Turn Up the Heat
Page 29
Her head sprang up, sloshing another trickle of wine over the rim of the glass. “I did?”
He gave her a half smile. “Yeah, you did. You kind of snuck up on me, with all that honesty. It threw me for a loop at first, but then it made me realize what an idiot I’ve been. I just didn’t know it until it was too late.”
Bellamy felt a tremble work its way from the center of her body and start to radiate outward. “So you came all the way out here to tell me that? Why didn’t you just call me?”
The half smile became a familiar chuckle. “Because you’d have hung up on me, which I’d have deserved. And because I wanted to come here, to the city. To you. I don’t want to be without you, even if that means being here. I don’t want to leave Pine Mountain, I really don’t, but I don’t want to be without you more. So whatever I have to do to make that happen, I’m going to do, even if it means being here.”
Shane met her eyes, unwavering and strong. “You want to know who I am—who I really am? I’m the guy who’s in love with you, Bellamy. I’ll do whatever it takes. Just trust that you really do know me and give me a chance.”
Bellamy stood, speechless and shaking, in the middle of the floor, measuring the words in her head very carefully.
“Truth?” she asked, not letting go of his dark gaze.
Shane exhaled a shaky breath, but locked his eyes on hers. “Of course.”
“I do know you, and I trust you. Pride be damned. I love you, Shane Griffin, and the last twenty-four hours have been hell on earth. So if you could please come here, I would really like for you to hold me and not let go for a really long time.”
His eyes went wide, and she cracked a grin as he processed her words.
“You . . . hold on . . . you . . .”
“Yes. I’m waiting.” She laughed, and Shane closed the space between them in two long strides. He threw his arms around her, and she buried her face in the gorgeous angle of his shoulder, inhaling the scent of him down to her toes.
“God, I love you. And I really mean it. I’ll come here on the weekends, we’ll figure something out. I can’t be without you,” Shane said, bending down to kiss the damp crown of her hair.
Bellamy laughed again, pulling back to peer up at him. “Oh, you don’t have to. As a matter of fact, you might be able to help me out. See, just today I was offered this great new job in Pine Mountain, working in the kitchen with Carly di Matisse. Maybe you’ve heard of her?” she said with a wink. “Anyway, I have to start next week, but I don’t have a place to stay. Can you recommend anything?”
“Oh, I think I can help you out. Whenever you want to go, my door is always open.” Shane dipped his mouth to hers, brushing her lips with a soft caress.
“Mmm, good. But let’s not hit the road just yet. I’m pretty sure I spilled an entire glass of wine down the back of your jacket, so you may want to take it off and stay a while.”
“Tell you what,” he said, his eyes going dark with a look Bellamy knew all too well. “How about I take off more than my jacket, and stay with you—wherever that may be—forever?”
Bellamy smiled, and eased her hands around his face to look him right in the eye.
“I say forever sounds great.”
Recipes
Bellamy Blake’s Late-Night Guacamole
Perfect after a late night out with girlfriends!
Ingredients:
4 ripe avocados (Haas preferred)
Freshly squeezed juice of one large lime
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon cumin
Tabasco to taste
Roughly ½ of a medium red onion, small dice (adjust amount to taste)
One medium tomato, seeded and diced (in a pinch, you can also use about ¾ cup of jarred salsa, but fresh is much better)
One large clove of garlic, minced fine
About a tablespoon of chopped, fresh cilantro (also to taste)
Cut avocados in half and remove the seeds (one good whack with a sharp knife should help it pop right out, but be careful!). Scoop the pulp from each avocado into a large bowl (I like to use my hands for this, but a spoon works too). Discard skins. Add lime juice, salt, cumin and Tabasco. With a potato masher, work mixture to desired consistency. Note: texture is important in good guacamole. Over-mash, and you end up with baby food (eek!), but not enough, and it won’t “dip” without destroying your chips. You want the chunky feel of salsa.
Add onion, tomato, garlic and cilantro. Stir gently to combine well. Let sit (for flavors to really pop) for about an hour in the fridge with light cover. Serve with tortilla chips, preferably to your friends after a late night out. Licking the bowl is optional, but encouraged.
