Just Desserts (Perfect Dish Romances Book 2)

by Tawdra Kandle

  Just Desserts

  Copyright © 2014 Tawdra Kandle

  All rights reserved.

  Cover and interior design by Champagne Book Design

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  ISBN: 978-1-68230-254-5

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Synopsis

  Dedication

  Part I

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Part II

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  Playlist

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Other Books by the Author

  Liam Bailey is my sexiest dream and my worst nightmare, all rolled into one delicious, forbidden package.

  I'm the girl with an iron-clad plan. Everything in my world is about succeeding, excelling, and making my large Italian family proud of me. That means graduating college with honors, landing the perfect job, and not letting anything—or anyone—get in my way.

  But Liam is the guy who makes me want to break all my rules.

  He's the embodiment of all my naughtiest fantasies, with his incredible body, his brooding eyes and his tempting smile.

  Liam's also the sweet-talking, complicated son of a well-known politician, the big man on campus, the athlete, the rich guy who's never had to work for anything in his life.

  When I don't fall into his lap like the other women do, I fully expect him to walk away. After all, why would a girl like me matter to someone like him?

  But it turns out that Liam doesn't give up easily. He's not going to let our friends' opinions, his parents' disapproval, or my own walls get in the way of what he wants . . . which, apparently, is my heart.

  Well, after all, rules were made to be broken.

  PART I

  “WELL? WHAT DO you think?”

  I dragged my eyes from the Behavior Disorders text I’d been reading and glanced up at my roommate. She’d been changing her clothes since I got back from my last class, trying on one outfit after another.

  “Ava, are you even looking?” I knew the hint of exasperation in Julia’s voice covered up her nerves. I swallowed my impatience and studied her as she shifted from one foot to the other.

  “Yes, of course I’m looking.” I narrowed my eyes, taking in the jeans and gray sweater. “That looks nice.”

  Julia turned back toward the mirror. “I don’t know. It’s just not what I wanted. And the sweater itches.”

  “Then try something else. You don’t want him to think you’ve got fleas or some weird body rash on your first date.”

  “Thanks.” She disappeared into her closet again and came out with another hanger, this one bearing a pretty green scoop neck shirt. “Does the green look too much?”

  I tilted my head, considering. “Too much what?”

  “You know, too much … like, too dressy for the movies.”

  I kept from rolling my eyes, but just barely. “It’s a date, Jules. You want to look pretty. And that color really brings out your eyes. Besides, he’s going to like you, whatever you wear. Go for it.”

  She didn’t looked convinced, but she did stop talking as she stripped off the sweater and pulled the shirt over her head. It really was her color, and I smiled a little before I went back to my book. This date was a big deal: it was Julia’s first time out with Jesse Fleming, the handsome son of her boss. They’d met while she was babysitting his little brother, and she was more excited than I’d seen her in a long time.

  I managed to ignore Julia’s mumbled debate with herself over shoes and actually got through two more pages before she planted herself in front of me again.

  “Okay, I’m ready. How do I look?”

  I marked my place again with my finger. “Breathtaking.” I couldn’t help grinning at the sparkle in her eyes. “Seriously, you look awesome. Is Jesse coming up here?”

  “He’s coming to the dorm, but I think I’ll go down to meet him.”

  I arched an eyebrow. “Really? What, are you ashamed of me?” Ack, that was my mother’s voice, coming right out of my mouth.

  Julia laughed. “Of course not, silly. You can come down with me if you want. I just don’t think he should have to brave the Friday night freshmen.” She gave a mock shudder.

  I sighed. Being a resident advisor to a floor full of emotional first-year college girls wasn’t for the faint of heart. “Yeah, I get that. I think I’ll pass on going down. If I go out there, someone who’s having a crisis will find me and need nurturing. If I stay in here, there’s a better chance the crisis will pass before she can track me down.”

  Julia snagged her coat off the back of her desk chair and shrugged into it. “Hope springs eternal.” She took a deep breath and heaved it out. “Wish me luck.”

  I hopped off the bed and hugged her, the top of my head just about reaching her shoulders. “You don’t need luck. Just relax and enjoy yourself.” I stepped back, tamping down the unexpected flare of wistful envy that put a lump in my throat. “And text me at some point, so I know he hasn’t taken you off into the woods to be his love slave.”

  Jules made a face at me as she turned the doorknob. “Please!” Whatever else she might have added was lost in her gasp of surprise when she swung the door open, revealing a tall familiar figure in the hallway.

  Liam’s hand was raised as though he had been about to knock. He looked as taken aback as Julia was.

  “We need a peephole in this door so we don’t open it to just anyone.” She glanced at me over her shoulder, her eyes wide and pleading. I bit the corner of my lip, not sure what I could do to help. I didn’t have experience with ex-boyfriends. Hell, I didn’t have experience with boyfriends at all.

