Soufflés at Sunrise (17 page)

Chase looked around and grinned. “This is totally Make-out Point,” he muttered.

“What?”

“Make-out Point? You know, the highest part in town where you can see all the lights. Where the kids come and park and hook up in cars where their parents can’t find them? Make-out Point.”

Kai snorted. He hadn’t really thought of it that way. Of course he had thought the park had a gorgeous view and it would be romantic… okay. It was Make-out Point. He smiled at Chase. “Will you make out with me if I give you my spring roll?”

Chase poked him. “I’ll probably make out with you even if you don’t give me your spring roll, but if you’re offering.” He leaned over and took a huge bite of Kai’s spring roll. Kai pushed him, and they spent the next few minutes laughing and pushing each other. Soon, though, the food was gone and they were just leaning back on Kai’s towel.

“Ready to go back?”

Chase sighed. “No. But kind of yes. I want to get to Friday and get it over with.”

“You want to hang out here for a little while first?” Kai asked. “Hang out” was obvious code for kissing, which he figured Chase would be okay with.

Chase grinned. “Yes,” he murmured.

It was nice to have a few minutes outside where they didn’t have to think about if it wasn’t PC that they were kissing, where Aaron’s disapproval and the others’ blatant curiosity weren’t right there.

Kai leaned over and brushed a small kiss across Chase’s lips. “I like this a lot.”

“Me too,” Chase said. He deepened the kiss, adding a few small bites, an exploratory lick, and a warm hand around the back of Kai’s neck. Kai leaned back against the towel and pulled Chase on top of him. Yeah. He wasn’t ready to go to the condo just yet.

W
HEN
D
IEGO
had announced that the theme of the week was chocolate, Kai felt like doing a little dance right there. But he didn’t. Chocolate. It was so easy. Everyone liked it, everyone worked with it, and those with experience in the big restaurants knew how to do far more sophisticated things with it. No milk chocolate cupcakes, no healthy after-school chocolate-chip cookies; he knew what he was going to do was going to be amazing. But of course, there was a catch.

“You can’t do anything you’ve done before in this show. If you’ve made a cheesecake, that’s out, if you’ve done ice cream, that’s out. It has to be something the judges haven’t seen from you yet.”

Kai thought about it. No custard, no cheesecake. Well, he hadn’t done an actual cake yet. Complex and sophisticated. He could do that. He started thinking and planning. Black Forest was his old favorite, and he’d always like piling on the cherries and whipped cream. No. He had to do something better.

When the buzzer rang, Kai jogged off to the supplies table. He grabbed the three required different types of chocolate and one more just to be safe, fruits, caramel squares, some nuts, everything other than the basic baking supplies they had at their stations. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but he had to make something amazing happen.

Chase was at the table with him, as was Polly, who looked focused and determined. As always. Kai wanted to reach over and give Chase a kiss or some encouragement, but the cameras were on them as usual. Instead of the kiss, Kai moved his arms as if to hide what he had, like Chase would copy him. Chase glared back. When the cameras moved, he smirked like he’d been having a hard time holding it in. Kai really, really liked him.

“Good luck,” he whispered. “You’ll be great.”

“You too,” Chase whispered back.

And then they were off. Kai ran back to his station, ready to kick some chocolate ass.

W
ELCOME
TO
Burned
, where we find fresh new cooking talent… and a few culinary disasters! Last week Aaron flamed out when his bourbon chocolate praline tart failed to wow our judges, while Breon came out on top with his decadent and gorgeous triple chocolate campfire fondue with caramel white chip brownies. We’re down to eight finalists, and they have a fun challenge this week! Our pastry chefs must work with sweet treats but find a way to incorporate a salty bite into it in this sweet and salty challenge.

Of course, the prizes are the same. 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
?

