Soufflés at Sunrise by M.J. O'Shea and Anna Martin Page A

care of.”
    “ Kai .”
    Chase stopped and pulled Kai to a halt too. He had big, baleful, puppy-dog eyes, and Kai sighed heavily.
    “Yes?”
    “Did you pay for all that? You didn’t have to. It must have been a lot.”
    It wasn’t—he’d been given employee discount. After a kiss on his old favorite server’s cheek, it had been nearly free. “If I paid, then I can call this a date and hope for a kiss at the end of it.”
    Chase blushed. Kai wasn’t sure if the alcohol had something to do with it.
    Since it was nearly midnight and they would undoubtedly be woken early in the morning, Kai headed straight back to the apartment, squashing the impulse to drive through his old neighborhood. Chase was as quiet on the return journey as he’d been on the way out, which was cute, and he was definitely a little tipsy.
    After pulling into a space in the building’s parking lot, Kai turned to Chase and startled when his vision was suddenly obstructed and another pair of lips were pressed hard against his own. He barely had chance to respond before Chase was pulling away again, heat dancing over his cheeks.
    “Sorry,” he mumbled and groped for the door, then slid out of the car.
    “Wait, wait,” Kai said, struggling with his seat belt, then stumbling as he raced around the front of the car before Chase got away. He managed to catch hold of Chase’s wrist, and held him in place. “That was nice. I just wasn’t expecting it.”
    Chase didn’t look convinced. His bottom lip was caught under his top teeth. To make absolutely sure his point came across, Kai let go of the wrist and put his hands on Chase’s waist instead, then leaned in and kissed him slowly. Carefully. The kiss was a gentle press of lips on lips, Kai waiting until Chase broke first before he parted his lips and invited more.
    When Chase gripped his elbows, Kai licked at the seam of his lips and flicked his tongue inside, taking the kiss to the next level. He tasted sharp, sweet champagne on Chase’s tongue. It was delicious, made even more so because of the great evening they’d spent together.
    For long minutes they exchanged these slow, intense kisses, carefully working each other up even though there was nowhere left to go. Not that night, anyway. Not until they had some time alone. Kai licked at Chase’s full bottom lip again and then Chase broke away, laughing softly, and pressed his forehead to Kai’s.
    “Mm.” Kai hummed and let his hands wander down to gently grope at Chase’s ass. “This is nice.”
    “Very,” Chase agreed. Then his tongue was back in Kai’s mouth.
    The fact that they were in a semipublic parking lot made no difference to him. His usual reservations about dating publicly didn’t seem to be rearing their heads at all. With his hands on Chase’s ass, Kai rocked and ground their hips together, pushing and taking and teasing. Time passed—he wasn’t sure how much—and the taste of another man in his mouth for the first time in too long was good. So fucking good.
    “We should get upstairs.”
    Kai groaned softly and gave Chase’s ass one last squeeze. “Yeah.”
    “I just don’t want to get caught.”
    Grinning, Kai kissed him on the corner of his mouth and laced their fingers together. He locked the car, then led them over to the elevator. As they rode up to the top floor, Chase dropped his head to Kai’s shoulder.
    “We need to keep this quiet, don’t we? Cause of contracts and dating clauses and stuff?”
    He didn’t need to qualify what “this” was. He was more comfortable with that anyway. Kai sighed and kissed the top of Chase’s head.
    “Yeah. I think it’s probably for the best.”
    “Okay.”

C HAPTER F OUR N EW Y ORK , N EW Y ORK— T HE C HEESECAKE C HALLENGE
     
     
    W ELCOME TO Burned , where we find fresh new cooking talent… and a few culinary disasters!
    Last week Javier went down in flames when his butternut squash and spiced apple pie didn’t overwhelm our discerning judges with