Chef Charming (12 page)

For
once, I’m glad I am tall,
Rori
thought, only having to tilt her head slightly to look directly into clear
green eyes.

“Your father thinks it’s a
great idea for me to take your sister’s place,” he continued, “but with one
condition.”

“Condition?”

“Marry me, Aurora,” His
simple words hung in the air.
“I love
you.”

“Aurora
? Did you hear me?” He rubbed his thumb along the palm
of her hand, trying to break the spell. She was simply staring at him,
wide-eyed. Was it disbelief or disgust? He couldn’t tell and was beginning to
worry.

She finally spoke.
“You love me?” Tears were forming in her eyes. “I
thought you could barely stand me. From the first day of class, everything I
did seemed to annoy and irritate you. I don’t understand.”

“It was a simple and
childish defense mechanism,” Marcus explained, still only touching her where
her hands rested in his.

When she continued her
silence, he brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, longing to hear her
response to his bombshell.

“
Oh, Marcus.”
She buried her head on his chest,
crying gentle sobs.

“Why are you crying?” Marcus
wrapped his arms around her
. “You know
that men freak out when their women cry, don’t you?”

She giggled. “I love you,
too, Marcus
.” She could feel his sigh
against her ear. “But I suspect you already knew that, right?”

“The possibility
seemed too good to be
true,
coming only from very biased and decidedly interested observers. I wanted
desperately to believe it.” He tilted her head back and wiped the tears from
her eyes. “Hearing you say it has made my world come completely in focus.”

“Princess Aurora Grace
Sinclair,” Marcus asked in
his most
serious, gallant tone. “Will you take this poor humble, not-so-charming prince
as your husband?”

She answered him with a kiss
that
was tender but held the promise of a
lifetime of love and passion.

“Thank you, Lord,” Marcus
whispered.

“Amen,” Rori smiled.

“About our European trip,”
he murmured into her golden locks several minutes later. “I know it’s not what
most young ladies wish for, a quick wedding that is, but could we possibly make
the trip our Honeymoon
? I’m too old to
wait any longer than necessary now that I’ve found you.”

She smiled and snuggled
closer. “No offense to my sister, but that s
ounds
so much more inviting than what I had originally planned.”

He rewarded his princess
with a kiss.

“I have a confession,”
Marcus said as he gently broke away from Aurora’s embrace. He swallowed hard at
the sight of her languid eyes and the sound of her innocent sigh.

“What?” Rori asked, still
half in a dreamy fog. “Are you really a Scottish prince and I’ll have to go
live in a faraway castle or are you a frog under a spell that turns you into a
handsome prince?”

“No such luck, Princess.” He
pulled her out of the privacy of his office, led her down the hall and into the
brightness of the afternoon sun.

“Where are we going?”

“That’s part of the
confession.” A slightly guilty look crossed his face. “All your stuff is at my
place.”

“At your place?”

“Yes.” His grin widened as
he watched her quick mind make the jump to the only logical conclusion.

“Awfully sure of yourself
weren’t you?”
She stopped and yanked her
hand loose from his. Her mock indignation accented by folded arms and a tapping
foot.

“
Well,” Marcus had the wisdom to at least act a little
humble, and then proceeded to defend himself. “It was your father’s idea!”

“Oh,
really?”
Rori was laughing now as
they continued down the block to his apartment building.

“Before we go up, I have a
call to make,” Marcus said as he stopped in the
lobby and dialed Jake’s number.

“Well?” Jake asked
anxiously, “What did she say
? The
suspense is killing us here!”

Marcus could almost see
Carla’s dark curls bouncing as he heard her in the background, “Tell us
!”

“Yes,” Marcus laughed.
“She said yes.” He held the phone up so Aurora could
hear the screams of delight. He loved how she blushed. Life with this woman was
going to be a sweet adventure.

Turning back to Jake, Marcus
continued
. “Could you guys stop by in a
few minutes? We
might need
help arranging some boxes.”

Jake laughed
. “Yeah, how did she react to that little trick?”

