the Chef and Heir

Luca Bellini owns the kitchen. Sebastian Vale merely owns the villa.At least, that is how Luca prefers to see it.As executive chef at a magnificent private estate on Lake Como, Luca has built his reputation on discipline, instinct and food that needs no explanation. His carefully controlled world is disrupted when Sebastian, the charming and supposedly unserious heir to the Vale family, proposes turning Villa Bellacorte into an exclusive culinary retreat.Now they must create the experience together.Luca controls the menus. Sebastian controls everything surrounding them. Their arguments begin with lemon, branding and who may enter the kitchen, but years of midnight meals and unspoken attraction have already blurred the boundaries between them.When professional tension becomes a secret, high-heat affair, their carefully negotiated rules offer little protection. Luca is hiding an opportunity that could take him to Milan, while Sebastian is determined to prove that he is more than his family's expectations or the private recovery history someone once sold to the press.As the retreat's opening approaches, one public revelation could destroy everything they have built. To save Bellacorte, Luca and Sebastian must decide whether trust, like the perfect risotto, can be created without rushing the process.Rich with the flavours of northern Italy, The Chef and the Heir is a sensual M/M romance featuring forced collaboration, opposites attract, class differences, secret intimacy, sharp banter, mature heroes and a guaranteed happy ending.Includes a glossary of Italian food and ingredients, plus a real Bellacorte lemon-and-sage risotto recipe for readers to prepare at home.Book Two in the Behind Closed Doors series of connected standalone romances. It can be read independently.