Chapter 0016
I spend a restless night in my new room. When the clock reads 7:00, a knockes at my door and it
opens without waiting for a response. I re and make a mental note to somehow get a lock.
“Ah! You’re awake.” The same woman who dressed mest night bustles into the room. “You’re already
“Seven?” I ask, looking at the clock again. “Seven iste?”
“The household starts at five,” she says,ing over and starting to make the bed while I’m still in it.
When I head for the door in my pajamas, she makes a small noise of warning. I look back at her. “You’ll
want to change, my dear,” she says. “This house dresses for its meals.”
No one is downstairs in the hall when, dressed in tight fawn-colored pants and a silky green sweater, I
walk down the stairs. I hear some noise at the end of the hall and push through the little door there.
I blink in surprise as I suddenly find myself in a gigantic kitchen filled with people. There are
mismatched tables scattered all around and, behind a low wall, a restaurant-sized cooking range. From
it wafts the scent of breakfast foods – sharp with onions and rich with butter.
“Fay!” Daniel says, spotting me from across the room. His face lights up. I can’t help returning his
smile, he’s so cute.
“Hi,” I say, my eyes scanning the busy room as I hurry over to him.
“Are you hungry?” he asks, giving me a happy grin and sitting back down in his ce at a small table.
“Um,” I say - honestly, when was thest time I ate - but my stomach answers for me, giving a big
growl.
Heughs lightly as I sit. “Good, we’ll get you something.” He raises a hand to signal someone by the
cooking range.
The room is just buzzing with people. Guys in suits drinking tiny cups of espresso, guards pass with
guns – big guns – passing through, housekeeping staff on their way to their jobs.
Everyone is chatting happily, moving along in what is clearly a well-oiled machine.
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“Wow, it’s so busy in here,” I say, staring around at everyone.
Daniel looks around and shrugs. “I guess.”
At that moment, I’m shocked, again, to see Kente around the corner from the cooking area
carrying a big te of food. I stare at the long white butcher’s apron wrapped around his waist, the taut
strings only serving to emphasize his trim figure, his broad shoulders.
When I realize I’m biting my lower lip while I look at him, I quickly spit it out and close my mouth.
“Good morning, Fay,” Kent says,ying the te in front of me. Shocked, I look back and forth from him
to the te, noting that his apron is spotted with grease.
“Did you…did you make this?” I ask. On the te, scrambled eggs sit next to sausage and peppers,
apanied by a buttered slice of crusty Italian bread. It looks delicious.
“Surprised?” Kent says. I whip my head up to see that he’s smirking at me.
Truly, I am surprised.
“An Italian can’t call himself a man if he can’t cook his own breakfast,” Kent says, ncing around the
room with a proud smile. “A breakfast he’d feed his mother, at that.”
“Do you want some coffee?” Daniel asks, leaning forward. I nod and he looks up at his dad. “She takes
cappino. Is anyone free –“
“I’ll see it’s done,” Kent says and I follow his eyes to a gigantic vintage Gaggia Orione espresso
machine in the corner. My jaw drops – it’s probably the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen.
“Eat up, girl,” Kent says, heading back to the kitchen.
I pick up my fork and eagerly start to eat, shaking my head at Daniel who justughs.
A few minutester, when my te is half cleared, Kentes back with a tiny cappino that he
slides next to my te. I give him a smile in thanks and take a sip.
It’s absolutely delicious. I lean back in my chair, closing my eyes and savoring the taste of the bitter
liquid that coats my tongue, bnced by the sweetness of the milk. These vors areplimented,
somehow, by…
I open my eyes and my mouth to ask what that extra vor is, but I freeze when I see Kent staring
down at me, his eyes somehow…hungry.