“Still pretending to be mad,
I think,” Marcus w
inked at Rori as she
rolled her eyes. Jake promised to bring Carla and Zoe over in a few minutes,
since they lived just a couple streets away. He, John Liu, and Calvin had all
helped unload the trailer Rori’s dad had secretly brought by early this morning.

Unlocking the door of his
unit, Marcus stepped in front of Rori
.
His look was serious and she watched him intently, her eyes wide.

“I didn’t imagine it, did
I?” he asked
quietly apprehensive. “You
did say yes, right?”

Rori smiled and nodded.
His nervous question would surprise most people that
knew this lion of a man. Then, just as quickly as his serious tone had come, it
disappeared. He scooped her up in his arms and kicked open his door.

“Your castle, my lady,” he
said as he carried her over the threshold.

“I love how you’ve decorated
the place,” she giggled, looking at the mound of boxes and art supplies plopped
unceremoniously in the middle of his living room. Knowing how neat he normally
was, this was probably driving him crazy, she thought.

“Very funny,” Marcus
said as he set her down on one of the stacks of boxes
and kissed her soundly. He had promised himself to enjoy all the affection he
could steal today, with the assurance that Jake and his family would be here
soon to keep his attentions in check. He valued his integrity too much to let
his desire for this woman ruin their reputations. It’s going to be a long four
weeks, though, he thought.

They discussed her having
the second bedroom as a studio, unless she wanted to rent a space at the
Downtown Gallery, or even at the school, as Professor Smith had mentioned
to Marcus earlier that morning while helping stash
Rori’s art supplies.

“Dr. Smith was in on this
too?” Rori asked. “Was I the only one in the dark?”

“Well,” Marcus said,
sheepishly. “I didn’t want you to have to move your art supplies home and then
back again. Dr. Smith graciously overlooked the fact that I had been skulking
around the art studio last week, and seemed genuinely pleased to help my little
adventure.”

“You were skulking?” Rori
laughed. “Is that anything like stalking?” As she teased
him, she looked around the extra bedroom. It had a
large window that offered plenty of light and would be perfect for a studio. As
they came back into the living room, Rori stopped suddenly.

“That’s my painting!” She
was staring at
Aurora’s Castle
now proudly displayed over the fireplace. “You bid on
it?”

“Of course I did.”
Marcus smiled, proud that he had
surprised her.
“I’m glad I won it outright, because if I hadn’t I would
have had to hunt down the winner and uh…” he hesitated for emphasis, “persuade
them to sell it to me.”

“Jess teased me mercilessly
about it, you know,” Rori said, shyly giving Marcus a quick kiss of thanks.
“She insisted you were the whole motivation behind it
. I don’t have any idea where she got such an idea,”
Rori said facetiously. “It’s not like I started it right after I met you or
anything.”

Their helpers arrived soon
and all her possessions were stored quickly, and neatly, in the extra bedroom
. Carla, Zoe, and Rori went back to her dorm so she
could change.

“Were you surprised?”
Carla’s excitement was evident. “
We
couldn’t be happier. You are just what Marcus needs. He gets so serious
sometimes and I knew right away that something was going on when he talked
about you after the first cooking class. I hadn’t seen him that relaxed since
culinary school when he and Jake got into all sorts of scrapes.”

When the girls met up with
the men at the picnic, Rori had
changed
from her overalls into a cute light green and blue shorts set. Marcus would
have preferred the overalls, but he kept his opinion to himself. He was
grateful that she had pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

Rori was
not looking forward to leaving the next morning. She
would head home for Gwen’s graduation and now to find a wedding dress. She and
Marcus, along with Carla, Jake, and Jessica, had talked long into the night
about wedding plans. Actually, the ladies had talked, the guys had listened
in-between innings of the baseball game.

The wedding being less than
four weeks
away actually made planning
much easier. The ceremony would be a small affair with mainly family and a few
close friends. At the picnic, they had talked to Sam and he was thrilled to
clear his schedule on that Saturday evening to perform the service. The church
had a lovely gazebo and gardens that were available for church members. They
stopped by Sam’s office before heading home to reserve it on the church
calendar.

