The Satyr's Curse (The Satyr's Curse Series Book 1) (19 page)

Jazzmyn leaned against the doorframe to her office. “I can’t help him. I can’t hold his hand anymore and pretend to turn a blind eye to his drinking.”

Ms. Helen uttered a heaving sigh. “Well, if you don’t bring him back, then you best start lookin’ for his replacement.”

“Carl is his replacement for the time being.”

“Carl is all talk and no spice, Jazzmyn. You’ll see. Kyle could cook circles ‘round that boy.” Ms. Helen turned away, shaking her head. “I hope you got a backup plan,” she expressed over her shoulder.

Jazzmyn watched the older woman slowly shuffle away, then went into her office and closed the door. When she sat down at her desk, Jazzmyn rested her head in her hands.

“If I have to go back and kiss that man’s sorry ass, I will never hear the end of it,” she whispered.

The sound of pots falling to the floor in the kitchen jolted Jazzmyn out of her chair. When she ran into the kitchen to see what was going on, she found Carl crawling around on the floor picking up pots that had fallen from the rack above the stove.

“See what I mean?” Ms. Helen said, coming alongside her.

Jazzmyn nodded to Carl. “All you have to do is make sure he fills the orders and keeps the kitchen running smoothly.”

“I ain’t his momma, Jazzmyn. That boy needs to go back to cookin’ school for a few more years before he’s ready for this.” Ms. Helen kept her eyes on Carl as he struggled to replace the pots on the shelf. “This is gonna be a long day,” she murmured.

“Just get lunch started,” Jazzmyn snapped and headed back down the hall to her office.

***

That evening all the dining room tables were full and the kitchen was packed with every free hand in the place. Jazzmyn was working behind the prep table helping Carl get the dishes out, while Leon was cooking most of the orders that Carl could not keep up with. Even Scott was running in and out from the dining room with tickets from the overwhelmed wait staff.

“Julian’s here,” Scott informed Jazzmyn as she finished putting the final touches on a bowl of chicken andouille gumbo.

“I can’t come out right now.” She passed the bowl of gumbo off to him. “Take that out to table four, please.”

Scott picked up the gumbo and put it on a serving tray. He leaned in closer to the prep table and whispered, “We’re getting some grumblings about the food.”

Jazzmyn wiped her hands on her dirty white apron. “The same complaints as we got with lunch?”

Scott nodded. “Too much pepper, and the regulars are asking if Kyle is out tonight.”

Jazzmyn ran her hand over her sweaty brow, trying to think of something to say. “Tell them Kyle had to take off for a few days. Family emergency.” That should appease some of them.”

“After a few days, then what?” Scott pestered.

Jazzmyn frowned at him and pointed to the bowl of gumbo in his hands. “Just take that out to table five and let me worry about what to do.”

Scott knitted his brow. “I thought you said table four?”

“I meant table four. Just go, Scott.” Jazzmyn waved him away.

Scott headed out the kitchen door, carrying the bowl of gumbo on a tray.

Jazzmyn turned around to see Carl adding pepper to scallops he was searing in a frying pan. She took the pepper out of his hand, and pulled a large bottle marked “spice mix” from the rack next to the stove.   

“Use the mix Kyle prepared for the food, not pepper,” she directed, handing the bottle to Carl.

Carl frowned at the bottle. “I think the pepper gives it a better flavor.”

“You’re killing the customers with it; now use the damn spice mix like I told you.”

“Jazzmyn?” a man’s deep voice called from behind her.

“What?” she shouted as she spun around.

When she saw Julian standing in front of the prep table before her, she gave him an apologetic smile.

His deep brown eyes flashed with concern as they took in her sweaty face.

“I’m sorry, Julian, but things are a little crazy tonight.”

“Can I lend a hand?”

Jazzmyn was about to tell him to go and open a nice bottle of wine when she was reminded of the meal he had prepared for the two of them. She stared at him for a moment as an idea percolated in her head.

“Do you think you could put some salads together for me?” she finally asked.

Julian gave her his wonderful smile. “Absolutely.”

She walked around the prep table and grabbed a clean apron hanging on the side of the kitchen door. After handing him the apron, she looked down at his black slacks and expensive, black leather loafers. “You’re gonna ruin your pants and shoes in the kitchen.”

He rolled up the sleeves on his gray shirt. “It’s for a worthy cause.”

She helped secure the apron around his waist. “Carl can’t keep up with the orders and we’re getting complaints about the food,” she whispered to him.

