Chapter Sixteen #2
Ethan leaned down until his lips hovered over the top of hers. “I have skills in all the rooms of the house. Would you like me to show you?”
She arched a sassy brow. “Behave yourself. This is my kitchen, and you have to follow my orders tonight.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes, it is.” She put a hand to his chest and pushed him away. “Now, if you’ll follow me to my station, we can begin.”
He moved to the area Chloé indicated and found a cutting board with a knife set rolled out on top of it. She took out two of the wickedly sharp blades and put the others aside.
“How are your knife skills?” She grabbed several onions from a basket and put them on the board in front of them.
“I’d say basic at best.”
She grinned as she peeled one of the onions and grabbed a knife. “One of the first things my père taught me in the kitchen was how to prep the veggies. That includes peeling”—she gestured to the naked onion—“and learning how to cut a vegetable the right way.”
“There’s a wrong way to cut vegetables?”
“There’s a wrong way to cut everything. There are julienne cuts or batonnet cuts which are slightly larger. But an onion is fairly simple, so we’ll start there and dice it. First mistake most make? Cutting the root off. It’ll make the onion bleed and you cry like a little baby.”
She sliced the onion in half, leaving the root intact. Then she explained the best way to hold his fingers to guide the knife.
“Did you get all that, Ethan?”
He glanced over at Zayne, who was now sipping on champagne. “Better not drink too much of that if you’re up next.”
“You worry about yourself. I’m just fine over here.”
Chloé chuckled as he looked back to see the onions peeled and waiting off the side of the board, and then she picked one up and said, “I’ll show you one, and you can do the rest.”
Ethan wasn’t a stranger to cooking—he’d cut onions before. But never had he seen an onion cut quite like this. In under ten seconds, Chloé had the onion cut and diced. But that wasn’t even the most impressive part.
She did all of that while looking directly at him and telling him about the duck breast recipe they would be cooking for dinner, completely unconcerned about the knife so close to her fingertips.
Shit. It hurt just to watch.
“Holy shit, Red.” Zayne was out of his seat watching the impressive display, and Ethan’s jaw was on the floor when she finished all three in less than thirty seconds and handed over the knife with a grin.
“Sorry, you looked impressed, and I felt like showing off. I’ll find something else for you to cut.”
Ethan shook his head. It wasn’t often someone could shock him into silence. “That was fucking impressive.”
She winked at him. “It’s merely a humble onion.”
He looked around the kitchen and saw that the rest of the staff had stopped to watch them too. “Humble, huh?”
“That’s right.” She shrugged as everyone got back to work. “And I may or may not be able to do that blindfolded.”
“You’re lying,” Zayne said before he took another sip of his wine, but Ethan didn’t think so.
“You’re not lying, are you?”
“ Non . I’m very good blindfolded. You should see me.”
He closed the distance between them and took the knife from her hand. “Careful, Chloé, or I just might take you up on that offer.”
Her eyes fell to his lips, then she quickly turned away and reached for some of the other vegetables on the station.
“Right.” She brushed her hands down the front of her apron, looking a little frazzled. “We should, uh, cut these up and get them ready. Then we can move on to the duck.”
Ethan stepped away from her and moved back to his side of the station. “I think that’s probably a good idea.”
“Good. Okay. The main dish tonight is a spin on my père’s famous one. It’s fillet of duckling rubbed with spices, figs and fennel…”
As Chloé ordered him around the kitchen, Ethan couldn’t help but admire her skill.
It was easy to see why she was so adored.
Not only was she an accomplished chef, she was also one hell of a teacher.
She taught him how to score a duck breast and the best way to cook it.
Her love of food was evident in everything she did.
She smelled every spice, tasted every sauce, and was quick to point out what it needed more or less of.
Watching her move around the kitchen with such ease was awe-inspiring, to say the least.
Zayne was recruited for the dessert once they were done, and this was when Ethan got a chance to really sit down and observe her.
Chloé explained patiently step by step how she was going to be making a pate sucrée —a sweet, tart dough—and then she got busy trying to teach him.
Trying was putting it nicely, because Zayne was okay with the savory meals, but when it came to his beloved sweets, he was more… challenged.
First she combined the butter, sugar, and salt and turned on a mixer, and once it was ready, she had him add in the flour. Zayne, being Zayne, got a little overzealous, and one cup of flour later, half of it was all over his face.
Chloé let out a boisterous laugh and shooed him back to the table with Ethan, and somewhere in the middle of learning how to make a duck breast and chocolate tart, he and Zayne found themselves falling harder and harder for their chef.
By the end of their meal in her father’s kitchen, she’d not only taught them how to cook a five-star meal, she’d taught them how to have fun while doing it.
Chloé had invited them deeper into her world tonight, and shown them what she was really made of, and damn if they weren’t impressed. She was more than a rock star, she was a total boss—and being this good, this young? He could only imagine how far she would go in life.
Which once again had him wondering where she saw herself in the future. It was an important question, and one that definitely needed to be asked sooner rather than later.