by M. J. O'Shea
She had a point. “Thanks, guys,” Chase said.
Kai’s hand stayed on Chase’s back after that, gentle and rubbing, calming. So far Chase hadn’t liked the main competition day, but at least something like his attraction to Kai wasn’t going to get in his way.
“I think we’ll all be fine, anyway,” Breon said.
“Who do you think is in trouble?”
“Dreya. Maybe Louis. He’s a little full of himself, but he’s not backing it up with anything mind-blowing. I don’t know who else. Carson?”
Chase didn’t know everyone yet, but he recognized those names. Of course Carson was in their bedroom, so he knew him, the big deal chef from New York, so he’d maybe have an advantage in the next round. And everyone knew Dreya. “Aaron?” he added. He felt a little bad discussing those who weren’t there, but he supposed it was part of being in a competition. “He doesn’t seem to have a focus.”
“Yeah, but he pulled out a great pie last week. He wasn’t in the bottom three,” Jenna reminded them.
“You’re right. I guess it’s really hard to say. Hell, I won last week, but there’s no immunity ever. I could go home on Friday,” Breon said.
Polly snorted. “Don’t you wish there was? Then it would be a lot easier.”
“We don’t need immunity,” Al said. He puffed his chest out and tried to look tough and not like a huge teddy bear. Everyone grinned and chuckled at him.
“Maybe you don’t, but I’d sure appreciate it,” Polly said. “The judges barely knew I existed last week.”
“There are still lots of us. It’ll happen eventually,” Chase said. Polly was a good chef. Maybe a little easy to miss in the shuffle of huge personalities, but good.
“Hopefully not at the bottom, though,” she muttered. Nobody wanted to get feedback on their work if it meant standing up there, wondering if they were the one to get the axe.
“Maybe you’ll win this week. Maybe I will.” Chase smiled reassuringly. “Anyway, it’s getting late. I think I’m going to head back down so I won’t be a zombie when it’s time to get up in the morning. Challenge days are always such a pain in the ass to wake up for.”
“This is only our second main challenge day,” Kai teased him.
“I know. I’m just not looking forward to it. You coming down?” he asked.
Everyone else started giggling. “Ooooh,” Jenna teased. She zipped up her fleece vest.
“Please. We’re not going to do that here. Besides. Aaron is in there. Snoring.” There were more giggles.
“Good luck with that,” Breon muttered. “Actually, good luck to him. He’s probably not going to make his whole time here without seeing more of you two than he’d planned.”
Chase felt heat rise to his cheeks. “Night, guys” was all he could manage. He wasn’t used to blatant teasing from almost-strangers.
A chorus of “night, Chase” and “night, Kai” came from the group when Kai rose too and followed him to the door that led downstairs to their suite.
“You okay about tomorrow?” Kai asked when they were inside and on the stairs back down to the penthouse level. He reached up and scratched at Chase’s hair.
“Not really. But I’ll be fine. I’m not going home,” he said. “I can’t yet.” He didn’t want to disappoint his family or his town. He knew they’d all be watching when the show aired, cheering him on, hoping he’d make the final three.
“Who do you really think is going to go out tomorrow?”
“Who knows?” Chase said. “It could be anybody. I don’t think the judges are too happy with some of the weirder stuff, but they don’t like boring either. I think I’m boring.”
“Cheese ice cream with beer-flavored caramel and pretzels isn’t boring. You aren’t boring.” Kai pulled him against the wall of the stairwell and dropped a gentle kiss on his lips. “You’ll be fine. You just have to remember to snap at me a few times.”
Chase rolled his eyes. “That’s so dumb.”
“Just think of it this way. I don’t know how rigged these things are, but they wouldn’t have given us roles to play if they didn’t think we were going to stick around for a while.”
“True.” He hoped Kai was right.
CHEESECAKE. “WHY’D it have to be cheesecake? I hate cheesecake,” Kai muttered to Chase as they walked to their kitchen stations the next morning.
