Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Rowan
Rowan Forrest loved the noise of the busy kitchen.
The clinking of utensils in the pans, the sizzle of searing meat, and the happy voices of people who loved their jobs.
The spicy and sweet scents swirled around him, all comforting and familiar.
This restaurant would have been the best place to work if it weren’t for the man walking up to him now.
Chef Kevin Angler glared down into the bowl Rowan currently had his hands in. “Pastry relies on water to steam during the cooking process, and yesterday, you overworked the dough. All the pastries were tough.”
They hadn’t been, and Rowan knew that, but Angler couldn’t resist what he called his “teaching moments” when the truth was—and Angler knew it—that Rowan should be the one teaching him.
Not that Rowan would ever speak to anyone who worked for him in such a condescending manner.
Rowan might be ten years younger than the head chef, but he far surpassed him in both taste and technique.
Angler didn’t have a creative bone in his body, and Rowan couldn’t count the number of times the chef had passed off Rowan’s creations as his own ideas.
The others who worked here knew it, though. Kevin Angler was not a popular chef. Maybe that was why he seemed to take out so much anger on Rowan. Or possibly frustration that all the employees knew he was shit.
Tara, one of Rowan’s favorite servers, rushed into the kitchen and waited until Angler moved away from him before she approached. “You have got to see the two men who just sat down out there.” She fanned herself. “They are almost too gorgeous to be real.”
Rowan shot her a surprised grin. “I expect that sort of thing from Rebecca, not you.”
“I know, but you’ll understand when you see them. Tall, and so sexy, and yeah, I’m objectifying horribly right now when that’s normally Rebecca’s MO, but shit, just come take a peek.”
“I can’t. I’m already behind on these pastries, and Angler is on a roll today.”
“When is he not? Fucking asshole,” she muttered as she quickly looked around. “They haven’t ordered yet, so they’ll be here a while. So, if you get curious, they’re in the back section. Wish I had their table.”
Rowan just shook his head. It definitely wasn’t like Tara to gush, so he’d be looking. A bit of eye candy would go a long way into making this day better.
She rushed off, leaving him to his dough.
This batch was for pies, then he needed to mix some choux pastry batter for some chouquettes.
He was hoping there would be time to work on his limoncello tiramisu recipe, but it was doubtful.
The restaurant was packed, so keeping up with the desserts already on the menu would keep him plenty busy.
Still, curiosity stayed with him as he worked, and when it was time for his break, he stepped into the restaurant, spotting the two men she had to be talking about right away.
His breath caught.
These weren’t men but something…other…because one of them had a pair of stunning, white wings behind him. Both had an otherworldly beauty that made them stand out in the crowd of restaurant patrons.
Rowan had been seeing the supernatural beings that lived among humans his entire life, so he knew better than to let his expression reveal his shock.
But they were hardly ever present in his town outside of tourists—which these two must be.
The one with the wings had beautiful mixed blond hair that fell to his shoulders and features that seemed almost too pretty to be real.
But then Rowan really looked at the other man.
This time, his breath didn’t just catch—it disappeared altogether.
It wasn’t that the man was handsome. He was, but there was also something about him that just oozed sex appeal.
Granted, he was beautiful with his smooth, dark skin and deep brown eyes, his sharp cheekbones and Roman nose.
When he turned to look over his shoulder, Rowan spotted a long, black braid thicker than his wrist.
He was like a knight. Like someone who should be wielding a sword, and Rowan lost himself in a quick fantasy of this man on a battlefield. With a sword.
A big, big…sword.
Villagers cowered as the bandits raided their village.
Fire broke out in the house behind him as Rowan scanned the ground for fallen weapons, though he wasn’t trained to fight.
Still, he had to do what he could to defend the townsfolk.
A couple of bandits stalked toward him, one grinning with rotten teeth, and he shivered, knowing he didn’t have the skills to beat them.
Spying a fallen sword, he swiped it up and brandished it at the fiends.
Rotten Teeth threw back his head with an evil cackle before he narrowed his eyes on Rowan. “You dare to fight back? Come on then, show us what you can do.”
Rowan just stood, weapon held out, shaking but determined to stand up to these ne’er-do-wells who dared to swoop in and take what didn’t belong to them.
The other bandit, who was rather squat and not nearly as large and powerful looking as his partner, rushed him, and Rowan swung the heavy sword with both hands.
Heat from the fire licked at his back, sweat poured down his face and dripped into his eyes, but he swung again as the squat bandit jumped to the side.
Out of nowhere, a massive sable horse with a rider appeared, charging toward them.
Long, black hair billowed out from behind the rider’s handsome face as he pulled out a glistening sword and lopped off Rotten Teeth’s head.
He swung down from his horse, tall and regal, and aimed the tip of the sword at the squat one, who was now cowering in fear.
He didn’t shake while holding the heavy sword—no, he was confident and powerful, and he flashed a wicked grin as he skewered the last bandit.
When he trained those beautiful, dark eyes on Rowan, raw desire filled them before he lowered his bloody sword and held his free hand out to him. “Come with me.”
Heat burst all over Rowan’s body as he lost himself in his imagination. When the object of his fantasies looked up and their eyes locked, Rowan was suddenly so unnerved, he whirled around and ran right into Rebecca. She’d been coming out of the kitchen with a full tray of food—which went flying.
It was like watching it happen in slow motion. All those carefully prepared dishes falling to the floor, Rebecca’s eyes flying open wide in complete horror…
The resulting crash of dishes was so loud, the whole restaurant went silent as everyone looked their way.
“Oh no,” she said with a whimpering hiccough.
Rowan quickly knelt along with her to start cleaning it all up. “It was my fault. I’m so sorry. I’ll go back in and help them prepare the dishes again.”
“He said one more strike, and I’m fired,” she whispered as she stacked pieces of a broken plate on the tray. “I can’t be fired.”
“You won’t be. Like I said, it was my fault.”
“You’re damn right it was your fault,” Angler said from behind him. “I saw everything. You were the one whirling around with your unnaturally long arms. You’re the one who ran into her!”
Rowan stood, wishing with everything in him that the chef would speak more quietly, but no, he was yelling and making a huge scene.
The heat in his cheeks was now from complete humiliation as Angler kept on berating him in front of the entire restaurant.
And what was with the unnaturally long arms comment?
Just because the chef more resembled a Tyrannosaurus Rex with his much shorter ones.
So what if Rowan had long arms? They went with his long, skinny legs, and as Angler started yelling about how accident-prone he was, he knew he wouldn’t be responding because it was basically true.
It wasn’t that he was that accident-prone, but he did get lost in his head often enough to cause issues.
Still, anger burned low in his gut, and he opened his mouth to cut the man off, but Angler held up his hand.
“You are more trouble than you’re worth,” he said, finally lowering his tone as if finally realizing that it wasn’t smart to air so much dirty laundry in front of the customers. But then he got worked up again, voice rising as he took out all his constant anger on Rowan.
Rowan, burning with anger and humiliation, just waited for a chance to escape.