Just His Taste (3 page)

Chapter Four

Back in fairy form, Ava flittered around the wedding. The service itself was simple enough. Everything went smoothly. All those lovely girly, feminine things that Ava had never been a big fan of littered the ceremony.

The thing she found interesting while hovering around her charge was that he'd accompanied the blonde from earlier to the service, sat with her, and even walked around a bit after with her. Well, as much as he could, anyway, when he wasn't checking on the barbecue.

Now, though, he was back in his apron, putting the finishing touches on his meat. He paid little attention to the women at the adjacent tables who were checking him out as they prepared the rest of the food for the meal.

While Jason worked, Ava kept an eye out for more of Cupid's minions. She'd sent a few flying away, but not a lot.

But at least there'd been no Cupid to deal with.

Thank Zeus—wait. Thank Jupiter.

She corrected herself before lightning bolts lit up the wedding. Ava appreciated not having to deal directly with the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus. That task was left to the Fairy Council. Politics that Ava never had to deal with.

Cupid was enough of a pain in the ass.

Jason bent over to pick something off the ground, giving Ava a really great view, and she couldn't help admiring how good his butt looked in those pants. Not every guy could make Dockers look good.

Jason did.

She fanned herself.

“Focus,” she whispered. Though keeping her mind on her job had been hard most of the day, she had to remember her priorities. Maybe it was time she pulled out his file and took a look. She needed to know what direction to send her energies.

She wasn't ready to admit she was attracted to him.

Yet.

“It's just a fascination. Since I've never directly worked with a man before,” she said, rolling her red wand in the air, and the rose-red-colored sparkles—she refused to admit they were anything close to pink—materialized Jason's file.

The basics were pretty simple.

Jason knew Bruce and Roark—Lilly's and Christy's charges—through school; they'd all wrestled together and remained friends. They met once a month and had a guys' night, drinking.

The usual blah-blah-blah about Jason being a private detective.

“Oh, what's this?” Ava whispered, as she read a little more history. Evidently, he'd been a police officer and had been in an accident. He'd hurt his knee pretty badly and had to leave the force.

“Hurt in the line of duty? That sucks,” Ava muttered. And that was when she saw it. During that time, he was dating Tessa Smith. Ava tapped her name in the file.

“Son of a bitch,” she muttered. Tessa Smith was the blonde from earlier. Ava paid particular attention to the details from that relationship. As she read, she gripped the file tighter and tighter.

Oh, Ava did not like this Tessa gal at all.

“Who does that?” Ava whispered.

“Who does what?” Cupid asked, making Ava jump.

“What do you want?” she snapped. He was no longer in mortal clothes, but dressed in the typical toga of Roman gods. He bobbed in the air, the same size as she, a bemused smile on his face.

“To be of assistance,” Cupid answered.

“Listen, you already caused enough trouble today. Sending your minions. That, that
thing
before… What the hell were you thinking? If Christy or Lilly had seen that—”

“Why, are you embarrassed of me, Ava?”

“Of course I am,” Ava snapped.

Cupid balked. And for a second… “How dare you?” he fired back. “I am a god! An immortal over men! A being of far greater importance than any stupid human or piddly fairy!”

Ava guessed his little outburst was supposed to upset her or intimidate her. It didn't work. She'd seen his temper tantrums enough in the past; they barely fazed her.

“Get over yourself,” Ava replied dryly. “You and I both know the trouble we could get into if word got back to the Fairy Council about your attention toward me.”

Cupid snorted.

Ava sighed. “Besides, I figure we might as well let it go. It's not doing either of us any good, anyway.”

Cupid narrowed his gaze. “Why, who are you interested in?”

Ava shook her head. “I'm not. I just don't think we should be spending any more time together.”

“You have that glow, Avalynn. Who is it?”

“I don't have any damn glow,” she snapped. “Now go. Doesn't Hollywood need more starlets getting married unexpectedly or something?”

“As much as I adore sharing the love in Hollywood, I think you need me here more than ever.”

Ava snorted. “Really. I got this.”

“Are you certain?” Cupid asked and gestured to the file.

“What?” Ava looked down.

There, almost glowing, was the listing of Happily Ever After potentials for her charge. There was a list, with two spots.

