Another nod.

"So it's not that you're opposed to orange-colored foods," she began logically, "just orange-colored soups."

He frowned. "Well, when you say it like that, it seems a bit ridiculous." Then he picked up his spoon and stirred again before lifting some to his lips. He stared at it before Vivienne reached out to stop him. "What? What did I do? I'm going to taste it."

"If you could see the look on your face, you wouldn't." With her hand on his arm, she guided him until the spoon was back in the bowl. She stood up and walked over to the refrigerator. "I have some leftover ham in here and some Swiss cheese. I'll make you a sandwich on one of the rolls. Do you like spicy brown mustard or do you prefer honey Dijon?"

"Holy shit," Matt swore softly behind her.

Vivienne spun around. "What? What's the matter?"

"This is freaking delicious!"

Leaning back against the refrigerator door, she watched in amazement as Matt took another spoonful of the soup. She couldn't help but be pleased.

"The prosciutto is still crisp! How is that even possible?" Another spoonful. "It's like the perfect consistency-not too thick, not too thin-and the flavors are amazing together!" He looked over at her, smiling. "Seriously, Viv. This is incredible. Seriously incredible." Without waiting for her to respond, Matt reached across the table and grabbed one of the rolls and cut it open. "Do you have any butter?"

Grabbing the butter, she shut the refrigerator and walked back over to the table to join him. Wordlessly, she served their salads and then finally took a taste of her own soup. "Oh, that is good," she said with a happy sigh. "I tasted it while it was cooking, but now with the prosciutto in there, it's even better."

When she looked up, Matt was already done with his. "Is there more?"

"Help yourself," she said, feeling ridiculously proud of herself. "There's more prosciutto in the pan to top it with."

Within minutes, Matt was back at the table and digging into his second bowl. "Okay, I have a proposition for you."

She almost choked on her food. After coughing and trying to catch her breath, she straightened and looked at him. "A proposition?" Part of her feared what he was referring to. She knew they hadn't even remotely touched on the topic of the kiss-the one two years ago or the one from the other night-but that didn't mean Matt wasn't ready to bring it up now.

He nodded. "Aaron stocked the house with all kinds of foods for me, mostly stuff that's prepackaged and requires little effort to heat up. It's all fine and well, but...knowing you can cook like this, it's kind of hard to work up any enthusiasm for a microwave meal." He paused to take a couple of bites of his salad. "This dressing is amazing."

Vivienne wasn't sure if she could handle all the compliments-especially as he was speaking them with his mouth full of food-but she did appreciate his enthusiasm for her cooking.

Swallowing, he reached over and took a quick sip of the sweet tea she had put out before continuing. "I'd like to be your test subject."

She looked at him quizzically. "Test subject?"

He nodded. "Seems to me like you do this blog stuff and it's all simply your opinion. And while there's nothing wrong with it, I think it could be interesting to almost make it a 'he said, she said' kind of thing. You know, get the guy's perspective on some of these recipes."

It was an interesting idea. Maybe they could...

"Take this soup, for instance," he began. "If you were here alone and made this and took pictures and put it on your blog, chances are your readers, who are probably primarily female, would see it and think ooo, pretty and maybe make it. But...they would probably be wondering if the guys in their lives would want to eat some creamy orange...stuff."

Vivienne rolled her eyes and chuckled. "I don't think it would be quite like that."

"Trust me. If I were out with a woman and she put this in front of me, I would have reacted exactly as you saw me react, only worse. I didn't want to hurt your feelings, and I was trying to be tactful."

"That was you trying to be tactful?" she asked incredulously. "It was a little childish, getting squeamish because of the color of the food."

He laughed and took another bite of his roll. "Okay, maybe. But I'm a guy, and I know how guys think. Most of us aren't gourmets. We enjoy simple food-steaks, burgers, pizza."

"Not all guys are like that!"

"Oh, I know, I know," he quickly interjected. "But the majority are. So if you could say, or confirm, that this was the response of a guy who is not a gourmet-he loved it and went back for..." He stopped and looked at his bowl and then back at the pot on the stove. "Thirds, then you'll know your readers are going to take that into consideration before they try this recipe." He shrugged and reached for his glass. "It's worth a shot."

She considered him for a long moment. "So basically you get free food, you don't have to cook, and I'm getting the male perspective to use on my blog."

"Exactly."

While it really was a great idea, it would mean she'd be spending a lot of time with Matt-something she still wasn't sure she could handle.

