“I can’t believe I almost forgot about that,” said Maggie. “Dude… Unruly Restaurant!”
“Gotta be careful,” I said. “Often times whoever is front of house on the losing team is the one that gets eliminated.”
Raina sat next to me, cutely munching on a small plate of gyoza, feeding herself daintily with chopsticks. She was usually quiet in these kind of social situations, though she was known to get animated when engaged.
“I’m actually surprised we’re not doing Unruly Restaurant now,” said Richard. “Isn’t it usually when they’re are only 8 chefs left?”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Maybe we’ll do it at 6 chefs?”
“Who knows!” said Maggie. “They’re always trying to throw curve balls at you.”
“All I know,” said Tina. “Is that there are a lot of girls left and I think it’s going to be an all female finale this year!” She grinned and pumped her hand in the air, offering up a hoot. The group laughed at her encouraging enthusiasm.
“I’m on board,” I said.
“You’re crazy,” said Jason. “I’m going all the way to end.” There was a healthy sense of competition in the room, but nobody was really being a jerk about it thankfully.
“I don’t know,” said Tina. “I think it could be Emily and Raina at the end. You girls are tough.”
“Damn right,” I said, giving Raina nudge. She released her nervous rolling laughter.
“Oh,” mused Raina. “Maybe.”
“The judges love you, Raina,” said Richard, running his hand over his shaven head. He was trying to play it cool but you could sense jealousy in him. “I think you stand a pretty good chance as long as you keep putting out the level of food you’ve been cooking.”
“I don’t think Raina can do any less,” I said, looking over to her and smiling. “My money’s on her.”
“Sorry folks,” said Jason. “I hate to break it to you. But you’re looking at the next Hot Chef right here,” he said, pointing to himself with both thumbs.
“Show us in the kitchen, buddy,” said Richard, reaching over and patting Jason on the shoulder. The group laughed.
“You know,” interjected Maggie. “I’d be happy if anybody here won. This is a great group of people.”
“Cheers to that,” said Richard, holding up a beer bottle. Everyone held up their drinks and chanted “cheers!” in solidarity, taking a drink afterward. It was a terrific cast of chefs. You sometimes wonder if the drama you see on TV is just purely manufactured by the producers in editing or if past chefs really had beefs with one another. Chefs are known for having hot tempers and ego problems, but the experience I was having on Hot Chef was quite positive. Maybe I was just totally blinded, though, because of my thing with Raina. It certainly peppered my opinion of the show. Can you blame me?
At that point in the conversation, everybody broke off into their own little private conversations, the feeling in the room light and breezy and fun. We were having a great time together and it showed. Leaning over to Raina, I grinned at her and then whispered into her ear.
“See,” I murmured. “Chef Cutegirl is gonna take this thing.”
“Naw,” said Raina, slightly embarrassed, giving me a teasing push. Bending at her waist, she put her empty plate down on the coffee table, grabbed her water bottle, and returned to sitting straight up next to me. “You’re nuts.”
I wanted to tackle her there on the couch and shower her face in kisses but, of course, that would seem very weirdly brash to the group of chefs hanging out around us. There was a lot of pent up sexual aggression inside of me from the day. Something about being in a steamy kitchen can do that to a person. You get home and although you’re most definitely tired, there’s still something built up that you just want to let out in a fiery fury. I was eager for another night with Raina, locked away in our bedroom, letting our hands and lips do intimate things to one another. I wanted to fall asleep next to her and then wake up with my arms around her. Looking over at her, our eyes meeting, I could tell she was ready for the exact same thing.
It wasn’t too much longer after that that I stood up, collected my dinner garbage, and announced that I was going to hit the hay. We had an intense day slated for tomorrow and everybody was in agreement that we should get some sleep. At this point in the competition, the chefs that liked to stay up late and party had all been eliminated. It wasn’t that they weren’t serious or good chefs, it was just that they weren’t as serious as the crew that was left behind.
