left Buster in charge of the LMK that morning and she’d commandeered two of her friendliest servers to hand out samples. By ten in the morning, Rachel and Kiki were parading up and down the outdoor aisle where their booth was located, asking passersby if they’d like to sample some coconut cake or chicken skewers. Then they’d steer them to the LMK’s booth, where Lexie would then tell them about her catering business.

She’d chosen the right women to help her. In just one hour they’d handed out thirty small packets containing her menu and sample pricing lists, and there had been a lot of interest in her dessert catering.

Was it her own reputation that was driving the traffic to her booth? Or maybe it was a certain celebrity chef? He stood beside her, looking incredibly sexy in a black turtleneck, black leather jacket, and low-slung black jeans. Did the man own anything but black clothes? Everyone who stopped by her booth gave Sebastian a long, lingering look. And it wasn’t because they all recognized him, either. He simply exuded magnetism, his large stature underscoring his physical
power, his movie-star looks so seemingly out of place in their sleepy little town.

Even Lexie was having a hard time keeping her mind on her work, and she was around him all the time. He never ceased to have a physical effect on her. One look—like the one he was giving her right now—and she grew warm from her head to her toes.