Another Wednesday, another chance to sample lots of great romance during the MFRW Book Hooks blog hop!
For
today’s event, I am sharing a fresh
excerpt from my BDSM ménage romance The
Ingredients of Bliss. Love, passion, adventure, the joys of eating and of travel... Personally, I love this book, and I hope you will too!
Blurb
One sexy French chef. One kinky American TV producer. One ambitious Chinese gal who thinks she wants them both. The ingredients of bliss? Or a recipe for disaster?
Accomplished cook Mei Lee ‘Emily’ Wong knows exactly what she wants—her own show on the Tastes of France food channel. But life is full of complications. First, her deceptively nerdy producer, Harry Sanborne, initiates Emily into the delights of submission. Then her boss, legendary chef Etienne Duvalier, begs her to dominate him. Emily just can’t resist—especially when Harry orders her to explore her inner mistress. Suave and sexy Etienne will do whatever she asks—in the bedroom if not in the kitchen. And Harry, her lovingly diabolical Dom, adores pushing Emily’s limits.
When the network sends the trio to France to shoot a series of cooking shows on location, Emily knows her career is on the upswing. Her plans fall apart in Marseille as a Hong Kong drug syndicate kidnaps both Etienne and Harry. The Iron Hammer Triad mistakes Etienne for notorious gangster Jean Le Requin, who has stolen their drug shipment, worth millions. Emily realizes she must find the real Le Requin, retrieve the purloined dope, and bargain it for Harry’s and Etienne’s lives. The secret she’s been keeping from Harry might prove useful. Still, what chance does one woman whose knife skills are limited to chopping vegetables, have against the ruthless cruelty of two criminal organizations?
The Hook
Emily and Etienne are preparing for an episode of their cooking tour show in the historic city of Lyon. Their next stop is Marseille.
The crew was scheduled to start shooting at two pm, five am in California. That would give the network plenty of time to edit the video before the Toutes Les Saveurs broadcast at four pm Pacific Time. After taping the show, Etienne and I were supposed to head to Croix-Rouge so the team could get some touristy footage of us in the traboules, the famous network of passages and stairways created by Lyon’s nineteenth century silk industry. The evening we’d have free for—uh—personal time.
Why was it that every avenue of thought led me back to the two men who now shared my bed? I forced myself to concentrate on the ingredients and procedure for the quenelles. No sooner had I got my pulse down to normal, though, than my other lover burst into the kitchen.
“Etienne, Emily—I’m afraid there’s been a change of plans.”
Harry appeared even more disheveled than usual, with his black locks falling into his eyes and his wrinkled sport shirt half in, half out of his chinos.
Etienne looked up from the skillet where he was frying thick slabs of bacon. “Oh? What’s going on?”
Harry waved a piece of paper in front of our faces. “Just got a fax from the Cordon Bleu Marseille. They’ve rescheduled our four pm slot tomorrow to ten am.”
“Ten in the morning? Are they folles? How are we supposed to be ready by then?” Etienne grimaced as though he’d eaten a bad oyster. “Who’s responsible for this ridiculous imposition?”
“Chef Marcel Choffard, head of the school. I gather he needs the kitchen for some event later in the day.”
“Choffard! Hmph. I’m sure this is deliberate. He has always been envious of my success.” Etienne shook his head in disgust then agitated the pan as if he were grilling his rival in the hot oil. “What about the day after tomorrow?”
“Fully booked. Anyway, we’ve got reservations in Avignon for Thursday. If we stay an extra night in Marseille, we’ll mess up the rest of our schedule.”
“Merde.” The Frenchman turned off the gas then neatly flipped the crispy lardons out of the skillet and onto absorbent paper. “We’ll have to leave this afternoon, right after the show.”
“Tonight,” Harry countered. “Elliot really wants those shots from Croix-Rouge…”
My spirits sank as my anticipated night of sensual excess evaporated. Then I realized Etienne was truly upset. I knew him well enough to understand his concerns. He wanted—no, needed—every show to be perfect. And it was going to take a minor miracle to plan a menu, purchase ingredients, and produce the Marseille segment, given our time constraints.
I placed what I hoped was a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. You and I can work out the details of what we’ll be preparing on the bus tonight. Then Harry can send Roth out, first thing tomorrow, to buy what we need at the fresh market, while you and I get organized in the kitchen.”
“You know I prefer to select my own ingredients, Mei Lee.”
I almost laughed at his aggrieved tone, until I saw the real distress in his face.
Body heat seeped through the crisp cotton of his shirt. I had a startling, dangerous urge to pinch his nipple. I bet that would distract him from his compulsive preoccupation.
I resisted the temptation. “Don’t sulk, Etienne.” My voice came out sharper than I’d intended. “As Mr Elliot said before we left, one must be flexible when traveling. Let Roth do the shopping. No one will know.”
“I will know.” Twisting out of my grasp, he grabbed a red capsicum and began carving it into razor thin slices.
I gripped his wrist, halting his movements, and stared into those ocean-blue eyes. “Etienne, let it go.”
A little shudder ran through him as he realized what was going on.
“That’s an order. Do you understand?”
He lowered his gaze to the juicy pile of sliced peppers. “Yes.”
“Yes what?”
My knickers grew damp at my own daring. Harry watched our exchange, an enigmatic smile playing on his lips.
“Yes, I will let it go—Ms Wong.”
Buy Links
I hope you’ll take the time to visit the other authors participating in today’s Book Hooks.
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1 comment:
Nicely handled by her and by you ^_^
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