Raina stood up after me, silent, picking up her plate and carrying it to the kitchen. I watched her fey movements, bopping across the room in a whimsical trot, her little rear bouncing back and forth as she moved. I totally spaced on what my meal prep was going to be like for the following day. After the loving and tender and sensual thoughts of Raina, there was little room left in my brain.
*
Raina was laying chest down on her bed, arms raised above her head and buried into the pillows, naked but for her panties. The room was dim, orange lit, the house much quieter now that the total number of contestants had been halved. Kicking her feet softly in excitement, I caught Raina look back at me with an impish grin, then swiftly return her face back into the comfort of the pillow underneath her head. She was asking for it and I was ready to give it.
I, too, was stripped down to nothing but my panties and in my eagerness to be close to Raina, I mounted the bed and slid up behind her. Reaching my hands out, I placed them on her lower back and began to rub softly up and down. On the down motion I gave the elastic band of her panties a gentle tug, only to let them snap back as I returned my palms up the curve of her back. Raina shivered below me and it made me smile.
“Is the door locked?” Raina mewed into the pillow.
“Mm hmm,” I said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I said. “I locked it when we came in.”
“Okay,” she said. I could feel her relax under my hands. Giving the band of her panties another tug, I pulled them down just enough to reveal the top of her crack. As I did this, Raina squirmed and pushed her rolling giggle into the pillow.
“Such a cute butt,” I said, tracing a finger lightly through her crack. This gave Raina even more of a tickle.
“Hey!” she exclaimed, swatting her hand back at me. This was just her mock-bashfulness. I knew deep inside she was fervently excited and desperate for more attention.
“You like it,” I said, grabbing at her hand and playfully tossing it down to the bed.
“I like you,” she said. Raina dissolved her cheek down into he pillow, face to the side, eyes closed, mouth formed in a content and ready smile.
“I like you more,” I said. With both hands I took hold of her panties and began to slide them down over her rear, pulling them off her flesh and then folding them so that they remained just under her cheeks.
“Breezy,” she said absently.
Her butt was pale and smooth, small like her figure but with a nice amount of plumpness, the slightest bit of jiggle. I noticed the faintest hint of peach fuzz on her skin on her lower cheeks, trailing into her crack. I was absolutely hypnotized by how sexy she was to me. Her innocence and her talents were bewitching. I heard Raina sigh happily as I continued pulling down her panties, moving them over her skinny legs, and pulling them off her feet.
Laid out naked in front of me, rear side up, Raina offered a few little kicks of her legs and then widened her stance. I took a deep breath as I peered in between her legs. What I saw mesmerized me. I could see her light brown fur, lighter even than the hair on her head, and her beautiful fleshy fold calling me in closer. The hair from her undercarriage extended just so up into her rear. All of it looking secretive and sensual and inviting.
“Raina,” I said. “Oh, you’re so beautiful.” I traced my palm over the backside of her thigh. It was slender, trim, tight.
“Thank you,” I heard her murmur. With that, she spread her legs out even more, grinding her fro
nt side down into the bed as she wiggled.
I reached up near the top of the bed and grabbed a pillow from the mess of them near Raina’s head. She didn’t even open her eyes or notice as I did this, just simply relaxing there into the sheets and giving herself to me. I yearned to make her feel good. I hadn’t felt this close to somebody this quickly in so long and all I could think about was making Raina happy. She meant so much to me, the little sprite. She drove me wild.
Taking that pillow in one hand, I gingerly applied some pressure to Raina’s hip to imply that I wanted to her lift up for a moment and she did. I slid the pillow underneath her stomach, and then gently pressed her down on the lower back. Raina lowered herself back down with my motion. The pillow propped her rear up higher and gave her a little bit of cushion underneath. She squirmed her butt and purred.
Everything smelled clean, bright, like a spring rain. Remnants from our earlier post-work showers, to be sure. I took in the wonderful aroma of Raina’s sweet skin. It diffused my heart, any kind of hardness or worry inside of me completely evaporated as I allowed my senses to absorb Raina. I could feel the arousal within me mounting, the space between my own thighs growing damper as I looked down upon Raina’s gorgeousness.