“Shhh, pipe down, Indy. You’re not supposed to be talking to me.” Chase nudged him on the side, though, more of a touch than a nudge. Kai remembered the night before. How good it had felt to casually touch Chase in front of the rest of the cast, like it was no big deal. Hell, to most of them, it probably wasn’t.
Kai hadn’t ever been very physical with the guys he’d dated before. Not outside the bedroom, anyway. It was weirdly nice to be able to touch just for the sake of touching. At least when nobody in charge was watching. He knew it was very much against the rules for them to “form romantic attachments with fellow contestants.” At least according to the contract they’d all signed before they’d learned about how he and Chase were supposed to act antagonistic toward each other. He figured he’d get around that by interacting with Chase as little as possible on camera. He really didn’t feel like sniping at the guy he’d spent the past week making out with.
Kai was startled out of his thoughts when the buzzer went off, loud and jarring in the middle of the studio kitchens. It was a pain to wait, silently sending death glares to Aaron for screwing them up so badly the day before, but then they got the notification, and they were off.
He looked over the supply table, which had been mostly decimated when the other chefs grabbed their own ingredients, and wracked his brain for what the hell he should do with his least favorite dessert. And then he saw them. A gorgeous pile of juicy-looking plump lilikoi fruits. And next to them, like they were tailor-made for Kai, was a little pile of guavas and a single perfect pineapple. He was set.
“THEY’VE WHIPPED and chopped and baked, but now it’s time for someone to get burned,” Diego said into the cameras. They panned over the group of them, waiting to hear from the judges. “Let’s meet the judges. We have Basil Shrewsbury, respected pastry chef and restauranteur, Nicolette Anderson, beloved television star and dessert aficionado, and Emilio. He might only have one name, but he has a huge reputation as one of the country’s foremost food bloggers. Hopefully our chefs can impress our esteemed judges with their cheesecake creations.”
Kai stood there and watched the others get judged, some favorably, others wince-worthy and harsh. He hoped when they got to him, it wasn’t too safe, too predictable. Kai would be happy for a middle position. He didn’t need to be in the top three. He just wanted to get through to something that would be more his style. The judges called him to the table.
“Tell us about your dessert, Kai,” Nicolette said. Kai tried not to be skeeved out by her, but she leaned forward until her breasts nearly fell out of her low-cut top. He was sure there were other guys in the studio who drooled at her, but Kai wasn’t into women, and even if he had been, he thought he’d like quiet loveliness, not Nicolette’s overripe, in-your-face sexiness.
“I’m calling it Waikiki sunrise. I wanted the cheesecake to reflect the flavors of the fruits of the island, and the colors to look like the soft light when the sun rises in the morning. So we have classic cheesecake form, but unique, fresh flavors.”
The judges nodded quietly and took pensive forkfuls of Kai’s cheesecake.
“This flavor I’m picking up is lovely. Passion fruit?” Emilio asked.
“Lilikoi. It’s a variety, slightly tarter than the traditional passion fruit. I thought it would cut through the cream and the sweetness.”
“Why did you choose to make your cake with cream cheese instead of ricotta?” Basil asked. He always seemed disapproving, even when he probably didn’t mean anything by it.
Kai took a deep breath. “I thought the tanginess of cream cheese would pair well with the tropical fruits. It would stand
up to their flavors more than a ricotta-based cake.”
“Good choice,” Nicolette said. “I’m impressed with your execution.”
Basil and Emilio gave him nods.
“Thank you, Kai.” Diego nodded and gestured for him to go back to where the rest of the contestants were lined up.
When everyone had been individually assessed, they were led to another room while the judges conferred. Sometimes there was a camera in the back room. There wasn’t one that day. Kai sunk down onto the chair next to Chase.
“You think you’re safe?” he asked.
