Seventy
The buzzer finally sounded, and everyone stepped away from their dishes. As I had suspected earlier, Jonas did save mine for last, and I was thankful to have frozen the glasses first. The three judges all remarked on the delicateness of the granita and the crunch of the cookies. All in all, I was pleased with what I put out until I ended up in the bottom three.
“It’ll be okay,” Reece told me once I was told to join the other two chefs in front.
I walked and took my place beside them, not missing the catty remark Leeann let out as I passed by her. I stood tall and held my head up high. I knew I had a great dish, so I chose to channel that confidence. The seconds of silence threatened to unravel it somewhat, but finally, Oliver spoke.
“There was one set of dishes that were good enough to advance. Mackenzie, you can go back to your station. Jonathan and Celeste, your time in this competition are over.”
I released the breath I had been holding and hurried back to the safety of my station. Reece hugged me, and I watched the two eliminated contestants as they left the room. Celeste had been the one Jonas had been talking to last, and inwardly, a larger part of me was glad she had been sent home so she couldn’t be near him again, rather than her leaving because of the threat she posed to my culinary future.
Jonas’s [POV]
There had been no festivities tonight. A problem had arisen with one of my other hotels, and I was trying my best to not have to leave this competition. After today’s challenges, I knew Oliver had wanted to send Mackenzie home, but I had overridden it. Did I do it because I thought she was the best chef there? No, I had done it for more salacious and selfish purposes. I knew deep inside that I wouldn’t see her again once the competition was over, so I wanted her to stay in it as long as she could.
If I ended up having to jet off to California, her time here could be finished tomorrow, and she would leave without either of us getting what both of us wanted.
She was here for more than a roll in the sheets with me. I knew how much she wanted this contract, but I also knew women and there was no way she could tell me there wasn’t an attraction between us and not be lying. I sure as hell would never admit to not wanting a desirable woman, including a past lover I had almost driven to her death.
The more I reminded myself of that day on the roof, the more I hated Kristopher for releasing that tape.
He’d been the one to set up the camera equipment while I had been seducing her on the dance floor during the prom. Something had told me to call it all off, but I was young and stupid, and she’d been my greatest conquest.
Since I had gotten into sex, I’d never had any problem in getting it until it came to her. She was a challenge in more ways than one. She also had been a friend, and that was something no other woman I’d bedded had been.
“I don’t trust that you won’t alter the film,” he’d told me.
Against my better judgment, I had told him to set it up. I then went through with it all, and as she had drifted off to sleep in my arms that night after I had destroyed her innocence, I had briefly wanted more with her.
I never got to know whether that fleeting thought had been a subconscious desire, or just some post-orgasmic foolishness on my part because Kristopher uploaded the video for all to see.
I had never thought he meant to make it public. I had fooled myself into believing it was just him needing to see and verify that it had happened.
I should’ve known better, but I didn’t, and a girl I liked nearly jumped to her death. I’d never been more scared of anything that day. When I thought she might leap from the building, fear gripped me so hard.
Thankfully, she had not, and I tried alleviating my guilt by reminding myself of that. It’d been a substitute at the time, but now, I didn’t know. She turned out well, and I couldn’t help but think it was despite, rather than because of me.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!
“I hate you,” she’d told me not long ago.
I smirked. She might think that, but her body said something altogether different. My cock hardened as I remembered the way she wantonly rubbed herself against me in the stairwell. Kenzie wanted me, and it was no secret I wanted to bang her like a screen door in a storm.
I dropped my head and took a deep breath. It was bad form to mix business with pleasure, and that was essentially what I would be doing with her if I followed through on seducing her.
As much as I knew that, something inside of me was scratching and clawing its way out. I’d always had urged, as far back as I could remember, but I couldn’t tell when they’d first started and why. I used to go to my uncle’s cabin each summer.
Logan used to as well until he’d gotten old enough to stay home and get a job. I loved going to the mountains in New York City, but then I didn’t. I still couldn’t remember why, though. All wasn’t bad because it’d been where I’d met a number of the men who called themselves Titans.
These guys were my friends and one of the main reasons I moved back to the city all those years ago. I used to think it was because of Courtland Hospitality Group, but I could’ve relocated it all to California, yet I didn’t.
As much as I loved Manhattan and the life I had created here, having to drop it all for even a week was becoming more than I could take and it’d only been a few days. I only had a few more to go before I’d be back in my current lifestyle.
While it should’ve been bearable, my cock was so fucking hard, and my hand was doing little to help with things. I know Anton, Caspian, Mason, and Kristopher liked to tease me about my need for sex, but no one understood the impulsiveness of it.
It was almost like a sickness, a drug, or something I couldn’t shake loose. I knew my promiscuity was related to some sort of problem, but it was better to ignore whatever it was versus actually acknowledging it.
Deciding that staying in my room and trying to jack myself off to porn wasn’t productive, I changed clothes and headed downstairs to the fitness center. It was vacant, which wasn’t a surprise to me, so I had my choice of machines.
I bypassed all of them and looked over at the punching bags. It would sure as hell burn enough energy off that I might even forget I was celibate for the first time in my sexual history.
After I put on a pair of gloves, I started at the speed bags. I gave it a few punches, waiting each time as it would spin before I settled into a routine.
Left… Left… Right… Right… Right… Left… I alternated between bags as I landed punch after punch, however, the controlled rhythm didn’t resonate with the roiling thoughts inside of me. It was proving to be a good workout, so I focused on it for another fifteen or so minutes before I saw a blonde out of the corner of my eye.
Kenzie. I wasn’t sure if she had even seen me. She didn’t enter the gym, instead walking straight past it and over to one of the saunas. She stopped to read the instructions posted on the door, then slipped into the room beside it. I knew she was in there getting undressed.
The sauna required nothing more than a towel and the very thought of her naked body had my cock throbbing. I should leave her alone, and just when I had convinced myself to do exactly that, she emerged with just the white terrycloth wrapped around her curvaceous frame.
I could see the swells of her breasts poking out from the top of the towel, and when my gaze moved lower, I also saw her toned thighs. I’d nearly been between them the night before and the memory of my fingers inside of her tight, wet pussy had me abandoning my earlier thoughts altogether.
I didn’t know how long she would be inside there, so I disappeared into the same room, and saw her clothing neatly in a pile on the seat of a chair. Her panties drew my attention right away and I couldn’t stop myself from picking them up.
They were silk, and I suspected she would feel much like it once I got her onto my sheets. Still unable to exercise any control, I brought them to my nose and inhaled her scent. There was a damp patch on them, and I knew she had been wet and likely came down here to distract herself.