Crawling between Raina’s spread legs, I slithered down onto the bed and let my hands climb up the back of her thighs, gently rubbing her back and forth as my face closed in on her middle. I was eager to taste and as I neared her I smelled the pacific waft of a floral fragrance, light and endearing like a rose in rain. I felt my breasts push down into the bed as I stretched my mouth out toward Raina’s blossom.
“Oh God,” I heard Raina moan, long and low. My nose pushed between her crack and rested there as my lips began kissing her moistening pleat. At first Raina wriggled her butt, like she was being tickled, but she soon eased into the pleasure, her breath becoming steadier and labored, her body loosening against my face. She tasted wonderful to me. Candied and dendritic, with a hint of salted copper. I could feel the humidity between her legs as it lightly began lingering around my mouth.
Unleashing my tongue, I gave her a long, slow lick, eager to fully taste her and collect her wetness. As I did this, Raina shivered and giggled, a nervous giggle, quick and reflexive like she was unable to keep it inside of her. I could tell she was in heaven as she kept trying to get her legs to go wider, attempting further relaxation and comfort, her body collapsed into the sheets and near motionless like a rag doll. Lapping at her underside, feeling her sopping flesh against my lips, it made me feel animated and excited and aroused.
“Mmm,” sighed Raina, still squirming a bit, nestling her rear back against my face. “That’s amazing,” she cooed in a drawn out intonation.
Pulling my face back momentarily for a quick breath of air, I then let my tongue loose and gave her rear a swift lick, spinning the tip of my tongue around against the sweet and subtle crinkled folds of Raina’s pink little knot. This caused her to giggle uncontrollably, her butt shifting left and right, her hand reaching back and swatting at me.
“What are you doing?” she said, her eyes darting down and looking at me with a lust-drunk wanton gaze.
“Did you like it?”
“I don’t know,” she said, embarrassedly pushing her face back to the pillow. “Maybe,” I heard in a muffled squeak.
“You’re cute,” I said, pushing a single finger softly against her rear. This prompted yet another rolling giggle out of Raina, more squirming, her little body writhing into the sheets.
I could feel my heart racing in my chest, face to face with Raina’s underside, her wet flesh glistening back at me, the subtlest bit of creamy translucent viscosity seeping out from between her lips, getting caught up in the light fur that covered her pallid skin. I was astounded at how great I felt in this position, feeling as though I could worship at the temple of Raina’s love for hours and still crave more. With this in my mind, I once more pushed my face into her and lapped at her soaked ruffle, feeling my tongue part her crease to either side and slip through her blushing insides.
“Oh Emily,” I heard from above, still muffled by the pillow. “Emily,” said Raina once more with clumsy breath.
Raina was buzzing and I could feel her thighs quivering around my face. The wetness between her legs was growing ever greater as I attended to her pleasure, letting my tongue glide adoringly back and forth over her sex. It wasn’t much longer until Raina began to judder, her left leg automatically kicking out as she started groaning louder. Raina gripped tightly to the pillow under her head and forced her mouth deeper into it, attempting to baffle the heavy sounds coming from her. Her midsection tightened, her legs pressing against my head, and she made sounds into the pillow like she was crying, blubbering, the excitement and arousal overpowering her.
And between her legs she was drenched, her skin shimmering off the low light of the bedside lamp. I pulled back and straightened myself, gently wiping at my mouth to remove Raina’s moistness from my lips, transferring it to my palm and then rubbing it into the sheets underneath us. Her little body was still sporadically twisting as the orgasmic electricity continued through her limbs. I simply watched her accept it, revel in it, and it filled my heart with unbridled joy.
I touched her rump softly, giving her a tender pat, smiling gleefully to myself.
“Oh boy,” said Raina after another moment of leisure. She flipped over onto her back, her compact naked front presented to me. The fur that covered her mound looked matted and moist. Reaching down, Raina began to rub herself between her thighs sympathetically. “Now I feel really tender,” she said, gazing up at me with intoxicated eyes.