Chase nodded. “I don’t think I won, but they all seemed to like mine. I think if I were in the bottom three, I’d have gotten worse comments.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Kai wanted to lean into Chase and nuzzle his face into Chase’s neck. Not a familiar feeling, for sure. It wasn’t the time or place, though, with the others all crowded into a tiny room with them. Sure, some knew. And they seemed to be fine with it. But he didn’t put it past others, ahem, Clarissa, to use what they knew against him or Chase.
They were called back into the main judging room with the typical drama and pomp. The judges looked at them.
Diego spoke up. “There were some excellent cheesecakes today. For some of you, New York would be proud of how you represented their iconic dessert. But we can have only one winner, and that winner showed us a classic cheesecake with a literal rainbow of fresh, delicious flavors. Our cheesecake champion is Kai!”
Kai couldn’t believe he’d won the challenge. He’d have thought this would be his worst. He went up and shook hands with the judges and then went back to the group of chefs.
“Can I have Dreya, Louis, and Aaron come forward.”
All three of them trudged to the judges’ table. They had to know they were the bottom—none of them had performed particularly well all week.
“This week we had three low scores. Aaron, your cheesecake had good flavor and lovely texture, but we didn’t know where you were going with it. It had no identity, no unique qualities. Louis, your cheesecake was beautiful, but the flavor wasn’t there. You have to have both style and taste to avoid the flames. Dreya, we didn’t know what to make of your dessert. Sometimes taking a risk pays off, but your savory jalapeño cheddar cheesecake did not. The judges felt that it tasted like bad nachos. They didn’t know how to eat it or if they even wanted to. Dreya… I’m sorry. But you’ve been Burned.”
CHAPTER FIVE
IF THE CHOUX FITS—
THE PASTRY CHALLENGE
WELCOME TO Burned, where we find fresh new cooking talent… and a few culinary disasters!
Last week everyone adored Kai’s fresh and fruity tropical cheesecake, but we lost Dreya when her savory jalapeño cheesecake confused our judges more than wowed them. Sometimes creativity is a hit. In her case it was a miss, or should we say a burn? We’ll miss Dreya and her unique style, but there are fabulous prizes to be won and still eleven contestants left to win them!
This week it’s about to get a bit more difficult…. Our chefs will be making a dessert featuring choux pastry. It’s tricky and finicky, but our chefs are up to the challenge. We know they’ll knock it out of the park. And if they don’t? Well, we all know what happens then….
Remember, 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?
CHASE COULDN’T decide if he was sad to see Dreya go or not. Her crazy hippy attitude and style could be a little overwhelming, but she was a nice person. Unlike a few of the others. It was still early days of the competition, though it seemed that with each week that passed, the pressure got turned up a little higher.
He didn’t have the final in his sights—not yet, at least. Chase was focusing on getting through one week at a time, taking each challenge as it came, and giving it his all. There were other distractions, of course; he missed his family, missed the home he’d made for himself and the comfortable life with his business and his friends and his cat. Then there was Kai. Kai who kissed him and laughed with him and, apparently, dated him—if going out a few times could really be called dating.
Kai, who had already won a challenge, and certainly did have the final, and the Burned champion title, firmly in mind.
While they were kissing and touching, it was easy to forget Kai was, technically, his competition. He didn’t feel like competing, though, not when Kai’s hands were rubbing slow circles on his back and Chase felt more relaxed, boneless, than he had in a long time.
All of their kissing had led nowhere. It was almost an unspoken thing at this stage—they couldn’t have sex in their own beds, not when they were sharing a room with two other guys. And they wouldn’t have sex in the back seat of Kai’s car, or in the bathroom, or in a storage closet at the studio. Chase wasn’t that kind of guy. He wasn’t a prude, he just had standards, and there was no way they could take their time and thoroughly seduce each other if they were worried about someone walking in on them.
Kai had sublet his apartment too, so there was no chance of sneaking out and taking their relationship to the next level somewhere more private. No, Chase was forced to endure the ongoing torment of having the sexiest man in LA sleeping in the bed next to him—so close and yet so very, very far away.
So sex would have to wait. Even if Chase really, really didn’t want to wait. Not when Kai tasted so fucking good.
