Winner Takes All: Big Easy, book 6

  Winner Takes All

  Big Easy, book 6

  Mari Carr

  Contents

  Copyright

  Winner Takes All

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Epilogue

  Big Easy

  About the Author

  Other Books by Mari Carr

  Copyright © 2016 by Mari Carr

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Winner Takes All

  Noah Lewis enters Food Fight, a new cooking competition show airing on the Food Network. When he makes it to the finals, he scores a trip to Vegas to compete. Problem is fellow finalist Hollie has captured his attention—in and out of the kitchen.

  * * *

  As the competition heats up, so does the sexual tension between Hollie and Noah. One night in Vegas, the simmering need explodes into full boil. But in this contest, winner takes all. Will they choose fame over forever? Or will they claim an even bigger prize?

  Prologue

  Night One — Finale Script

  Tom: Good Evening, and welcome to the special two-night finale of Food Fight, coming to you live from Sin City itself, Las Vegas! I’m Tom Federico and sitting beside me, as always, is the very lovely Angelica Stone. Angelica, I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. What a season!

  Angelica (light laughter): Oh Tom, that is so true. Food Fight is in its tenth season and this show just keeps getting hotter, with ratings that are through the roof. However, I don’t think anyone could have foreseen exactly how exciting this season would be.

  Tom: Well, I think we can attribute that success to the contestants. Have you ever seen a stronger field of competitors?

  Angelica: No, Tom, I haven’t. The judges have had their work cut out for them since the very first episode. Everyone seems to agree that this year’s crop of wannabe chefs are the most talented and creative the show has ever seen.

  Tom: Indeed they are. Why don’t we do a quick recap of the season for those viewers who may be joining us for the first time tonight?

  Angelica: Great idea, Tom. The show started with sixteen cooks, all vying for the title of Food Fight Champion. They were quite a diverse group, coming from all areas of the United States.

  Tom: Who could forget Seth Gilbert from Juneau, Alaska? He emerged as an early favorite, with some judges predicting he had the chops to go all the way.

  Angelica: Yes, they did. America was stunned when he was eliminated in show seven after that fiasco with the undercooked venison.

  Tom: And then there was Jillian Cohen, the little spitfire from New Jersey. She caused quite a spectacle in the kitchen, continually launching into her now-famous temper tantrums. How many times have you seen that picture of her waving the frying pan and cursing at judge Robert Conover?

  Angelica: Too many. It came as little surprise when she was given the boot in the ninth round. Other strong competitors who ultimately didn’t make the cut include Mark Pollis, a barbeque master from Little Rock, Arkansas, and Ava Emerson, the single mom from Chicago, who was cut in the very last episode. Her departure was simply heartbreaking.

  Tom: Yes, it was. Which brings us to the big three. The last men standing, so to speak.

  Angelica: Last men, plus one woman.

  (Laugh together)

  Tom: And what a woman!

  Angelica: Now, behave yourself, Tom. Judge Jessica Rodriguez called Hollie Mills one of the most creative cooks she’s ever met. The lovely vegetarian grew up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She’s the only girl in a family of eight siblings who all work on the family’s farm. And for the first time tonight, her family is in the audience. Hollie explained early in the season how difficult it was for her parents and brothers to leave their large farm for any length of time. I know she’s delighted to have them all here. I caught a glimpse of her brothers, Tom, and let me just say, this born-and-bred city girl is considering a move to the country.

  Tom: Angelica!

  Angelica (giggle): I suspect most of the single women in America will share my sentiment after tonight. Hollie is an advocate of organic foods and has a huge fan following.

  Tom: Including me, Angelica. I had the opportunity to try her stuffed Italian peppers with the vegetable risotto after that last show and I’m still dreaming about them. Hollie definitely has the talent to win this entire competition.

  Angelica: Well now, don’t get ahead of yourself, Tom, because she’s facing some serious competition in Manny Walsh and Noah Lewis.

  Tom: That she is. I’m not sure anyone expected Manny Walsh to make it this far. A weak performer at the beginning of the season, he was in the bottom three during the first four shows, only remaining by the skin of his teeth.

  Angelica: And then, boom!

  Tom: Boom, indeed. He’s dubbed himself the hungry hippie and he certainly fits the part. He has thirty years on the other finalists and has the distinction of being the oldest cook to ever participate in the show. At fifty-six, the Californian has become well known for his tatty t-shirts and shaggy gray hair. According to behind-the-scenes reports, the other participants have started calling him Dad.

  Angelica: He’s definitely made this season fun with his quick wit and one-liners.

  Tom: The entire country has enjoyed his humor, evident by the fact that Manny has quite a few entertaining memes circulating on social media.

  Angelica: But let’s not forget Noah Lewis. This hot tamale hails from New Orleans and I think it’s safe to say that in addition to melting butter, he’s melted the hearts—and panties—of every woman in America.

  Tom (chuckle): Be careful, Angelica. We’re on live TV.

  (Laugh together)

  Angelica: We first heard Noah’s personal story during the tenth show, when it was revealed he grew up in a foster home due to his real mother’s addiction to drugs and inability to care for him.

