Baking Macarons, Part 1 by Xenia Melzer – Guest Blog

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Xenia Melzer who is celebrating today’s release of A Dom and His Gentleman. She has written a short story about the main characters, and we are happy to share Part One of “Baking Macarons” with you.  Be sure to check back for the next installment!

“Let me see.” Leeland snatched the recipe from Dean’s hands, quickly scanning the words. “It says we have to follow the instructions and measurements as precisely as possible.” He furrowed his brows. “I didn’t know we were doing surgery on an open heart. Andrew doesn’t strike me as somebody who could do surgery on an open heart.”

“Give that back. You’re just cranky because you didn’t get to kick his ass.” Dean took charge of the recipe again.

“For which I’m grateful, by the way”, Curtis chimed in. He looked at Dean. “What do we have to do?”

“We need two bowls, the powdered sugar, the almonds, and the cocoa. Collin?”

“How big do they have to be? The bowls I mean. We have so many different sizes here, even though we rarely cook and certainly never with bowls, but now that I think about it, bowls have a great shape, half round, which is good for getting all kinds of things on them and I could totally start carving bowls, working with the patterns the wood provides, and…”

“Bowls, Collin. We need two bowls.” Seth’s voice was gentle while he tried to redirect Collin’s train of thought. They were in his kitchen and none of them wanted to start shifting through all the cupboards when Collin knew where things were. If only he could stay focused long enough.

“Oh yes, the bowls. Do we need just two, are you sure?” He started opening a cupboard next to the sink, which was filled with bowls of all sizes.

“We need a third one for the egg whites. And something where we can put the yolk.” Dean read through the recipe again. “That’s all. At least for the macarons. For the filling, we’re going to need a lot more bowls.”

“First things first.” Curtis took two middle-sized bowls and put them on the counter. Then he placed another, smaller one next to the kitchen aid. “Bowls are ready, Captain.” Curtis saluted in Dean’s direction. Dean simply showed him how long his tongue was.

“We also need a sieve. The powdered sugar, grounded almonds and cocoa have to go through it at least twice. Apparently we don’t want big pieces of almond in our dough.”

“I thought that’s why they’re already grounded?” Leeland looked at the plastic package in which the almonds were waiting as if it had somehow personally offended him.

“Perhaps the machines don’t do a good job of it?” Seth was opening the carton with the powdered sugar and started coughing when a huge cloud of white exploded in his face. Collin giggled.

“You look, funny, Seth, all white and sprinkled and sweet.”

Seth grabbed a dishtowel to clean his face while the others laughed happily. “I don’t know what happened. I just opened the lid. Stupid stuff.”

“At least it’s sweet. Could be worse things”, Curtis said with twitching lips.

Seth shuddered. “If that’s your way of reminding me of he-who-came-way-too-early-and-in-my-face-without-permission I’m telling you it’s too soon. Yes, I will one day see this episode as an amusing bump on my road to a happy relationship, but at the moment, the sour taste of his cum still makes me want to throw up.”

The most positive step you can take is to take online cialis no prescription a medicine. Use one tablespoon of primrose oil daily to maintain healthy erections in the bed. online viagra store Male sexual stimulation is the result of body system including canadian viagra no prescription the nervous system, brain, muscles, blood vessels, emotions and hormones. According to a study conducted by the University of Maryland in the USA, and to everyone’s surprise it was revealed that these radiations had an adverse effect on the rat’s ovary follicles, uterus lining and decreased the amount of cilia in their fallopian tubes. viagra pills in canada http://respitecaresa.org/?plugin=all-in-one-event-calendar&controller=ai1ec_exporter_controller&action=export_events&xml=true “I’m sorry, Seth. I just wanted to cheer you up.” Curtis put his hand on Seth’s shoulder.

“It’s fine, my friend. Just too early.” Seth shuddered. “Way too early.”

“Let’s stop chatting and start working!” Dean clapped his hands.

“Yes, Captain.” Curtis bowed deeply.

“Why are you calling Dean ‘captain’? He knows nothing about ships. He couldn’t even make Emily’s toy boat swim in the pool. It drowned!” Collin was chewing his lip, looking confused.

“Collin, that was supposed to stay between us!” Dean squealed indignantly.

Leeland chimed in before Collin could apologize. “It’s fine, Collin. Since we’re all friends here, it’s important we know about each other’s victories and defeats alike.” He winked at Dean, the mischievous twinkling in his eyes promising endless needling about the matter. “And Curtis is calling Dean ‘captain’ to annoy him.”

“He does captain the ship of baking, though.” Seth was pouring the powdered sugar into one of the bowls, creating another white cloud in the air.

Read part two here.

Read part three here.

Read part four here.

Silver fox Curtis is everything baker Andrew could want in a sub, and their chemistry is off the charts. But as a wealthy and successful gallery owner, Curtis intimidates Andrew and challenges his dominant nature. Can Andrew get used to a sub with a much higher social status?

British noble Curtis Morris has all but given up on finding his perfect Dom when he walks into a bakery and meets Andrew Granger—smoldering hot, new to Miami, into the lifestyle, and with kinks that align perfectly with Curtis’s own.

Andrew grew up poor and doesn’t know if he can handle a sub with so much more money, even if he’s insanely attracted to Curtis. To make matters worse, Curtis’s preferred club, Whisper, is far beyond Andrew’s financial means. Still, Andrew doesn’t want to lose Curtis to his own hang-ups, not when Curtis is far from the elitist snob Andrew expected. But Andrew keeps messing up, and with Curtis’s rich ex visiting with the hopes of winning him back, he and Curtis will need all the help they can get to make their romance of opposites work out.

About the Author: Xenia Melzer was born and raised in a small village in the South of Bavaria. As one of nature’s true chocoholics, she’s always in search of the perfect chocolate experience. So far, she’s had about a dozen truly remarkable ones. Despite having been in close proximity to the mountains all her life, she has never understood why so many people think snow sports are fun. There are neither chocolate nor horses involved and it’s cold by definition, so where’s the sense? She does not like beer either and has never been to the Oktoberfest – no quality chocolate there.

Even though her mind is preoccupied with various stories most of the time, Xenia has managed to get through school and university with surprisingly good grades. Right after school she met her one true love who showed her that reality is capable of producing some truly amazing love stories itself.

While she was having her two children, she started writing down the most persistent stories in her head as a way of relieving mommy-related stress symptoms. As it turned out, the stress-relief has now become a source of the same, albeit a positive one.

When she’s not writing, she translates the stories of other authors into German, enjoys riding and running, spending time with her kids, and dancing with her husband.