Read Online Brash by Nicola Marsh - Free Book Online

she’d articulated her insecurities after all this time. “Because I wasn’t hot enough or savvy enough in flirting and all that kind of stuff.”
    “That’s bull.” Chantal swept her arm wide, encompassing her lush office. “When Jack first came in here to talk wedding food with Zazz, he scanned the pics and paraphernalia like any red-blooded guy would. But I didn’t see his eyes light up ‘til I mentioned he’d be working with you.”
    “Really?”
    Chantal nodded so hard her crystal chandelier earrings got tangled in her hair. “Yep. The guy morphed from laid-back, cool, Aussie dude to edgy and wound up.”
    “Probably at the thought of working with the immature girl who’d had a not-so-secret crush back then.”
    Chantal tapped her bottom lip with a crimson manicured nail. “You mentioned a kiss?”
    “So?”
    “I’m assuming it wasn’t one-sided and he had to fend you off with a didgeridoo?”
    “How do you know all this Aussie stuff?”
    “Discovery Channel.” A tiny crease appeared between Chantal’s brows. “Answer the question.”
    “The kiss was mutual.”
    The kiss had also been exquisite and passionate and sublime.
    “Then I’ve got two words for you.” Chantal held up two fingers. “Prince Island.”
    Jess smirked. “Yeah, I kinda have a plan in mind.”
    “Good girl.”
    Jess didn’t trust the naughty twinkle in Chantal’s eyes.
    “I have another three words for you, Jessie girl.”
    “What?”
    “Screw him good.”
    Jess intended to. Real good.
     
    If Jack had psyched himself up last night to keep his hands off Jess, it was nothing to the mental prep he had to do to face Reid.
    The suave, confident Yank was one of his best friends. A good mate he could rely on. Someone who’d seen something in him when no one else had.
    Even now, ten years later, he couldn’t quite fathom why the rich guy from a small town in Nevada had taken a chance on an Aussie drifter.
    But Reid had. While they’d swapped stories in the outback, they’d also traded dreams. Reid had big plans. Places to go, people to meet. Politics. Jack could think of nothing worse, being surrounded by a bunch of backslapping pricks every day for work.
    Ironically, when Reid had asked Jack what were his dreams, Jack hadn’t known. The only thing he could do remotely well was cook. So Reid had taken the idea and run with it. Used connections in the business world, called in a favor from an old family friend, set up an apprenticeship in one of Sydney’s premier restaurants and Jack had done the rest. Completed an economics degree part-time when he wasn’t working manic hours at the restaurant, building his own contacts in the culinary world, saving every cent he earned.
    When he’d finished his apprenticeship, Reid had stepped in again, this time with an investor: Dorian. The rest was history. He’d launched Cookie’s and it quickly became the go-to place on Sydney’s North Shore. Had grown in stature, drawing crowds from across the harbor city, cementing him in culinary circles.
    And he owed it all to Reid and Dorian. The faith those blokes had in him floored him to this day. If it weren’t for them…where would he be? Still drifting through the outback, cooking for a bunch of cattlemen and shearers? Content to have no home because he was too scared to put down roots considering the past he was running from? No ties to anyone, just the way he wanted it?
    Not that he had many ties these days. Sure, he had acquaintances in the business world, mates he’d met over the years, but no one he could truly rely on, no one he trusted like Reid.
    The guy whose sister he wanted to root senseless.
    In all honesty, Jack didn’t know why he’d set up this meeting today. They’d planned to catch up over a beer tomorrow before he flew out to Prince Island. But Jack hadn’t slept well last night. He’d been plagued by thoughts of Jess: her beauty, inside and out.
    No woman had got close to him, ever. Yet in twenty-four