Cooking Up a Storm by Emma Holly

Storm Dupre ia chef out in California, but he's getting tired of the California phoniness. Looking to make a break from his former life and start over making a restaurant of his own choosing, he gives up his position in a Hollywood Hot Spot and answers Abigail Coates' ad for a Chef in her Inn in Cape Cod.

Abby has just broken up with her overweight boyfriend, Bill, because she felt that the outfits he wanted her to wear turned him on more than she did as a person. Her employee, Marissa, secretly cheers the breakup... she wants Abby for herself, even if Abby is as straight as the day is long.

Storm arrives at the Inn and samples its cuisine before deciding whether or not to stay on and become the Inn's chef. But in addition to his interest in the Inn, he also finds himself with a larger interest in Abby. Even as he tells her his plans for retooling the restaurant's menu, he declares to her that he wishes to seduce her. Abby isn't feeling like she's high on anyone's list to seduce, but later that night, when Storm is masturbating in his room, Abby can't help but watch from her cottage across the lawn.

Storm is aware of her watching, and much sooner than he planned is taking Abby to bed. Only not to have full intercourse with her, but doing other things, finding out what she likes and bringing her to orgasm, but not so much himself. He won't penetrate her until much later.

Marissa sees all this and is heartbroken. She wanted Abby and thought she might catch her on the rebound from Bill. She goes to the home of an older man named Jack, and cries on his shoulder, then ends up having sex with him, and quite enjoying it. She still wants Abby, but she doesn't stop seeing Jack.

Abby, meanwhile, is enjoying the entrees that Storm is serving at the Inn, all of which are stuffed with ingredients that act as aphrodesiacs. Not only that, business is up, and men are sniffing around her now that Bill is no longer in the picture. As her and Storm's seduction continues, she finds herself enjoying sexual relationships with several men... and sometimes several men at once!

But Storm, who inspired this sort of behavior in her, finds himself feeling displeased that she is sleeping with other men. He increasingly wants her for his own, but can't articulate the feelings and wants, while she thinks that he would never fall in love with her, and is trying to enjoy her time with him while it lasts. The further he falls in love with Abby, the harder it is to go through with his plan to buy the Inn out from under her using blackmail and threatening to leave as chef if she doesn't agree with his demands.

But is Storm, the man who never thought he'd be caught, able to deal with the idea of wanting to be tied to one woman- Abby, for the rest of his life? And is Abby, who often thinks of herself as plain and almost dumpy, ready to accept that Storm has fallen in love with her? Can there be a happily ever after for two people with such large sex drives?

Wow. Emma Holly can write some seriously hot stuff, but this was far and away the hottest thing I'd read from her so far. Not only my eyebrows wanted to catch on fire, but my face, my head and the entire rest of my body! Both characters are not naive virgins, although Abby has a sort of innocence to her since her boyfriend was something of an oaf when it came to sex.

There's lots of sex in this novel, all of it consensual, but prudes need not apply here. If you think a woman having sex with more than one man in a short amount of time and more than one man at a time makes her a slut, a whore, or worse, you aren't going to derive any pleasure from this story. Also, Storm leans both ways, and he and Abby engage in anal play that might make the straightlaced more than a little uncomfortable. But for those with a more open definition of sexuality, you'll find lots to like here.

But mixed up in all that sex is also a love story, and strangely, with as much experience in using his body as Storm has racked up, he's completely at sea with his emotions. Abby accepts her love for him long before he is even aware that he has fallen for her, and it takes him quite a long time to figure out what he is feeling, But when he does, and moves out of his own comfort zone, that is when the writing really excels. Highly recommended.