Page 35 of Wicked Throne

When she got closer, she immediately looked down and spotted my erection. "I hope that's gone by the time my daddy gets here for the fake ass dinner you conned me into...

"Good to see you too, wife," I muttered and closed the door behind us.

It would be just us as we prepared this dinner.

She slipped her shoes off by the door and then turned to me, removing the glasses. "Lead the way Emeril."

I chuckled. "You trying to play with me because I'm Italian?"

"Well, it sure ain't because you black," she rolled her eyes.

We starred at each other for a moment. My erection wasn't going away anytime soon. Turning, I headed for the kitchen. This was going to go smoothly.

We'd get along, have a nice holiday and then...

And then go back to hating each other once it was done, I thought.

I'd already had a few cookbooks delivered. They were sitting out on the kitchen island when we entered. We came and stood side by side, and checked over the page. I was looking at a recipe for Mac and Cheese that called for nutmeg.

"Oh hell no," Diamond looked at me.

"What?"

"Nutmeg? Boy nutmeg in the goddamn Mac and Cheese? Look, I'm not a genius but you bout to cook dinner for black southern people. There will be no nutmeg in the Mac and Cheese. Period."

My hand flew to the back of my neck. I just knew I'd turned scarlet and looked like a tomato in the face.

Had I taken on too much too soon? She was right, I'd never cooked for Southerners before. My idea of cooking was eating out seven nights a week. Hell, I'd been dining at the hotel for months now. I'd never even so much as made a sandwich in this kitchen.

Before I knew what was happening, she was going through the cabinets. "Thierry, there isn't the first ingredient in this house."

Her hands flew to her temples and she let out the longest sigh.

Coming over, I placed my hands on her waist and pulled her closer. "I figured we would go grocery shopping. This isn't until tomorrow, so we have plenty of time."

She stopped rubbing her temples and cocked her head to the side."It's the day before Thanksgiving. You know places run out of things around this time right?"

"Fuck," I muttered.

She started laughing right in my face. "Oh my God, you're a big badass businessman but don't know shit about grocery shopping. Wow. Weird."

"I mean in my defense..."

"Nope,' she held up her hand, already pulling out her cellphone. "I'm going to have someone do the grocery shopping for us. When I was a kid, my Ma....that's my mother's mother, used to have me in the kitchen with her."

I watched her stop mid-sentence as she found everything she was looking for on her phone. Her brow creased in frustration and I found myself frustrated as well. I'd wanted her to finish talking about her family life.

I had no clue why I wanted to know but I was married to a perfect stranger.

"Done," she said.

"What's done?"

"I created a grocery list on this phone app called Planet Delivery," she shrugged. "Now we have plenty of time to kill. Do you have any wine in this place?"

"A few bottles," I shrugged. "White or red?"

"Surprise me," she smiled.