Just Add Heat (17 page)

“Carter, do we spend a lot of time together?”

“Well, I think so. We spend most evenings together, is that
what you mean?”

“Yes, but what do we do? Do we hang out around the house or
what? I guess I just want to know how we spend our time.”

He
looked at me and smiled. “Yeah, we pretty much hang around the house. We aren’t
lame though.” I raised my eyebrow at him. It sounded like we might be a
little
bit lame. “Really, we go out to
eat and stuff. Sometimes we’ll have people over, too. Mostly just Cheryl and
Paulo, but still, we’re not shut-ins. I think we’re pretty cool.”
Says the Star Wars geek.
Maybe Carter
was cool, but I had never been “cool” in my life. I was slightly bookish in
school and then in college I didn’t go out much until I met Cheryl. However, if
I was able to land a hot guy like Carter, maybe I
was
cool. I suddenly remembered that I have a web show and a cookbook
in the works. I
am
cool. I had to
keep that in mind. Whatever transformation had taken place in my life in the
last two years turned me into someone cool and it was great.

“I wish I could remember.” I looked into his eyes and they
were full of sadness, but also something else. I turned back to the pan and
stirred in what I figured would be the last ladleful of broth. “Do you want to
listen to some music?”

“Yeah.”
He went into the living room and a few seconds later I could hear “
Electric
Avenue
” coming through the speakers. I confess
a weakness for cheesy Eighties music. When Carter came back in I was singing
along and dancing in front of the stove. He just smiled and started doing the
Robot. He wasn’t even embarrassed. And thinking of cheese, I added a good
handful of shaved parmesan to my rice.
Perfect.

“Time to eat.” Carter had grabbed a fresh bottle of wine
while I plated the food and slid it across the island.

“Mmm. This is great.” Carter gave me a thumbs up.

I tried a bite and had to agree with him. We ate in silence
for a few minutes, until my phone rang. I got up to get it out of the living
room.

“Let it ring,” Carter told me between bites.

“It might be my mom. She probably hasn’t left yet.” I jogged
to grab it but it stopped ringing before I got to it. Elisa again. Maybe Carter
knew who this was.

I walked back to my seat with the phone. “Who is Elisa?”

“Just
someone I work with. She’s glommed on to you and she thinks she’s your friend.
You don’t really like her.” He used air quotes around “friend” so I could tell
that
he
didn’t like her, but she’d
already called me twice so we were at least friendly.

“She called yesterday, too. I haven’t listened to the
voicemail yet.” Carter’s face froze for a moment but almost instantly smoothed.

“I’m
sure it’s nothing important.” He went back to eating so I put my phone down
wondering what his change of facial expression meant. Was he cheating on me?
No, that didn’t make sense. He was too attentive, and he was trying hard to
help me get my memory back. I tried to shrug it off but something about her
name was nagging at my brain. We finished the food and I stood up to grab the
mousse from the refrigerator.

 
Carter looked up at me
and smiled when I set his down in front of him. I just about melted. All I
wanted to give him a kiss, but I couldn’t make myself do it. It was still too
early. I know we had just had sex a few hours ago, but this was different. Now
that my mind wasn’t clouded with lust something else was filling it.
Tenderness. I just smiled back and sat back down.

My first bite of the chocolate mousse made something short
circuit in my mind. Well, it was that or the Pet Shop Boys song that had just
started playing. Perhaps it was a combination of both, but I knew immediately
what Carter had done.

“This is just like our first date.” His eyes widened and I
knew I was right. He nodded and grabbed my hand.

“I can’t believe it actually worked and that you remembered.”
He was practically bursting at the seams.

“I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner. Monopoly? You
were pulling out all the stops.” I shook my head but left my hand in his.

“I didn’t mention the mousse; you did that all by yourself.”
That’s right. I remembered craving it when I was thinking about what to serve
with our food.

“Thank you, Carter.” I leaned forward at the same time he
did. We didn’t stop until we were touching noses.

“My pleasure. I’ll recreate every day until you remember
everything, if you want.” A chill went up my spine and I took a breath full of
Carter. I touched my lips to his and I tasted the chocolate. I was just about
to really get into it when I heard Lucy yelp from the other room. I jerked my
head back and we both bolted into the living room. Lucy was cowering in the
corner near the bookshelves and Monique was standing in front of her trying to
look innocent. I had forgotten she was here.

Carter reached down and picked up Lucy. I checked her for
blood but she was unmarked. Lucky for Monique.

“I don’t like this cat, Carter.”

“Believe me, I don’t either.” He handed Lucy to me. “Stupid
cat ruined our date night.”

What? He was going to let the cat defeat him. I. Don’t.
Think. So.

Chapter Seventeen

“Oh no she
didn’t,” I told Carter as he turned to face off with Monique. “We are going to
finish our date.” On this point I was standing firm. I was starting to remember
and I wasn’t going to let my mother’s cat derail something good.

“Juss, I
have to concentrate right now. This is serious business.” He hadn’t taken his
eyes off of Monique. “Could you please go over there and open her crate for me?
I need it to be ready.”

He was going to crate
her? I frowned on that. My mom was entrusting me with her most precious thing.
And, no, the irony that the cat was more precious to her than her own flesh and
blood did not escape me.

“Carter, I
don’t think we should put her in the crate. My mom wouldn’t like that.” Boy,
talk about understatements.

“Babe, you
don’t know the full situation. This cat doesn’t like me.”

Did this
cat like anyone? “She doesn’t like me either, but we can’t just keep her locked
up.”

“Juss, she attacks me at
every opportunity. She draws
blood
.
I’m not putting up with her for a week. I’m sorry; I know I should have said
something earlier.” He’s not putting up with her? Excuse me, but wasn’t this
my
house? Okay, so I realize he lives
here, too, even if I don’t fully remember yet, but I wasn’t going to have him
putting the cat in a small crate for who knows how long.

