No Quarter (NOLA's Own #2) (14 page)

“I swear to the gods, Phil, if you start calling me Zephyr, I will punch you in the throat.”

“Doesn’t it mean wind spirit or some such shit?” asked X, staring at Alys.

“Oh God!” Alys sucked in a huge gulp of air. “I can’t believe you told them about
ASS
!” She wiped her whole face with both hands. “I thought you were my best friend!” she accused lightheartedly.

“Pfft! Like
that’s
the worst thing I got on you.”

“Ooo! Like what?” X’s eyes took on a manic, excited look.

“That’s for me to know, and Alys to tell you,” I retorted before taking a sip of water.

I looked over at Phil, and I could see he was trying hard not to be hurt and to just let it all go. His jaw was clenched, but his eyes…looked sad and lost, staring at the bottle of soy sauce.

It wasn’t worth it, and he knew that. I hadn’t been hiding my first name from him. I just hadn’t thought to tell him.

Lightly, I squeezed his fingers.

“Baby Girl?” he said quietly, looking over at me.

“Yeah, Phil.”

He took a deep breath. “It’s cool.”

I nodded, smiled, and squeezed his hand again. “Cool.”

The sashimi arrived, and we devoured the massive plateful. Then, the rolls started coming in, and it was a staggering amount of food. At some point, I just had to put my chopsticks down, and I noticed Alys had produced a fine sheen of the food sweats.

“I might just puke,” she groaned, rubbing her belly.

Phil and X kept plowing through, and then Phil was the only one left chowing. Nothing was left by the end, and when he swallowed the last piece, he sat back with a satisfied grin.

“How the fuck, man?” groaned X. He had the food sweats going on himself. “I try to keep up but never manage.”

“I don’t know why you bother,” said Phil, getting his pissy face on. “I don’t expect anyone to keep up with me. I’m fuckin’ massive. I need the calories.”

“Yeah, you are.” I sighed, and then I turned pink and clapped a hand over my wayward mouth. I meant only to think that in my dirty mind, not spew it out for all to hear.

Alys busted out laughing and then groaned.

Phil just winked and grinned.

Everyone called it an evening when X pulled his Jeep into the driveway at the Plantation House. Fat and sassy, we all said our good nights and headed in opposite directions. X and Alys made their way inside as Phil and I walked around the side, bypassing his front door. We walked through the backyard, hand in hand, in silence. I couldn’t tell if it was comfortable or not.

Probably not then
.

I knew he was thinking about earlier, and I knew it still bugged him.

My house was quiet as we went in.

“Are you mad at me?” I asked him, tossing the keys onto the side table next to the front door.

“No.”

“Disappointed?”

His arms slid around my waist and pulled me into him. “No.”

Sighing, I melted into his embrace. “I’m sorry. I never thought to mention it before.”

“I know. It’s not important.”

“It is to you,” I stated.

“I think your real name is beautiful. I love it.”

“You
are
mad at me!” I laughed.

He chuckled. “Seriously, I’m not.”

“Good. Then, I can happily give you your present.”

Taking his hand, I led him upstairs and headed for the nightstand. Picking up the box with the green bow, I handed it over. His eyes sparkled, and his sweet smile did funny things to my heart.

“What’s this for?” he asked.

“It’s
for
you.”

“But what’s the occasion?”

“Can’t a girl just want to make her man happy?”

“You already do,” he replied, removing the lid and glancing down. Tucking the box top under the bottom, he lifted out the badass key. “What’s it to?”

“I had an extra house key made for you. You know…kind of like if we lived together or something.”

His gaze shot to mine, and the emotion packed behind it nearly knocked me to my knees.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. I mean, I’m not ready to—”

Yanking me into his arms, he hugged me tight.

“I love it,” he whispered into my hair. “Thank you.”

I laughed and hugged him back. As fiery as his temper could be, he was ridiculously easy to please.

“What aren’t you ready to do?” he asked quietly.

“Leave this house behind. Right now, there are too many memories I’m not willing to give up just yet. But that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to share them. I…”

“You what?”

“I don’t want to have to sleep without you next to me either—ever, if I can help it.”

His whole frame trembled slightly as he exhaled. “Fuck, you just made my day.”

His kiss got me hot and revved up, and soon, we were panting and tugging off each other’s clothes.

“The things I wanna do to you…” He groaned as he pushed me back onto the bed and stretched over me.

“Ooo! Like what?” I asked, getting excited at the thought of the naughty things we could get up to.

Kissing me softly on the lips, he pushed his monster cock into me.

“Another time,” he whispered.

Damn it.

Lili spilled the beans about my culinary crush to Phil on Tuesday over dinner. It was hilarious, watching his face go all angry and possessive when she waxed on about how I used to watch Lewis’s shows in a borderline obsessive manner while writing down all the recipes.

Evil little shit.

She just wanted to get Phil all riled up.

And he
so
was, screwing me throughout most of the night, so I would be exhausted all day at work and tired enough to not be able to thoroughly enjoy my first and probably last experience at The Duck Pond.
Ass
.

“I swear to fuckin’ God, Kenna, if you leave me for a fuckin’ chef—”

“He’s Lili’s boyfriend!”
I yelled at him as he fisted his hand in my hair and shoved my face into the mattress, pounding me
really
hard from behind.

The way I saw it, Phil should be thanking the gods that I had crushed on Lewis Lee because he had inspired me in my own cooking, which Phil happened to worship. I really didn’t think Phil believed I would leave him for anyone
.
But that didn’t mean he wasn’t truly jealous that I had had a thing for someone else.

I was now paying for his jealousy with tiredness, while my girls and I got ready for Mom’s anniversary dinner.

