The Cinderella Cook-Off (The Feminine Mesquite Book 1) Read online

  “Cindy?” asked the man. “Well, Cindy, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

  He held out his hand, and Alice took it. She expected him to shake it, but no. He lifted it up to his mouth and kissed it. Alice blushed. His lips were so soft. She had never had a man kiss her hand before. She took a deep breath. New York City smelled awful, especially on New Years. She could smell cheap vodka and cheaper beer. She could breathe in the smog, scented so strongly one could cut it with a knife. There was another scent, a scent that made her honeypot wet, and it had to be the scent of the man in front of her.

  When he pulled his hand away, Alice realized he was no man. His hands had the marks, the marks of a shifter.

  “You’re…” started Alice. “Sorry, I know it’s rude to ask.”

  “I’m a shifter,” said the man. “Bear. But it’s not important.” He turned his hands so Alice could see the palms of his hands. There were four small marks, one on the base of each of his finely manicured hands, and one large mark on the palm of his hands. Alice had seen bear shifter hands before, but they were usually callused and worn. These were the hands of someone who must not have done a day of hard work in his life. Alice couldn’t imagine what one would do if they weren’t constantly working.

  * * *

  Alice woke up with a start. Why was she having this dream again? Even though she tried to forget the man, she had kept dreaming about him, as if her body wanted her to keep remembering every last detail about him. The last thing she needed was to think about some mystery man while she dealt with the current disaster. At least today was going to be a peaceful day. In a week, the day would be filled with tearful goodbyes at the airport, but today, she’d have some fun with her best friends, her sisters.

  The Quincy Sisters got into Alice’s minivan. It was a hand-me-down from their parents, the same car that their parents had taken them to elementary school in when they were younger. Their parents had left it to Alice, along with the house, when they moved into their Florida condo and bought a little sedan. Although the car was by now rather small for the five curvy gals, what was important was that they were together.

  The county fair was only about thirty minutes away, and there was light traffic, as this was the third weekend that the fair had been open. They found parking near the entrance and headed in.

  The sun was hot, and all five sisters were wearing clothing that would keep them cool in the heat. They had bags with fans, bottles of water, and personal water misting devices. Alice was in a pair of white linen shorts that fell to just above her knee and was wearing a loose pale blue tank top. She had the largest tote bag of the five sisters because she was now the ‘Mom’ of the group. She was the only one who was done with college, who knew how to live as an adult. She’d been temping at various offices since before graduation, but, in Fallowedirt, there weren’t many opportunities for her, and she had spent the summer babysitting her sisters, who were old enough to not need coloring books, but young enough that somebody needed to keep them in line and make sure they didn’t get into too much trouble.

  The first stop was the animal section. All the animals had their own charm, from the soft sheep who smelled like hand lotion and felt like fleecy blankets to the cows whose deep lowing reminded Alice of a video she’d seen of Buddhist monks meditating. The chickens ran around as if they didn’t have heads, and the pigs lay in the mud.

  “I could go for a mud bath right now,” said Cayenne, watching as the pig rolled over and coated its back in the soupy soil.

  “Tell me about it,” said Alice.

  “Oh, yeah. I was talking about going back to college, but you…Oh, you’re worried about the Scovilles?” asked Cayenne.

  “Yeah,” admitted Alice. “You know the Scovilles are billionaires, right?”

  “Billionaires?” asked Cayenne. “No frikkin’ way.”

  “Yeah frikkin’ way,” said Alice. “Grandpa told me that the Scovilles made their money way back in the day. You saw what those guys were wearing. They come from money, and their family still has their fortunes, fortunes our family never even made. Heck, the fact Mom and Dad retired at fifty was only possible because they inherited from Mom’s side of the family.”

  “So they’re rich and handsome?” asked Cayenne. “It’s too bad they’re our rivals. They’re kinda cute, don’t you think?”

  Alice blushed as she thought about what Herbert had done to her, how he’d whispered in her ears as if he was the opposite of her rival. It made her feel hotter than the Texas sun did, so she pulled out her mister bottle and spritzed her face to cool down.

