KITCHEN GODS SERIES
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bite me - catch me - savor me - indulge me
box set - bonus material
““You filmed an episode of your show in your apartment last night,” Evan stated.
“I did,” Miles said unrepentantly.
“You made a Twinkie.”
“Actually,” Miles drawled, “it’s better known as a Ding Dong. And it’s a homemade Ding Dong. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried the store-bought version, but this one tastes a whole lot less like cardboard.”
“A Ding Dong,” he repeated in disbelief. ”
Talented pastry chef Miles Costa is bored. Working at the celebrated Napa Valley restaurant Terroir is supposed to be the cherry on top to a promising career, but instead it's a creative desert. So when he gets an offer to turn his online video series into a career, he leaves his three best friends in Napa and swaps Terroir for Los Angeles.
With the resources now at his fingertips, turning his pastry series into a hit should be easy. Then Miles meets his producer, Evan Patterson, and realizes he’s screwed. And not even in the good way.
It's not a meet-cute . . .
Evan lives to work and loves every minute detail Miles loathes. Not only that, he seems hell bent on micromanaging every aspect of Miles' show despite the fact he knows nothing about the culinary arts. Evan doesn’t even like sweets—until Miles seduces him with a rainbow of delectable confections he can't resist.
. . . it's a collision.
With every confrontation, the intensity between them flares even hotter until they're not sure if it's hatred they feel . . .or something else. Is it possible for two people with nothing in common to discover common ground and romance?
““You rescued me from the crowd. What a mob scene,” Ryan said. He was a terrible actor, like he wasn’t even trying. There was a conspiratorial glimmer in his dark eyes, and Wyatt wanted to just swallow the ridiculous story and take him up on everything he was offering.
What would be the danger in that? Wyatt swallowed hard.
“At least,” Ryan continued, “you could be a gentleman and offer to take me home. Especially after I followed you out here.” He arched an eyebrow, and Wyatt wanted to be pinned underneath him, skin to skin, muscles clenched, the next time he did that.”
Chef Wyatt Blake is finally ready to move on from his thankless job. He gets no wiggle room, zero praise, plenty of abuse, and on a good day, he might only spend twelve hours in the Terroir kitchens. A friend of his recommends a private chef position, but despite the boost in pay, Wyatt doesn’t want to babysit some spoiled, rich LA family.
Imagine his shock when the family isn't a Kardashian clone, but Ryan Flores, the only professional baseball player to ever come out of the closet.
Ryan is also at a career crossroads. His team’s management wants to see his more responsible side, which means no more late night hookups and no more adrenaline-charged stunts. When his agent suggests he find a fake boyfriend to give him an air of domesticity, he’s only reluctantly interested.
Until Ryan goes to a local bar and spies the cute private chef he’s supposed to be interviewing the next day. Maybe a quieter life wouldn’t be so bad, as long as Wyatt is part of it?
Wyatt believes Ryan could be more than just a crappy boss, but he isn't sure about leaving the kitchen for the life of a professional boyfriend. Especially when he wants the reality so much more than the fantasy.
“This was not a date, Xander reminded himself.
He’d had to remind himself this more than once when he’d been at the grocery store picking up food for tonight. First he’d agonized at the meat counter. When you brought a filet for dinner, what did it mean? What about salmon? Shrimp?
Love, marriage, or maybe even eternal devotion? A white picket fence?”
When Chef Xander Bridges leaves the warmth and safety of his car on a cold, stormy night and approaches a stranger, the last thing he expects to find is a future. He’s wanted to leave his job for awhile, but with no good opportunities on the horizon, he’s been stuck in a long, painful rut. But when he befriends the stranger viciously tearing up his own vineyard, Xander discovers something inexplicable. Maybe he’s not the bitter, sarcastic man that everyone, including himself, has endured for years.
Maybe, with someone like Damon in his life, he could be something more. Something better.
Damon Hess doesn’t just want more, he demands it. With his alcoholic past, there are no gray areas for him. Only black and white. In love or not. Sober or drunk. But the chance meeting with Xander opens Damon’s eyes, and gives him a vision full of something he hasn’t experienced in years: hope.
Hope that he can expect companionship and affection, hope that he doesn’t have to grapple with his family’s questionable Napa legacy any longer, and most importantly, hope that there’s a future worth believing in. But the longer he and Xander spend cultivating that future, the more Damon realizes that the key is so much simpler than he ever imagined--it’s Xander.
““Is that a promise?” Kian asked, licking his lips as seductively as he could get away with.
Truthfully, he didn’t know what the limit even was; or even what they were really doing here. He’d set the most basic of boundaries: sex in this house, work at Terroir. That had felt like the most Bastian was able to tolerate. Kian could tell he was trying, but him pulling down even those boundaries had unmoored the man he loved.
Probably because Bastian fucking adored boundaries.”
Chef Bastian Aquino is a notorious control freak. For two very long years, Kian Reynolds has worked for Bastian as his special assistant, doing whatever he and his restaurant needs. The toughest part isn’t even all the impossible tasks he expects Kian to complete flawlessly—it’s the hopeless, endless love he feels for his older boss.
Falling for someone so far above him might be agonizing, but at least his feelings aren’t unrequited. Bastian fell in love right alongside him, but at the very beginning, they made the choice to abstain for logical, smart, professional reasons.
But love isn’t logical, it isn’t smart, and it definitely isn’t professional. It defies containment, even by Bastian. While he watches Bastian struggle with their attraction, Kian finally comes to the conclusion that he’s done.
He’s done standing off the side, done not getting any of the credit, done letting Bastian define the boundaries of their relationship. Most of all, he’s done waiting.
It’s heating up in the kitchen . . .
These four best friends and chefs might know how to cook, but romance is a much tougher recipe.
““I don’t think we stopped,” Evan said, even as he tried to cast his mind back over the last two or so months and he couldn’t remember one single fight or even a single time when they’d butted heads over . . .anything.
Could Reed actually be right about them? Had they started agreeing on everything?
Evan couldn’t believe it, but his memory couldn’t lie, could it?
Had he started agreeing with Miles because he was so crazy-in-love with him he didn’t want to disagree anymore?”
A collection of five Kitchen Gods short stories. Should be devoured after reading all four Kitchen Gods novels.
The Argument - what if Evan and Miles finally stopped arguing?
The Trainee - Matt becomes a trainee at Temple. Will he strike out or will trainer Alex show him all the ropes?
The Invitation - Wyatt and Ryan aren't sure what to make of fellow sports star Colin O'Connor's invitation.
The Spa Day - Damon knows exactly how to relax Xander when professional pressure becomes too much.
The Wedding - it's only the most important day of Bastian's life. He can't mess it up. Right?