“To do what?”
“A publicity assistant on a part-time basis, and if business picks up and she does as well as I think she will, then full time,” Marie said.
“Are you doing this to impress Devon?” she questioned.
“No,” Marie exclaimed. “Shay is actually qualified and I want to help her.”
“And that’s all this is?”
Marie folded her arms across her chest and glared at her friend, tempted to tell her that if she wanted to hire five new people, she could, since she had a controlling interest in their company. “You know what, why don’t I bring Shay over and you can meet her and judge for yourself?”
“When you say it like that, I guess you are doing it for all the right reasons,” Adriana said. “But, I have to say that I’m impressed that you want to do this.”
Marie could understand her friend’s attitude. Her previous charitable acts had been all about getting headlines and making a donation. But she’d also never met anyone like Shay and the other women at My Sister’s Keeper. “I think once my community service is over, we should do some more work over there.”
“We?”
“Our company. That place is filled with women who could make a difference if given a chance.”
Adriana leaned back in her plush leather seat. “Forgive me if I sound harsh or misinformed, but when I hear ‘homeless’ I think about the man at the gas station begging for a dollar.”
“Until a few days ago, I would’ve been right there with you,” Marie said. “But with this economy, the mortgage crisis, and all the job losses, who’s homeless has changed.”
“I hadn’t even thought about that,” she said.
“I’ll admit that I wouldn’t be thinking about it if it weren’t for Devon,” Marie revealed. “But you’d have to be pretty heartless not to start caring about these women.”
“I knew he had a role in this,” Adriana replied with a smile. “And I hate to change the subject, but William has been seeking you. He came by here three times today.”
“He has a damned nerve.”
Adriana shrugged. “Word on the street is that Greta put him out.”
“I’m not surprised. Once she figured out that I wasn’t torn up about the relationship ending and my life didn’t end with my arrest, I imagine the luster of winning that bastard back wore off.”
“That sounds right,” she replied. “And the client she took from us, Destiny Food, has been calling for you as well.”
Marie couldn’t help but smile, and while she wanted to call her contact with the company and tell them what part of her body they could attach their lips to, she decided that if they wanted M&A to handle their press, Shay would take the lead.
“I guess I could give them a call,” she said. “Go up on the price and let Shay handle the campaign.”
“Good idea. But I hope she can handle it,” Adriana said. “And, I spoke to the new management at Mez, since one of our new clients will only have their product launch party there.”
“Let me guess, they said yes as long as I don’t show up.”
Adriana nodded and gave Marie the thumbs-up sign. “I figured they wouldn’t have a problem with the money Unique Brands is spending on this party.”
“Money talks in Charlotte,” Marie said.
“Well, at least you’re seeing someone who doesn’t need your money, now.”
Marie smiled. She wouldn’t say that she and Devon were seeing each other, but she knew something was developing between them, something real. Or was she expecting too much again?
Devon walked into the kitchen of Hometown Delights with a smile on his face. It startled his sous-chef as she told him about some serious problems they’d been having in the kitchen with the oven and a couple of burners on the stove.
“It’s all right,” he said to the frazzled chef. “I’ll take a look at the burners on the stove and you call the repairman and tell him that he will be fixing the oven for free today.” Then Devon patted her on her shoulder in a comforting manner. “It’s going to be all right. I’ll even do a no-bake dessert to make things easier.”
“What’s going on with you?” she asked.
Devon glanced down at his watch; three hours until dinner. “Nothing,” he replied, “I just don’t feel the need to get upset about things that we can fix.”
“Who are you and what have you done with Chef Harris?” she asked with her eyebrow raised.
“Who’s in the office?” he asked.
“Jade, I think,” she replied. Devon nodded and headed out of the kitchen, leaving his sous-chef totally confused.
When Devon arrived at the office, he knocked on the open door when he saw Jade and her husband, James, embracing passionately. “Excuse me,” he said.
