Spice (12 page)

“Okay,” Victor said into the silence. “You've had time to get your story straight in your head. Are you ready to share?”

“No, but I know you guys won't leave me alone until I do. Maybe we should have a just us dinner instead. No witnesses while you interrogate me.”

“Since when is catching up with our favorite daughter considered interrogation?”

She accepted a half glass of red from Nicholas and managed not to roll her eyes. She knew he'd poured her a half serving on purpose, especially since he and Victor had full glasses and there was still wine left in the bottle. Alcohol had never been her problem; she appreciated the buzz, but not the lack of control that followed over-imbibing. That he still worried about her and her drug consumption touched and irked her.

“Dad, you should be more worried about my caffeine and carb intake than my alcohol consumption,” she complained, trying to keep her voice light. “A glass a day is my limit, and I usually only drink when I have people over.”

“I am worried about your caffeine and carb intake,” Nicholas answered, his dark eyes warm as he gazed at her. “I also worry about your cholesterol, your high blood pressure, and whether you're eating or sleeping enough. I'm also concerned about why you're evading a simple question. You're not seeing someone who's already married, are you?”

“No.” She held his stare until he nodded, satisfied. “It's just that there's nothing much to tell. It's only been a week.”

Victor assembled a mix of foodstuffs on the counter. “You know the drill,” he said easily as he surveyed his gastric experiment in waiting. “Name, rank, serial number, when, where, and how.”

“I'll tell you everything you need to know after I shower and change into something more appropriate for an interrogation.” She eyed the counter. “But we are not having turkey tetrazzini surprise for dinner.”

“You love my turkey tetrazzini surprise.” Victor grabbed a pot and a sauté pan from the pot rack hanging over the island.

“I did. When I was ten. And then I found out what the surprise was.” She turned to Nicholas. “How about Uncle Foo's instead?”

Her father's smile transformed his face from stern to warm. “I like that idea. They've got some of the best spring rolls this side of Chinatown.”

“Hey.” Victor turned to face them. “There's nothing wrong with my tetrazzini.”

“Of course not,” Nicholas told his spouse, his expression warming further. “But since it's only going to be the three of us, we should leave making dinner for another time.”

“Maybe you're right,” Victor said, resigned. Then he brightened. “But I bet you I can get the tetrazzini together before Uncle Foo's delivers.”

“I'll take that bet,” Nadia said, opening the menu drawer next to the fridge. “Everybody want their usual?”

“I'll place the order,” Nicholas said, taking the menu from her. “Why don't you go get changed?”

Nadia knew better than to argue. “Be back in a jiff.”

She headed for the stairs, relieved that she hadn't followed through on the urge to call Kane. As certain as she was that she wasn't ready to talk about Kane to her parents, she definitely wasn't ready for him to meet them. She didn't think her sanity would survive the experience.

K
ane knocked on Nadia's door, wondering if he was doing more harm than good by showing up unannounced. He hadn't heard from her since he'd bid her good night the night before, and while he knew she'd had to be in the café that morning, he wanted to see her. Hell, he needed to see her. In the shortest possible time she had become a fever in his blood, a need that crawled through his guts and refused to let go.

She made him lose control. He'd been honest with her when he said he didn't like it. He'd built his life and his career through hard work and willpower, controlling every aspect of his personal and private life. Although he had a penchant for adventurous women, the sensual game was still played by his rules and ended on his terms. Stomping through a parking deck with his dick out because he was too damn horny to make it home went against his nature, but damn, it had been good.

Something about Nadia shredded his control, and he couldn't figure out what that something was. Her sexual adventurousness, her accepting nature, her skill, her brains, her beauty—all wrapped around a core of strength she didn't believe she had. In his opinion, anyone who could come through what she'd experienced during her time in Hollywood and be the better for it had to have a backbone of steel. He admired her. He hungered for her.

Laughter sounded on the other side of the door, deep and masculine. What the hell? While they hadn't officially had the exclusivity talk, he'd understood that she hadn't been seeing other people and neither had he. When had that changed, and why hadn't she informed him? A guy liked to know who his competition was, if only so he could study him and determine how to eliminate his opponent.

Mentally gearing up, he rang the doorbell. The door opened a moment later. His “opponent” was a tall, older man with brown hair turning to gray, dark brown eyes, and a taciturn expression that immediately put Kane on guard. He cupped a glass of red wine in his hand, displaying a casual familiarity that grated.

“Who's at the door?” Nadia called. “Is it the backup dinner?”

