Just His Taste Read online

  Jason stopped dead in his tracks. “I-I—” He looked at her with the strangest mix of shock and arousal on his face.

  “Calm down, I’m not hitting on you.” Ava grinned.

  He shook his head. “So where in the hell did that come from?”

  She shrugged. “I’m just saying. Some people like being forced to do things. I mean, there’s two huge industries focused on that very thing.”

  “What two?”

  “Sex shops and erotic romance. Haven’t you heard of Fifty Shades of Gray?”

  “Is that what that was?” Jason asked.

  “Well, yeah. Where have you been?”

  “Under a rock.”

  “I guess so.” She rolled her eyes. “What am I going to do with you?” she whispered, more to herself.

  But he must have heard. “Educate me?”

  Ava laughed, and he joined her. The two of them stopped and stared at each other, and Ava felt a strange tingling in her stomach.

  Very, very strange.

  “I’m Jason,” he said, holding out his hand.

  “Ava,” she replied as she accepted his hand. She’d intended just to shake it and be done with it, but for a reason she didn’t quite understand, she held on a touch longer than she should have. Or what was appropriate. Or right.

  Yet even in that moment, she felt energy between them, a strong connection. Probably the strongest she’d ever had with a charge before. Meeting his gaze, she found herself pulled in by his dark-brown eyes, which remained locked on hers.

  “Ava.” He nodded. “It suits you.”

  She pulled her hand back and made herself look away. “Thanks.” She started to walk again. “So what are you doing here?”

  “Catering.” He matched her pace and gestured to the area where a barbecue oven slowly smoked, pouring a warm aroma into the air.

  “You’re a caterer?” she asked.

  “I’m actually a private investigator. But I do barbecue on the side.”

  “Must keep you busy,” she said.

  “Passions usually do.”

  Ava raised her eyebrow. “Passions, huh?”

  Jason shrugged. “They’re both p-puzzles, and I love a good puzzle.” He winced as he spoke.

  She blinked, realizing he’d stuttered again, and he wasn’t very happy about it. Her knee-jerk reaction was to say something, but from the firm set of his jaw and the way he glared at nothing, she assumed that acknowledging it would make it worse. So she pretended not to notice.

  “Barbecue is a puzzle?” Ava asked.

  “Sure. Bringing things together to bring out the best flavor in the meat.” He crossed into his work area and tended the smokers.

  “You seem to do a good job,” Ava said, taking in a deep breath of the cooking meat. It smelled wonderful—so wonderful her stomach growled.

  “Hungry?” he asked, grinning at her. The embarrassment over the stutter seemed to have left him.

  “Maybe a little bit.”

  Jason pulled a metal pan from the smoker. He removed the tin-foil cover and a wafting aroma of amazing-smelling barbecue enveloped Ava.

  “Have a piece.” He handed her a plastic fork.

  She speared a small sliver of the pork. It melted in her mouth, it was so tender. “Oh wow,” she said, covering her mouth as she spoke. “That’s amazing.”

  He held out a napkin. “Thanks.”

  She wiped off her lips. “Do you always cook like this?”

  He shrugged. “Sometimes.”

  “I have gotta come to your house for dinner,” she said.

  He grinned. “You need to get my address first.”

  Ava waved her hand in the air. “I can find you.” And in that moment, realized how stalkerish that probably sounded. “I’ll just follow my taste buds.”

  He laughed.

  Oh, he had the best laugh. Full, robust, and it sent shivers up her arms in all those good ways.

  “You are great,” she said, smiling. He’s going to be so easy to get together with his HEA. What girl wouldn’t love a guy like him, with eyes like that and a great body and that awesome jawline?

  He really was fabulous.

  He paused. “Great?”

  She nodded. “I bet your girlfriend loves that you cook.”

  He raised his eyebrow. “That was a lame way to ask if I was seeing someone.”

  “Just making conversation.” Ava shrugged, hoping she didn’t come off like a chick looking for a date. “Are you?”

  “No.”

  “Do you want to?”

  He clenched his teeth, like he gnawed on something for a moment. “D-depends.” He turned and checked on the food in the smoker, giving her a good look at his backside.

  “On what?” Stop looking at his ass!

  A clatter of metal as he lowered the lid again. “Whether she’s desperate or not.”

  “What, you only like the desperate ones?”

  “No. I avoid them.” He glanced at her over his shoulder. “I c-can’t handle a gal who doesn’t have a world of her own.”

  “So you like independent.”

  He nodded. “Yeah. She needs to have her own stuff. Like this.” He gestured to his grill and smoker. “This is my thing. Everyone needs a thing.”

  Ava nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Do you have a thing?”

  She shrugged. “Sure. Everyone’s got a thing.” Granted, hers was not nearly as cool as making this amazing food. It was so not cool she’d never even told her fellow fairies what it was.

  Christy and Lilly would probably die laughing if they knew.

  “What’s yours?” Jason asked, jarring her from her thoughts.

  “What kind of meat is this?” Ava asked, stabbing another piece.

  “Pork butt.”

  He said it so straight-faced, Ava paused, wondering if he was waiting to deliver a punch line.

  “Pork butt? I’m eating the butt of a pig?”

  He raised his eyebrow. “I love a good piece of ass.”

