Consume Me (Master Chefs #3) Read online

  “Thank you,” Taryn said looking around for a clue as to where that would be.

  “Just down the hall.” He jutted his chin out to the right. “It’s the first door on the right.”

  “Thanks.”

  She walked down the hall, eager to surprise him, but as she approached his door, she heard his voice.

  “I told them to rebuild it just as it was,” he said.

  Taryn stepped silently closer and tried to peer into the room. The door was ajar, but all she could see was an empty sofa and the shadow of Errol pacing.

  “Suzanne,” he went on. “I told you, I don’t want them to make any changes. La Benicoise was perfect as it was. Why change it?”

  Silence.

  “Okay,” he said more gently. “I hadn’t looked at it that way.”

  More silence, and Taryn realized he was on the phone.

  “Yeah, I know.” His voice was unusually warm and understanding. “I can’t. Things are really busy here. We’ve been having some technical problems, so we only have four episodes in the can. Yeah, thanks, Suz. I really appreciate it.”

  Taryn’s heart skipped a painful beat. Hearing Errol speak so intimately to Suzanne, and calling her Suz… it was all too cozy.

  “Yeah. I think they’re going to need a month or so before everything is set to go again.”

  While she understood his need to speak to his sous-chef about the progress of the rebuilding his burned down restaurant, she couldn’t understand the almost loving tone he used. It was a tone she’d heard him use with her, when they were alone together, when he let his guard down, when he allowed himself to be vulnerable. She’d naively thought that tone was reserved for her, not for this vile and wicked Suzanne who hid nothing of her desire to get Errol back into her bed.

  Disgusted by the conversation and the fact that Errol would have to continue to work with a woman who obviously intended to seduce him, Taryn spun around to leave. She couldn’t face him like this, not when she was so distraught by what she’d heard. But her departure was brutally halted when she ran into the young stage manager.

  “Ah,” she cried out as she was splashed with hot coffee.

  “Ah, mon Dieu,” he said. “Est-ce que vous allez bien?”

  The door to Errol’s dressing room opened wide and Errol stepped out. “What’s…? Taryn!” His smile was wide and genuine, and his eyes sexy and starving for her.

  “Je suis désolé,” the stage manager stammered, reaching out to wipe Taryn’s pristine white blouse with a paper napkin. “So, so sorry. I do apologize.”

  “That’s all right. I’m fine.” She tried to pull back from his brushing hands.

  In his attempts to wipe her off, he repeatedly touched her breasts. And as she glimpsed down, she could see the coffee had seeped through her blouse as well as her thin and translucent bra, leaving her nipples virtually bare.

  Despite her attempt to back away, he persisted.

  “Jean-Pierre, that’s quite enough,” Errol said.

  “I did not expect her to turn around,” Jean-Pierre said in defense. “Look, I ruined her blouse.”

  Feeling too many eyes on her breasts, Taryn blushed.

  Errol reached out to physically stop Jean-Pierre’s hands from groping his fiancé.

  “Ah, oui. Désolé.” Jean-Pierre finally got his roaming hands under control.

  “Jean-Pierre, this is Taryn, ma fiancé. She just flew in from New York.”

  “Ah,” he said with wide and impressed eyes. “You are very lucky.”

  “Thank you.”

  “The set will be ready for the next taping in twenty-five minutes.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  Jean-Pierre left them, but not before casting a final glance at Taryn’s piercing nipples.

  “You okay?” Errol asked. “Was the coffee hot?”

  “Just very warm. I’m fine. Really. I think this blouse might be ruined, but I’m fine.”

  Errol’s glance dipped to her coffee stained blouse. “Doesn’t look all that ruined to me,” he said with a wicked smile. “In fact, it looks damned fine.”

  She let out a heated laugh.

  “Come on,” he said, pulling her inside his dressing room. “You heard the man. We only have twenty-five minutes.”

