Soufflés at Sunrise (18 page)

“Jenna, the judges found your cranberry and smoked almond pavlovas confusing. They weren’t particularly sweet or salty, and they were dry instead of chewy. Clarissa, your salted caramel cupcakes were delicious, but they were very safe, and the judges didn’t taste very much of the savory element in your dish either.” Diego paused dramatically like he always did. “I hate to send anyone home, but one of you must go, and the chef that’s going to get burned this week is Jenna.”

Damn. Chase should’ve known. Clarissa was like some post-apocalyptic cockroach. She’d probably end up outlasting them all and winning the whole damn thing. Clarissa returned to the chefs, and Jenna looked close to tears.

She made the rounds hugging everyone, passing out kisses on cheeks and good-byes. When she got to Chase, she got up on her tiptoes and gave him a huge hug and a kiss on his cheek. “I wanna see you in the final, okay?” she said. “You’re a fantastic chef. Don’t let Clarissa beat you.”

Chase chuckled and hugged her back hard. He liked Jenna. She was a little nosey but she seemed genuinely nice, and she really had supported him and Kai from the start. He’d miss her a lot.

“Keep in touch, okay?” he said.

“I will.”

She did her teary good-bye and went for the doors. They’d probably see her again that night at dinner before she packed and made her way home, but it was always so loud and busy when everyone was eating together. Nowhere near as loud as it had been at first—there weren’t many of them left—but still a lot of voices to talk over. Chase was glad he’d gotten to say something to Jenna when he had the chance.

They trailed out to the shuttle in a little mob.

Kai nudged Chase with his shoulder. “You were awesome in there today. I’m proud of you.”

Chase grinned. Hearing that from Kai was probably better than hearing he’d won in the first place. Yeah, he was in charge of Kai sometimes, but he needed praise too. Sometimes even more. It was hard to explain, but Kai seemed to get it. He nudged him again and gestured for him to get on the shuttle. Chase found his seat amidst claps on the shoulder and congratulatory smiles. He felt awesome. He didn’t want the day to end.

Of course, when he got back to the condo and was faced with the possibility of a whole night alone with Kai, he started to think he was more than happy for the day to end if that meant he got to get in bed. Alone. With Kai. Those three words were some of his favorite in the entire language. Alone with Kai. Chase hurried through his shower and offered to help make Jenna’s good-bye dinner. He wanted that alone time as soon as possible.

“I
CAN
’
T
believe I won,” Chase said when they
were
finally alone later. Jenna’s good-bye dinner had been suitably long; more than one bottle of wine had been shared, and everyone had talked late into the night. Chase felt bad for her, but he was still reeling a little bit over his success. He still felt a little mystified. “Before judging, I thought for sure I was going to be in the bottom two. It wasn’t anything that I’ve tried before.”

Kai leaned over from where he’d been undressing and kissed the top of Chase’s head. “I bet the judges appreciated that you tried something new for you instead of doing what was comfortable. It looked great. I was impressed. And we have our nice empty room to celebrate in,” Kai added.

It had been a blissful week without Aaron’s snores. Much to their surprise, nobody else had moved in from the much more crowded men’s bedroom. Perhaps they thought it was best to leave Chase and Kai alone. They probably weren’t wrong.

Chase pushed Kai down on their bed once the door was closed and locked.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi, Mister Winner.”

Chase grinned. “You like saying that?”

“I do.”

“So what are you going to do for me since I was the winner?” He raised his eyebrow. It felt a little weird in the middle of the
Burned
condo and not in the privacy of Kai’s apartment. Obviously they were going to have to watch it a little with the other guys across the hallway, but Chase figured they could be creative.

“What do you want me to do?” Kai asked. He’d gone all quiet. Just like that. Chase didn’t know how it worked. He needed to find out more about it, though. It seemed like stumbling into Kai’s kinks by accident wasn’t the best way to go about it.

“I think I want you to prep yourself again. I got a little carried away last time and I didn’t get to watch for very long.”