Only one was filled in.

Tessa Smith.

Ava tried not to let her gut churn. She felt it in her bones that the blonde wasn't the girl for Jason. But there it was.

And the file was never wrong.

“Well, see, this will be easy,” Ava said, forcing a smile on her face. “He just spent some time with her just a little bit ago. And oh, look, there she is, gesturing to Jason now.”

And sure enough, Tessa had pointed to Jason, and he just happened to see it and waved back at her.

“Yeah, this will be easy,” Ava whispered. Maybe too easy.

Chapter Five

Tessa beamed at Jason. “I really can't thank you enough.” She squeezed his hands at her car.

Jason nodded. “No big,” he said. “It was nice having a date.”

She pulled him in for a hug. “Yeah, I know, and with Lucas…”

“I know. I saw him.” Jason didn't miss the dirty looks Tessa's ex gave him throughout the wedding, every time Tessa came around. Granted, Jason couldn't spend that much time with her, being that he was cooking and serving, but he did his best.

And he wouldn't deny it—having Tessa as an excuse had been nice when the randy single women at the wedding started their flirting. Because there were always randy women running around a wedding, looking for someone to flirt with, maybe even take home.

Maybe his friend Roark was on to something, being the wedding planner's stand-in date. He saw Roark and Stephanie slow dancing on the dance floor, which was a bit of a surprise because he didn't think that wedding planner ever stopped moving. But she could sure put on a nice wedding. If he was lucky, maybe Stephanie would contact him again about catering.

It wasn't like the barbecue cook-offs he enjoyed, but today had its own charm. Of course, about anything around a barbecue grill had its charm.

“Thank you,” Tessa said a final time as she released him from the hug.

“You're welcome.” When he pulled away, he took a second to press a kiss on her cheek, and she did the same back. He released her and held open the car door for her. She climbed in and said goodbye before heading off.

Jason waited until she was gone before stretching his sore back. And once again, he scanned around for Ava, the redhead with the kinky mind.

No luck.

He kept his looking subtle, but he didn't see Ava anywhere. Earlier, when he'd spoken to Bruce, he had seen her walking by. Heck, so had Bruce, for a second.

But she'd disappeared again. Yet he had this feeling she'd been around all day, though he didn't know why.

Just one of those old cop-hunch things.

He'd worked his way back to his stuff, to finish packing the last bit, when a guy came up to the table.

Not just any guy.

Lucas Wyman, Tessa's ex-boyfriend.

“Gregorian,” he said.

“Wyman,” Jason replied. He'd known Lucas Wyman for years. A wrestler, just like Roark, Bruce and he, but Wyman had wrestled for North, while Jason had been on South's team. Rivals on the mat, but, mostly, they got along in public.

Hell, he'd introduced Tessa to Wyman a hundred years ago.

Wyman looked Jason up and down. “Thought that ship sailed,” he said.

Jason set down the box he held. “What do you want, Wyman?”

Wyman raised his eyebrow. “You and Tessa were ancient history.”

“History is often repeated.”

“Uh-huh.” Wyman picked up a bottle of Jason's sauce. Smelled it, then set it back down. “I think you're being a nice guy, pretending to be Tessa's date so she didn't look bad.”

“You think?” Jason replied.

“Otherwise, why are you still here? Alone?”

“Working. You know how Tessa is.”

Wyman nodded. “Yeah, I know exactly how she is.”

Jason stacked another box. “Question is—why do you care?”

“Just because we broke up doesn't mean I don't care.”

“Actually, it kinda does.”

Wyman narrowed his gaze. “Don't screw with her Gregorian, or I'll—”

Jason raised his eyebrow. “You'll what?”

“I'll tear you up.”

“Quite protective of your ex.”

“I mean it, Gregorian.”

Jason nodded. “Warning received. Now if you'll excuse yourself, I have work.”

Wyman blinked, posturing a little as he left.

Jason shook his head.
The guy is still mental.

He put the last of his stuff on his cart and hauled it toward his van. On the way, he waved at Bruce as the photographer loaded up his own equipment. With his head in his phone.

Again.

Jason shook his head. Dude needed a life that wasn't connected to his cell phone.

