Blushing from the compliments, Kat gave her a questioning glance. “Maria? How’s the food?”
Was something wrong with her taste buds? The dish tasted like soured lemons, and that was the best part of the dish. The rice wasn’t done, and the chicken was hard as a brick.
Maria shoved another spoonful in her mouth to keep from answering. “Mmmhmm ….”
See? Maria could be nice. She was sure if Dominic and Drago weren’t in the room, she would have told Kat it tasted fucking nasty, but she didn’t. Hell, she was sure Dominic would have told his sister, as he had no problem admitting DeeDee’s food was gross. Instead, she literally had to eat her words.
“I’m glad you like it.” A happy Kat continued eating. “It’s easy to make. I’ll give you the recipe if you want?”
Maria gave her a thumbs-up, afraid she would vomit up what she had just forced down. Had the alcohol she drank last night fried her tongue, making it unable to differentiate between good and fucking vile?
“I wanted to make Drago’s favorite, but he convinced me that Dom would be disappointed.”
Maria gulped down half the water in her glass. “What’s your favorite, Drago?”
Maybe if she started talking, no one would notice she wasn’t eating.
Drago talked with a big mouthful, “Deconstructed apple cherry ham steak.”
What the fuck?! Drawing a blank at what she could say in response to anything deconstructed, she could only watch as both Drago and Dom refilled their plates.
Taking tiny bites and refilling her glasses twice, Maria was able to get through the meal with the silent promise that she was fucking murdering Dominic after they got out of there. This was payback for last night, and she knew it.
One thing was for sure, she was right when she said Katarina was poisoning Drago. Maria started to feel a little bad for the man she despised.
“You’re in for a treat tonight, Maria,” Kat said, rising from the table. “I made Dom’s favorite dessert, too.” Going to the refrigerator, Kat came back with a pie. “Grasshopper pie.”
She would bite a fucking bullet before she was taking a bite of the gorgeous pie that Katarina was cutting into large slices.
Maria hastily shook her head. “None for me. You know I don’t do too many carbs, and I’ve been on a diet.”
Katarina looked at her in disappointment, which had both men looking at her like she had kicked a helpless kitten.
Oh my God! Maria cried internally and almost broke, but thankfully, her bitchy side saved the fucking day. “What’s in it …? So I can count to see if I have any calories left.” If lemon was an ingredient, she was out.
Kat started naming them off. “Chocolate cookies …”
I like cookies.
“Butter …”
Butter always makes everything better.
“Half-and-half.”
Half of what?
“Heavy cream and marshmallows.”
Hmm ….
How could Kat screw up something that sounded so tasty? If she hadn’t just eaten the fucking dinner from hell, Maria would have already taken a slice of the pie that the men were scarfing down.
Kat continued, “It has two liquors …”
Sign me up for that bad boy.
“Crème of cacao …”
That’s chocolate, right?
Eye-fucking the pie, Maria started to reach for her dessert plate.
“Crème de Menthe.”
She would never doubt her bitchy side again. “Shoot, that would make me way over.” Maria pretended to act bummed, but she continued to sell it even more. “And after last night, I swore to Dominic I’d never touch alcohol again.”
“You sure?”
“Oh yes,” Maria told a precious Kat before she smiled graciously. “Since it’s Dom’s favorite, let him have him have my slice.”
“There’s enough for each of them to have another slice,” Kat said, giving each of the men more. “I don’t like the taste. It reminds me of mouthwash. DeeDee used to make it for us when we were growing up, then stopped making it.”
Gee, I wonder why ….
“I only started making it because Dom enjoyed it when she did, and Drago loves it too.” Katarina shrugged as if there were no accounting for men’s taste.
When the men stopped eating, Maria would have laughed at their pained expressions if she still didn’t have that fucking sour lemon taste in her mouth. While she had eaten the food to be polite for Dominic’s sake—and, to be real, she wasn’t sure she hadn’t been on the fritz because of the alcohol she had consumed the night before—there was only one reason the men resumed scarfing the pie down—pure love for Kat.
Maria knew she was fucked when Dominic asked for the last slice of pie and Drago began to turn a sickly green. He was taking the bullet for the team. How could the mighty be toppled by something as simple as grasshopper pie?
Lowering her gaze to her ring finger, it felt … empty.
Damn.
Forty-Four
Pain
As soon as the door shut, Maria’s smile dropped as she glared at Dominic and furiously whispered at him, “That’s how you repay me for not fucking me?”