  “Trust me, they’re nothing special,” said Alice. “You’re gonna be a sophomore this year. Don’t fool around, especially with boys. That’s what the guys are at your college: boys.”

  “Hey, I go to a pretty good school,” said Cayenne, putting her hands on her hips.

  “Let me rephrase. All guys at that age are boys,” said Alice. “They won’t treat you right, and the last thing I wanna see is a guy doing you wrong. If you wanna mess around, go for it, but don’t let any of them break your heart.”

  “Did you mess around in college?” asked Cayenne.

  “No, Kai, because I was worried about the risks,” said Alice. “You know how many girls from our town go to see the great wide world and come back with a belly full of baby and no ring on their finger? Too many. But…”

  “But what?” asked Cayenne.

  “It’s silly,” said Alice. “There was one guy who caught my eye.”

  “Come on, don’t leave me hanging,” said Cayenne. “Who was it?”

  “That’s the thing, I don’t know,” said Alice. “I met him when I was staying with Stacy, at her parent’s house over my winter junior year. That was, what, a year and a half ago? Anyways. Stacy lived in Connecticut and had friends in New York City, so we went up to the city for New Year’s Eve. She had connections via friends who were at one of the fashion schools, and she got us into this really nice party.”

  “How nice?” asked Cayenne.

  “Real nice,” said Alice. “I definitely felt out of place. Heck, I had to borrow one of Stacy’s fancy dresses. I’m lucky we were the same size. She lent me some fancy jewelry, but we didn’t have the same size feet. Mine were a bit bigger. So, I had to wear my lace up sneakers underneath my dress. They weren’t even cute fashion sneakers. They were ugly but sensible. Luckily, the dress hid the shoes.”

  “And?” asked Cayenne.

  “And, we went to the party,” said Alice. “It turned out to be a masquerade party, so everyone got a mask. I met so many interesting people, but nobody exchanged names. It was weird. I couldn’t see people’s faces very well, so I didn’t remember them afterward. But everyone else there recognized people. Even though I was anonymous, I still felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb, like I didn’t belong. I talked with Stacy and her friends for a while but then wandered off to look at the view. After all, it’s not every day that you get to see New York on New Year’s Eve. The city was so beautiful, so busy. It seemed as if more happened in one city block in an evening than happened in all of our town in a year.”

  “But what about the boy?” asked Cayenne.

  “I’m getting to that part,” said Alice. “Anyways, I was outside on the balcony, and, a guy came to talk to me. He was a shifter, a bear shifter. He was foreign. I told him what I just told you, about how the city seemed so exciting. We talked. He told me he was visiting friends too, that he also felt like he didn’t belong. And then, well, things escalated.”

  “They escalated?” asked Cayenne.

  “You can fill in the blanks. The party was held in a fancy hotel. A whole floor was rented out, and there were rooms people could use if they wanted to get…amorous,” said Alice. “I’d never had sex with a shifter before, and of course, the hottest part was, neither of us took off our masks. I kept my dress on, but he opened his shirt.”

  “Did you get to see it?” asked Cayenne. “Y’know, the
mark?”

  “Yeah, I saw it,” said Alice. “But that’s not the only thing that makes shifters different. They’re way more skilled than human guys, especially ones our age. It’s because they’ve got that animal in them that makes them, well, primal. There’s nothing more primal than what we did. I can tell you that. I’ve never had a man like that before, and I haven’t had one like that since.”

  “So what does this have to do with the Scovilles?” asked Cayenne.

  “My point is not to go after pretty boys,” said Alice. “At least, not to pursue them just because they’re pretty. Focus on your studies. Look how distracted I got by this mystery guy.”

  “You really never learned his name?” asked Cayenne.

  “Nope, and now I’m stuck thinking about a person who I’ll never meet again,” said Alice with a laugh. “It’s so stupid! So just focus on getting your diploma. That degree can be your ticket out of this town.”