“I don't know yet.” The man turned back to Kane. “Who are you?”

“Kane Sullivan.” Kane stuck out his hand. “And you are?”

“Nicholas Spiceland.” The older man switched his wineglass to his left, then gripped Kane's hand. “Nadia's father.”

Nadia skidded to a halt in the doorway. “Oh, Kane!” She blushed to the roots of her hair as she gasped for air. She must have run down the stairs. “I wasn't expecting to see you today.”

“I was nearby,” he replied. It wasn't a lie.
Nearby
in a small college town was relative. “I should have brought wine, or at least called ahead.”

“Wine is always welcome.” A second male appeared behind Nadia. Shorter and bulkier than the first man, he had hair as mink dark as Nadia's, though his eyes held more gold than hers. “So are friends of Nadia's.”

Okay. The first man, Nicholas, had introduced himself as Nadia's father, but she looked more like the second one than the first. “Hello, you must be Victor. I'm Kane.”

“Kane.” Curiosity ripened the other man's voice. “You have us at a disadvantage. You know about us, but we haven't heard anything about you.”

“That's because I like to be interrogated on a full stomach.” Nadia leaned against the door. “Kane, these are my parents, Nicholas and Victor Spiceland. Dads, this is Kane Sullivan, the man I've been seeing.”

Well, that wasn't bad as far as introductions went, but they all heard her discomfort. Considering the way both men turned laserlike focus back to him, Kane could understand her quandary. It wasn't as if she could tell them the truth, that he and Nadia were only on their third date but several pages into reenacting an Arabic sex manual. “It's a pleasure to meet you both. I'm sorry to intrude on your time with your daughter. Nadia, I'll see you some other time.”

“Not so fast, young man.” Victor grabbed Kane's arm before he could turn to leave. “We surprised Nadia with our visit too. You should come in, even if only for a proper welcome and farewell. Though we were just attempting dinner. You should stay and judge our efforts. Nick's nowhere near impartial.”

“I'm not sure how impartial I can be either,” Kane said as he stepped over the threshold. “I have a thing for Nadia's buns.”

Victor laughed, Nicholas frowned, and Nadia flushed tomato red. Kane realized the suggestiveness of what he'd said and hastened to explain. “That's how we met. The first time I went to the bakery I had one of her sticky buns. Cleared my bad mood right up. I'm addicted now.”

Christ, that was a stupid thing to say too. He pushed a hand through his hair. “I suppose I've just trashed any chance to make a good first impression.”

“I think we can give you the benefit of the doubt,” Nicholas said as he closed and locked the door. “For now.”

“Way to make him feel welcome, Dad,” Nadia hissed. She turned back to Kane, plastering on a smile. “It's good to see you.”

Somehow he doubted it. “Something smells good. What are you having?”

“My version of turkey tetrazzini,” Victor said, heading back across the open living room to the kitchen. “It's the bomb.”

“Or Chinese from Uncle Foo's,” Nadia said, then turned to Kane. “Victor has a habit of taking his food experiments to the extreme. Sometimes his meals are literal gastric bombs.”

“How bad can it be, if you learned to cook from him?”

“Brownie points to the boyfriend!” Victor called, just before turning on a blender.

Kane caught Nadia's wide-eyed expression, and wondered if she was on the verge of bolting from her own home.

Nicholas Spiceland chose that moment to step between them. “Wine, Sullivan?”

“Some of that red would be nice. Thank you, sir.”

Nicholas raised an eyebrow. “Manners and compliments. How refreshing.” He headed for the kitchen.

“I'm sorry,” Kane said as he turned to Nadia. She wore jeans and a clingy green top that deepened her eyes, and had her hair pulled up in a clip. She could have passed for one of his students. “I should have called—”

“You wouldn't have reached me anyway. I apparently was so addled last night that I forgot to charge my phone when I got in.” She blew out a breath then gave him a true smile. “It really is okay. I just wasn't ready for this. We'd just gotten to the point in the surprise visit where the dads were pumping me for information about my dating life, and I happened to mention that I had one. So fair warning—the longer you stay, the more they'll grill you. They've always been overprotective since I'm the only girl, but after my . . . troubles, they kicked it up a notch. I think they still view me as a six-year-old in pigtails and ratty jeans.”

He touched her shoulder, having to satisfy himself with that when he really wanted to hold her hand, kiss her, wrap her in his arms—everything he wouldn't dare do with her parents surreptitiously watching from the kitchen. “I just came over to see how you were doing and to apologize for the way I left things in the parking deck. I was thrown off-balance.”