“Raina, you just…” I said, the words unable to come out. I felt overwhelmed. We simply smiled at each other, the love in my heart immense for this delicate elfin creature. Raina’s mouth hung open just slightly, a hint of her white teeth peeking out, and she absentmindedly pushed a tendril of hair back behind her ear.
“What?” she said naively.
“You just… you make me so happy,” I said, feeling disarmed and merciful. “I’m so happy I found you.”
“Come here,” she said, beckoning me closer with her hands. I followed orders and fell down next to her, our arms coursing around one another, our bodies fusing in a loving embrace. The two of us began an amorous kiss, wet lips sliding together, breast pushed to breast, the feeling of hot skin apparent as we touched. This was what love felt like. This was what I had been searching for, a quest I had been on for far too long.
Our kiss continued, our hands adoringly cradling each other, our hearts beating as one. I was smitten, stricken by her charm, her beauty, her piety. But it was more than that. I was in love.
*
It was another crazy day in the kitchen as we prepared for the Cutthroat Challenge. All of our prep work had been moved from the catering company kitchen to a much smaller kitchen at an amazingly beautiful event space just north of Evanston and right on Lake Michigan. As the remaining 8 of us put together our meals in a staggered order, the judges sat outdoors under the shade of a tree, sipping wine, talking about how splendid their various restaurants were doing, swapping stories, and pretending to talk shit about us contestants as they waited for our plates. I say pretending because nobody left in the competition was doing too terrible, but the judges had to say something to the camera that might put a little fear into the home audience, a scare that their favorite chef might be going home.
Raina and I worked closely with one another, at times breaking from our work to give each other a little adoring stare. I caught Raina peeking over at me a couple of times, looking away quickly when I caught her. She had this wonderful shyness about her, which was just her public persona. I was really beginning to know the real Raina and I was definitely falling for both incarnations of her personality.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked, leaning over slightly and looking at the work she had in front of her.
“I’m working on my recado rojo,” she said. “
Just grinding up some achiote seeds right now.” She was working in a molcajete and creating a red-orange paste from the seeds.
“I’ve never even heard of recado rojo,” I said.
“It’s an achiote paste,” said Raina as she worked, getting her elbows into it. “I’m going to do a smear of it under my scallops.”
“You’re nuts,” I said. “I can’t believe you’re doing so much.”
“I just don’t want to undercook the scallops,” she said, a subtleness of fear in her voice. She looked around at the other chefs meticulously working at their stations. “It’s getting pretty competitive around here.”
“You’re not going home,” I said. “I mean, they’re not going to eliminate you because you don’t screw up.”
“Just as long as I fire the scallops at the right time,” she said, looking up to the kitchen clock. “Undercook, overcook, it’s just too easy to screw up if you’re not careful.”
“You’ll be fine,” I reassured her, offering up a smile, placing my hand lightly on her shoulder. Raina looked to me and smiled happily.
“Thanks Em,” she said.
In addition to all of us chefs running around the small kitchen, the camera crew was in attendance along with Dale a few other members of the production staff. The atmosphere was frenzied. The space was cramped. And all of us chefs were obviously worried. The smallest mistake could send one of us packing. At this point in Hot Chef, we knew everything had to be perfect.
Richard and Maggie were up first to present. The two of them had begun plating their dishes while the production team hung around them and filmed. Along with a group of waitstaff dressed in black, the chefs hoisted up their plates and made the long walk out to the table to be judged. While I knew that I needed to focus on myself and my dish, it was hard not to think about what was going on outside with Richard, Maggie, and that table of revered judges.
“Attention,” said Dale, coming up to the station where Raina and I worked. “You ladies are up next. You’ve got five minutes before we need your dishes over there to be shot, then we’re heading out.” When I looked up to Dale, I noticed him lightly sneering at Raina. Her rebuff obviously hadn’t made him very happy. When we didn’t respond to Dale’s direction after a moment, he spoke again. “Got it?” he said in an annoyed tone.
Chef Cutegirl: A Sweet Lesbian Romance Page 7