  “Fine, fine, I’ll study,” promised Cayenne. “Do you think they’re ready to go to the next section?” Cayenne motioned towards their siblings who were taking goofy pictures of themselves next to some rather bored looking goats.

  “Yeah, wanna go on some rides?” asked Alice.

  “Do I ever,” said Cayenne with a wicked grin. “Let’s go!”

  The five sisters went off to explore the rest of the carnival. They went on rides that would’ve made them sick if they’d already eaten that day, and afterward, it was off to the food court.

  The county fair food court smelled abso-frikkin’-lutely delectable. There were all kinds of stands. There was a stand selling standard American food, hot dogs, and burgers with fries, onion rings, and freshly battered corn dogs. There was a place selling meat kebabs, smothered in spicy sauce, onions and peppers separating each of the cubes of meat on the stick. There were deep fried desserts, from vanilla ice cream flecked with black vanilla beans, drowned in hot oil, to candy bars that turned into sticky gooey messes of caramel, nuts, and chocolate once they’d been cooked. There was even a Greek food stand, with spinach pies and frozen Greek yogurt.

  Alice got the quintet a table while the siblings ran off to get food from the various stands. The lines weren’t too long, but Alice wanted to make sure they could sit in the shade. She sat down at the table, which was underneath an awning, on top of a hay bale. She pulled out her e-reader and went back to reading her book of the month.

  A shadow covered Alice’s screen, darkening the already shaded screen. Alice turned to see who it was.

  Tall. Intimidating. Handsome. Pale. It was Herbert Scoville, the man from the day before, and this time, he wasn’t wearing a suit. No, instead, he was in twill shorts, black flip-flops, and a black tank top. Even in American style summer clothes, he managed to give off an air of smug European superiority.

  “Can I help you?” asked Alice.

  “Funny running into you here,” said Herbert. “May I?” He motioned to the hay bales.

  “My sisters are sitting there, so no, you may not,” said Alice, turning back to her book.

  “Hey, what happened to that southern hospitality?” asked Herbert.

  Alice looked at him crossly. Did this guy not know how to take a hint, or was he willfully ignoring her? She’d put her money on the later. And why did that voice of his sound so dang sexy, in a familiar way?

  “Fine, sit wherever you want,” said Alice.

  “I’d like to apologize for the other day,” said Herbert.

  “You what?” asked Alice. “I’m sorry, did you just say you want to apologize?”

  “Yes,” said Herbert. “It was inappropriate of me to approach you at the law firm, especially on the day of the reading of your grandfather’s will. It wasn’t the right thing to do.”

  “Is that all you have to apologize for?” asked Alice.

  “Yes,” said Herbert. “I’m not going to stop pursuing the matter of the hot sauce recipes.”

  “What does it matter to you anyway?” asked Alice. “Even if my grandfather stole the recipes, which he didn’t, why the heck do these recipes matter so much to you?”

  “You don’t know much about my family, do you?” asked Herbert.

  “I know as much about your family as you know about mine,” said Alice. “You’re a bunch of stuck up billionaires, right?”

  “Right,” said Herbert. “And you know what that means? It means that we’re part of the leisure class, so when I don’t have something else to hunt down in the business world, what I hunt down are the things I want. And what I want from you is my grandfather’s recipes.”

  “Why the heck would a Norwegian billionaire care about hot sauce recipes?” asked Alice.

  “Alice, nations conquered other cultures to get their spices. An entire age of exploration was launched in the pursuit of the precious herbs that can make our bland European food taste like something worth eating. To you, hot sauce might just be a condiment, but to me, it’s a legacy,” said Herbert. His polar roared, and for a second, Alice swore she saw his blue eyes flash a hot white. “My Viking ancestors sailed the seas to plunder the land and find brides to heat their beds and their tongues. My shifter elders hunted down their mates and continued that Nordic legacy. The Scovilles have been a spice trading family since, well, spices were ‘discovered’ by Europeans. From the furthest reaches of Asia to the shores of North America, Scovilles have hunted down the heat. Now, it’s my turn to hunt.”

  The girls came back to the table with their food.