"I don't cook like this every single day, Matt. There are going to be times when you're going to have to fend for yourself."

He looked disappointed. "You mean like breakfast?"

Laughing, she shook her head. "I mean there are days I just eat leftovers or get takeout or...just make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." She shrugged. "Now that I'm settling in to this assistant editor position, I don't have to cook as much. I mainly do it now for the pleasure and an occasional blog post-you know, just in case someone doesn't hand in a post on time, I can have some logged away. I really do enjoy cooking. But now I do it for myself more than for the blog."

Now he really looked disappointed. "So if I'd shown up here a month ago, this would have been a great idea."

She nodded. "Afraid so."

"Well, damn." With a sigh, he finished up his bowl of soup and then got up to get another one. "So I'm stuck with the microwave meals."

"That's not what I said," she replied. "I'm just saying it's not going to be an everyday occurrence. I'm happy to share a meal with you a couple of times a week, and I really like your idea about being able to put the male perspective on a recipe."

Stopping abruptly, inspiration hit. Vivienne stood up and walked across the room to grab her tablet and pulled up the app to jot down some notes. "What if...what if we sort of put together some classic 'guy' meals, your burgers and steaks and pizzas, and glammed them up a bit? I can do a spotlight for the magazine. We can promote it as guy-friendly gourmet!" She looked up at him excitedly. "We can play around with of your favorite choices and make them into something couples would enjoy together. What do you think?"

Matt eyed her skeptically. "I don't know, Viv. I mean I seriously don't know a thing about cooking. How the hell am I supposed to be of any help?"

"What's your favorite meal?" she asked simply.

He thought about it for a minute. "There's this phenomenal steak house in Denver we always eat at when we perform there. They do steaks that are to die for."

Vivienne shook her head. "Okay, let me rephrase that. What's one of your favorite everyday meals? You mentioned burgers and pizza. Let's start with the pizza. What's your favorite topping?"

"Pepperoni. Isn't it everyone's?" he asked with a wink.

"I'd say it's probably the number-one choice. But what if we played around with some different toppings?"

With a shrug, he replied, "I know I'm not up on the latest food trends, but even I know gourmet pizza isn't that big of a deal. People put all kinds of crap on as toppings. I don't think you'll get a big response from something like that."

Hmmm... He had a point. "Okay, then maybe we don't go for the obvious. Maybe we play around with snacks and appetizers, things we can make look fun to prepare and eat. What do you think?"

"So now we're just snacking?"

"Matt..."

"So I still have to eat sad sandwiches to tide me over until we can create snacks. Is that what you're saying?"

She rolled her eyes and laughed. "You are seriously all about your stomach!"

"A man can't live on snacks alone," he countered playfully.

"I'll tell you what, we'll work on this concept and I promise you one solid meal a day. How does that sound?"

His grin was broad and made her tingle all over. "Sweetheart, I think this sounds like the beginning of a beautiful arrangement."

Yeah. That's what she was afraid of.

Chapter 5.

Matt had to admit this arrangement with Vivienne was damn near perfect. She might have originally agreed to one meal, but he'd managed to get two every day. Sometimes the meal she was preparing was for lunch and he'd just hang around talking about it and how she would present it on the blog until it was time for dinner. And she always took pity on him and invited him to stay for whatever she was making.

When her featured meal was for dinner, he pretended he'd forgotten and would show up at lunchtime and play on her sympathies. So far she hadn't called him out on it and he took it as a good sign. Plus, he was beginning to see she was becoming a lot more relaxed around him.

They still hadn't addressed the one topic he really wanted to-the kiss-but he was trying to earn her trust first.

Knocking lightly on her door, he let himself in. "Viv?"

"In my office," she called out.

Last night she had mentioned needing to get some editorial work done this morning, but he knew she was an early riser, and since it was nearing lunchtime, he was hoping she'd be ready for a break.

He stepped into her office and stopped. Her long hair was piled in a messy knot on top of her head, and she had on glasses and looked like she was still in her pajamas-an oversized T-shirt and flannel pants.

And she was breathtaking.

Vivienne looked up at him and smiled. "You're up early."

"It's almost noon," he replied with a grin.

She looked at him in confusion and then looked at her computer screen. "Oh! Wow, I completely lost track of time!" Standing up, she stretched.

"Did you get all of your work done?"

"Just about," she said, coming out from behind the desk. "I just need to send out the schedule to my bloggers, and then we should be good through the end of next week."

