Consume Me (Master Chefs #3) Read online

  Within the tight confines of the shower stall they’d tasted each other’s body, wet, sleek and fresh. When she exploded under the strong wave of her orgasm, she’d expected Errol to release his pent up passion, but instead, he’d carried her to his bed and had slowly and tenderly made love to her.

  She smiled as the expression on his face in the moment’s preceding his climax came to her. The blend of ultimate arousal and profound love had brought her to a height of euphoria she’d never dreamed of.

  A constant and persistent pounding pierced through her reverie and she cracked an eye open.

  “Sorry about the racket,” Errol said.

  Taryn sat up to look at him. Wearing only his drawstring pajama pants he was a beautiful sight. His toned torso had a pleasant golden glow that immediately beckoned her hands for a touch. And she couldn’t ignore his abs, well defined without being obnoxiously sculpted, they led her eyes down to the crux of his thighs where a light sprinkling of hair growth was visible.

  “What are you doing out of bed so early?” she said as her eyes continued to drink him in.

  He tilted his head to the window, acknowledging the noise coming from outside.

  “What is that?”

  “The farmhands. I’m surprised you didn’t wake up earlier. They’ve been at it since the crack of dawn. Some of the crops are ready for harvest and there’s no time to waste.”

  Taryn got out of bed and headed to the window. In the distance, several men worked the fields.

  “What do you grow?”

  “Corn, a bit of barley and where they are now is potatoes.”

  The pounding she heard were the first potatoes thrown into a stainless steel barrel.

  “They should be finished in a few hours. When the sun gets too high, it gets way too hot to work. That’s why they’re here so early.”

  “This is really an impressive piece of land you have here. I didn’t realize yesterday just how big it was.”

  “Get dressed. We’ll have breakfast and go out to see it all from close up.”

  She threw on a pretty flowing summer dress. Splashed with fragile yellow flowers, the white dress was cut modestly in the front, but more daringly in the back. The spaghetti straps were tied in a bow on each shoulder.

  “What a pretty frock. It almost seems as if you packed it especially for the open air and countryside.”

  Pleased with his reaction, she followed him down the stairs.

  “What smells so heavenly?”

  “Blueberry crepes with custard and brown sugar.”

  Taryn ate three whole crepes downed with good strong coffee. “What a perfect way to start the day.”

  “Now that I’ve filled your belly, let’s go see if the guys have finished yet.”

  As they walked out, many of the men were leaving the field and boarding a large pickup truck. In the back, bushels of potatoes were lined front to back.

  “Looks like they’ve had a healthy harvest. Come on. I’ll show you the other fields.”

  They strolled past tall stalks of corn, windswept strands of barley and finally came to a portion of the land that was not visible from the house.

  “A vineyard?”

  Errol beamed. “It’s the crowning jewel.”

  Rows upon rows of grapevines ran off as far as the eye could see.

  “What’s a country home in France without your own vineyard?” He reached for a heavy bunch of deep blue grapes. “If all goes well, I should have my own merlot out soon.”

  “Are they good to eat?”

  In response, Errol pulled a bunch off the vine and held it over her head so she could pluck off a grape with her teeth.

  “Umm,” she moaned with a nod.

  “Imagine once they’ve fermented into the perfect wine.” He glanced at the nearby vines, then at her. With a mischievous grin, he opened a small tool shed a few yards away at the head of the rows, pulled out two cutters and several flat bottomed baskets. “Come on. Let’s grab a few and see what we can do.”

  “Now?” she said with an amused grin.

  “Why not?” He quickly clipped bunch after bunch and placed them in the basket

  Eager to do her part, Tar took the cutters and snipped off several bunches. With their baskets full, he led her back to the tool shed. With a twinkle in his eye, he pulled open a wide sliding door that exposed a large wooden vat.

  “Let’s try it the old fashioned way.”

  “Are you nuts?” She burst out laughing.

  Unperturbed, Errol plopped the grapes off each bunch and tossed them in. Tickled by the thought, Taryn slipped out of her sandals.

  “Ladies first.” Errol held her dainty hand and helped her in.

  The grapes squished between her toes in a strange and interesting way. “This tickles.”

  Errol dug his hands into the grapes, squeezing them between his fingers while the juices ran down his arms.

  “I don’t think wine will ever taste the same after this.” He rubbed his juiced up hands up her calf.

  “Errol!” she shrieked. “You're going to stain my dress.”

  “Then I strongly suggest you take it off,” he said as his hands drove up to her thighs.

  She pulled the skirt of her dress up and he gripped her bare ass cheeks, leaving bright blue hand prints on her white skin. With a giggle, she pulled the dress over her head and set it on the nearby fence post just as Errol’s hands traveled over her belly and up to her bare breasts.

  “Keep working your feet in those grapes if you ever want to taste my world famous merlot.”

  He wrapped his hands around her waist and leaned in to lick the grape juice that now trickled over her breasts. Her nipples perked to attention.

  “This isn’t fair,” she moaned. “I’m a mess and you're pristine.”

  “There’s hardly room in there for two.” He pointed his chin to the vat.