  “Excuse me, I need to leave.” Jules made to step around him. Liam didn’t move.

  “Where are you going?” He sounded more skeptical than curious, and I saw Julia’s shoulders stiffen. Now he was just making her mad.

  “Out.” If he knew her at all, he would have just stood aside at that tone. But apparently nearly a year of dating hadn’t given him a clue.

  “Where?”

  “None of your business.” Julia craned her neck to look down the hall, and I knew what she was thinking. The last thing she needed was for Jesse to come up and run into Liam. Talk about awkward.

  “She has a date.” I didn’t mean to say it, but the words flew out of my mouth anyway. I stood with my arms folded over my chest as they both stared at me. After a
minute, Jules took advantage of Liam’s distraction and slipped past him.

  “That’s right. And I don’t want to keep him waiting.”

  “Which one of your new men are you seeing tonight? Do you know what everyone is saying about you? Or don’t you care?”

  She stopped a few paces away but didn’t turn around when she answered him.

  “I thought I made it pretty clear this afternoon. I’m not your business any more, Liam. If I want to bang the whole football team, I will. So, good night, and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”

  “But I wanted to talk with you. This afternoon—”

  “Should have told you everything you wanted to know. Leave me alone, Liam. Please.”

  I couldn’t take it anymore. I moved forward to hold onto the door, leaning out so I could catch Julia’s eye.

  “How about this, Liam. You tell me what you have to say to Jules, and I’ll decide if it’s worth her time. If it is, you can talk to her later, when she’s ready.”

  Julia smiled at me in gratitude, and I mouthed one word to her.

  “Go.”

  She didn’t need me to say it twice. Before Liam could speak again, Julia was down the hall, to the steps. I breathed a silent prayer that Jesse was waiting for her in the lobby.

  “So who is he?” Liam stretched one arm to lean against the door jam, his eyes fastened on me now. “Who’s she seeing tonight?”

  “No one you know. Really, Liam. Why are you here?”

  He shifted his gaze away. “I told you. I’m worried about her. About what people are saying. Everyone’s talking about Julia screwing around, sleeping with any guy who looks her way.”

  “You’re going to want to shut the hell up. That’s my best friend you’re talking about. And you might remember she was also your girlfriend for ten months. What does that say about you?”

  “Exactly. Do you know how my fraternity brothers are talking? It’s sick. It makes me look bad, too.”

  “Oh, yeah? You mean like someone who dumps his girlfriend in front of all of their friends at the surprise birthday party she threw him?”

  He had the grace to look away from me. “So it wasn’t my finest hour. But like I told Julia, it was for the best. Even if she doesn’t get that now, she will.”

  “Breaking up is one thing. Humiliation is another. She might get over it, but she’ll never forgive you. And neither will I.”

  “I don’t expect forgiveness from either of you. I just think she should rein it in, to stop slutting around campus. She needs to have a little self-respect.”

  Tomorrow morning, I was going to think of a killer comeback, but at the moment, anger closed my throat. I reached for the edge of the door to slam it in his face, but before I could do it, a group of freshmen girls appeared around the corner, giggling and talking in the high-pitched voices that went right up my spine.

  Liam’s face froze, and he stepped forward. “Ava, please. Let me come in. Just for a minute.”

  I frowned. “Are you crazy? No, you can’t come in.”

  “Ava. Please.” His eyes darted back down the hallway, and I followed his gaze to one of the girls. Aha. Suddenly everything was clear.

  I hesitated just long enough for Liam to sense weakness. He slid between the door and the wall, brushing against my body. Instinct made me shy back away from him. He pushed the door shut and leaned on it.

  He was entirely too close to me, and I struggled to say something to get my balance back.

  “Too many pissed-off girls, Liam? What’s the matter? Your little freshman fuck-buddy giving you problems, too?”

  He ran a hand through his light brown hair, scowling. “She wasn’t my fuck-buddy. She was just … convenient. And now she’s a major pain in my ass.”

  His obvious discomfort made me feel better. I’d never seen the cool and aloof Liam Bailey in anything less than total control.

  “What’s she doing?”

  Liam closed his eyes and shook his head. “Typical freshman shit. She just happens to show up outside my classes. Drunk texts me late at night. Has her friends talk to me in the dining hall.” He pulled out Julia’s chair and sat down.

  “Make yourself at home, why don’t you.” I rolled my eyes, sinking onto my bed across from him and tucking my feet up beneath me.

  “Sorry, but I’m not going back out there until the coast is clear. If she saw me come in here, she’s probably walking back and forth down the hall, hoping to catch me leaving.”

  “Are you claiming sanctuary?” I couldn’t help a little smile.