“Yes. Of course.” Kai slid over and grabbed his little bottle of lube. Then he started working on himself, knee up over his elbow, one finger at a time until Chase thought he was going to drool.

“You want me to touch your cock?” Chase asked. They’d barely even kissed, but Kai didn’t seem to be in that space. He wanted Chase’s voice, not his lips. It was easy to tell.

“N-no. Don’t want to come for a while.”

Interesting.

Chase watched Kai for long minutes, moaning while he stretched himself around his fingers. Chase stroked his own cock lazily. He wasn’t really paying attention to it. His eyes were on Kai.

“Can I suck you?” Kai asked.

Chase thought about it for a second. “No. And keep going. I want you ready when it’s time to fuck.”

Jesus
. Every time something like that came out of his mouth, Chase blushed a little. They’d only done it a handful of times. It was getting more and more natural, like something he craved during the day when he was stressed out. He thought about getting Kai in here and telling him what to do, taking care of him, making him feel good.

“Tell me when you’re ready. I’m going to go get myself ready.”

Kai had these moods when he wanted to be touched and petted and cuddled through sex. They’d done that too. But Chase was starting to get to know the look on his face when he didn’t want any of that. Whether he knew it or not, Kai’d had that look on his face all day long. Chase was very willing to oblige.

“I’m ready,” Kai said quietly.

“Hands and knees, please.” Chase figured after he said it that he probably shouldn’t have added the “please” at the end. He still had a lot to learn.

Kai still shuffled quickly onto his hands and knees and waited silently. Chase dealt with his condom and lube, then crawled into place between Kai’s spread knees.

“You look so pretty for me,” Chase said. “I love when I get your whole back to scratch up while I fuck you.”

He pushed in slowly, listening to Kai’s groans for anything other than pleasure. He didn’t hear it. Chase started to roll his hips, slowly at first, fucking in deep and lazy. Then he scratched his nails down Kai’s back. Not hard enough to leave marks for more than an hour or so, but enough that Kai arched his back and moaned hard.

“Shhh. Can you be quiet for me, babe?” Chase asked.

“Yeah. Fuck.
Please.
” Kai hung his head and panted. He tried to get closer to Chase’s hips, drive him deeper.

“I’ll give you what you want.” Chase knew Kai was done, anyway. He didn’t last long when he was in one of his moods.

Chase started pushing in, heavier strokes, harder, deeper until he was slapping his hips against Kai’s ass.

“Back. Please,” Kai muttered.

Chase knew he shouldn’t indulge him, but he did. He used his nails to give Kai one more long, deep scratch, one that would sting in the morning, probably. Kai shuddered and came hard onto the blankets. Chase barely even noticed when he followed soon after.

The cuddles after were expected, and Chase indulged Kai with something almost as intimate as what they’d just done. It seemed right, somehow, to take care of Kai while he came down from the high of sex, and Chase was happy to oblige.

After a few minutes, Kai fell asleep, his head still on Chase’s shoulder. Chase kissed his temple, sighed, and let his world fade to black.

W
ELCOME
TO
Burned
, where we find fresh new cooking talent… and a few culinary disasters! Last week Chase’s delicious pear, goat cheese, and macadamia tart wowed the judges with its simple beauty. But our lovely Jenna didn’t find the right balance between salty and sweet. Her after-school smoked pistachio and dried cranberry pavlovas left the judges wondering what they were supposed to think. They decided to think Jenna was
Burned
. Only seven more contestants to go!

This week our contestants get frozen and have to wow the judges with incredible ice creams and internationally inspired flavors. Each contestant will draw a country of inspiration and take a few minutes to research before the buzzer rings!

Our grand prize winner gets a year of pastry training in Paris, a whole kitchen’s worth of top-of-the-line commercial tools and appliances, and a hundred thousand dollars for his or her own business.

With stakes this big, we ask the one question on everyone’s mind: Do these chefs have what it takes to rise to the top? Or will they get
Burned
?

