AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Axel has an unending need to prove himself to Errol. He wants to always prove that he’s the best.”
“Really?” I said with a bit of a scoff. “Is he that insecure?”
Mac chuckled. “Not really. He just takes this whole culinary thing very seriously. In a way, his participation in these contests push other contestants to up their game. Every year students work hard to try to beat him. And they come up with some very interesting concepts. Even if they don’t win first prize, their efforts in the contest do not go unnoticed.”
“And I bet that Axel is competitive like crazy,” I added.
He laughed. “Yep. That, he is. Relentless, disciplined and, yeah, a little crazy about all this.”
As I continued to work on my dish, I thought about Axel. I’d essentially written him off as a spoiled and arrogant rich brat. I’d assumed that he was on the lazy side, riding on his father’s coattails and simply taking the path of least resistance.
I had to admit that I was wrong. He really did take the whole culinary art thing quite seriously.
After rolling out my suet dough and placing the barrier between the two sides I took the savory meat out of the pan and poured it onto one side of the dough. I then took my apples that were now in a thick bourbon infused syrup and set them on the other side.
Carefully, and under Chef Mac’s intense and scrutinizing gaze, I added an egg wash around the edges to hold it together, then rolled up the dough and pressed the edges together. The final touch was adding a small apple I’d cut out of a scrap piece of dough, then I scored the apple side of the clanger and gave another egg wash over the entire thing to give it that beautiful golden coloring.
“Now, it’s time to go into the oven.”
I had already preheated it and a waft of heated air came out when I opened the door to put in my clanger.
“All that’s left now is to wait,” I said as I turned to Mac.
Taking slow and sensual steps, he made his way to me, his eyes smoldering, and his lips curled up slightly at the corners.
Damn, he looked good.
My entire body went on full alert. Something was about to happen. Something exciting and thrilling. I could feel the sparks fly. I could feel the electricity between us. Oh, my God. It was going to be fabulous. I could just sense it. My pussy was already wet with the anticipation of his fingers expertly weaving their way in and out of my wet flesh.
I held my breath a moment as he took the final steps and came right up to me, his eyes laser focused on mine.
But just as my lips parted to receive his kiss, just as my hands began their rise up to take a hold of him, his gaze shifted just left of me and his hand rose to follow the direction of his gaze.
“Don’t forget to set the timer,” he said, his smoldering gaze coming back to teasingly look upon me. “You wouldn’t want your clanger to burn.”
Once again, his words and his throaty tone made me wonder if we were still talking about my cooking or something else entirely.
My body certainly reacted as if we were talking about something else. Something far more interesting. Something intensely spicy and exciting.
“Oh,” I finally said when I found my voice. “Right. We wouldn’t want that.”
“Is thirty minutes enough?” he said.
I would easily take hours and hours, I thought dreamily. “Yeah. Well, thirty-five to forty. That should do it.”
As the clanger heated up, we looked at each other, the heat in the kitchen soon reaching a torturous level. Damn, how I just wanted to throw myself into his arms. Was I reading him right? Was he interested in me? Or was this just his friendly everyday way with people?
To pass the time, he showed me a few of his favorite spices, brought me out to a small greenhouse that was attached to the house. All he need do is step out a side door of the kitchen and he was in a magnificent world of fragrant herbs and fresh tomatoes.
When the timer went off, we headed back into the kitchen, and I took the clanger out of the over and let it cool. Then came the moment of truth.
“Here goes,” I said as I sliced into the dish.
“Looks appealing,” Chef Mac said. “No leakage. I admit that I’m a little surprised.”
I laughed. “So am I. I’ve certainly had issues with leakage before.”
I cut several one inch slices, then stepped back to let him take one.
