The Winemaker's Dinner: Entrée (12 page)

She couldn’t make heads or tails of this guy. His mischievous look did not at all match the sincere tone of his voice. But for a moment he seemed almost…vulnerable?
No
, a voice in Jaden’s head warned. There wasn’t a sincere bone in Damian’s body.

However, because of the show, and to spare her fading patience, she nodded and gave him the benefit of the doubt. “Apology accepted. Now, can we please finish this shot so we can go home?”
Filming has taken
extra
long today because you can’t seem to figure out how to read your lines and not talk over mine,
she added silently.

“Sure thing, boss,” he replied. With a spring in his step, he returned to the back of the kitchen and the task at hand.

Five minutes passed, and then ten—without so much as a peep from Damian. Jaden busied herself with putting the final touches on the plate of steamed clams, and the camera crew readied themselves for the final segment.

Bang!
She turned to find her favorite serving platter shattered into a million shards and scattered across the tile floor of the set. Damian stood beside the stove, his hands now empty. He looked at the mess, but instead of bending down to pick it up, he just shrugged and turned away as if nothing had happened.
It’s not my platter, it’s the network’s
, she reminded herself, but deep breaths were of little use now. She’d had just about enough of Damian and his entitled attitude.

“All right, boys and girls. Let’s wrap it up and call it a day. Everyone take your places,” the cameraman called as the crew finished cleaning up the set.

Damian looked down at Jaden, smugness oozing from every pore in his body, and winked. “I have a date with Cathy from editing tonight,” he whispered. “Let me know if you’d like to join us.” He raised his eyebrows meaningfully, then turned toward the camera and began to speak. “So with your seafood feast prepared…”

Jaden swallowed her shock and composed herself as quickly as she could, but not before Damian had taken the liberty of describing the clams
she’d
prepared.
Poor Cathy
, she thought.
And poor me.

The next twenty minutes felt like the longest of her life. When the cameraman finally yelled, “Cut!” she hightailed it to the closest exit, not bothering with a final review or even a change out of her kitchen whites.

She hurried around the corner to the spot where Adam parked. She didn’t have the patience to text him and wait for him to pull around to the front of the building.

As she slipped into the backseat, he looked up from his newspaper, surprised. “You’re in a hurry, Ms. Thorne!”

“It was a long day.” She laughed half-heartedly. “I’m ready to be somewhere else.”

“Straight home tonight?” he asked.

“Yes, please.”

She sank into the black leather seat and was thankful when he raised the partition between them. Somehow he always seemed to know when she needed time to herself. As the studio disappeared behind them, she fished her cell phone from her purse. As she suspected, not a single message from Ivan. He’d been consumed with his new practice and busy supporting various local charities.
Mostly by attending their cocktail events
, she thought bitterly. And now he was out of town on some trip. She didn’t even know this time where he was…There was, however, a text from Tasha. It was short and to the point:

Call me…NOW!

Jaden calculated the time difference between LA and Miami…a little past eleven pm on the east coast. With any luck Tasha would be asleep and she could postpone the inevitable tongue lashing she was sure to get from her best friend. They didn’t talk nearly often enough.

“Hello?” Tasha answered, her voice heavy with sleep, after a few rings.

“Hey, it’s me,” Jaden whispered. “You sound tired. Why don’t I call you back tomorrow?”

“Oh no you don’t! I’ve been waiting to talk to you.”

After some chatter about the weather, Tasha seemed awake. And she jumped right in, as blunt as ever. “So, how are things working out with Ken?”

“You mean Damian?” Jaden spat, the day’s frustrations coming back in a rush.

“Yeah, pretty boy. Who else would I be talking about?”

But talking about Damian was the last thing she wanted to do. “Can we please talk about something else?”

“Sure!” Tasha said much too agreeably. “Do you want to tell me why, in all the weeks since you went to Napa—what was that? Almost two months ago?—you haven’t mentioned that Ivan dropped the M-bomb during your trip?”

“What? Wait…how do you even know about that?”
Ivan had been talking about their weekend?
“Never mind. I got it: Micky.”

“Yes, Micky. It certainly wasn’t my best friend.”

“Tasha, I’m sorry. Things have been so hectic since Damian showed up, and Ivan’s been so busy…Well, that just seems like a million years ago. I can hardly believe it happened. And it’s not like he proposed or anything. He mentioned it hypothetically.”

“And did you hypothetically say yes?” Tasha asked.

“Of course I did!” Jaden filled her in on the vineyard conversation, hoping that would satisfy her. But as she knew it would, the conversation found its way back to Damian.

“Now, do you want to tell me what’s bothering you?” Tasha asked. “I can tell there’s something, and you haven’t called me in a week.”

Jaden proceeded to give Tasha a full account of the past week, including all of Damian’s blunders. “So not only did he break my favorite serving platter, he also set fire to the stove. He’s hit on every single female on the crew—successfully, I might add—insulted my makeup artist…Oh, and today he invited me to be in a three-way with him
just
as the camera started rolling.”

“Seriously? That guy has some balls. But he can’t be all bad, can he? I mean, just look at him. He’s sex on a stick. Those blond curls and—my God, girl—his ass! How can you not stare at that all day? He has to be good for the ratings.”