He pulled back from the kiss with a laugh.
“Gimme a moment,” Chase murmured, pressing his forehead to Kai’s shoulder.
Kai laughed and ran his hand over the back of Chase’s head, ruffling the hair up then smoothing it out again. “How you doing, there?”
“Hard,” Chase blurted, then groaned again as his brain to mouth filter failed him. Kai just laughed and pressed his lips to Chase’s temple.
They were on the roof terrace of Bryant Tower, the moon high above LA and casting its glow over all of California. Chase thought it must be close to one in the morning. All the others had made their excuses and, one by one, drifted back downstairs to bed. He and Kai were left alone with the potted palm trees and the noise of the water in the pool gently lapping against the tiles. It was a balmy night, the air was thick. It made Chase want to just tug Kai’s shorts down and… no.
Not gonna happen, he told himself. Not with the final challenge of the week tomorrow.
Their two challenges previously in the week had all involved tricky pastries—on Tuesday it had been boutique breakfast pastries, a challenge he’d done well in, coming in second behind Kai. That had given him plenty of opportunities to snipe and bitch at Kai on Wednesday, when they had to make phyllo parcels. Phyllo pastry was Chase’s worst nightmare and Kai seemed to excel at it, which had, at the time, been genuinely annoying.
Their on-screen tension was only broken in the evenings when they snuck into whatever space was free to make out and grope like teenagers.
“We have shooting tomorrow,” Kai said remorsefully, as if Chase didn’t know. He floated his hand down Chase’s back.
“I know. They’re not picking us up until midday this time, though.”
“Wonder why.”
It would likely mean working into the evening instead of being out in time for dinner. There was probably some production meeting going on, another thing they weren’t privy to. They just got the results of those little meetings when they got to the set.
With a genuine grunt of displeasure, Chase hauled himself up, adjusted his cock, then reached a hand down to help Kai up off the lounger.
“You’re killing me here,” Kai grumbled as he reached for the bulge in Chase’s shorts, then pulled his hand away again. “Killing me.”
They held hands loosely, fingers entwined, a
s they made their way back downstairs into the shared bedroom. They changed in silence, not wanting to wake Aaron from his epic snore-fest, then ducked into the bathroom to share a sink as they brushed their teeth.
Kai had let his hair loose, and Chase admired it in the mirror as they scrubbed. The dark hair skimmed the top of Kai’s shoulder blades, all kinked up from where he’d tied it up earlier in the day. Chase wanted to touch and held himself back, worried this might be too intimate for their still-new relationship. If it was even a relationship at all. Maybe they were just two guys who made out with each other.
Before they headed into bed, Kai caught Chase’s wrist and planted a soft, minty kiss on his lips.
“Good night,” he said softly.
Chase nodded. “Good night.”
THE NEXT morning, despite his best attempts to sleep in, Chase was dragged out of bed at eight thirty and told to put some clothes on. TV-appropriate clothes.
There was a rush for the shower, of course, and Chase was handed a shirt by Sara from the wardrobe team. Then they were all ushered into the living room of the condo, where Diego and Nicolette were waiting for them along with the full camera crew.
“Sorry for the early start,” Diego said. They were all perched on sofas and chairs, and Kai was on the floor, his long, strong legs stretched out in front of him. “We wanted to give you a heads-up about the challenge this afternoon.”
“That’s right,” Nicolette continued. “You see, this week we want you to dazzle us with….” She paused dramatically. “A stunning choux pastry dessert.”
Chase schooled his face into a blank mask. He’d tried making choux once before and it had been an absolute disaster. The stuff was his nemesis. Damn it.
“Because of the complexity of this challenge and exactly what we want from you, you’re all going to have the morning to do some research online,” Nicolette said, and one of the production team started to hand out iPads. “You will also have an hour in the kitchen to perfect your recipe before the challenge starts. Remember—we don’t offer extra time like this for no reason. Use it wisely.”