“You like being in control. I like you being in control too.” She leaned forward to whisper in his ear. “I also like when you lose it. I still have the imprint of your fingers on my ass.”

“Nadia.” Fuck. He was not going to get hard in front of her parents. “Maybe I should leave while the scales are still in my favor.”

“No.” She glanced toward the kitchen, then back to him. Very deliberately she reached up to cover his hand, her fingers tightening around his. Her syrupy-brown eyes gleamed with worry and what he hoped was genuine welcome for him. “I like having you here. I'm glad you get to meet my dads, who are the most awesome men I know. Meeting my parents and my friends in the same twenty-four-hour span—even I know that's way too early in the relationship game. I'm just, I'm just apologizing in advance.”

“There's nothing to apologize about. We're not even a week into this. I haven't mentioned us to my parents either. Speaking of parents, it sounds like Victor is debating the culinary merits of hot dogs. Is that the secret ingredient of his tetrazzini?”

“Turkey hot dogs,” she admitted. “Processed in a blender with pearl onions.”

“Oh.” Kane's stomach involuntarily clenched. “I don't think I'm going to be able to improve my first impression by attempting to eat that.”

Nadia laughed. “Yeah. Dinner was always an adventure growing up. I developed my cast-iron stomach early, and learned to cook in self-defense. Nicholas ordered a bunch of stuff from Uncle Foo's, and it should be here any time now. If it gets here before Victor finishes, it means we win, and Victor will forget all about his main course experiment.”

The doorbell rang. “Looks like we're saved,” Nicholas said dryly, handing Kane a glass of wine as he headed to the door. “Why don't you kids set the table?”

Victor accepted his defeat with grace, helping to arrange the food family style on the table. Nicholas grabbed another bottle of wine, and they gathered around the table to dig into the meal.

Or rather, dig into Kane.

“So, Sullivan,” Victor said, as he dropped a spring roll onto his plate. “You said you met Nadia in the café. Are you one of her vendors?”

“No. I'm actually a professor of human sexuality at Herscher.”

“What does that entail exactly?”

“A lot of discussion and reading through atrocious term papers, mostly,” Kane said, taking a sip of his wine. “But our department offers a variety of courses that can lead to professions such as counseling, sexual therapy, social work, and public policy work, among other things.”

“Sounds like admirable work,” Nicholas replied. “But that's not all that you do, is it, Professor?”

“Dad.” Nadia rolled her eyes in a perfect imitation of a sixteen-year-old that utterly captivated Kane. “If you're going to interrogate the man, can we at least let him get to the bottom of a glass of wine first? Or would you rather he leave now so you can be saved the trouble of running him off later?”

Victor hid a smile behind a spoonful of hot and sour soup. Nicholas frowned at Nadia. “I think it's a very valid observation.”

“Of course it is.” Kane held Nicholas Spiceland's gaze, knowing he was the one who would be more difficult to win over. “In addition to teaching, I've written a couple of books. I've also assisted law enforcement in profiling sexual predators.”

Cool brown eyes swept over him. “You made a name for yourself with that Red Light Rapist case.”

Nadia stiffened beside him. “I wouldn't call it making a name for myself so much as capitalizing on the unwanted media attention to publicize the necessity of a better understanding of what is and isn't deviant sexual behavior. The publicity benefitted the program at Herscher, and for that I'm glad.”

Nicholas regarded him over the rim of his wineglass. “Do you know what Nadia went through?”

“Dad!” Nadia blushed to the roots of her hair. “Seriously, you just met him—and I'm not a teenager headed to prom with the bad boy!”

“It's okay, Nadia.” Kane gave her a brief smile before turning back to Nicholas Spiceland. “Nadia told me about her drug addiction and rehab on our first date. All I knew up to that point was that she made the most amazing desserts and had a smile for everyone who came into her café. She remembers her regulars, and has an amazing ability to match a pastry to the person. She and her partner have made their café a must-stop destination and I've never seen anyone leave angry or unsatisfied. She's pure magic.”

“Kane.” Nadia leaned over and kissed him. “That was wonderful. Thank you.”

Tension slipped away as he stared down at her. “It's the truth.”

Victor raised his glass. “I'd say a good first impression has been achieved.”

“I'll drink to that,” Nadia said, lifting her glass. “Now that the interview is over, can we get to the lighter topics of the conversation, like politics and religion?”