Even just one day into their
engagement, everything seemed to be
falling into place. Still, Rori was worried.

“I’m still afraid I’m going
to wake up tomorrow and this is all going to have been a fabulous dream,” Rori
admitted
to Carla as she placed the toy
tiara that hung over her bed on Zoe’s dark curls.

“You know, Rori,” Carla
said, sounding much older and wiser than her years
. “You do have to trust that God loves you enough to
bless you even beyond your wildest dreams.”

The next morning Rori’s car
was packed and
Marcus had met her for an
early breakfast before his class started. He was teaching a two-week intensive
for the year-round culinary students in addition to another community cooking
class.

“This is going to be the
longest four weeks of my life,” he said as he hu
gged Rori close one more time.

Rori just nodded
, snuggling closer, unwilling to give up the security
of his embrace. When she woke up that morning she had to get assurance from
Jessica
that yesterday’s events had really happened.

“Yes,”
her sleepy roommate had replied. “You and Chef
Charming are engaged. It was all very romantic.”

Despite her sarcasm, Jessica
was actually very, very happy for Rori. She had insisted that Rori wake her up
to say goodbye before heading home.

Now nestled in his arms,
Rori sighed. Her hands were resting on Marcus’ chest and she could feel his
heart beating. Finally, Marcus pushed her gently away. He tilted her face up
with a finger under her chin, and kissed her.

“You’ve got to get on the
road.
” He rubbed his thumb along her jaw
line. “And I’ve got to get to class.” She merely nodded, eyes still closed,
hoping for another kiss.

“Aurora, look at me,” her
fiancé commanded. She smiled impishly, aware she was dragging out the goodbye.

“I will call you tonight,
but it might be late,” Marcus reminded her. “My community class starts tonight
and it’s scheduled to go half an hour later that yours did, to make up for
missing Memorial Day.”

“Or you could just email me
.” Rori grinned. ”That worked well in the past.”

He opened her car door and
buckled her seat belt using the motion as an excuse to grab one more kiss.

“That may happen
occasionally," he said, now leaning through the window after closing her
door. ”But I know I’ll need to hear your voice every day, too. Call it an
addiction.”

Rori boldly ran her fingers
through his hair, needing one last physical connection
. Marcus’ breath caught and he jerked away.

“
Behave, woman,” he admonished.

“I love you,” she said
almost pleadingly, wishing he hadn’t been so eager to break away.

“I love you, too,” he stated
in a no-nonsense manner. “Now off with you! Call me and leave a message that
you’ve arrived safely, ok?” He leaned in for one last kiss.

“Yes, Lord Marcus,” she said
sassily as she started her car.

-------------------------

Hoping to catch him
the next morning before his class
began,
Rori got up early and opened her email program.

Dear Marcus, I’m sorry I
was asleep when you called. I know I probably didn’t make much sense. How were
your classes?
No lovely
young women?

He obviously was at his
computer as he
sent a message almost
immediately.

I actually loved the
sound of your voice, just awake from sleep,
he typed, the backspaced deleting what he had just typed, deciding
that statement was probably crossing the line that he had laid out in his mind
for his own, and her, protection. He began again.

I know that the last two weeks
were crazy for you and you need to catch up on your rest. You actually sounded
quite cute, if slightly incoherent.
Classes
went well, and you do not need to worry. There are three happily married
couples, the husbands having apparently lost a bet (from what I could tell),
two grumpy old codgers, two middle-aged sisters, and two older ladies. One of
the ladies is a volunteer at the high school cafeteria and the other is her
recently widowed neighbor.
Should be a good class.
Of
course, nowhere near as exciting as last time.
Or as life changing,
he thought.

T
hat’s reassuring, but I still can’t help being a
little jealous. They get to see you every day. I miss you. What time will you
be here on Friday?

He smiled at her enthusiasm.

Sweet Aurora– I miss you,
too. I plan to be there early on Friday, probably before nine. Jake must be
extremely excited about all this for him to volunteer to cover my Friday and
Saturday classes. Speaking of classes, I hear the herd approaching. I love you,
Princess.