Matt stepped aside as she walked by, heading toward the kitchen. He quickly followed and found her pouring herself a glass of juice. "You want some?" she asked.

"No. I'm good." He watched her for a minute, finding her more and more intriguing by the minute.

When she noticed him watching her, she froze. "What?"

How could he possibly explain to her what he was seeing? He'd rarely been around a woman who was just so completely at ease in everything she did. She wasn't fussy or obsessed about how she looked or what she was wearing, and it was like a foreign concept to him. In the past five years or so, ever since they'd hit it big, most of the women he'd come in contact with were self-conscious and more than a little self-absorbed. But not Vivienne.

"I'm just standing here thinking that you are an incredible woman," he said honestly and noticed that she blushed.

She looked like she was going to say something but then didn't. She simply finished her drink and moved around the kitchen, putting the juice back in the refrigerator and the glass in the dishwasher. When she had nothing else to do, she turned and looked at him.

"It's true," he said, his voice a little gruff. "You're amazing. I look around and it's like there's nothing you can't do."

"That's not true," she protested softly.

"Not from where I'm standing. I saw the way you put this place together not so long ago and now look at it-it could be featured in one of those home decor magazines. You cook these amazing meals, you're an assistant editor of a popular online magazine, and on top of that, you're beautiful."

Vivienne's eyes went wide at his admission. "Matt..."

He stepped in close and noticed his hand shake as he reached up to caress her cheek. "You are." Her eyes slowly drifted closed as he touched her. "When I walked in, I was just... It's staggering to me how beautiful you are."

She reached up and held his hand against her cheek, her dark eyes opening and meeting his gaze.

Words simply escaped him. Looking at her face, staring into her eyes, felt more powerful to Matt than anything else he could possibly say. He already knew he was attracted to Vivienne-he had been from the first time he saw her the night she'd shown up at Aaron's for dinner. Hell, thinking back to the night she'd shown up backstage after the concert, he remembered how he'd thought she was his every fantasy come to life. But standing here and touching her now? It confirmed it all and Matt had no idea what to do about it.

Kiss her.

Yeah, that was the main thing screaming in his mind right now. To lower his head and claim her lips like he'd been dying to do all along would be his first choice, but unfortunately, he needed to think with his brain and not his- "Matt." Slowly, Vivienne lowered her hand from his and took a step back. Clearing her throat, she turned her head and looked back toward the kitchen. "Um...I was just planning on making some tuna for lunch. I need to grab a shower and go food shopping, so I can stock the pantry for the week and get some last-minute ingredients for tonight's meal. So...why don't you come back in about a half an hour? I'll be showered by then and we can have lunch. Is that all right?"

She was nervous and rambling, and it made Matt smile. He could tease her or push her to acknowledge there was something simmering between them, but he was willing to wait it out. When the time came, he wanted Vivienne to be comfortable enough with him to admit it without him prompting her.

With a deep breath, he forced himself to smile and take his own step back. "That sounds good. I'm going to give Mick a call and see how things are going with Dylan."

"I thought you talked to Riley about that the other night. Do you think anything's changed?"

He shrugged. "He was arraigned and released on bail. Now they're looking into rehab facilities. I'm just curious where it's all at and to see if Dylan's all right. He hasn't been willing to talk to any of us, but I'm sure that didn't include Mick."

"How come?"

Matt let out a low chuckle. "Mick is a force of nature. You don't say no to him, and if you do, he finds a way to make you do what he wants anyway." He shook his head. "It's not always a bad thing. We may not like it at the time, but the man has a serious gift about knowing what we need even before we do."

"Yeah, right," she mumbled.

That's when it hit him-Vivienne had had her own run-in with Mick that night two years ago and it didn't go well. It would have been easy to simply pretend he hadn't heard her comment, but maybe it was the perfect segue. "He had no idea who you were that night, Viv. And while I'm definitely not condoning the way he handled things, I'm just as much to blame."

She almost looked shocked at his statement.

Matt took a cautious step toward her. "I should have stopped him. I should have reacted faster. In my defense, I was kind of messed up." Then he realized how pathetic he sounded. "I knew what I was doing with you, Vivienne. Don't ever doubt that. But when Mick barged in, I feel like everything happened so fast, and at the same time, I felt like I was walking in quicksand. Does that make sense?"

"It does," she said, nodding. "I hated the way it all happened. I was scared and embarrassed, and...I never told anyone about it."

His eyes went wide. "No one?"

"No one."