Then she came a step closer and he stopped speculating on her extracurricular activities or weather preferences. She was a looker beneath all that makeup. Big-eyed, pouty, and challenging. And then, his mind did slip between the sheets before he determinedly yanked it back out. But not before a rough-edged thought slipped through: She抎 like a man who knows how to be a little extra bad.
揥ho is your appointment with??
Jasper tilted his head. 揥hy??he asked with a smirk, throwing back her one-word response to his earlier question.
She rolled her lips inward, as though disinclined to commend him for paying attention. 揑f your appointment is with a barber, as opposed to a cult, I might be interested in that ride.?
Behind her, Hulk shook his head. 揘ope.?
She Devil sent the big guy what Jasper assumed was a reassuring look before locking those golden-brown eyes on him once more. 揥ell??
揑f you have to know, I抦 meeting with a woman.?
Was it Jasper抯 imagination or did she look disappointed? 揥ell. We wouldn抰 want to keep you. If you could just give us the garage抯 name棓
揘ow, hold on one second.?Jasper slipped his cell out of his jacket pocket and started to dial, pressing the button to put the call on speakerphone. Sunday Sermon narrowed his eyes at him. The foursome watched him curiously as the call connected and a woman抯 voice drifted out through the speaker.
揓asper Ellis. Lunch is on the table and your hide is nowhere to be seen.?
He quirked an eyebrow at She Devil. 揑抦 going to be a little late today, Rosemary.?Covering the phone with one hand, he leaned forward a touch and whispered 揟hat抯 my grandmother,?before straightening again and returning to his conversation. 揑抦 playing Good Samaritan to some lost city dwellers.?
A burst of static. 揧ou might as well bring them on over. I made enough sandwiches to feed an army.?
揘ow, that抯 a nice thought, isn抰 it? But I don抰 think they抣l all fit on my bike.?
揑 hate that thing.?
揑 know you do. I抣l be over when I can.?
Jasper hung up before his grandmother could ask if one of the city dwellers was a nice single girl. He was still trying to figure that out for himself, although he still had no idea why it mattered. This morning when he抎 woken up, finding a single girl had been about the farthest thing from his mind. Now, though, he found himself measuring She Devil抯 proximity to Hulk and attempting to discern their relationship.
揝o. Have I been found suitable??Jasper asked the group as a whole. 揑 can recite the presidents?names, first through forty-fourth, if it helps, but I抦 not in the habit of pissing off the family matriarch. She抯 meaner than she sounds.?
Hulk and She Devil exchanged a look. 揥e know his name now,?said Hulk.
She Devil fussed with her hair again, messing it up more. 揗aybe this is just how people act down here in梕r, where are we??
揌urley, New Mexico. Just outside Silver City,?Jasper supplied, his answer fading away as Sunday Sermon strode over to his bike and took a cell-phone shot of his license plate.
揑 have some very powerful men listed in my contacts. Feel free to annoy my sister, but bring her back alive.?
She Devil gave him a nice long once-over as her brother headed back to the Suburban. Jasper was well used to once-overs from the opposite sex, except hers wasn抰 overtly sexual, as most tended to be. It was shrewd and gave away none of the inner workings taking place behind her eyes. He liked that. A little too much to drive away. So he was relieved when she relented.
揑t抯 just a quick ride.?
She sauntered toward him, thighs flexing in her jeans, and Jasper swallowed a growl. Something told him this ride would be anything but quick, but he shoved the thought aside and distracted himself by removing his helmet and transferring it to her head. And hell if he didn抰 have a hard time mobilizing himself under her scrutiny. Like she wanted to see past whatever was visible. He couldn抰 remember the last time he抎 been dissected by a woman梐nd it was welcome.
Damn, she smelled like the forest, cut with cooking spices. He tried not to be obvious about sucking in a good lungful. His reaction to this girl was goddamn strange, to say the least, but he had no choice but to go with it since she was about to mount his bike.
It had thrown her off a little, his gesture of passing over the helmet, but she recovered to grant him a speculative look. Mumbling under her breath, she threw a leg over his bike and gripped the back bar. 揧ou might not recognize me, but I抦 famous for what I can do with a knife.?
Jasper joined her on the bike in one smooth movement, groaning inwardly when her thighs gripped his waist. Had her breath caught? 揑 hate to disappoint you, but this isn't the first time a woman's threatened me with a knife.?
揧eah, but it would be the last.?
His laughter was lost in the roar of the bike抯 ignition, the Suburban growing smaller and smaller in his rearview mirror.
Chapter Four
There was a reason Rita had gravitated toward the kitchen. Recipes. They were precise. They had instructions. You either added the correct textures and flavors, or you didn抰。 There was no gray area in cooking. It was all right there before her, written on a glossy page. Even she couldn抰 fuck up step-by-step instructions.
Wrong.
It had become starkly apparent while working under Miriam that there was a definite knack. And she抎 apparently gotten in the 搒arcasm?line instead of the 搆nack?line the day God had been doling out talent. She抎 found fail-safe recipes and stuck to them, perfecting them in the privacy of her one-bedroom apartment, praying something new wouldn抰 be thrown at her the following day. Learning on the fly had been a constant fear, day in and day out.
So join a nationally televised reality show, right?
Perhaps throwing herself to the sharks had been Rita抯 way of grieving, of trying to find a way to feel close to her mother again. Or trying to flame out hard enough梠nce and for all梩hat she抎 be forced into quitting the job she never quite performed more than adequately. Whatever the reason, she抎 applied for the show knowing they couldn抰 deny Miriam Clarkson抯 daughter a spot, while somehow also knowing things would change afterward. Things would finally shift. Either she抎 prod some dormant talent into animation or she抎 cut herself off at the knees and it would be blessedly over.
At the very least, she抎 learned a thing or two about people through working with food. What they chose to order from the menu, more often than not, classified them. Had they lived abroad, were they adventurous, extravagant or cheap?
Jasper Ellis was a twenty-ounce hanger steak with a side of garlic mashed potatoes. Easy. He didn抰 require much effort or imagination. It had a lot to do with the way he wore his jeans. Like he抎 picked up the first pair he抎 stumbled across on the floor that morning and slung them up around his cowboy hips. And son of a bitch, look at that! They fit like a dream. She could even picture him saying it in the mirror as he splashed water on his hair梐nd damn! Didn抰 his rich brown locks梬ith a touch of auburn梛ust style themselves!
Appetizing, yet effortless. Hanger steak.
Weirdly, she couldn抰 seem to shake the memory of how he抎 zeroed in on her, only looking away when addressed by someone else. This good ol?boy had barely spared Leggy Peggy a passing glance, making Rita vacillate between classifying Jasper as a hanger steak and a porterhouse. A cynical part of her had taken the ride just to see how fast he would become predictable. Typical. Because while she could swear there抎 been a spark of interest in his sky-blue eyes, men like Jasper were the opposite of her type. Not that she necessarily had a type, since she tended to find dating rituals repellent. In her world, small talk was on par with Chinese water torture, so her infrequent dates were usually men who抎 been within her orbit for a while, like fellow chefs or market employees who sold her ingredients. Even then, date two was a stretch.