  Chapter 4

  “I think I should go wash this off first.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll wash you off all right. I’ll lick every aromatic drop off your sumptuous breasts. Talk about café au lait. It’ll be the best damned coffee I’ve ever had.” He trailed his finger down her cleavage. “Oh, yeah, and sticky sweet as well. Come on. Hurry.”

  He tore through the buttons and peeled the dirty garment off her. Before taking off her bra, he dipped his tongue between her breasts and traced the edge of her bra with his tongue. Her breasts swelled with desire and her nipples perked up, eager for his attention. Wasting little time, he reached around, unclasped her bra and quickly filled each hand with a heavy breast. His thumbs each took possession of a nipple as he groaned his pleasure.

  “Damn, I want you, Taryn.” He dove between her breasts, his tongue running over one swell of her breast and quickly dipping into the valley before tasting the other. He couldn’t get enough of tasting her, of holding her and sucking on her.

  With brash and urgent hands, he jacked up her skirt, exposing the delicate white panty adorned with soft baby blue lace.

  “Beautiful,” he whispered as he wrapped his fingers around her tiny waist and sat her up on the small desk strewn with recipes, notes and lines. He pried her legs wide apart then ran a finger along the blue lace.

  Taryn growled with hunger. She’d missed him, but she hadn’t really realized just how much she’d needed to feel him again. Her body burned under the slightest touch.

  “There’s no coffee spilled down there,” Taryn purred.

  He leaned in closer and snaked his tongue under the thin fabric of her panty. The teasing and fleeting touch of his tongue over her clitoris had her reaching back over the desk looking for something to clutch, to hold onto. In only a matter of minutes, he’d managed to bring her on the edge of an explosive orgasm.

  “Hold on, my worldly chef. You’re heating me up too fast. You did say we have twenty minutes, right.” She reached out to undo his pants and let them fall to his ankles. Jumping off the desk, she pushed him back until he was backed to the wall. “Do I have to wait until someone spills coffee on you before I can taste you?”

  Errol yanked his underwear off and held his erection out to her. “Absolutely not.”

  With the limited time they had, she wanted to drive him as crazy as she could. She lightly ran her fingers over the length of him, amused by the spontaneous movement of his arousal her touch brought.

  Lacking any degree of patience, he pressed her fingers around his rigid shaft and purposefully pumped her hand over his erection.

  “I’ll take the time to slowly savor you tonight, but for now…” He spun her around, pinned her to the wall and forcefully pushed his raging erection into her, a loud grunt of euphoria filling the air as her heated body took him in.

  The walls shook under the weight of their movements. Meeting up with Errol again was even more powerful than she’d imagined. His touch easily fanned the embers that had lain in wait since his departure. Every inch of her body tingled with joy, burned with hunger and yearned for more and more.

  He passionately clamped his lips over hers, drinking her in, breathing her in, his very hunger for her arousing her all the more. His lips trailed down her neck, and behind her ear.

  “Look what you do to me,” he whispered in a husky voice. “You make me feel like an innocent and virginal boy who’s never touched a woman before. You excite me to the point that nothing else exists.”

  And with those words, he pounded into her, grunting with every push, a grunt that was echoed with her own erotic cries of ecstasy.

  For a long sated moment, only their heaving breaths filled the air.

&n
bsp; “Damn, I love your sweet ass, Taryn.” He leaned his sweaty brow against hers and met her gaze.

  Smiling, she ran the back of her hand down his cheek. “I think you have about ten minutes left to make yourself look presentable before heading back out there.”

  He captured her lips in a deep and loving kiss before backing away. “Maybe now I’ll be better able to concentrate on the work at hand. Being away from you has left me a little absent minded lately.”

  “Well, I’m glad I could come over and help you out.” She smiled naughtily at him.

  Running his hand through his luxurious hair, he gazed at the mirror, grinned then quickly changed clothes. “I guess a fresh shirt wouldn’t hurt. I’ll pull one out for you, too.”

  Minutes later they walked out and headed to the set. While Errol was greeted with cordial professionalism and quickly escorted to his station, Taryn couldn’t help but notice the knowing smiles that spread over the faces of the crew as they gazed at her.

