by Kailin Gow
For a moment, she thought the fight would end there, but he got back on his feet and pulled a knife out as he ran to Errol. Taryn let out a frantic yelp, but just as Errol deftly sidestepped his attacker and twisted his arm painfully behind his back, another cry caught her attention.
Bobby fought the taller of the two punks with surprising ease and strength while Matt lay sprawled on the ground, blood seeping from a wound on his head. She’d never seen Bobby so angry and couldn’t help but wonder where all the rage came from. Regardless of the punches and kicks he gave the guy, however, the persistent attacker continued to come back for more.
Taryn didn’t know where to turn; her lover, brother and friend were all in danger and there seemed no end to the attacker’s ferocity.
Sirens blared in the distance and Taryn breathed her first sigh of relief since stepping out of Joe’s. But before the police arrived three cars screeched to a stop and out popped half a dozen photographers.
“Errol, over here,” one shouted as he snapped a shot of Errol pushing his punk up to the wall.
“Let him have it, Errol,” another one said.
All eager to get a shot of the famed chef in all his raging glory, they pressed closer and closer.
“This is no place for paparazzi, guys,” Errol growled. “Why not give us a hand instead.”
“Looks like you got everything under control, chef.”
While Errol did have his assailant under control, Bobby still fought, each punch and kick echoing in the alley. The groans and moans of fighting fell silent, however, when the punk stabbed Bobby in the abdomen.
“The bitch wasn’t worth it anyway,” he muttered as he ran out of the alley leaving his friend to deal with the cops on his own.
Taryn let out a horrified scream as she scrambled to get to her feet to help her brother.
The paparazzi clicked away, unfazed by the violence and blood… all except one who dared put his camera down and come to Bobby’s aid.
“Get away from him,” Taryn cried as she took Bobby’s hand in hers.
“I’ve got my first responders certification,” he said. “Let me help him until the ambulance gets here.”
Frantic, she nodded as she saw the blood flow out of her brother. “Please, do whatever you can.”
The photographers continued to take shot after shot; Errol, his clothes tattered and torn, and his face contorted in rage; Taryn, her shirt torn open and exposing far too much of her breasts as she cried over her bloodied brother. The scene was impossible to fathom, obscene in its ridicule. How could they just stand there and take pictures?
When the police arrived, they managed to finally get the last of the paparazzi cleared away. As the medics rolled Matt and Bobby into the ambulance, Errol came up behind Taryn and put his hand on her shoulder.
Chapter 19
Taryn sat staring straight ahead as Errol drove through the streets of New York. It had been a day she’d always remember, though she fervently wished she could forget it all. Though Matt had been released after only an hour, Bobby had been admitted to the hospital.
In a turmoil filled with confusion, pain and anger, Taryn had silently watched Matt walk out of the hospital, after visiting Bobby, his understanding of the situation plain on his pale and withdrawn face.
Guilt boiled in her belly, turning it upside down as she berated herself for bringing him into her sordid and pathetic life. She’d been angry and hurt and should have gone home alone instead of using Matt to assuage her broken heart.
“We’re home,” Errol softly said as he parked the car.
He guided her into his apartment, and after he closed the door, she turned to look at him, letting out a sardonic laugh.
“Look at us,” she said.
Errol looked down at the clothes on his back, clothes that now hung like rags over his shoulders. Between the fire and the fight, little remained of what had been a perfect suit that very morning.
He gazed at Taryn with an amused smirk. Though she hadn’t had a good look at herself, she could just imagine how messed up she looked. Her hair felt dirty and stringy as it fell around her face and her hands, despite having washed them, were still sticky and grimy.
At the hospital she’d temporarily managed to keep her shirt decent and pinned up with a paperclip, but she’d lost it and was once again daringly exposed.
“Yes,” he said with an unsure grin. “Look at us.”
They stared at each other for a long silent moment.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” he said.
Taryn looked around the posh apartment, making them look all the more ridiculous in their dirty and torn clothes. She realized after a thorough look around that she’d expected to see signs of Suzanne. “I think I should go home, Errol. I don’t belong here.”
“More than ever, you belong here.”
“I’m not so sure.”
“Look, your mother is home and sleeping. Do you really think you’d be doing her a favor by arriving in the state you're in? And having to explain, in the middle of the night, what happened to Bobby?”
“You always have the winning argument, don’t you?”
With an uncharacteristically shy smile, he reached for her hand and led her to the bathroom. “If nothing else, let’s get you cleaned up and presentable.”
He helped her out of her rags, tore off what remained of his own clothing and opened the door to the large shower stall.
Taryn hesitated a moment before stepping into the shower. She knew very well where it could lead.
“I’m not going to bite,” he said as he nudged her in.
With a turn of a few knobs, he had water gushing out of a dozen shower heads, two on top and three sets of three all around the shower stall. The spray was refreshing and strangely energizing.
Errol squirted a lightly scented body gel onto a soft, thick washcloth and slowly washed the grime of the day off Taryn.
“Why did you leave?” he said softly as he washed her back.