  Tom: Members of Noah’s foster family, including Mama Lewis, have been staples in the studio audience, cheering Noah on from the very beginning. Their support of him has been truly touching. Now the entire family has flown to Vegas to watch Noah in the live finals. According to Noah, it’s Mama Lewis’s first time in the city and she’s become quite a fan of the slot machines. He joked earlier that he was worried she wouldn’t go back to New Orleans with them.

  Angelica: I have to admit, I think I’ve developed a bit of a crush on his foster brother, Caliph. There’s just something about a man with tattoos…

  Tom: Down girl.

  (Laugh together)

  Angelica: There has also been speculation swirling since the fifth show—the partners cook-off—that Noah and Hollie are secretly dating, though both have adamantly denied the rumors.

  Tom: It comes as no surprise those stories started. Hollie and Noah were partnered up for that unique challenge and the chemistry between them—according to judge Billy Oxford—was off the charts. It was during that show that viewers took notice and the two contestants have been fan favorites ever since. Their faces consistently grace the covers of tabloids and the media has declared them the most perfect “not a couple” couple, even going so far as to dub them “Nollie” in true Hollywood style.

  Angelica: It looks like the contestants are about to take the stage. Tonight we’ll see one of the three leave us. Then tomorrow nig
ht, we will return for the ultimate face-off between the final two competitors.

  Tom: Who will be the next champion? Let’s find out. Let the Food Fight begin!

  Chapter One

  “I’m so proud of you,” Mama Lewis said, hugging Noah for the fiftieth time in less than an hour.

  “I haven’t won yet, Mama. I’m only in the finals.”

  Mama Lewis waved off his words as if they were pure nonsense. “You’re going to win. You’re too talented not to.”

  His brother Jett’s wife, Carissa, walked up and linked her arm in his. “And if you don’t, to hell with those judges. That just means we get to keep you to ourselves.”

  “We? Or you?” Noah teased. He’d been the head cook at Carissa’s bar for the past three years. The Royal Lunch had been a hole-in-the-wall pub for nearly three decades, but it became a favorite restaurant of the locals after Noah took over in the kitchen. Now it was known for its delicious, reasonably priced Cajun fare.

  “I’m not going to lie. Business is booming since you started taking the world by storm on Food Fight. I’m making enough money that I don’t even mind the fact my beloved bar is now filled with blonde bimbos all hoping to win the heart of sex god Noah Lewis.”

  He shook his head, grinning, as his family laughed. They’d had a great deal of fun at his expense, now that he was apparently some sort of heartthrob. That whole part of the Food Fight gig was starting to wear thin.

  He’d entered the competition on a lark. The show had held auditions in New Orleans and his brother Justin had talked him into trying out. After all, the prize was five hundred thousand dollars that the winner could use to start up their own restaurant.

  Nine months ago, that much money had seemed like a pipe dream. Now, he was twenty-four hours and one rival away from possibly winning it all.

  If only that rival wasn’t Hollie.

  He sighed. Noah hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the woman since the first day she’d walked onto the set and blown him away with her sexy legs and butternut squash soup.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us to see Cirque du Soleil?” Dani asked.

  He shook his head as he smiled at his foster sister. They’d taken him out for a celebratory dinner after tonight’s airing of Food Fight. He’d been really sad to see Manny cut from the competition. Dad, as he and Hollie affectionately referred to him, had always found a way to relieve the tension and make them laugh.

  Noah had never appreciated that more than this evening. The previous shows had all been recorded in a studio. There was something about cooking on stage in front of a sold-out audience—as well as the millions of people watching live at home—that had him struggling to concentrate. “No, I’m heading back to the hotel. Calling it a night. Believe me, I’ll be ready to paint the town red tomorrow with y’all once all this shit is over with.”

  Zac slapped him on the back. “I’d hardly call fame, fortune, and a smokin’-hot pretend girlfriend ‘shit’, bro.”

  His brother had been trying to talk Noah into dropping the pretend part of his so-called relationship with Hollie for months. Noah had considered it, but they were competitors, both vying for the same title.

  Of course, winning the money had dropped down to number two on his list of desires lately, coming in way after taking Hollie to his bed and keeping her there for a decade or three.

  Problem was this damn show. If he’d met her in a bar, he would have started a conversation and he would have asked her for a date. And then another. And then…

  She was everything he’d ever wanted in a woman. Funny, smart, and an amazing cook. Plus she was completely dedicated to her family.

  Family meant the world to Noah. Growing up as he and Zac had—with their mom constantly strung out and screwing strangers for drug money, rather than for food for her two young sons—he’d learned to appreciate what it meant to have people who cared about him. Mama Lewis had saved his life, taught him the meaning of unconditional love, and shown him that with a family at your back, you can take on the world.

  Hollie talked about her brothers the same way he talked about his siblings. In her gorgeous blue eyes, the sun rose and set on their shoulders. He respected that. Understood it.