“I’m
sorry, Carter, but I can’t let you do that. My mother is counting on me.”

“I’m not
going to crate her for a week; I’m just going to use it to carry her to the
laundry room so that I can shut her in there for tonight. I think we are going
to have to get her out of the house.”

“Why? I know she’s kind
of a pain and she doesn’t get along with Lucy, but really, she isn’t
that
bad.”

He just looked at me like
I was slow and shook his head. “She’s out to get me, Juss. She
attacks
me. Do you understand what I’m
saying? She wants to
destroy
me.”
Where was the sexy and protective Carter from before? I was almost embarrassed
for him. She wanted to
destroy
him?
Where did he get this stuff?

“Look, she
hasn’t done anything to you yet. Let’s just give her a chance. She might have
mellowed since you last saw her.” I could tell he didn’t want to let it go, but
he sighed and backed away from Monique, taking my arm and pulling me away, too.

“Let’s just eat our
mousse and relax. We have a date to get back to, right? Come on, we’ll take
them to the couch and watch something on TV, okay?” He nodded and grabbed our
dishes since I was still holding Lucy. Carter walked over to the stereo and
turned it off with his elbow before coming to sit with me. I made sure Lucy was
sandwiched between us before I took back my mousse and I started eating. It
really was delicious. Carter turned on the TV then put his feet up on the
coffee table.

“Shark Week.” He looked
over and gave me a grin. Okay, he might be scared of a cat, but his grin could
get me every time. Dammit! I just wanted to remember him fully. The snatches
I’ve been getting had all made me feel better, but there was still just a
little bit of weirdness there. Even after having mind-blowing sex. Maybe
because of the sex, I didn’t know anymore. All I was sure of was that Carter
and I were together and he was, quite possibly, the most romantic guy ever
born. Reenacting our first date was awesome. Even if I had my memory, that
would be romantic. Ahh.

I nodded and took another
bite. Maybe I should do a web show on mousse. Maybe I already had. I needed to
know these kinds of things. That was going to be on my to-do list for tomorrow.
Learn how to do my job.

“Carter,
have I done a show about mousse yet?”

“No, but
for the next series of recipes that would be a good addition.”

“What do
you mean series? Don’t I just do a show and post it?”

“Uh uh.
It’s more complicated than that. We have to do repeat shots sometimes and then
there’s the lighting and sound to set up, not to mention the editing involved
before it’s ready.” Wow. It sounded almost like a real TV show, or what I knew
about a TV show.

“Who does
all of that?” Surely the two of us couldn’t do everything.

“Paulo. He
brings his stuff over and we try to do at least three segments at a time. It
really saves a lot of time that way. He edits them for us, too.”

Hmm. This
sounded like a professional operation we had going here. I felt a surge of
pride. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would actually be able to do a
cooking show, but here I was with a show and a book coming out. This was
fantastic.

I settled
back into the couch feeling happy. Really happy. Look at me, Justine Taylor,
sitting on the couch with an incredibly sexy man who had just rocked my world,
eating chocolate and thinking about my awesome career. It really didn’t get
much better than this. Well, besides the amnesia. But Carter was even helping
me take care of that.

I couldn’t
bask in the glow of happiness long because, out of the corner of my eye, I
could see a flash of black and white fur. Monique had climbed up the back of
the couch and launched an attack. Carter screamed and threw his cup of mousse
into the air as he jumped up with Monique attached to his head.

“Aaaah!” Monique was
holding on with her claws and Carter was flailing around trying to peel her off
of his scalp. “Help me!”

I was already trying to
get to him but it was hard since he was moving around so much. “Hold still!” He
paused with his hands covering his eyes and I grabbed Monique by the front
legs. Wow, she was really in deep. It took me a moment to pull her off of him.

I had her
in my hands and Lucy was barking at all of the frantic activity as Carter
lunged for the crate. I shoved her inside before she could turn on me. What the
hell just happened? Carter set the crate down with more force than necessary,
but I didn’t blame him.
 
There was blood
seeping from his hairline. I pulled his head down closer to my eyes and I could
see three tiny puncture marks in his scalp.

“She got
this side too,” he said as he turned his head to show me. I felt like an ass.
He said she was after him and I hadn’t believed him. Now he was injured and it
wouldn’t have happened if I would have let him put her in the laundry room.

“I’m so
sorry, Carter. I didn’t think she would go after you like this.” I led him into
the kitchen and tore off a paper towel and wet it in the sink. I started
dabbing it on his puncture wounds and realized they weren’t as bad as I had
originally thought. Whew.

“I tried
to tell you, she’s the devil.” He said it with such sincerity that I couldn’t
stop the smile.

“I’m sorry
I didn’t believe you. Well, you don’t need stitches, anyway, and there’s too
much hair for using a Band-Aid. We can just keep it clean.” I paused and looked
over to the cat crate. “We can set her up in the laundry room.” I knew we were
going to have to board her now. There was no way I would feel comfortable
knowing Monique was capable of this kind of behavior. She had never shown me
this amount of aggression. She must really hate Carter. He hadn’t done anything
to her since she got here, but I knew she must have been planning this all
along.

When I picked up the
crate Monique looked at me as if
she
were the victim. I wasn’t going to fall for it. She had hurt my man. Yes,
my
man. I may not remember him fully,
but I was claiming him. Even if I didn’t already know him I would be falling
for him on my own right now. He was great company and he was thoughtful and
sensitive, and that’s not even considering the sex. That was a whole other
issue. I set the crate down in the laundry room and turned to see Carter behind
me with her food and water bowls. He set them down as I bent to open the crate.