I
T
WAS
warm out on the roof, warmer than it had been most of the time they’d been there so far, and breezy and calming. Chase needed a hell of a lot of calming if he was expected to breathe anytime soon.

It was Thursday, and they’d just finished shooting the second task of the week. Chase was alone on the roof, but that was exactly what he wanted, honestly. He’d had a long day. Everyone had. The judges had been picky as hell while judging the tasks, and of fucking course he’d had to work with Clarissa, who he could’ve sworn was waiting for him to mess up somehow. It had been one of the most unpleasant weeks he’d had in a long time. Even the camaraderie that the remaining cast had built up, well, most of them, at least, had been overshadowed by the heaviness of all the lame shit that had gone down. Chase could’ve sworn they were messing with things to get arguments and drama. Putting people together who didn’t work well with each other, making sure the challenges fit really easily with some people’s strengths and not others, and then judging the people who’d done well when they were too safe. It was just bullshit all around. He was glad they were more than halfway through filming. With the exception of Kai, Chase was quite over the whole experience.

He heard the door from the stairs creak open and sighed a little. Chase had been looking forward to some downtime, and while he really liked a lot of his costars, he didn’t feel like talking to pretty much any of them. He’d needed the quiet to recharge and get ready to face everything with their main challenge in the morning. They were being thrown straight into it without a break, which sucked, because he really needed time to recharge his batteries.

When he craned his head back to look, he realized it was just Kai, and smiled a little, relieved. He didn’t need downtime enough that he wasn’t happy to see Kai. While most of him wanted to get the damn show over with, there was a part of him that was counting down the number of days he and Kai had left. If they both made it to the finale, that was. Not very many was the total. Chase didn’t like to think about it.

“I’m glad it’s you,” he said quietly when Kai came up and slid into the chaise behind him. He must’ve somehow known how tired Chase was because he pulled him into his chest and just hugged quietly. “I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone.”

“I’m nobody?” Kai teased. His voice was gentle and soft in Chase’s ear. Chase burrowed into him happily.

“You know you’re not nobody. I just don’t have to be, like,
on
for you. You know?” He liked that they could relax with each other.

Kai kissed the back of his head and ran his hands up under Chase’s shirt. “Yeah, I know. It’s hard sometimes having to put on a show constantly. You okay?”

“I’m fine. Just worried about tomorrow. The closer we get, the less of a chance that I’m going to make it through.”

Kai’s hands just rubbed comfortingly on Chase’s belly, up and down, soft but not tickly. If he weren’t so keyed up, it would probably put him to sleep.

“You’ll be fine. I have a feeling.”

“You have a feeling.” Chase rolled his eyes. Fondly. He hoped. “But this week, with Clarissa being her usual self. I don’t know. I didn’t like getting stuck with her for the mini challenges. Maybe it was a bad omen. Maybe I have a feeling too.”

“You didn’t lose any time, did you?”

Chase shook his head. Kai kissed the back of it. “Then really, don’t worry. You’re going to be amazing tomorrow no matter what it is. The judges will love you. They already think you’re adorable.”

Chase chuckled. “I’m not adorable.”

“We’re not going to argue about that. You know how cute you are, and you know you’ve got that country charm thing going on. I swear they’d have kicked me off already if they could because I seem like such a jerk on camera.”

Chase didn’t see jerk. He did see intimidating and a little standoffish, which was so weird because that was nothing like the Kai he knew at
all
, but still. He kind of got where Kai was coming from. The fans weren’t going to root for him because he seemed to have it all and the confidence to boot.

“I still think you’re going to win.” Chase had seen Kai as the winner from day one. Other people were probably just as good, but he’d always seemed unstoppable.

“Thanks, babe.”

Kai kissed little nibbly kisses from Chase’s ear down the side of his jaw. It was sweet and soft, just like everything they’d had lately. He blushed thinking about it. Well, almost everything.

The night before, things had gotten a little intense again. Chase didn’t know where it was coming from, the need to hold him down and tell him what to do and destroy him. It wasn’t an instinct Chase had ever had before. It was a little disconcerting.