  Ava burst out laughing. And pretended not to notice the darkening of his eyes. Or her own attraction starting to hum in her veins. “We all love a good piece, now and again.”

  “Do you?”

  Holy moly, that was a loaded question.

  She turned away. “Evidently I do.” As she said it, she tried to be cool, relaxed, like this conversation wasn’t doing anything to her.

  Unfortunately, it was.

  It did all kinds of things to her. Things that a fairy should never, ever feel for her charge.

  The urge to escape, to get away, started overwhelming her. Damn, she needed to look at that file. It went against the way she did things normally, but for this one she might have to revert to the shoulder hover.

  Damn.

  “It’s hard to find,” Jason said, jarring her from her worries.

  “What is?”

  “A good piece of ass.” He poured some different sauces into a bowl. “Sometimes you gotta look all over to get just the right piece.” He pulled out a bottle of beer and a bottle of bourbon.

  She raised her eyebrow. Wow, is he a big drinker? It’s a bit early… “So you’re particular about your piece, then?”

  “Very.” He cracked open the beer and dumped some in the sauce. “Not any piece will do. It has to be just right.” He stirred the sauce, and did the same routine with the bourbon.

  She watched him add a bit of this and that. “And how do you know what’s right?”

  “Experience.” He pulled out the spoon and tasted the sauce. His sultry eyes spoke volumes more than the simple word.

  Holy Hera, she felt hot. She had to get out of here.

  This was not good. Not good at all. Because what she wanted to do had nothing to do with her job.


  The Council did not look kindly on fairies being involved with humans. Secrets spilled and awful things happened to the last working fairy caught fornicating with a charge.

  Ava couldn’t let that happen to her. At the very least, her unorthodox approach to handling her jobs could cause a lot of issues if anyone on the Council knew about it. Her extracurricular activities would be yet another nail in her coffin.

  Yeah, it was time to make a discreet exit. If she could get away from Jason’s rather probing stare.

  Finally, her escape approached.

  A lovely girl, blonde, moved toward the table. “Jason, it’s so nice to see you,” she said.

  Jason painted on a smile and turned to the young lady. “Tessa, it’s good to see you. How are you doing?”

  “I’m fine,” she said and glanced at Ava, the pleasant look disappearing.

  That’s my cue, Ava thought.

  She turned and walked away.

  And she didn’t look back, because she didn’t want to see her charge. She didn’t have to. He was watching—she could feel it.

  Chapter Three

  Jason watched the redhead, Ava, walk away. He didn’t want her to go. He felt an immediate knee-jerk reaction. A jealousy, but not. Not exactly ownership, or based on any kind of understandable logic.

  Just instinct.

  Jason felt an immediate connection with her, one that surpassed reason.

  Primal.

  Though he doubted she thought he was anything more than a stammering idiot. He hadn’t stuttered that much in a month.

  What the fuck? He let out a sigh.

  Tessa noticed where his attention focused, her narrow gaze running over Ava. “You can do better.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Tessa rolled her eyes. “Who wears red with hair like that? Really, Jason, she’s obviously—”

  “St-stop.”

  She let out a sigh. “Fine. I’m sorry.” Though she didn’t sound the least bit sorry. “Doesn’t matter anyway.”

  Jason raised his eyebrow. “Did you want something, Tessa?”

  “Just to say hi. I haven’t seen you in an age.”

  He wasn’t buying that for a second. “I know you better than that.”

  Her prim and perfect posture slumped a bit. “I suppose you do.”

  “So out with it. I have food I’m cooking.” He turned to his grill and started moving the meat around.

  “Be my date tonight.”

  He about dropped his tongs. “What?”

  “I need a date. My ex is here with his latest slut, and I can’t be here alone if he’s got a date.”

  “And you assume I’ll do this because…?”

  She smiled and batted her eyelashes. “Because friends help one another. And you’re a nice guy.”

  I wouldn’t go that far, Jason thought. “What do you need me to do, exactly?”

  She shrugged. “The usual stuff. Sit with me during the ceremony. A quick lap of the reception. Light PDA.”

  “Light PDA?”

  “Public displays of affection?”

  “I know what it is.”

  “Hold my hand. Kiss on the cheek. Nothing fancy.”

  “You do realize I’m working here.”

  “I can work with that,” she said.

  He didn’t like the idea, but he and Tessa had parted amicably and remained friends. Most of the time, anyway. Their relationship hadn’t been the best—the biggest issue being that she didn’t have a lot of faith in him.

  Not that he cheated, or even tried to. It was other levels of faith they lacked.

  His knee ached and he shifted positions. He wasn’t sure he wanted to go back to…

  “Jason?” Tessa said, her voice soft, and for a second she looked almost worried. And, damn, that was the same look that he’d seen on numerous upset women who really just wanted some help.

  And it absolutely kicked him in the gut every time.

  “I have a caveat myself,” he finally said.

  “Of course. What is it?”

  “No digs.”

  She blinked and stared at him, like she was going to say something but had stopped herself.

  “No digs about being a private investigator or the cooking. Or I’ll tell everyone this is all for show.”

  “Of course. I wouldn’t.”

  He raised his eyebrow. “You didn’t have a lot of faith in me before.”

  She looked at the ground. “Well, everyone makes mistakes.”

  “Even you?” Jason asked.

  “Especially me.”

  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.”