Victoria The Billionaires Maid

I had to stop referring to her as mine because the truth was that she had been signed away. I was just so thankful I got to watch her grow up and be a part of her life. If she had been adopted by anyone else, I would’ve missed her very first. I was there when she said her first word… took her first step… went to her first day of school… lost her first tooth… had her first haircut… Those things might not mean much to a lot of others, but they meant the world to me.

I forced myself to stop thinking about her and turned my attention back to the cookies. The recipe was a tried and true one, and something I often baked when catering large events like Kristopher Simon and Hayley Banks’s wedding. I still couldn’t believe I hadn’t put two and two together until it’d been almost too late. I never came in contact with the man who’d been a reminder of my past. I had wanted nothing to do with Jonas Courtland, at least until last night.

I scowled and threw the ingredients into the mixer. I’d only needed all-purpose flour, powdered sugar, salt, unsalted butter, unsalted pistachios, an egg yolk, and fresh vanilla. As they all mixed, I looked over at Reece who was currently working with the lime. I then decided that I wanted to elevate what would be the frozen concoction, so I went back to the makeshift pantry and grabbed the bottle of rum. When I returned to my station and opened the bottle, a voice nearly made me jump out of my shoes.

“Drinking this early?” Jonas asked.

I couldn’t decide whether I was mad that he returned or not, so I looked up at him and rolled my eyes. “I’m sure I’m not the first woman you’ve driven to drink.”

He chuckled, but the smile he tried to force didn’t make it to his gorgeous eyes. “You must’ve had a rough night,” he remarked, then leaned in closer as he dropped his voice to a whisper. “I thought about you and what we started in the stairwell, too.”

My face flamed a bright shade of red, but other than that involuntary action, I rolled my eyes. “Actually,” I whispered back, “my night was never better. This drink is more in celebration of the bullet I dodged.”

His smile morphed into a scowl and I turned away from him. I shouldn’t be baiting the very man who held my culinary career in his very hands. Even Reece looked over at me and shook her head. I decided at that point to remove the shortbread dough, and I spent the next several minutes rolling it out before cutting out evenly shaped rounds.

Reece continued working on the granita. She started by bringing the water and sugar to a boil, then reduce the heat. By the time I had put the cookies into the oven, she was mixing the juice of the limes into the syrup and I quickly added a few teaspoons of the rum before she brought the mixture to the blast chiller. As she did that, I went in search of some glasses and small plates, then returned to our station.

I could smell the cookies, and after peering through the oven door, I pulled them out so they could cool. I had the perfect glasses for the granita, and after making a sugar rim, I put them into the regular freezer to keep them cool. There were still seven other competitors and I wanted to make sure my frozen part of the challenge wouldn’t melt before they had a chance to taste it. Knowing Jonas, he would save my stuff for last for no other reason outside of his desire to watch me squirm.

Even now, I couldn’t forget how his fingers felt so natural inside of me as if my body was made for his touch. He’d kissed me, touched my breasts, and had nearly gotten me off right there when I was miraculously saved from myself.

“The devil’s in you, Mackenzie,” my father had told me that day in the hospital. He’d then go on to tell me a lot more about sin, including the fact that I needed to rid myself of all traces of it before it killed me.

Those words hadn’t stuck with me until now. I glanced over to where Jonas was and could see him smiling freely as he talked to Leeann. The woman was very promiscuous, but from what I heard, she did possess a lot of talent in the kitchen. She was a very real competition and as a twang of jealousy rose inside of me, I realized it was more than just this culinary competition.

I didn’t want to care about what he did, and with whom, but a part of me couldn’t help it. I was doomed to repeat the actions of last night if I didn’t find a way to stop it now. The impending sense of panic was already welling up inside of me, and the longer I watched the two, the harder my heart began to beat. I tried controlling my breathing, but it was becoming more erratic. Pain gripped my chest and even as tears welled up in my eyes, I couldn’t stop it from squeezing me tighter.

A thin sheen of perspiration rose on my skin and Reece had to have noticed how white and clammy I’d become because she quickly dragged me away from everyone and into the pantry area.

“It’s going to be okay, Kenzie,” she tried to assure me, but my entire body was shaking by this point.

“This can’t be happening now,” I bemoaned, and she tried to shush me as she pulled me into her arms.

Reece rubbed my back and rocked slightly with me. She’d seen me in this sort of state more often than she should’ve ever had to, but it never changed her opinion of me. She’d been the only true friend I had ever had in my life, and I realized at that moment that if I got this contract, I was going to let her go. It wouldn’t be because I didn’t appreciate everything she’d done for me over these years, but more because she deserved so much more than I’d offered her so far. I would front her half of the expenses while she tried to break into the industry in which she belonged, the one that held her heart.

As I imagined her strutting down the catwalk during one of those fashion week shows, my breathing began to even out. I then pictured her face gracing the covers of all those magazines she subscribed to and left all over the apartment.

Reece deserved to live her dreams, and I would make sure to support her every step of the way with them. Eventually, I used my happiness for her as an anchor and was soon pulling away.

“What happened,” Reece asked, knowing that there were triggers to these attacks, even though a few did come on without any notice.

“Nothing that matters all that much now. I saw Jonas with Leeann and knowing what lengths she would go to land this contract…” I stopped, unsure of how to even explain what I’d been feeling other than coming out and just admitting the obvious. “I just sort of freaked out thinking about her sleeping with him for this gig.”

“That’s why you should up your game, Kenzie. Keep him too distracted to mess with skanks like her.”

I shook my head. I hadn’t told Kenzie about the night before, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. “I am thinking this game might be the wrong move.”

“If you think that, then-”

“I do. I want to make him suffer, but this isn’t the way to go about it.” I realized that now, but when we returned to our stations and I saw him being equally as friendly with another of the female chefs, that earlier jealousy returned.Property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

I refused to give it life, and soon we were given a two-minute warning. As Reece went to get the granita from the blast chiller, I took the cookies and began to fumble around with my plating, not liking any of the ways the final product looked. I even broke a few of the shortbread cookies in the process and was immediately glad I had baked almost a half dozen extra ones.

Reece brought me a new set of plates and seeing the spot it had for the glass, I waited for her to set them in place before I spread out a small stack of cookies beside it. I then finished with a simple garnish of lime. I hadn’t realized when Reece had found the time earlier, but she had cut them into a tulip shape, and I knew it drew attention to a dish that would keep me in this competition.