  “Something like that.” Liam’s mouth tightened a little. “I didn’t sleep with her, you know. With Rachel, the freshman. Not that night, not since. Not ever.”

  I raised one eyebrow, my skepticism clear.

  “I didn’t. The night of my birthday party, Giff walked her home after everyone left. And I haven’t talked to her since. I mean, not to say more than, ‘Go home, you’re drunk. I’m not interested.’”

  “If you weren’t interested, why did you show up at your party—the party my best friend, your girlfriend worked long and hard planning, by the way—with your hand down the shirt of another woman?”

  He shrugged. “The guys had a little pre-party for me at the Alpha Delt house. They’d invited some girls, and she was one of them. She was wasted before I even showed up. And she wouldn’t leave me alone, kept saying she’d been watching me around campus and had a big crush on me. I don’t know, one thing led to another and it seemed like it would be a way to make sure Julia knew I was moving on.”

  “Because just telling her, privately, and maybe with a little bit of sensitivity just wouldn’t get the job done.”

  He sighed and sprawled back in the chair. “I never said it was the smart thing to do. If I could do it over, yeah, I probably would have made better choices. But there was more going on than you know. The whole thing is complicated.”

  I dropped to lie down on my side, bunching a pillow under my head. It didn’t seem like Liam was planning to leave any time soon, so I decided to get comfortable. My textbook mocked me from the foot of the bed, and I ignored it.

  “Complicated, huh? Care to elaborate?”

  “Not really, no. Just take my word for it. But don’t worry, I’ve felt like a dick since the morning after. And even if I hadn’t, Giff would’ve made sure I did. He was really pissed at me.”

  “Can you blame him? If you felt so bad, why didn’t you apologize? Make it right with Julia?”

  He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I told you, complicated. Plus, I figured it was done. Better let her just move on.”

  “And now that she has, in fact, moved on, suddenly you feel compelled to come back into her life?”

  “Thanks, Dr. DiMartino. I didn’t realize I was here for a session.”

  I grinned, unfazed. “You’re stuck in a room with a psych major. You have two choices: leave and risk assault by freshman, or stay and answer my questions.”

  “I could stay and ignore you.” Liam hooked one foot over the rung at the bottom of the chair.

  “You could try.”

  He frowned, rubbed one hand over his forehead and blew out a breath. “Look, I don’t want to talk about Julia. I know I screwed up with her. What’s the point of rehashing the whole thing?”

  I held his eye. “You tell me. You’re the one who showed up here tonight, insisting on talking to her. You still haven’t said why.”

  “No, I told you. The guys are talking about her. Everyone is calling her a slut.”

  “And you care … why?”

  “Because I feel responsible.” The words came out as though he hadn’t meant to say them. “Okay, is that what you wanted to hear? You know what Julia was like when we started going out. She was shy. Quiet. I was the first person she …” His voice trailed off.

  “I know.” The flash of vulnerability on his face took away some of my mad.

  “So if she’s doing all of this, fucking around
, because of what I did to her …yeah, I feel like I have to say something.”

  I hesitated. I was right smack in the middle here: my best friend was looking for revenge on the guy who had screwed her over and humiliated her in a very public way. She wasn’t actually sleeping with any of the guys Liam saw with her. It was all a giant con, a big set-up engineered by Julia, Liam’s friend Giff and me, designed to make Liam want her back so she could shoot him down.

  But there was no way I could tell Liam this, even if I wanted to. I wasn’t going to break the sacred girlfriend code. Maybe he wasn’t quite the jerk we thought—though I wasn’t sure I bought it—but still, I couldn’t forget who he was, and what he’d done.

  “You may have been Julia’s first serious boyfriend, Liam, but that doesn’t mean you have to feel responsible. And …” I licked my lips, trying to decide how to say what I wanted without giving away anything. “Come on. You know Jules. Does it seem like she’d start sleeping around, even if you did break her heart?”

  He shook his head. “Yeah, I do know her. Or I thought I did. But what if she’s, like, gone off the deep end? Some girls can’t handle break-ups. They go nuts.”

  I couldn’t help myself. I burst out laughing. “Wait a minute. So you’re saying you think Julia’s lost her mind because of what you did? Good God, Liam. Talk about arrogance.”

  I half-expected him to get defensive and maybe a little mad, but instead, he surprised me again by laughing, too.

  “Yeah, I guess when I hear myself say it out loud, it sounds that way. Okay, so I didn’t drive Julia to the edge of sanity by breaking up with her. So then why is she acting like this?”

  “Maybe she’s just enjoying her freedom.” It wasn’t even close to being true, but it sounded good. I decided a change of subject was in order. With one last longing glance at my book, I stood up. “Since it looks like you’re going to be here for a little while, do you want a drink? I’m going to break out some wine coolers. I think we have some beer in the fridge, too.”