He nodded to the kitchen. “Just show me where everything is and give me a little time to get the layout, and I should be able to keep up.”

She shook her head, grinning at his confidence. “Julian, have you ever worked in a kitchen before?”

He gazed into her eyes. “I have superpowers, remember?”

She showed Julian to the salad station off to the side of the main prep area. Julian studied the containers of vegetables before him and turned to take in the main shelf where the ingredients needed during service were kept.

“Salad plates are to your right,” Jazzmyn explained as she showed him the layout of the table. “Dressings are at the top of the table and labeled by name, and the vegetable selection is in the center.” She pointed to a printed list above the station. “Each of the salads are listed in alphabetical order with the quantity of ingredients to be added printed beneath the salad name. Just look up the salad, pick up a salad bowl and throw whatever is called for into the bowl. Dressing is added last and each specialty salad has its own dressing; house salads, the customer chooses the dressing, so make sure to check each order. If you need chicken added for the Caesar salad or the meats for the chef’s special salad, just look below.” She opened the cabinet beneath the table and showed Julian the prepared plates of chicken, ham, cheddar cheese, and chopped boiled eggs waiting in a small refrigerator inside.

Jazzmyn watched as his dark eyes surveyed the table. “Any questions?”

“No, I’ve got it,” Julian declared.

“Yell if you get stuck.” Jazzmyn kissed his cheek. “Thank you for doing this. You’ll save my ass.”

“You and your ass can pay me back later tonight,” he added with a wink.

Jazzmyn left him at the salad station and returned to hover over Carl. When she stepped behind the main prep area, she saw Carl once again sprinkling pepper on some sea bass waiting to be plated.

She gritted her teeth and decided if she ever got her hands on Kyle again, she was going to kill him.

Chapter 17

The last of the customers had just walked out the door when Jazzmyn plopped her exhausted body down on a red leather stool by the bar. Julian was sitting next to her, drinking a glass of merlot.

“That was fun,” he said to her as he put his empty glass down on the bar. “I haven’t had that much fun in a kitchen in years.”

“You were pretty good at it,” Scott commented from behind the bar as he refilled Julian’s wine glass. “Every time I stepped back there you had the orders ready to go.” He put the bottle on the bar and frowned at Jazzmyn. “Which was a hell of a lot better than our new master chef did.”

“It was his first night, Scott,” Jazzmyn chided. “Give the kid a break.”

Scott selected a wine glass from the rack behind him and placed it before Jazzmyn. “Admit it, Jazz. Mr. Devereau put out better salads than any of the whiz kid’s plates.” He picked up the bottle of merlot and poured some into the glass for her.

Julian waved away Scott’s praise with his hand. “I just did salads, Scott. It’s hard to screw those up.” He lifted his glass of wine. “I thought I told you to call me Julian.”

Scott nodded and put the wine bottle back down on the bar. “Well, Julian, I disagree, but all I can say is thank heaven you came in and helped out.”

Julian let his eyes drift over to Jazzmyn. “I think it’s safe to say you will be seeing a lot of me in the future, since Jazzmyn has accepted my proposal of marriage.” He raised his glass to his lips.

Jazzmyn glared at Julian as he sipped from his wine.

Scott turned to Jazzmyn and mustered a strained smile. “That is some news. I guess congratulations are in order.”

Jazzmyn angrily clenched her fists. She had not intended to tell anyone at the restaurant about her and Julian right away. She wanted to give everyone time to adjust to him, and she wanted to give herself some time to get used to the idea of becoming his wife.

“We haven’t made any plans yet.” She fidgeted on her stool. “Julian just asked me, and there are a lot of things we have to decide on before we make a formal announcement.”

“Just make sure you don’t get bogged down in one of those monster weddings,” Scott suggested. “Our guest list was over two hundred by the time Lynda and me got married. If you want to keep your sanity, elope.” Scott reached into the front pocket of his black trousers and pulled out his keys. “Speaking of which, if you don’t mind boss lady, I’m going to head on out so I can spend some time with my wife.”

“Go on home, Scott. We can deal with everything tomorrow,” she assured him.

“You know what you need to do, Jazz. Call him. Get him back in here before Carl puts us all on unemployment.” Scott held out his hand to Julian. “Julian, congratulations. See if you can talk some sense into her about bringing Kyle back.”

Julian put his glass down and shook Scott’s outstretched hand. “Thank you, Scott, but I make no promises.”