  “I’ll make room.” She backed up and tugged on his hand. “There’s plenty of room. We could lie down in here.”

  He pulled his drawstring pajamas off and got in.

  Taryn immediately pressed her breasts to his chest, crushing more grapes between them. Hungry to taste more of him, she tilted her head up to kiss him. His lips crushed over hers while his tongue played wicked games in her mouth. With grapes between his fingers, he ran his hands over her face, and through her hair. As his body slithered against hers, his erection poked and prodded here and there, heightening her arousal.

  “I have an idea for a very original, very personalized wine.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up, bringing her legs around his hips to straddle him. “Like you said, there’s enough room to lie down in here.”

  He set her down in the grapes, pried her legs open then squeezed a handful of grapes over her clitoris.

  Staring up at him, she licked her lips in anticipation. “I have a feeling I’m going to really like this wine.”

  Errol bent over her and looked at her crotch. “So am I.” He ran his tongue thoroughly over all the juices that trickled down from her clitoris and covered the sensitive and fragile flesh that hungered for even more of his touch.

  “Oh, please don’t stop,” she groaned when he removed his tongue.

  “This is so sweet, I don’t think I could stop even if I wanted to.”

  Setting his entire mouth over her, clamping his lips over her nether lips, he lick and bit her to the edge of an exquisite orgasm, but he stopped just short of giving her that pleasure.

  “Not yet, baby,” he whispered. He tugged her up and turned her over, setting her on her knees, her back to him. Grape juice ran down her back as he slid his erection between her thighs. “I want to savor this sweet wine.”

  Taking a firm hold of her breasts, he squeezed the firm flesh, and tweaked her nipples. A tortured moan of unbearable pleasure slipped between Taryn’s lips.

  “Errol,” she whispered. “I want to feel you.”

  He nudged his hard-on against the moist opening that awa
ited him. “You feel that?”

  “Not enough.”

  He nudged in a bit deeper. “How’s that?”

  She smiled. While she enjoyed the game of long and torturous foreplay, she thought it’d also be fun to turn the tables. “Yes, that’s good.”

  Errol remained silent for a long stunned moment. “Maybe a little more.”

  “No,” she snapped, pulling away suddenly. “That’s enough just like that.” Swinging her hips back and forth, she lightly played over the tip of Errol’s erection. Biting back a smile, she said, “Just like that… that’s real nice.”

  More stunned silence.

  “Yeah,” she groaned as she pushed over him just a little bit more. “That’s real nice.”

  “Don’t you want it all?”

  “This is perfect.” As she continued the half play over his shaft, she heard his distinct frustration as he exhaled a long, slow breath.

  “The hell it is,” Errol finally growled. He dug his fingers into her hips, took a firm grip and roughly pulled her to him as he plowed his engorged shaft in deep as far as it would go. “Tell me how you like that now.”

  No words came to her. No words could describe how she felt; how he made her feel. All that came past her lips was an animal groan that begged for more.

  Chapter 9

  “I think it’s time we start considering returning to Paris,” Tar said as she stirred her coffee. They’d been up for all of fifteen minutes and she’d been looking for the best way to bring the topic up. In the end, she decided to just come out with it.

  “Why? Don’t you like it here?” Errol flipped a few fluffy pancakes onto a plate. The whole house smelled cozy, warm, sweet.

  “I love it, but I do have a restaurant I have to tend to, remember?” She dropped a handful of blueberries over the pancakes and poured thick, dark maple syrup over it all. Running her finger over the lip of the syrup bottle, she cleaned off the stray drop of sweet liquid and licked her delicious finger.

  He cocked his head to the side and furrowed his brow. “You want to go back to New York?”

  “Errol, you knew I was just coming out to see you only for the weekend. I have responsibilities back home.”

  “I realize that, but I thought… what with my crew at your restaurant, and didn’t you say your mom was back on her feet? What’s the rush? I’ve been getting word from Brent back home that things are going very well. They’ve grown accustomed to the menu at Sam’s and they’re very comfortable working there. What’s the problem?”

  “The problem is that my mother is just barely back on her feet. She went back to the restaurant for the first time yesterday. With Bobby still caught up in his classes, and spending all his free time working on his own recipes, he won’t be around to help her out. Despite the help of your crew there are still a lot of other things to tend to… like all the paper work, ordering food, preparing advertisements. I don’t want her to over exert herself. I don’t want her to do it all by herself.”

  “Tar, these past two weeks have been hell for me. Haven’t they been hell for you?”

  “Sure they have, but I try to call you as often as I can.”

  “And I appreciate that, but it’s not like having you here. I mean, the phone sex is great and I love the sound of your sexy voice… you always turn me on and it doesn’t take long, but… I’m not the type of man who’s meant to be celibate, Tar. Your voice and my hand can only do so much. ”

  She shot him a hard and accusing glare, but immediately softened it. “What are you trying to tell me, Errol?”

  “Don’t look at me like that, honey. I’m not saying anything other than I want you here, with me. I need you here, in the flesh. For crying out loud, if it wasn’t for those long distance calls, I would have been flying to New York every other day. But all those calls are good for a week or two, but I don’t want to go back to that… not so soon. I want you with me. You just got here. I don’t get it. I thought you wanted us to be together. Why are you in such a rush to live separate lives?”