  “Is this guy bothering you?” asked Addison, putting down her food.

  “No, he was just leaving,” said Alice. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get some food. Be a dear and watch my stuff?”

  “Of course,” said Addison.

  Alice got up and walked away from the table, but Herbert followed after.

  “Getting a bite to eat?” asked Herbert, his hands behind his head.

  “Yeah,” said Alice. “Don’t you have somewhere to be? Or are you just going to stalk me all day?”

  “I didn’t plan on meeting you here,” said Herbert as Alice got into a line. He stood next to her.

  “Is that so?” asked Alice.

  “If you haven’t noticed, there’s nothing to do in your town,” said Herbert. “The county fair was our only option for entertainment, and given it seems we’ll be here for a while…”

  “You might as well leave because you’ll never get the recipes,” said Alice.

  “I am not going to give up that easily,” said Herbert. “I’ve never given up on a hunt.” Herbert’s eyes flicked over Alice’s body. His polar growled. He wished he was hunting for something other than hot sauce.

  Alice noticed Herbert’s eye movements. It didn’t take a shifter’s heightened senses to tell he was into her.

  “Is that really what you’re hunting for?” asked Alice, hands on her hips, which only served to accentuate her curves even more.

  “Yes, but it doesn’t have to be,” said Herbert. “You and I could make very good…friends.”

  “Friends?” asked Alice. “Pssh. You’re a cold-blooded killer in designer suits who thinks he owns the world.”

  “And you’re a woman who is as sassy as she is curvy,” said Herbert.

  “Is that meant to be an insult?” asked Alice.

  “No, I thought we were just stating facts,” said Herbert with a smug smile.

  “Well, here’s a fact. My grandpa didn’t steal a dang thing from your grandpa,” said Alice. “And I know a way we can settle this, once and for all.”

  “Oh yeah?” asked Herbert.

  “We’ll have a cook-off,” said Alice. “It’ll be you and your brothers against me and my sisters. If you think your legacy is so strong, well, prove it. Prove that the Scovilles can bring the heat, or else get out of the kitchen, for good. Leave my family and me alone.”

  “And who is going to judge this cook-off?” asked Herbert, arms crossed.

  “Simple,” said Alice. “Next week, w
e meet back here, at the county fair. Next week they’re having cooking contests. You and I will both enter one dish each. Whoever scores more points with the judges, wins. What do you say? Are you going to take me up and hunt, or are you going to ask a pack of lawyers to catch your prey for you?”

  “I’m all for saving my money and getting out of this podunk town as soon as possible,” said Herbert. “You’re on, Alice. Next week, we’ll see who gets the hot sauce recipes, once and for all.”

  “Really? You’re not about to make me sign a contract or something?” asked Alice.

  “No, you strike me as a woman who keeps her word,” said Herbert. “I guess the only question for you is, am I going to keep mine?”

  “Is that a threat?” asked Alice.

  “No, you’ll know when I threaten you,” said Herbert, leaning down to whisper the last sentence in her ear. Gosh dang it, it sent another shiver down her spine, even though the heat was in the nineties.

  “Ahem,” said a voice.

  Alice hadn’t even noticed it was her turn to order.

  “Sorry,” said Alice, rummaging through her wallet for her cash. “I’ll have─”

  “She’ll have a large burger with fries, a corn dog, and a cola, not diet,” said Herbert, passing the man a hundred-dollar bill. “Keep the change. Oh, and don’t forget the hot sauce.”

  Herbert put on his sunglasses and walked away, leaving Alice at a loss for words. What did Herbert really want, and why did she have a feeling it was either the opposite of what she wanted or the exact same thing?

  Chapter Three

  The dream continued. It always continued. It never turned into something weird, like swimming through lime gelatin or floating through lavender fields. It was always a replay of what had happened that night.

  They’d sat on the porch and talked, but a group came out to smoke. He took her by the hand, back into the party, and to the snack table, where they’d grabbed a tray of shrimp and a bottle of white wine, gone to the front of the party, taken a key to one of the rooms, and taken off down the hall with their treasure.