Sharing food doesn’t have to be an intimate thing between lovers—it can be what ties us together with anyone we love or care about, such as our family and friends. One of the big mantras in my house is that “food is love,” and Bellamy’s guacamole in Turn Up The Heat is a prime example. As an aspiring (and closet) chef, Bellamy cooks from her heart, and in turn that makes everything she prepares into a feast for the emotions. Even late-night guacamole! Bellamy’s desire to feed her friends shows how much she cares for them, and following the path of your heart is a big theme in Turn Up The Heat. Give this recipe a try, and share it with some friends (over margaritas!) to embody “food is love” in your house, too.
Grady’s Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies
Make sure to leave lots of space between these cookies
on the sheet pan, as they like to have lots of room
to spread out as they bake. Also, make sure
you’ve got a big glass of milk for dunking!
Ingredients:
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 bag high-quality semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon, and set aside. In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix butter at medium speed for one minute until pale and fluffy. Add sugars, and blend well, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix until combined.
Slowly add flour mixture at medium speed, blending until just incorporated, but not over-mixing. Stir in chocolate chips by hand. Drop by rounded teaspoons (try not to go bigger, as these cookies really like to grow as they bake, and they will “melt” together if they’re too big) onto a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet. Bake for 9–10 minutes, until cookies are just brown and your kitchen smells unbelievable. Cool for 10 minutes on cookie sheet before moving to a wire rack. Cool completely.
Makes 3–4 dozen, depending on how ambitious your rounded teaspoons are. The author recommends eating them warm. The author also highly recommends eating them warm in bed, while snuggled up with the one you love!
Pomegranate Pork Chops for Two
Every night should be date night
when these are on the table!
Recipe can easily be doubled to feed more.
Ingredients:
1 shallot, diced fine
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup white wine (I used a Chardonnay because it was open, but really, it’s to taste!)
¾ cup pomegranate juice
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
½ cup pomegranate-flavored dried cranberries
2 boneless pork chops
Salt and pepper for seasoning
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary (no stems)
Olive oil for skillet
In a medium saucepan, warm 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add shallot and cook 4–5 minutes or until soft and translu
cent. Add wine, scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze, then add pomegranate juice, sugar, balsamic vinegar and cranberries. Bring to a simmer, lowering heat if necessary, but keep the mixture at an active simmer. Stirring often, let mixture reduce (20–30 minutes) and cranberries “pop” (expand and soften).
While mixture reduces, season pork chops with salt and pepper, both sides, to taste. Combine flour and rosemary in a shallow dish and dredge both pork chops through mixture, coating well and shaking off excess. Warm olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat, and cook pork chops for about 5 minutes on each side, until golden and cooked through. Remove to plate and cover with foil to keep warm if your pork beats your reduction sauce to the punch.
When the sauce is thick enough to coat a wooden spoon, divide evenly and pour over pork chops. Serve with your favorite sides (ours are rice and green beans!) and enjoy with the one you love!
If you loved Kimberly Kincaid’s
sweet and sexy
take on modern romance,
come back to Pine Mountain
this June for
Gimme Some Sugar.
Out of the frying pan . . . and into the fire!
Desperate to escape the spotlight of her failed marriage to a fellow celebrity chef, Carly di Matisse left New York City for a tiny town in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The restaurant she’s running these days may not be chic, but in Pine Mountain she can pretend to be the tough cookie everybody knows and loves. Until she finds herself spending too much time with a way-too-hot contractor whose rugged good looks melt her like butter . . .
Jackson Carter wasn’t looking for love. But he’s not the kind of man to walk away from a worksite—or from a fiery beauty whose passionate nature provides some irresistible on-the-job benefits . . .
It’s the perfect temporary arrangement for two ravenous commitment-phobes—except that Jackson and Carly keep coming back for seconds . . . and thirds . . . and fourths . . .
ZEBRA BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2014 by Kimberly Kincaid
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
Zebra and the Z logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-1-4201-3283-0
First Electronic Edition: March 2014
eISBN-13: 978-1-4201-3284-7
eISBN-10: 1-4201-3284-9