She tilted her head down, letting the water spill over her head. “I was tired of seeing how Suzanne hung all over you.”
“I needed you.”
Her heart swelled and tears quickly blurred her vision. He kissed the tender skin of the shoulder he’d just washed.
“I need you.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and pressed his chest to her back.
It would be so easy to give way to her emotions, to melt into him and open her heart, but she knew where he was going. With a cynical gleam in her eye, she looked over her shoulder at him while reaching back to grab his erection.
“I know,” she said, her voice strangely flat and cold.
He gently removed her hand and turned her to face him. “That’s not what I need. I want it. I want it all the time. I want you, your hands, your mouth.” He leaned in to passionately kiss her. “Your tongue. I want it all… all the time. But… I need you, Taryn. Until this morning when that fire broke out, I hadn’t really realized just how desperately I needed you. You were the first one I wanted to talk to, to share my heartache with.”
Inhaling deeply, she looked up at him. Water trickled through his hair, over his face and fell in delectable drops along his torso. She wanted to believe him, to believe his feelings for her ran deeper than just sexual.
“I’m sorry. I really wished I would have stayed with you.” She shrugged. “I guess I kind of panicked. Suzanne is very…”
“Suzanne is the last thing I want to think or talk about.” He set his hand on the wall of the shower and leaned into her. His kiss was slow and hot, drawing her out, one tantalizing lick at a time. He didn’t reach for a breast, or press his chest to hers, but simply kissed her with such tenderness and affection.
Aroused to the point of feeling weak on her feet, Taryn leaned into him. With a slight sense of deviance and a large dose of hunger, she pressed her breasts to his chest as she wrapped her arms around him. Her hands trailed down to grab his buttocks and press his hips to he
rs.
Staying close, Errol looked into her eyes. “You excite me today just as much as you did that first day. I still thrill at the sight of seeing your exquisite body. I still delight in the touch of your skin. If anything, I find myself wanting you more and more.”
To emphasize his words, his hard erection slid between her legs and glided along her feminine folds. After a few slow and arousing strokes, he wrapped his arms around her and slid down until his face was in her crotch. “I want you more and more,” he whispered as he kissed the tender skin.
His tongue and lips worked together to bring her to excruciating heights of arousal, but he artfully managed to keep her just one step away from reaching a full orgasm. The sensations blotted out everything else around her, leaving her body feeling light, almost numb.
“You're going to kill me,” she whispered as she dug her fingers through his hair and pressed his face closer to her.
Chapter 20
Taryn lay on her side and stared at the wall as Errol slept, his body pressed up against her back. The sun threw its first early morning shadows on the ceiling. Their night of passion, of endless lovemaking had reminded her just how much she loved him… and all that passion had let the words slip off her tongue. She could still see the expression on his face when she’d told him she loved him; confusion, uncertainty, and suspicion.
How stupid can you be? She’d told herself. My God, how many times had he heard women telling him they loved him? Hundreds? Thousands? And here she was, just another dimwit who didn’t realize the basis of their relationship. Sex.
Errol’s phone rang, and Taryn closed her eyes, feigning sleep.
“Oui. Pourquoi? Non, ah merde.”
Though she had no idea what he was talking about, she could tell he was unhappy with this unexpected call from France.
“Quand?” he said. Getting out of bed, he went to his dresser and picked up the small calendar. “Pas vrai.”
Cracking her eyes open, she saw his agitation, and wondered who he was speaking to.
“Merde, de merde,” he muttered as he hung up and tossed the phone to the floor.
Taryn sat up and looked at him. “I didn’t want to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t help but hear how upset you are.”
“My idiot of a manager. He knows how busy I’ve been here, but he decides to contact me at the last minute to tell me I have to be in Paris… tomorrow.”
Her heart sank at the thought of him leaving.
“With the restaurant down for a few weeks, things are going to get rough. I have a contract with those people in Paris. If I don’t show up they’ll sue the tattered pants right off me. I can’t afford to do anything stupid right now.”
“You have no choice, then. You have to go, Errol. If you want, I can keep an eye on things here… make sure everything is moving along at La Benicoise.”
“Really? You’d do that for me? I could be gone for a few weeks, maybe a month.”
A month? She didn’t know how she could bare having him out of her life for an entire month. It seemed so eternally long. “Of course,” she said with a bright smile. “As a restaurateur, I know how it is to see your baby down and out.”
He knelt in front of her and took her hands in his. “You have no idea how much I appreciate your offer.”
She smiled, hiding her heartache. She didn’t want her insecurities to get the best of her, but she felt the stirrings of jealousy rise again.
“But the truth is I have another favor to ask you.”
“Sure, I’ll do whatever I can to help.”
“Come with me.”
“Okay,” she got up and prepared to follow him.
“No,” he said with an amused chuckle. “Not here. Paris.”
“What?” she murmured in disbelief. “Paris?”
“Come to Paris with me. In a way, the timing couldn’t be more perfect. My whole team will be out of work for the next weeks as the Benicoise gets back on its feet. They can keep busy at Sam’s. It’ll give your mom and Bobby time to recover, and you can come be a real help to me.”