K
AI
FELT
like he was ready for the final challenge of the week. He’d had a hell of a few days with the tasks they’d been given. First it was popcorn—popcorn!—and they’d been forced to come up with a snack bar using popcorn they popped themselves. In thirty minutes. It turned out popping the damn stuff was ominously difficult for some of the contestants, and Kai was still trying to wash the smell of burned, blackened corn out of his hair two days later. He thought they were over the literal burning stuff part of
Burned
after Aaron was gone. It did mean his bedroom contained only Chase and himself, which was a vast improvement on the situation they’d been in before.

The next test—which Kai had won—was to make a perfect salted caramel sauce. Kai guessed the simplicity of the challenge had thrown several people off, and they’d tried to do things that were far too fancy and convoluted. Making caramel sauce wasn’t that difficult. Any good chef should have a recipe in their arsenal. He’d seen Chase start to panic, looking over at Kai as if begging for help.

Kai had looked at him hard and mouthed “Salted. Caramel. Sauce.” very emphatically. He couldn’t say much more, not with the cameras on them, but Chase seemed to get it. Stick to the brief. Do what they’d been asked. Trying to be clever was what had gotten both Clarissa and Al in trouble.

His day off with Chase on Tuesday had been… damn. Everything he never knew he needed. They’d barely put clothes on all day. And Chase. Well, he’d taken his bedroom personality to a whole new level. Kai wanted to drool just thinking of the way Chase had told him what to do, how he wanted to be fucked, told Kai when he could come. It had been insanely good. He wanted more.

Diego came sliding in as usual like some sort of slimy douche on wheels. Kai liked him less and less each week even though he really didn’t do anything. There was just something about him. He was enough to make Kai’s skin crawl.

“We have a new challenge this week,” Diego started.

No shit. You think we were going to knit scarves?
Kai wanted to roll his eyes.

“This week the chefs will work on combining the classic opposites of sweet and salty. Savory nuts and seasonings with delectable, luscious sweetness.”

Chase snorted at the way Diego said “nuts.” Or it might have been “luscious.” He wasn’t sure, but he found himself holding back a grin. Kai didn’t mean to react, but he couldn’t help it. He had Chase over there laughing, he was tired, it had been a long day. Sue him.

“Cut!” the director called. That rarely happened. Actually, as far as Kai could remember, it had never happened. If they didn’t like something, they cut it. Grinding everything to a halt was unheard of.

“Gentlemen, can I speak with you?” Tommy barked after they’d called cut. He glared hard at both of them. Kai had been chuckling with Chase, but he felt stupid being called aside like some little boy.

Chase and Kai made their way over to where Tommy was standing with a clipboard and a scowl.

“I don’t know what fucking universe you were brought up in, but rivalry doesn’t include giggling like twelve-year-olds because someone says ‘salty nuts.’”

Chase snorted again into his hand. Kai was embarrassed as fuck, but he still had to bite his lip. Tommy groaned.

“I think you two need to take a breather outside for a few minutes and then come back in when you remember exactly what’s at stake for you here. Capisce?”

“Yeah, Tommy. We got it.” Kai officially felt like an idiot. It was one thing to argue with Tommy about the fake rivalry, but to act like a baby just because he was near Chase, who obviously had some sort of effect on him, well, that was dumb.

He turned and stalked outside, not waiting to see if Chase was going to follow him or not.

“That was ridiculous,” Chase said quietly as soon as they were outside.

“Maybe you were being ridiculous,” Kai snapped. He didn’t even want to go back inside, he was so embarrassed.

“You’re seriously going to blame me? You laughed at the exact same time.” Chase glared at him. He stepped back from where it was obvious he had been about to put his arms around Kai. Kai found himself relaxing, and he stepped forward until Chase did put his arms around him—reluctantly, Kai had to admit.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be a dick,” he said. “I’m just never unprofessional.”

Chase rolled his eyes. “I know. Please don’t tell me you take Diego seriously, though. He’s such an ass.”

Kai snickered. “I know. The way he said ‘nuts.’” He snorted.

“I’m sorry for laughing and getting you in trouble. I think this week just got to me.”

