Hey, everybody! Things are still kinda crazy on the Order Up blog tour. Hope you’re still having fun!
So we’re doing this tour — I and my co-editor Andi Marquette — in honor of the release of our second food-(and sex and romance) themed anthology, Order Up: A Menu of Lesbian Romance & Erotica.
Today, Pascal Scott shares an excerpt from her story, “The Indulgent Chocolatier.”
Take it away, Pascal!
The Indulgent Chocolatier
By Pascal Scott
“You eat with your eyes,” she tells me.
She’s standing behind the counter of The Indulgent Chocolatier, a four-star international chocolate salon in downtown Altamont, our hip urban dyketopia here in the mountains of North Carolina. I’m standing on the other side of that counter, mentally thanking my editor at The Blue Ridge Alternative.
“Valentine’s Day is coming up,” he said yesterday at our Monday morning staff meeting. “And there’s an editorial hole to fill. I need 5,000 words.”
Valentine’s Day. Love and poetry, hearts and flowers, and chocolate. My had went up in the air like a bird, flapping me, me. I can write that. My deadline is Friday.
She extends a latex glove-colored hand across the glass to offer me a golden truffle. I’m thinking, If that’s true, if you really do eat with your eyes, then I’m eating you up right now.
This is why. Her eyebrows are shaded black, the line of them drawing me in to notice her eyes, which are so piercingly jade green that they tug at me like a riptide. Her nose is narrow, her mouth a perfect pout of red lips. Her skin is olive in complexion. Her hair is dark, short, and lock-pullably wavy.
I accept the truffle and bring it to my mouth. It feels hard and smooth against my lips. She watches as I open it with my teeth. A core of Champagne-flavored ganache bursts onto my taste buds, buttery and creamy and rich, melting with the chocolate.
“How is it?” she says.
“Hmmm,” is all I can manage.
“You won’t taste the gold. People swear they can, but it’s tasteless. Gold is fo rthe eyes only. We call it luster dust. You see the sheen of it? The drama of the gold against the chocolate background?”
“Yeah,” I say. “I see it.”
What I see are the flecks of gold in her eyes. I scribble the quote in my reporter’s pad. Behind her I notice a wood-carved sign with raised black letters. “Indulge Your Dark Desires,” it reads. The taste of chocolate lingers on my tongue.
“How long have you been indulging?” I ask.
Those black eyebrows lift.
I point to the sign. “Your Dark Desires.”
A light nod of her head. “About twenty years. I have a classical education. I studied with Chef Julian Rose at The Chocolate Academy in Paris.”
[…]
“Two decades. You don’t look old enough.”
“Thank you.” I see the quick dart of a pink tongue against her front teeth. “You’re very sweet.”
[…]
“And what are your dark desires?”
A smile, on the lips and in the eyes. I’m thinking: Girl, do you have a license to use those eyes?
“Dark chocolate,” she says. “Dark chocolate is indulgence, delight, and romance, all mixed together. We use chocolates from six countries — Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, Venezuela, and the United States. We blend the chocolates, which is unusual in itself. We don’t use preservatives additives, or vegetalbe oils. The most important thing is freshness, world-class ingredients, service, and our recipes, which are secret, obviously.”
[…]
“You much try our Chocolate Experience,” she says.
“Your, uh, chocolate experience?”
“It’s our private tour. Usually I need more time to make arrangements, but — for you…”
She’s looking at me like I’m a bite of something she might like to taste.
“Why don’t you come back tonight after closing? Maybe, half-past six? I’ll give you our Chocolate Experience.”
How can I say no?
***
Indeed. How CAN she say no? So does she embark on the private tour? Does she indulge her dark desires? Guess you’d better read it to find out!
Pascal Scott is the pseudonym of a Decatur, GA-based writer whose erotic and romantic lesbian fiction has appeared in Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly and In Posse Review as well as the anthologies Thunder of War, Lightning of Desire and Through the Hourglass. Her literary fiction and poetry have been published in Mississippi Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Iowa Review and other journals.
Find her on Facebook.
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Join me here on my blog again tomorrow, when I’Il finish us off with this crazy tour!
Get a copy of Order Up at these online venues:
Ylva
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon Australia
Amazon Germany
Nook
Smashwords
And in case you missed the other blogs/excerpts, here:
June 6: Andi Marquette, blogging at her site (The Situation Room).
June 7: Jove Belle, blogging at her site.
June 8: Cheyenne Blue, blogging at her site.
June 9: Brey Willows, blogging at her site.
June 10: Lea Daley, blogging at R.G. Emanuelle’s site.
June 13: Cheri Crystal, blogging at Andi Marquette’s site.
June 14: CK Combs, blogging at Butchtastic.net.
June 15: Liz McMullen, blogging at her site.
June 16: Marie Sterling, blogging at R.G. Emanuelle‘s site.
June 17: Rebekah Weatherspoon, blogging at her site.
June 20: Jaye Markham, blogging at Andi Marquette‘s site.
June 21: Emma Weimann, at Andi Marquette‘s site
June 22: N.R. Dunham, blogging at Andi’s site.
June 23: Pascal Scott, at R.G. Emanuelle‘s site.
June 24: R.G. Emanuelle, blogging at her site.
Happy Thursday! See you right here tomorrow.
R.G. Emanuelle 