  Taryn reached out to take his hand. “You know better than that, Errol. It’s not that I don’t want to stay here with you. This weekend has been great, more than I’d dreamed of, and I absolutely love it out here, but I can’t just ignore what’s waiting for me back home.”

  Nodding pensively, Errol took a few bites of his breakfast, took a long and loud slurp of his coffee, then set his cup down with finality. “Yesterday you sounded completely enamored with the idea of moving out here, of making France your home. How much time did we spend on the internet looking for a new apartment? I even took appointments to visit three of them and I thought you’d want to check them out with me.”

  Surprised and a little tickled by his attentive desire to tend to her new disdain for his apartment, she gazed at him. “You took appointments? You didn’t tell me that.”

  “I wanted to surprise you. Of course, I didn’t know you’d want to go back so soon, so I made the appointments for next week. I’ll have to call to change it.”

  “Errol, you didn’t have to do that…”

  “I knew you dreaded the idea of returning to my place, so I wanted to go back to Paris and check these places out. After only a few nights in a hotel, we could be settled into a new place… just like that.” He snapped his fingers.

  She smiled, touched by just how quickly he’d acted on her fears. He could so simply have ignored them; pat her on the head and tell her to get over it. “That’s really sweet of you, Errol. I appreciate it, really.”

  “Appreciate it so much you're going to just leave and return to New York?”

  “Please don’t make me feel guilty for doing what I feel I need to do, Errol. Think of your Nana. If she were the one at home alone and in need of you, would you just turn your back on her so you could be with me?”

  He remained silent a long time then took in a long and deep breath. “Fine. After breakfast we’ll head back to Paris. But will you at least humor me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “At least take the time to come see the apartments with me, and then we’ll…”

  “And then we’ll what?”

  “We’ll see what we’ll do from there. Maybe once you see our new home you’ll forget all about New York.”

  Not wanting to argue the matter any longer, Taryn nodded and finished her breakfast. She thought she’d made her intentions clear when she’d arrived, but evidently she hadn’t.

  During the long drive back to Paris, Taryn was filled with melancholia. She’d never thought of herself as a country girl, but the country air had quickly grown on her and leaving out here with Errol was something she could now very much imagine.

  More than anything she longed to stay at Errol’s side, whether in Paris or out here, but she wished he’d understand her need to return to New York.

  As the Paris skyline rose over the horizon, and the rolling green hills fell further and further behind, her heart pounded with anticipation and trepidation. Paris was beautiful, filled with so much history and art, and it was the culinary heartbeat of the world, but New York… Her home, her heart, her love, her family. Leaving it all behind wasn’t that easy.

  “The first apartment overlooks the Seine,” Errol said as he maneuvered through the narrow streets bordering the river. He pulled up to the impressive stone building. They met the real estate agent in the front hall and took the elevator up to the fourteenth floor.

  “It has a smaller kitchen than I’m accustomed to,” he discreetly said to her, “but the bedroom is impressive, and you can’t beat the view.”

  Though her heart wasn’t completely in it, Taryn followed him to the window in the bedroom. The view was indeed impressive, and while the kitchen may have been smaller than he was accustomed to, it was spacious nonetheless.

  “What do you think?” he asked as he ran his hand over the window sill.

  “It’s very romantic… very old world. I love the woodwork and the cabinets.”

 
At the second apartment, Taryn was impressed by the immensity of the bathroom, but the view left much to be desired. Only on the fifth floor, the best they could hope for was a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower if they pressed their face to a window.

  “I thought it was on the fifteenth floor. Had I known it was the fifth, we wouldn’t have bothered. Let’s hope the third one is a winner,” Errol said with optimism.

  As soon as they pulled up to the tall building, Taryn had a feeling they’d like this one. And the moment they stepped out of the private elevator and into the enormous dwelling, her feeling was confirmed. Despite her intention to return to New York, she couldn’t help but be impressed with the beautiful and spacious apartment. Ornate woodwork, intricate details, beautiful mosaic floor tiles, elegant doorknobs, majestic windows… it was more than she could have hoped for. Taking up the entire top floor of the nine story building, the three-hundred and sixty degree views were unparalleled.

  “This is spectacular,” she whispered to Errol. “We can see the Eiffel Tower over the Seine out of the bedroom, and there are a dozen windows in the living room that allow us to see practically to Le Louvre, and from the dining room… well, I’m sure on a clear day we could see all the way to Versailles. And then there’s everything in between…”

  “I think we have a winner,” Errol said to the real estate agent.

  “Parfait, monsieur,” the agent replied with a pleased grin.

  “Don’t you think we should discuss it a bit longer,” Taryn whispered as she tugged on Errol’s arm. “Maybe we should sleep on in and come to a decision tomorrow.”

  “Why? This place is perfect. It has the space I need in the kitchen, the romance of this old world architecture you want and the view we both love. And look at that living room. We can dance in that room.”

  “If monsieur and madame will follow me, there is also the rooftop gardens and terrace.”