  She was suddenly all too aware of her messed up hair and Errol’s shirt on her back.

  Chapter 5

  Six hours later, they called it a wrap.

  “All that time and you’ve only taped two half hour shows?” Taryn said to Errol as he walked off set and came to her.

  “I think you're more of a distraction than I’d anticipated.” He led her back to his dressing room. “Instead of seeing the chicken breasts in front of me, all I could see were yours in my face. And when I had to whip some cream, I couldn’t help but think about the next time I’d be able to have you at my mercy. And I just about lost it when I had to open those oysters. Damn, but all I could think of was shoving my tongue over your clitoris and hearing your squeal.”

  Leaning against the doorjamb, she watched him shun his white shirt lightly dusted with flour and change into a pristine blue shirt. “Am I to understand that you're blaming your inability to tape more than one half hour’s worth of material in three hours on me?”

  He chuckled, buttoned up his shirt and took her by the elbow. “Come on. I don’t want thoughts of fucking you keep me from catching up tomorrow. I have big plans for the night.”

  With a giggle she followed him out of the studio to his car in the parking lot. Driving home was like a brief promenade down memory lane. All the architecture that had impressed her on her arrival to Paris that very first time; the Eiffel Tower in the distance, le Louvre and Notre-Dame de Paris. She hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed everything about Paris.

  Minutes later they pulled up to his place and Taryn felt a strong sense of being home the moment he opened the door to his place.

  “Welcome home, mon amour.”

  Lost in the moment, Taryn kicked off her shoes and hurried to the large windows in the living area. The view had always made her spirits soar and, as she pulled back the drapes, she was once again swept away by the magnificent view of the city.

  “Paris shines bright once more, now that you're here with me.” Errol came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

  Letting out a lighthearted laugh, she leaned back into him and felt more at home than she had in a long while. “I never want to tear my eyes off it, it’s so beautiful.”

  “The city of lights. It never fails to move me.”

  Moved by the romanticism, Taryn wanted to stay wrapped in his arms a few moments more. “It feels so good to be home,” she whispered. “I have so many memories of this place.”

  “So do I,” he groaned from deep in his throat. “So much so, I think I’m going to cancel tomorrow’s taping. I think I need a few days off.”

  All of Paris offered so many memories; her first encounter with Errol, his invitation to become his plaything, her initiation to the kind of sex she’d never imagined herself involved in. She’d been such a bundle of naïve nerves, so unsure of herself, and so mesmerized by Errol; his handsome face, his sexy body, and his charm.

  “It feels good having you home.” He lightly tapped her butt. “I’ll go get us a glass of wine.”

  She tore her eyes off the lights of the city and watched Errol head to the kitchen. The apartment was the same as she remembered. Masculine, strong, rich and sexy, just like the man of the house.

  Following Errol, she entered the dining room and was suddenly gripped with an unexpected sense of dread and gloom. The dining room table…

  “Red good?” Errol called from the kitchen.

  “Sure,” Taryn muttered. Her skin tingled, but not for the same reasons it had tingled just moments before.

  From a distance she heard the subtle pop of a cork being pulled out of a bottle, the gentle clink of wine glasses coming out of the cupboard and the soft swish of rich red wine filling a glass then another. She was barely conscious of Errol’s approaching footsteps.

  “Here you go.”

  He held the glass out in front of her, but she just stared straight ahead.

  “Taryn?”

  His light touch on her shoulder registered, but she still couldn’t bring herself to answer him.

  “Are you okay?”

  She nodded then shook her head. “That’s where…” She leaned against the back of a chair.

  “Taryn, what’s wrong?”

  She shivered as her heart began pounding faster and louder while the walls slowly caved into her. All she could hear was her heart beating loudly and her breath becoming shorter and shorter. Gripped with a sudden fear and panic, Taryn wrapped her arms around herself trying to stop her shivering, while sweat beaded up on her temples.