Jazzmyn waited until Scott had exited the dining room before she turned to Julian.

“Why did you tell him we’re getting married?’ she demanded, frowning.

He looked surprised by her reaction. “I thought you would want everyone to know. These people are like family to you. Don’t you want to share our impending marriage with them?”

“Yes, Julian, these people are like my family, and they know I don’t just jump into things like marriage. They will ask why I’m rushing into this.”

He picked up his glass from the bar. “If that is how you feel, then we will have a long engagement. After we get through the ceremony, and I’m back to my former self, we can get formally married whenever you like.”

Jazzmyn noted the way he tipped the wine glass to his lips and quaffed the deep burgundy liquid. There was something different about him tonight. He appeared almost arrogant in his mannerisms, as if he were a puppeteer pulling all of her strings.

She peered into her glass of wine. “Scott is going to call Kyle and tell him about us.”

“So?” Julian testily smacked his glass down on the bar. “What does it matter if Kyle knows about us?”

She stood from her stool and picked up her wine glass. “It matters because I need Kyle back, Julian.” She walked over to the center of the bar, lifted the service panel, and stepped behind it. “When he finds out about us, he’ll go ballistic,” she explained as she made her way to the sink behind the bar. “I’ve got to get him to come back, or else The Sweet Note will go under.” She emptied her glass into the sink.

“Why not find another chef? Kyle isn’t the only one in the city. This is New Orleans, after all. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a chef in this town.”

She placed her glass in the sink and sighed. “A new chef means a new menu. Changes to the staff in the kitchen mean chaos until everyone learns the new routine. Inventories have to be revamped. Customers get cranky when they can’t have their old favorites, and I’ll be a nervous wreck until the reviews come back on our new chef. I can’t organize a wedding and change everything at The Sweet Note. I don’t have that kind of strength.”

“Then why not sell this place?” He waved his hand about the dining room. “Get rid of it. We don’t need the money. I have more than enough for us. We can travel, and I can show you the world.”

“I don’t want to see the world, Julian. I want my restaurant. My father started this place and drove himself to an early grave to make it what it is. I can’t just give it up,” she admitted, raising her voice.

“All right.” He held up his hands, trying to temper her anger. “Forget I suggested it. Just think about it before you bring Kyle back here. He was trouble before, and he will be trouble again.” He paused and shook his head. “I never did like the way he looked at you. It was as if he owned you.”

Jazzmyn was immediately struck by something Kyle had once told her. “He said the same thing about you once.”

He stood from his stool. “But I do own you. You’re mine and have always been mine.”

Jazzmyn’s fury boiled in the pit of her stomach. “You don’t own me, Julian.”

Julian focused his dark eyes on her. “You’re going to become my wife, Jazzmyn. In my world that makes you my property.”

“Your property?” She began counting to ten, but stopped. “In your world men and women were kept as slaves. Women had no power and no rights, and killing a man was something you did for your honor or for sport. Times are very different, Julian. I am a woman of my generation, outspoken, aggressive, and relentless in getting what I want. I don’t put up with bullshit from anyone, and I get really pissed off when men try to tell me what to do. If you ever treat me like a woman from your world, I will run you over with that fancy car of yours. Got it?” 

He clapped his hands together and the dining room resonated with his musical laughter. “That is why I love you, Jazzmyn. I need a modern woman with passion, who acts on her instincts and does not suppress them. The women from my time held no appeal for me. They were mindless creatures who only cared for fashion and society.”

Her annoyance with him still smarted, and she rubbed her hand over her forehead, trying to contain her temper. “Those women still exist, Julian. But at least today they have the same rights as men…well, almost.”

He folded his arms across his powerful chest. “I saw that fire in you when you were a little girl. I knew then that all I had to do was wait for you to grow up and one day you would be the woman I see before me. You have always been destined for me.”

Jazzmyn was suddenly struck by an unsettling thought. “If you knew I was the one for you, then why did you kill those women?”

Julian appeared taken aback by her question. “I didn’t kill anyone, the monster inside me did. I told you that.”

“But why did you go after those four young women I read about in the newspaper? If you knew I was the one, why did you wait so long to approach me? Innocent lives could have been spared, Julian.”