“Yes, I think his boost to the ratings might be his most endearing quality at this point. Every once in a while I catch a glimpse of a real person in there—someone who isn’t putting on a show for everyone,” Jaden conceded. “But for the most part he’s just unbearable.
And
, by the way,
of course
I’ve noticed how he looks. I may be dating Ivan, but I’m not dead. Truly, I think that makes him
more
annoying.”

“Ah, just relax. He may be a bit of a man whore, but he’s one fine piece of man candy too. Just focus on the ratings and forget about the rest. You’re not having any fun, and you’ve worked too hard to have some Ken doll take that away from you.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“I’m always right,” Tasha joked. “Besides, if he messes up enough, I doubt the studio will keep him around. By this time next year you’ll have your show back, and Damian will be licking his wounds on the beach in Maui.”

“Hmmm…I like that idea,” Jaden said with a laugh. “But enough of this. Tell me about you. How’s the real estate biz? How’s Micky?”

As Tasha launched into an animated story, Jaden closed her eyes. Though she loved catching up, she always felt homesick talking to Tasha. As they said their goodbyes, she swallowed a lump in her throat. She missed Ivan, she missed Miami, and she missed gossiping over lunch with her best friend.

“Time of the Season”

T
WO
M
ORE
W
EEKS
. Two more weeks. Two more weeks.
The mantra repeated in Jaden’s head like a Gregorian chant. Just two more weeks until her trip to Colorado to see her family. She needed all the stress-relieving and anger-reducing help she could muster to continue handling her co-host’s endless line stealing and inappropriate flirting. Also not helping was the fact that she and Ivan’s usual two-week rendezvous had been postponed because he’d been called away on business to New York. So he’d be going there, rather than coming to LA this weekend. He’d told her it was something of great importance and would explain everything to her when the time was right.
When the time was right? What the hell did that mean?
He’d been overly busy and constantly on the phone the last few times they
had
managed to be together, which made her even more anxious. Despite these unsettling feelings, she comforted herself with the knowledge that her dad’s retirement party was right around the corner. Ivan had sworn he could still make that trip. Knowing she’d see both him
and
her family soon was the one positive she could come up with in her otherwise dark and dreary mood.
Two more weeks. Two more weeks. Two more weeks.
The mantra continued.

“So, Jade, are you going to the network gala tonight?” Damian asked in his too-familiar way, sidling up next to her. “I can only imagine how stunning you’ll look—a pretty little thing like you all done up.”

His fake French accent sounded like nails on a chalkboard. What kind of question was that? Of course she was going tonight. The annual gala was the network’s largest and most public gathering, and she’d been planning on it for weeks. Yet another thing Ivan was missing, but still, it was an important event, and she was determined to have a good time. Taking a deep, calming breath, she responded. “Yes, Damian, of course I’m going. And again, my name is Jaden, not Jade. Please don’t call me that.”

“Oh, someone’s getting a bit testy. Haven’t gotten laid in a while, I assume?” He let the question linger just long enough to exasperate her, then switched into professional mode. Well, as professional as he got. “I’ll just do a little prep for the next show now. Excuse me,” he said with a smile that almost seemed sincere.

“Damian,” she sighed. It was the only response she could muster. Over the past few months she’d built up a certain tolerance to his inappropriate comments, and despite herself, she had to admit he was occasionally entertaining. Though he was always a challenge on the set, he did spice up the show. And, as Tasha liked to point out, he was nice to look at. She was a woman with needs, after all, and Damian was, well…gorgeous. Women would give their left arms to be in her shoes—to have a man like Damian lust after them.
But those women don’t have Ivan
, she reminded herself. However, the fact that she didn’t often give Damian the time of day had made him more intent on getting into her pants.
God, men are so easy…

But with his last ridiculous comment, Damian had actually been right, which irritated her even more. The buzzing bunny that kept her company during occasional dirty phone calls with Ivan was growing old and boring. She longed to feel him in her and on her, his scent surrounding her. The sex they shared—when they shared it—was full of raw and unbridled passion, which built up to impossible levels during their time apart. She loved their journey into experimentation and exploration, testing the limits of how far the other was willing to go. God, she was horny all the time these days. A pull of her hair, a bite on her neck, the feeling of him working his way deep inside her inch by inch—
Fuck!
How had she become such a nympho? Ivan had made her some sort of sexual diva. And a frustrated one at that.

“Oh, but, Jaden?” Damian called from the set. “If you need a ride—in the car that is—I’d be happy to pick you up.”

His voice snapped her out of her daydream. “No, it’s okay. I’ll have Adam take me. But thank you for the offer.”

“Okay,” he replied with a shrug. “Just call me if you need a lift.”

Good God, you’ve made your point!
she shouted silently. “What a pain in the ass,” she mumbled under her breath.

And yet she found herself staring at him as he arranged cookware on the set. He wasn’t the type she’d go for, and he was nothing like Ivan, but she couldn’t help but admire the back of him. Dressed in khakis and a surfer boy short-sleeved shirt, he did remind her of a Ken doll.
I just need to get laid
, she told herself.
By Ivan! Two more weeks…

Jaden looked at her watch and sighed. She was expected at the party in a few short hours. As she started out of the studio and toward the dressing room to meet Kat and get ready, she fished her phone from her purse. The message on the screen informed her that she had several missed texts, all of them from Ivan. The first one read:

I hope you have a great time tonight, baby girl.
Wish I could be with you.

A smile spread across her face as she read the second message.

So excited for Colorado!
Could you plan on being gone a few extra days?
I have a surprise for you! ;)