Jason piled everything into his serial-killer van.

Damn thing, right out of
Silence of the Lambs
, was ugly as sin. The kind of work vehicle kids were told to avoid. Still, it held all his gear for barbecue cook-offs and he could put his small grill and smoker in the back, no problem.

He'd gotten the last of it loaded—why did it take up more room after an event than before?—and closed the door when a voice jarred him.

“You don't hand out lollipops in that thing, do you?”

Jason spun around.

There stood Ava. Out of that skirt, instead wearing a pair of jeans that hugged every inch of her long legs, a tank top that did the same for her upper body, and her red hair hung over one shoulder, tied in a ponytail.

And that wickedly flirty smile.

“Only to the good girls,” he answered. Just looking at her made his blood flow south.

She smiled a little wider.

Nope, no more blood remained in his brain.

“Well, I'm mostly good. But I'd much rather have a drink than a lollipop.”

“I'm all out of beer,” Jason answered.

“Well, the bar down the street will remedy that,” she said.

Jason nodded. “N-need a ride?”
Good grief, there he went again!
Lord, it was like he was seven or something.

“Can I trust you?” she asked with that playful look in her eye.

He raised his eyebrow. “Maybe.”

“Fifty-fifty? Well those odds aren't too bad,” Ava said as she stepped a bit closer to him.

“Better than even money.”

“Only if I play both sides.”

“Do you?”

She licked her lips. “When I have to.”

He guided her to the passenger side of the van. “I guess you're in for a night of gambling, then.” He popped the door open for her.

“Oh yeah?” she asked, her hand on the door.

“Because I play both sides too.”

“Touché.”

An hour and a half and almost two bourbon and cokes later, Jason was having the time of his life. Way better than if he'd had Bruce come over for a beer after the wedding.

Ava had a sexy laugh. She tossed her head back when she released that full, open, genuine sound that made him want to tell her more jokes, just to hear it again.

“You didn't tell her that…”

Jason nodded. “Sometimes people need a reality check.”

“But in Walmart?” Ava laughed.

“The people of Walmart need to be told.”

More laughter.

She picked up her own bourbon and coke. “So tell me,” she said, rocking the drink back and forth in the glass, making the ice tinkle. “That gal at the wedding. Is she your girlfriend?”

Jason played with his little drink straw. Evidently, she'd been more aware of him today than he'd been of her.

“She was once,” he said.

Ava sat up straighter. “Well, if I'm stepping on toes—”

Jason waved his hand. “N-n-no. That's over. Has been for a while.”

“Oh.” She drank a bit more of her bourbon. “Are you sure?” Her eyebrow went up as she said it, like she knew something.

“Pretty sure.” He finished his drink.

“You wouldn't want to go back to her?”

“What is this, twenty questions?” For a second, she tensed, and he smiled at her. “Feel like I'm in high school. Are you secretly texting my answers to her under the table?”

She chuckled and held up empty hands. “I just don't want to meddle with a rekindling relationship.”

“D-d-don't worry. No spark.”

“Not even a little one?”

“Nope. I don't look back.”

“Always forward?”

“Yep.”

“They say hindsight is twenty-twenty.”

“But we don't grow if all we do is look back.”

She nodded. “You're rather wise for a guy.”

He smirked. “What about you? That guy earlier? What's that story?”

She shrugged. “He's—he was available at the time.”

“Ahh, one of those,” Jason replied, though, regardless, the guy's behavior still made him tense. A bit of his police training started coming in. “He usually handles you like that?”

“Not usually.” She ran her hand over her ponytail. “But he'd pissed me off.”

“So he was preventing a scene?”

“Sure. We can call it that.”

Jason raised his eyebrow. “You know, I was a cop. I can smell bullshit.” The waitress stopped at the table and he ordered another round of drinks.

She snorted. And damn, even that was cute.

“Well, I can see auras, and I think you're bluffing.”

“Auras, huh?” he asked, not buying a word.

“Yep. And yours says you're full of shit.”

“What else?”

“That you're horny.” She finished her drink and dropped the glass hard on the tabletop.

Jason blinked. “You think?”

“I know.”

He leaned toward her. “Prove it.”