He looked down at his wine glass on the bar. “Every forty years or so, on the anniversary of my curse, I feel compelled to be with a woman. I don’t know how to explain it other than to say it’s something I have no control over. When I feel those urges returning, I try to seek out women who I hope can end my curse. I stayed away from you because I wanted to protect you from that side of me, in case I was wrong about you. I have known you for so long, and I could not bear to hurt you. So, I found other women, women I knew could not…after, I realized I had to end this. That is when I sought you out. That first night I came here and saw you, I knew you were my salvation. Since I have been with you, I have not harmed anyone, Jazzmyn.”

“What if I had been married, had children, or had a very different life from this one? A life you wouldn’t have been able to be a part of; what would you have done then?”

He tilted his head slightly to the side and gave her a cocky grin. “That would never have happened. Something always held you back from committing to any man, even Gary, the man you met in college. He loved you, asked you to marry him, but you refused. Something told you to wait, because you believed there was someone else out there; someone you were destined to be with.” He leaned in closer to the bar and whispered, “That someone was me.”

Jazzmyn’s stomach twisted into a knot at the mention of Gary. She had met Gary Clark in biology lab during her freshman year. He had been cute, funny, and a pretty good lover. She had been happy with him, but the day he proposed to her, everything changed. She eventually ended their relationship right before graduation. Julian was right. She had never met a man she felt drawn to until he had walked into her restaurant.   

“How did you know about Gary?”

He traced his fingers along the top of bar as he moved toward the service panel. “I told you, I’ve been watching you all of your life and waiting for the right moment to reveal myself to you.”

“You’ve been stalking me?”

He maneuvered his way behind the bar. “Only you would misconstrue my desire for you into a felony.” He came down the narrow aisle and stood before her. “I was only trying to explain why you have such an overwhelming desire for me, Jazzmyn.”

“I know.” She patted her hand on his chest. “Why is it sometimes you can be so charming, and then other times you can be a real…?”

He raised his dark eyebrows. “A real what?”

“Bastard,” she responded. “You can be so arrogant, so full of yourself. I can almost see why Eve placed that curse on you in the first place.”

Without warning, his hands gripped her shoulders, squeezing painfully into her flesh as his eyes became black, like two dark holes in his eye sockets, bereft of any light. Julian’s features contorted into an ugly mask of fury: his cheekbones disappeared, his wide forehead bulged outward, his mouth widened into a demonic grimace, and his skin turned a pale ash gray.

“Don’t ever say that again!” he snarled at her, his voice drenched with rage. “I have truly suffered from that bitch’s mark on me. No man deserves my fate. I have paid for my sins, now it’s my time of reprieve from this curse.”

Jazzmyn’s body began shaking uncontrollably as the bitter taste of terror swarmed in her mouth. As Julian’s ugly face hovered over her, that taunting voice of reason in the back of her mind seemed to say, “See, I told you so.”

Jazzmyn realized Julian had been deceiving her. He had been hiding his true ugliness until he had worked his way into her life and bewitched her with his powerful magnetism. No matter what Eve had done to him, she knew Julian had deserved it. The cruelty of the man he had once been had determined his fate, not the magic Eve had conjured. In that moment, Jazzmyn understood that curses could not damn you for eternity, only your actions did.

Julian’s grip on her body slowly eased and his countenance resumed its handsome appeal. The blackness in his eyes brightened as the light returned to them. He let her go and took a step back.

“I’m sorry. When I get angry, I change.” He ran his hand over his face. “I become ugly, and that is something I do not wish to have you see.”

Jazzmyn took a calming deep breath, wanting to choose her words carefully before she spoke. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have said that to you. It was wrong. No matter what you did, you never deserved this punishment.”

“Allow me to make it up to you.” He smiled his wonderful smile. “I was hoping to do this when we were back at your place, but I think now might be better.” He reached into the front pocket of his black trousers and pulled out a small, red velvet box. He opened the box and held it before Jazzmyn.

A four-carat pillow-cut diamond solitaire ring glistened back at her.

Julian removed the ring from the box and placed it on the third finger of her left hand.

“It reminded me of the diamond rings gentlemen used to give their betrothed in my time. I know it may seem a bit old-fashioned against the fancier cut of diamonds offered today, but I thought you might like it. Something quaint, a bit like me.”

Jazzmyn looked down at the sparkling ring and she felt her future shrink to the size of a peanut. The idea of marrying Julian suddenly sickened her.

“What do you think?” he eagerly asked.

“It’s beautiful, Julian,” she told him, keeping the rising sense of disgust from her face. 

He clasped his arms about her and kissed her. Jazzmyn cursed her body when she responded to his kiss. She wanted to be able to overcome the hold he had over her, but she could not make herself pull away.