The couple turned and looked at him. James nodded hello, then kissed his wife’s hand. “We’ll finish this later—at home.”
“We sure will,” she replied with a sly smile. Devon smirked as James shook his hand and headed out the door.
“Still acting like newlyweds, huh?”
Jade shrugged and leaned against the desk. “Who wants a boring marriage? What’s going on with you?”
“The bigger question is: What’s going on with the oven and the stove in the kitchen? Two burners are out and the oven’s dead.”
“Oh my goodness,” Jade said. “I wish your staff felt comfortable talking to me and the other ladies. Lunch was a mess, food came out late and we had no idea why.” She tilted her head to the side. “Where were you? At the shelter?”
Devon’s smile said more than he wanted it to, and Jade picked up on it immediately. “So, what’s her name?” she asked.
“You know what they say about assuming, right?” Devon said, trying to keep a poker face.
“Boy, how long have I known you? Now, what’s her name?”
“It’s a long story, and I don’t have time to tell it. I need you to get me some kitchen equipment that works,” Devon said, smirking as he spoke. “The oven has to go.”
Jade nodded as she made a note of what Devon had been saying about the oven. Then she looked up at her friend. “It’s Marie Charles, isn’t it? I can’t believe you.”
“What?” he asked. “She’s nothing like what you read about in the papers, and she’s going to be my guest for dinner tonight. Marie and her business partner.”
Jade dropped her pen and shook her head. “But aren’t you like her supervisor for community service? That has to be wrong and against the rules or something.”
“It isn’t, and I do hope you’re going to hurry home and finish what you and your husband were about to start in here.”
Jade offered him a knowing smile. “James and Jaden can have dinner and bath time without me tonight. Especially since Serena and Alicia are coming through for dinner and drinks.”
“Don’t scare the woman off,” Devon warned, knowing that telling them to leave her alone would be akin to beating his head against a brick wall and expecting it to come tumbling down.
“Are you sure this is the kind of woman you don’t want to send off running?” Jade asked. “I mean ...”
“It wasn’t too long ago that someone was asking those same questions about you,” he said.
“Touché,” Jade replied, recalling the rocky relationship that she and her brother-in-law, Maurice, had during the early days of her relationship with James. “I’ll be nice, but I can’t vouch for the others.”
“I’m telling you, you guys are a street gang in stilettos.” Devon shook his head and squeezed the bridge of his nose. “Marie and I are just getting to know each other, and I don’t need you guys putting your two cents in.”
“All right, all right,” Jade said. “But we only want what’s best for you. I’m not convinced that it’s Marie Charles, but if you like it, I love it.”
Devon bowed like a Broadway actor. Oh, he liked it, and maybe he liked it a little too much. Was Marie the woman he’d spent the day with or really the wild
child that showed up in the newspapers and ended up doing community service?
“Devon,” Jade said, breaking into his thoughts. “Did you hear me?”
“No, what?”
“Will replacing the oven cause us to have to shut down?”
“No,” he said. “As long as it’s done at least four hours before lunch.”
“All right, I’ll make some calls and we’ll get it taken care of tomorrow. Will you be here to supervise?”
He nodded. “Now, let me go make a no-bake chocolate dessert.”
“Make sure you save me some. I think my husband deserves some chocolate tonight.”
“I’m not touching that one,” he said as he threw up the peace sign and headed for the kitchen. Devon decided that he’d do a special dinner for Marie: his New Orleans chicken with tomato and onion pilaf, a crisp spinach and strawberry salad, and a goddess chocolate and rum pudding. This would be the perfect meal for her, and Devon couldn’t help but laugh as he thought about the last time he’d made the goddess pudding. He’d made it for Monique, a pastry chef he’d met in Paris, and she’d loved it so much that she’d smoothed it across his chest and licked it off. Sex and food had been his life when he’d been a student in Paris as he tried to get over Kandace and rid himself of the guilt he’d felt because of what he’d done and how much like his father he’d become.