  He glanced down the Strip, his vision assaulted by the flashing neon. “I’m going to head back to the Nyte. I have some sort of photo shoot in the morning and then interviews and sound tests right after lunch. I probably won’t have a chance to see y’all until after the show tomorrow.”

  Mama Lewis gave him hug number fifty-one. “We’ll be right there in the front row. I’m so proud of you, Noah. Win or lose, you will always be my champion.”

  He tightened his arms around her. “Thank you for everything, Mama Lewis.” He had taken the Lewis name the summer he’d turned eighteen. He’d gotten his first job as a lifeguard at a local pool, and had saved up every paycheck until he had enough to legally change his name. He hadn’t told Mama Lewis what he’d planned until after it was official. She’d cried and hugged him and said no matter what his last name was, he would always be her son.

  Noah said goodbye to the rest of his family and walked toward the Nyte. One of the perks of being a finalist in the top-rated Food Fight was his all-expenses-paid week at one of Las Vegas’s most exclusive and luxurious resorts. When he’d told his sister Chloe where he was staying, she’d immediately Googled the place and the pictures had blown them both away. Then they’d checked out the room rates and really been blown away.

  As he entered the hotel, he couldn’t resist doing the same thing he had done since he’d arrived in Vegas three days earlier. He paused just over the threshold and looked around, taking in the sheer splendor. The Nyte was a sixty-story architectural wonder of gold, silver, crystal and glass. For a kid who’d grown up in the slums of New Orleans in a rat-infested hellhole, it felt as if he’d stepped out of Dorothy’s black-and-white shack and straight into Oz.

  One of the coolest aspects of the hotel was its themed suites that catered to specialty fantasies. The producer of Food Fight had pulled him aside after he was announced a finalist tonight to tell him that the owner of the hotel, Mr. Nyte, had offered to upgrade his and Hollie’s rooms for the remainder of their stay.

  They were both being given their choice of the fantasy suites and he’d known immediately which room he’d choose. After all, he and Chloe had spent nearly an hour studying the Nyte’s website, exploring all the options.

  His sister had recently become engaged to her boyfriend, Blake, and she’d gone into great detail—his family had no boundaries—about the fantasy she would indulge in if she were rich enough to afford a room at the hotel. It had involved a bubble bath, champagne, massages and some pretty serious bondage. Noah had remained silent during Chloe’s description, trying to block out the image of his sister having sex and fighting a growing erection as he imagined he and Hollie enacting the exact same fantasy.

  His visual tour of the place was interrupted when a large, boisterous group entered the hotel behind him. He turned to find Hollie, surrounded by seven huge, hulking men.

  He knew her bio by heart, knew she was the only girl in a family of eight. It was something else they had in common—large families. Mama Lewis had four biological kids, plus three fosters—him, Zac and Dani.

  The Mills clan spotted him within seconds and Noah was treated to Hollie’s smiling eyes along with fourteen narrowed, suspicious ones. God, it would be a miracle if Hollie had ever had a boyfriend. The Mills boys were an intimidating force.

  Hollie waved. “Hey, Noah. Congratulations.”

  “Same to you,” Noah said. Immediately after the show had ended, they had both been engulfed in the swarms that were their families. He hadn’t had a chance to talk to her since they’d made the cut.

  Hollie had introduced him to her brothers this afternoon as they’d checked out their kitchen stations, but Noah couldn’t remember a single one of their names. He’d been too focused on Hollie.


  “Thanks for walking me back, guys,” Hollie said, clearly dismissing her brothers. He suspected she felt the same way he did. Overwhelmed and longing for some peace and quiet. It had been a whirlwind few days and Noah was grateful the producers had agreed to give them the night off to mentally prepare and rest up for the finale.

  Each of her brothers gave her a good-night hug, while treating Noah to a warning glare. He struggled not to laugh at their obvious intimidation tactics. He’d spent the last decade of his life in a house full of alpha males and the trait had rubbed off. It would take more than the evil eye to scare him.

  Hollie waved as her brothers reluctantly left her alone with him. She sighed once they left and he noticed her shoulders begin to relax.

  “I love my brothers,” she said, “but they tend to be a bit overprotective.”

  “I’m not going to fault them for that.” Noah was pleased to have a few minutes alone with her. Those moments were too few and far between. When they’d been filming the original televised shows, the other contestants had constantly surrounded them. Hollie had joked once it felt as if they were all summer camp counselors, always traveling around in a big pack. For three months they’d stayed in a cheap hotel on the outskirts of Hollywood and they had done everything with the cast and crew, enjoying their anonymity and obscurity. He’d said goodbye to Hollie at LAX after the last recorded show was filmed—and then gone back to New Orleans and had his life turned on its head.

  Once the show began airing, his relatively peaceful life had vanished. As each subsequent episode aired, the number of paparazzi stalking him doubled. He’d appeared on talk shows, been invited to red carpet movie premieres and even done an interview last week with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. Hollie had been there through all of it, the two of them feeling more like a team than adversaries. His five minutes of fame was just about over and, while Noah had enjoyed every minute of the journey, he wouldn’t mind returning to a calmer existence.