“Errol, I don’t know…”
“You know how my guys loved working at Sam’s. A few of them already know the drill. They won’t let you down.”
“It’s not that. Errol, Bobby’s just been stabbed and my mom still needs help at home. I can’t just go off to Paris to… to do what?”
“Be with me,” he said as he squeezed her hands. “Just be with me, Taryn.”
“It doesn’t make sense, Errol. What am I going to do in Paris while you're off taping your show? Wait around your apartment just so we can fuck at night when you arrive?”
He frowned. “I know our relationship has largely been sex driven, and yes…” He cocked his brow. “I will want to fuck you every night when I get home, but I will also want to wake up beside you every morning. I’ll want to go take long walks with you in the park. I’ll want to sit in the tub and talk to you about my day, and hear about yours. And I want everything else in between. You know, in all my travels around the world, no matter how elegant the hotel suite, no matter how enchanting the villa, I’ve never felt at home.” He brought her hand to his cheek then kissed her palm. “You make me feel at home, Taryn. No matter where I am, if I’m with you, I feel like I’m home.”
Strong emotions choked her as she looked into his eyes and tried to blink away the tears that filled her own.
Unexpectedly, he rose and walked to his dresser where he opened a drawer, retrieved something and returned to kneel before her.
“The first time I saw that picture of you, the one you sent in to the institute with your application form, I knew… I knew I wanted to know you. And when I first saw you in the flesh…” He bit his lip and shook his head as his gaze traveled leisurely over her naked body. “I’ll admit I’ve known a lot of women in my life, Taryn, but I’d never felt the way I did that very first time with you, and that feeling has grown these past months. You're like a piece of the puzzle that’s always been missing. You make me feel whole and you have a way of bringing light into a life that’s always been so dark. When I saw you on your back last night, with that idiot’s hand on your neck… I swear, Taryn, I could have killed him.”
He pulled up the small box he’d kept behind his back.
Taryn’s eyes widen before glistening with unshed tears.
Epilogue
After the hectic lunch hour rush at Sam’s, Taryn washed her hands and gazed once again at the antique diamond ring on her hand. It had belonged to Errol’s grandmother… his nana, and Taryn cherished it all the more for the history and love the ring represented. She still couldn’t believe Errol’s proposal. It’d been a surprise and a shock. It’d been everything she’d wanted.
In the end, however, going off to Paris was something she knew she couldn’t do. Her mother needed her, and though Bobby was already going strong and flirting with every nurse who dared entered his room, he wouldn’t be back at work for another week.
“That’s quite a rock you’ve got there,” Arnie said as he came up to the sink to wash his hands. “You’ve been looking at it every chance you get.”
“Yeah,” she said as she held up her hand to get a better look. “I guess I am a little star struck. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.” While she let Arnie think she was referring to the fabulous ring, in her mind’s eye she could clearly see Errol’s face, his eyes filled with hope and anticipation in the seconds that had preceded her acceptance of his proposal.
Since his departure three days earlier, Errol had sent countless texts and had called her every night.
“He’s a real lucky guy,” Arnie said. “I hope you two will be happy.”
“Thanks, Arnie. That’s really sweet.”
As he walked away, she turned and looked at the team of workers around her. A few of Errol’s employees had come to lend a hand and they blended perfectly with her own team. For all the tragedy that had seemed to dog her recently, she felt proud, strong and happy.
Her phone buzzed, indicating another text message.
Hey, honey… I was working on a particular recipe today and thought specifically of you. I had to use a lemon reamer and it brought back great memories.
Taryn blushed as she remembered how Errol had used a lemon reamer on her. It had been an exciting night.
Production on the show is running smoothly. A lot of people have been commenting on my behavior. They all noticed how uncharacteristically cheery I am. Seems I’m radiating joy.
I hope you have no doubt that it’s all because of you. I’m happy and it shows. I’m relaxed, despite the hectic schedule. I’m in love and I can’t hide it.
I can’t wait to see you soon. I love you, Taryn.
You consume now and for always, Errol.
Consume Me (Volume 3, Master Chefs Series)
September 2013
A Sneak Peak at:
The Innocent
The Protege #2
Kailin Gow
Prologue
Serena ran through the school as fast as her four inch heels and pencil skirt permitted. It was impossible to be discreet as her heels clicked loudly on the tiled floor of the deserted hall and she felt certain every student in every class could hear her pass by. Everyone was already in their classes where they belonged; everyone except Serena who was thirty minutes late for her very first class.
She pulled open the door to the grand lecture hall and quietly found a seat at the back of the room. Breathless and eager to catch up on what she’d missed, she pulled out her laptop and took notes.
Her quick and quiet entrance, however, didn’t go unnoticed by the devastatingly handsome man speaking to the class. He stopped speaking for the slightest second, a pause barely perceptible, but Serena noticed. She also noticed the longing gaze he briefly directed at her.
“Inspiration comes in many forms,” he said. “Tragedy and heartache have inspired countless melancholy melodies, whereas joy and romance have brought about beautiful music; music that lifts the spirit; music that brings on the desire to love.”