Maybe that’s why he wanted to do things right with Marie. He wanted to make sure whatever they were doing was because they both wanted it. One thing was for sure, he thought as he cracked two eggs into a mixing bowl. He wanted Marie for Marie and nothing else. He just hoped she felt the same way.
Chapter 14
Marie smoothed gloss across her lips as she took another look at her image in the mirror. Hair curled and hanging in loose tendrils, eyes smoky and mysterious, ears adorned with silver and diamond hoops. She felt flawless and overdressed. It’s just dinner, she told herself as she closed her tube of gloss. But dinner with Devon.
Marie knew with him, she didn’t have to do that attention-seeking thing she was known for. As a matter of fact, she probably wouldn’t see much of Devon anyway. She’d been to many restaurant openings as the guest of a chef. Sure, your table is in the middle of the restaurant and everyone sees you, but it’s not as if the chef joins you for dinner.
She pulled a pomegranate makeup remover wipe from the box and scrubbed her face clean. The face that looked back at her seemed ten years younger and fresher. “No wonder Daddy called it war paint,” she whispered as she smoothed a light coat of gloss on her lips, then headed into her bedroom to grab her shoes. Dressed in a pair of snakeskin designer leggings and a pink and silver tunic, Marie wished she could wear her taupe peep-toe Louboutins. But there was no way she could walk in those shoes with her ankle still giving her problems. She’d settle for her Tory Burch ballerina flats; that way she could walk without carrying that annoying crutch. As she reached for her phone to call a car service, it rang.
She shook her head as she recognized the number belonged to William. Speaking to him was the last thing she needed. He was history, the past, and she was looking toward a future with a man who didn’t have an agenda. Granted, she’d picked William for her own agenda, but it became clear that he’d been enjoying her limelight a little too much and had no intentions of actually marrying her as they’d agreed to. He’d been enjoying using Marie’s connections to get into Charlotte’s hottest night spots and get up close and personal with some of the other party girls. There’d been rumors of his infidelity, but Marie hadn’t cared because there hadn’t been real proof of him sleeping around. Other than the fact that they’d stopped having sex about a month after they’d started.
William had proven to be as selfish in bed as he’d been in every other aspect of his life and Marie couldn’t be so bothered. But she hadn’t planned on William embarrassing her at her own event.
Not that getting arrested is ever a good thing, but if it weren’t for William’s disrespectful display at Mez, I wouldn’t have met Devon. I can’t believe that punk actually did something that helped me, she thought as she hit the Ignore button on her phone. That would be the best thing she could do for and to William. After calling the car service, Marie gave herself another inspection in the mirror. Simple outfit, cute hair, flat shoes; this was a Marie Charles no one would expect to see.
Jade laughed as she watched Devon prepare a plate. It looked as if he was making a meal for the president of the United States or the Queen of England. He turned to his friend and scowled at her. “What?”
“She’s not here yet. You don’t hear the clicks of cameras, do you?” Jade quipped.
“Whatever. I don’t have many people sitting at the chef’s table, so I’m trying to make this special,” he said, though the truth of the matter was, he wanted it special because it was Marie.
“Alicia and Serena aren’t going to come through tonight, so you can relax and enjoy feeding your new ... What are you and Marie doing?”
Before he could respond to her, there was a loud crash from the freezer, prompting Devon and Jade to rush back to see what was going on. “This is all we need tonight,” he muttered, thinking about how behind the kitchen had gotten while waiting for the repairman to fix the burners on the stove and offer a temporary solution to the oven issue.
“I hope it’s nothing,” Jade said as he opened the freezer. Luckily, their fears were unfounded as the crash had come from cartons of angus steaks stacked too high.
“Who did this?” Devon bellowed. “First of all, there’s a chart, right here on the damned door, detailing how to stack food in the freezer.”
