Camellia by Cari Z

Author:Cari Z. [Z., Caitlin Ricci; Cari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: F/F romance, contemporary, Camellia
Publisher: Less Than Three Press, LLC
Published: 2014-05-07T04:00:00+00:00

Lunch wasn't what Danny had expected.

First off, it was tiny. Danny took the lid off the tray that the busboy had brought up, then lifted her eyebrows as she glanced over. Lucy sat in the chair beside the bed with her legs crossed, leaning one elbow against the table as she picked at her own plate. "Fruit and cheese? Really?"

"What would you have preferred?" Lucy asked as she plucked up a grape. Her lips closed over the ripe bite of fruit, distracting Danny from the thread of their conversation.

"Oh, I don't know, a cheeseburger?" It was the first thing that came to mind, and while Danny didn't eat them often, they were a guilty pleasure for her.

"Do you think you could eat something heavy like that and then feel confident in your ability to perform this afternoon?" Lucy asked. It was the sort of question Danny hated, semi-rhetorical with an almost zero percent chance of saying the right thing, but she knew that Lucy wasn't asking to be cruel.

"Maybe," Danny answered, just to be difficult. Lucy looked directly at her, quiet but firm, and Danny sighed. "Okay, maybe not. But I had nothing for breakfast, and I'm so hungry right now."

"A heavy meal would just leave you feeling bloated and lethargic," Lucy said. "You'd want to sleep it off, which under normal circumstances isn't a problem, but given your schedule for the day, it would be. This sort of food is light enough that you should be able to enjoy it without the corresponding languor."

"I guess." Danny picked up a piece of melon off her plate and ate it. It was cool and fresh—very tasty, actually, just not what she was used to. "I bet you eat this sort of thing all the time. I'm more of a meat and potatoes kind of girl myself." As soon as the words came out of her mouth, Danny could have smacked herself. Did she really need to highlight the differences between them any further?

Lucy actually laughed, though, and the strict and straight line of her back relaxed as much as it could with her still encased in the corset. "My dear, I'm British. Every cliché you've heard about our traditional cuisine has more than a kernel of truth to it, and I grew up eating pies and puddings without a qualm. I delight in the occasional decadent meal, but given my chosen profession I've needed to expand my palette over the years."

"For the teas."

"For the teas," Lucy agreed. "Each one has a unique flavor that can be complimented in different ways, and in order to understand how to properly enhance my products, I needed to learn a great deal about cooking. The year I spent dating a chef was personally productive."

Danny's first impulse was irritation. Chef? What chef? But it wasn't her place to be irritated, she reminded herself. She didn't have any claim on Lucy other than their current association, no matter how much she liked it. Danny opted to shelve the jealousy and take a chance to learn more about Lucy.

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