Sheri happily joined us and was in Lili’s room, getting help with picking out an outfit from the fashionista herself.

Alys was applying her makeup in my bathroom mirror while I shimmied into a forest-green pencil skirt that Sheri had picked up for me to wear—at Lili’s insistence. I’d had no clue that Lili had made her do this, but apparently, Sheri had no problem obeying the tiny dictator. And I
had
to wear the brown patent leather pumps she’d picked up to go with it along with the short-sleeved cream silk blouse that complemented the whole damn thing.

Sheri did my hair, too—a French braid that started behind my left ear, sweeping around the back of my head, to rest over my right shoulder, with my bangs framing my face. I decided on liquid eye eyeliner, which pacified Lili greatly.

While I belted the matching brown leather belt around my waist, my phone rang for the fourth time in an hour.

“Hey, babe,” I answered without checking who it was.
Like I didn’t already know.

“What are you wearing?” he asked in his sexy hot-chocolate voice.

I huffed. “A skirt.”

“You’ll wear a skirt to meet Lewis Lee but not for me?” he nearly shouted.

I had to hold the phone away from my ear.

“No, I’m wearing it for Lili. She made Sheri get me one.”
And how in hell that woman knew my exact size, I’m not sure I want to know.

“I’m coming over—”

“No, you’re not! We’ll come by when dinner is over. You got it?” I barked.

“Damn, are you hungry? You’re fuckin’ grumpy.”

“I’m fucking exhausted, and you made damn sure I would be! So, deal with the fucking grump!”

His laughter grated on my raw nerves.

“I’ll see you later,” I told him, about to hang up.

“Baby Girl?”

“Yeah, Phil.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I conceded, sounding deflated.

“Don’t leave me for the chef,”
he said quickly and hung up.

“Ugh! He’s such an
ass
!” I tossed the phone on the bed.

Alys cracked up in the bathroom. “Still can’t get over it, eh?”

“Guess not. How he could
actually
think that I would leave him, let alone for my best friend’s man—”

“He doesn’t, Kenna. He’s just jealous that you had a crush on someone else.”

“I know that! But he totally punished me last night for it, fucking me until three in the morning—”

“Oh, yeah,
huge
punishment, that,” scoffed Alys.

I sat on the bed, drained. “It
was
. He wanted to make sure I would be too tired to enjoy much of anything today. He told me so himself! And he was aiming for making sure I wouldn’t be able to walk in a straight line either. Too bad for him, he broke me in two weeks ago.”

“God, you two…”

She was looking rather adorable in her red jersey dress, cinched in at the waist with a black belt, and cute high-heeled Mary Janes. Sheri had curled her long bob and put half a can of hairspray in it to hold it in place.

Sheri was wearing her lilac silk dress when she came in.

“You look breathtaking,” I told her, stunned.
What an absolute beauty.

Blushing faintly, she shyly said, “Thanks.”

Lili was wearing a black wrap dress that swished above the knee and stellar black pumps that brought her up to a whopping five-three. She looked so sexy chic. I totally had a girl-crush on her.

For the love of all that’s holy,
don’t
ever
tell Phil that.

“Our ride should be here in a few minutes,” Sheri said, a soft smile playing about her mouth.

Feeling sassy and looking classy, we headed downstairs, and sure enough, our ride was waiting out front.

A freaking
limo
.

Lili, Alys, and I had identical shocked looks on our faces while Sheri beamed her megawatt smile.

“Surprise! The guys wanted us to go in style tonight,” she said while grabbing my hand and tugging me toward the door.

Alys and Lili followed.

“No shit,” said Alys.

Lili locked the front door, and as we approached the shiny black stretch, the smiling driver opened the door for us, slamming us with the heady perfume of roses. Inside sat four massive bouquets of deep red blooms.

“How sweet!” Sheri squealed in delight.

A bottle of iced champagne sat in a bucket to one side, which I wouldn’t touch. Champagne would make me sick before it made me buzzed, so Sheri filled me a flute with sparkling water instead.

“Wow, the guys went all out for us,” remarked Lili, locating a small card in her bouquet and plucking it out of the envelope. “‘
Pygmy, don’t let your man touch my woman, or I’ll go homicidal. Gigantore
.’ Aw, he’s so romantic, Kenna! How can you stand it?” She laughed.

“One irritating day at a time,” I replied, fishing around in my own bouquet for a card.

MY OTHER HALF,

I KNOW THAT TODAY MARKS ANOTHER YEAR GONE WITHOUT SOMEONE YOU LOVE. I CAN ONLY HOPE THE LOVE I HAVE FOR YOU CAN TAKE AWAY SOME OF THE SADNESS.

HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME TONIGHT. I’LL BANG YOUR BRAINS OUT WHEN YOU GET HOME.

I LOVE YOU.

PHIL

XXX (THAT’S PORN, NOT KISSES.)

I cracked up.

Lili snatched the card from my hand, snorting as she read it. “Total caveman romance right there,” she drawled.

I loved it. Romance was overrated.

The limo pulled up right in front of the restaurant. Waiting by double doors, in his black chef uniform, was none other than Lewis Lee, bad-boy rock-star chef himself.

“Oh my gods above, Lili!” I whispered, grabbing her hand.

“Look, we’ve never been swingers, but if you want to trade boyfriends for a night here and there, I might just be up for it.”

Alys and Sheri cracked up, and I could feel my eyes twinkling at Lili and her gorgeous smile. She wasn’t serious. There was no way either of us would go through with something like that…but it was sweet that she liked that I had a little thing for her man. Hell, she’d have no clue who he was if it wasn’t for me.