It had been a long week for everyone. Kai got it. “I know. Me too. Believe me. You ready to go back in?”

Chase grinned at him. “I don’t know, are we ready to act like professionals and not twelve-year-olds?”

“I think I’m good,” Kai said.

They trailed back into the studio suitably chastened.

Filming started as soon as Kai and Chase were back in position. Diego reintroduced the challenge and everyone managed to make it to their workstations. Maturely.

The buzzer went off, loud and jarring as always, right over their heads. The two unfortunate low scores, Al and Clarissa, had to sit and wait for fifteen minutes while the rest of them went to the tables and took everything they thought they could possibly use for the challenge. Kai grabbed some almonds, macadamias, cashews, and some salty pretzels for good measure, then went about grabbing what he needed for the sweet part of his dessert. He hoped he had what he needed, but took a few more odds and ends just to be safe. He didn’t want to get screwed over by his poor choices.

They were back at their stations when he heard Chase muttering.

“Shit, I forgot cashews.” Once they were back at their stations, they couldn’t return to the supply tables. Rules were rules, and they’d cut him for sure if he broke them. Kai looked at his own pile. He had more than enough cashews for what he wanted to do. He glanced around, then slid a container full of them to Chase. Chase gave him a sweetly grateful look and then went back to his setup. Obviously he didn’t want to give it away too hard, but he mouthed, “Thank you,” anyway.

Kai felt pretty good about their subterfuge until he noticed Clarissa watching him measuredly. Fuck. He never knew what her deal was. It was typically something devious. That much was obvious.

C
HASE
STOOD
under the hot studio lights, sweating it out as usual. He’d taken a bit of a risk with his tart, seeing as how it was simple flavors and nothing super crazy. He was hoping that if it didn’t pay off with a high finish, at least he wouldn’t be totally screwed at the end. Or end up going home.

The judges went through and gave comments to everyone. Chase thought his were pretty good: nice mix of textures, delicious balance between the sweet and savory elements, beautiful seasoning on the fruit. He didn’t think he’d end up on the bottom with those comments. He hoped not, at least. You couldn’t ever tell with the damn judges. It was practically impossible. They were always so unreadable during the comments unless they really hated something. In that case, well, let’s just say everyone knew it.

Basil, Nicolette, and Emilio finished debriefing the final contestant, and then Diego went into his big wrap-up of the episode. It was always pretty drama llama, but Chase was happy to be done with his comments and most likely in the clear as far as getting chopped would go, so he let his brain wander.

“This week’s winner, the master of salty and sweet, is… Chase!” Diego announced. Everyone looked at him and clapped. It took Chase a while to realize they were talking about him.

“Wait, I won?” he said quietly. He won a challenge? Chase was used to being firmly in the invisible middle, or sometimes in the not-so-invisible lower quadrant. He couldn’t believe he’d
won
. He was frozen in his spot.

“Yes, you won.” Polly laughed and pushed him toward the judges.

All three were smiling at him; he didn’t know what to say. Basil took that for him. “Chase, you did a lovely job on your tart. It had the perfect balance between the fruit and the cheese, a nice crunch from the macadamia crust, and the way you used French thyme to complement the fruit and cheese.”

“Um, thank you.” Chase had won a challenge. He never won challenges. It was just… damn.

“You did an amazing job this week,” Basil said. It was just about the nicest he’d ever looked. “You deserved it.”

Chase stood there awkwardly for another moment or two, then turned and went back to the crowd of chefs waiting for the low scores. Kai gave him a secret thumbs-up and pretended not to smile. Chase knew he was happy for him. He could feel it coming off of him. Hopefully the cameras didn’t pick it up too much. Chase didn’t feel like getting another lecture from Tommy. It would ruin his high.

“Can I have Jenna and Clarissa come forward, please.”

Bottom two. Chase felt awful for Jenna, but he really hoped she beat the hell out of Clarissa. He didn’t want to deal with Clarissa anymore. The thought of getting paired with her again was enough to make him break out in hives.