Jade jumped, surprised to see the Hell’s Kitchen side of Devon. “Chef,” one of the kitchen expeditors said, “that’s my fault. Things got busy and I just ...”
Devon stepped in the young man’s face and glared at him. “Don’t let it happen again. We have rules in the kitchen for a reason.”
“Yes, Chef,” he replied.
Devon shook his head and turned back to Jade. “The kitchen isn’t for the fainthearted,” he told her. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“I’ve never seen this side of you,” she replied. “Then again, I don’t spend much time in the kitchen.”
“And you shouldn’t because you look like you want to cry right now,” he said as he walked Jade out into the hallway.
“You’re mean!” She laughed as they walked into the dining room. Devon’s heart nearly stopped when he saw Marie being led to her table. She was breathtaking with her clean face and fashionable outfit. Even without high heels, her legs were amazing, and that round bottom of hers made his mouth water. He waited before approaching the table, wondering where her business partner was, since he had invited them both. A few moments passed and he realized that Marie was alone. A slow smile, which didn’t go unnoticed by Jade, spread across his face.
“Well, well,” she said. “The evil chef smiles. I’m going to greet your guest.” Devon touched her arm.
“Let me do that,” he said. “Then you can interrupt us.”
Jade rolled her eyes and stepped aside. Devon crossed over to Marie, drinking in her image again before saying, “I’m glad you could make it.”
She smiled at him, her lips glimmering under the dim lights. “I couldn’t think of anywhere else I wanted to be.”
“Will Adriana be joining you?” he asked.
“Umm, she sends along her regrets,” Marie replied. “I guess I’ll be dining alone tonight.”
“Not necessarily,” he replied as he pushed a stray curl behind her ear. “I’ll be happy to join you for the main course.”
Marie blushed as his finger brushed across her cheek. How she wished he was the main course. Even in his chef’s jacket, pants with a smattering of food and oil, and a pair of sneakers that looked about three years old, Devon Harris was a sexy man. Lust-worthy, even. But Marie wanted and hoped that the vibe between them was something deeper; something that could blossom and grow.
“Ready for the first course?” he asked as he pulled her chair out.
“Sure,” she replied once she was seated. Devon stood behind her, and she felt electric currents ripple through her body as he described the salad that he’d made for her and the wine that would accompany it. He could’ve told her that he was going to feed her bread and water; it wouldn’t have mattered.
“Sounds good,” she said.
“It’ll be right out,” Devon said as he took her hand and placed a sweet kiss on her palm. Marie could’ve melted in her seat.
“I can’t wait.”
Devon winked at her and headed to the kitchen. Marie hugged herself tightly and smiled. She didn’t notice Jade when she approached the table.
“Hello,” Jade said, breaking into Marie’s thoughts of Devon. “I’m Jade Goings, one of the owners. Welcome to Hometown Delights.”
“Thank you,” Marie said as she and Jade shook hands.
“Mind if I sit for a moment?” she asked.
“Not at all. This place is a pleasant surprise,” Marie said as Jade took her seat.
“Oh, this is your first visit for dinner? Now, how could Charlotte’s it girl not come here?”
Marie shuttered inwardly; she now hated that moniker. “Well,” she said.
Jade held her hand up. “I know, there were a lot of bad things that happened here. I get it.”
“Had I known the food was so great, I would’ve come a lot sooner.”
Jade smiled and nodded. “I’m sure. Marie, I don’t know you and I don’t want to prejudge you, but we’re like a family here.”
“OK,” Marie said, wondering where this conversation was going.
“I just hope that your interest in Devon, who is a lot like a brother to me, is genuine,” she said. “Because if it isn’t ...”
“Listen,” Marie said, cutting her off. “Devon and I are just getting to know each other, and I really feel as if he’s someone I want to get to know and see where it goes.”
“And this has nothing to do with the fact that he supervises your court-ordered community service?”
Recipe for Desire Page 13