  “Are you cold, honey? You're shivering.”

  “I think I need to go.”

  “What are you talking about? We just got here. The flight over here must be getting to you. You just need to relax a bit.”

  “I can’t stay here, Errol. I…”

  “What’s going on?” He set the wine glasses on the table and took her hand.

  “This is where… Errol… that night, when you tied me up and left me…”

  “Oh, Taryn.” He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. “I’m so sorry about that night.”

  “It took me so long to forget about that night. It was weeks before I finally stopped having nightmares. I’d put it all out of my head. I’d gotten over it and have forgotten all about that horrible night. But now… staring at the very table you’d tied me to and left me… in the dark.”

  “I’ll never let anything like that happen again. You’ll see. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

  “I know, Errol, but…”

  “Okay, let’s head back into the living area then. I swear, first thing tomorrow I have this damned table thrown into the fire and I’ll get a new table, a virgin table.”

  “No. I can’t stay here, Errol.” She brought her trembling hand to her throat and tugged at the collar of the shirt Errol had loaned her. “I have to get out of here. I can’t breathe.”

  She tore free of his hold and stormed to the door of his apartment.

  “Taryn, wait.”

  “I can’t Errol. I don’t want to be left in the dark, Errol. I can’t. Anything, but I can’t stay in the dark. I’ll be good, Errol, I promise. I don’t want to be tied up in the dark. Never. Never again.”

  Shocked by her fear, Errol put a hand to her shoulder. “Never, Taryn. I’ll never leave you in the dark again.”

  The very air in the apartment choked her. The apartment that had captivated her just moments earlier was now a painful reminder of that night of hell. She’d never been at ease in the dark, and the fear had grown over the years, but that night… tied up, unable to move, unable to see. It was her worst nightmare. Her breath came in short, sharp pants that hurt her lungs and stung the back of her throat. She’d throw up if she stayed any longer… as sure as she was standing there, she’d throw up right on him.

  She turned the doorknob, but neglected to unlock the deadbolt, keeping her from opening the door and adding to her panic. “I want to get out,” she shouted as she pounded on
the door. “I have to get out.”

  Errol grabbed her and threw his arms around her. “Okay,” he whispered. “Okay, we’ll go. There are hundreds of hotels we can go to.” He turned the lock and opened the door. “We’ll go somewhere else, Taryn. Anywhere else.”

  The moment she stepped into the corridor she calmed down.

  “Stay here,” he said. “I’m going to go back in, grab a few things and we’ll be out of here in no time, okay?”

  She nodded and immediately realized how ridiculous she was being, but was unable to stop herself. The apartment she’d looked forward to returning to was now just one big, horrible memory.

  Chapter 6

  After a sleepless night in a beautiful hotel room, Taryn turned to Errol’s sleeping form and stared at him. She could hardly believe he’d so easily given in to her outlandish demand. How could she possibly ask him to leave his home, his magnificent apartment? Shaking off the last shivers left by her panic attack of the night before and the dream filled night that had left her trembling more than once, she got out of bed and switched on the coffee machine set on the little breakfast table. As it percolated, she opened the door to collect the fragrant breakfast basket left in the hall.

  Just as the rich aroma of coffee filled the air and blended with the fresh scent of croissants and real butter, Errol’s eyes fluttered open. In an instant he was propped up on his elbows, his concerned eyes riveted to her.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she said with a bit of a nervous laugh. She set the basket by the coffee machine. “Coffee?”

  He dared a slight smile as he sat up and nodded.

  “I’m terribly sorry about last night.” She poured coffee into two cups and brought him one.

  “There’s nothing to be sorry about, Taryn.”

  She returned to the basket, generously buttered two croissants and set them on a plate accompanied by a tiny cup of strawberry jam. “It was silly and childish of me.” She handed him his breakfast. “Your apartment is wonderful and I love the view and… I can’t believe I made you bring me out to a hotel. I’m past all that silliness now. After breakfast we can go back.”