Title: Dishing Up Desire
Author: Barbara
DeLeo
Release Date: 07/08/13
Entangled Indulgence
Synopsis
Image consultant Blake Matthews is facing his
toughest PR challenge yet: salvage the image of celebrity chef Kirin Hart. Once
he does, he'll be able to acquire LA's most successful PR firm. But Kirin's no
easy fix. She's stubborn about changing her comfortable homemaker image, and is
being sued for sexual harassment by a junior staffer. She needs a PR lifeline
fast. Only problem is Blake wants more than to make her over... Kirin doesn't
need a makeover--her fans love her as she is. But she could lose everything if
the sex scandal and reputation that has followed doesn't get quashed right
away. Kirin agrees to let model-perfect Blake work his magic for two weeks, but
things get complicated when she can't deny the way her body flares to life
whenever he's near.
***Guest Post***
It’s so great to be here as part of the Hungry for Love
book blitz! I don’t know
whether it’s my Irish genes, or the fact that I married a Greek winemaker who
can cook a spinach and cheese pie like a God, but food is my life. Thinking
about it, shopping for it, cooking it, consuming it – I had all those bases
well and truly covered, but it wasn’t but until I wrote “Dishing up Desire”, my
latest release that I got to combine my love of writing romance and food. In
fact, celebrity chef Kirin Hart, my heroine in “Dishing up Desire”, is a little like me in that she’s combined
her passions into a job and lifestyle she loves.
The one BIG difference between Kirin and me is that I
hardly seem to have time to cook anymore – four kids and a whole lot of books
to read and write will do that to you – so I’m always looking for one pot
recipes and never fail cakes.
One of my all time favorite recipes is my “No Bleepin’
Time to Bake a Cake Cake”. I make it at least once a month and people are
always asking me for the recipe.
It’s lemony, it’s delicious and it looks and tastes like something you’d
get in a fabulous restaurant. Best of all, everything gets thrown into a food
processor so there’s nothing complicated and it comes out great every time. I
like to think that all that time I save making things like this the more time I
have for reading great books!
The No Bleepin
Time Cake (Lemon Curd
Cake)
1 Cup shredded coconut
4 eggs
½ cup sugar
½ cup melted butter
¾ cup ground almonds
Grated zest 1 lemon
Grated zest 1 orange
½ cup lemon juice
1/2cup orange juice
1 cup milk or yoghurt
1 cup self raising flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees
C
Butter 23cm spring-form pan.
Place all ingredients in food processor and process til
well combined. Pour into tin. Bake approx one hour or until a skewer comes out
clean. Serve with whipped cream or yoghurt.
Delicious Excerpt
Setup: Here the
book opens with Blake Matthews – drop dead gorgeous ex-model and now PR guru –
looking for Kirin Hart, America’s “fallen angel” celebrity chef. Blake has some
very fixed ideas about the woman whose image he’s come to overhaul, but when he
sees her for the first time, cooking in her commercial kitchen, he’s taken
aback by the woman he finds.
At the end of the corridor he stopped in an open
doorway.
Behind a long stainless steel counter strewn with
cooking paraphernalia, a woman had her back to him as she stirred something on
an enormous industrial stove. He leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb, the
low roar of overhead fans sucking away steam and allowing him to watch her
unnoticed. He made the most of the sight.
A loose blond ponytail, falling from beneath a small
black hat, rested between narrow shoulders. His gaze tracked lower to where the
strings of a black chef’s apron fell down the back of a plain tan skirt hugging
a perfectly rounded bottom. He took a step into the room but still she worked,
backward and forward. Her movements were sexily hypnotic—stirring and shuffling
implements, occasionally dusting a hand across the curve of her hip—oblivious
to the fact he couldn’t pull his eyes away.
Still unaware of him, she leaned to the back of the
stove, dipped a spoon into one of the pans, and steadying a hand beneath,
lifted it to her face and blew. As she opened her mouth and slowly slid the
spoon between dusky lips, the secret intimacy of it caused his stomach muscles
to clench, and on reflex he cleared his throat. When she spun around, the spoon
clattered to the floor, her moist mouth forming a perfect O.
“Can I help you?” She reached for a cloth to clean up
the liquid splattered across the counter and all down her front. “You must be
lost.”
He took a step into the room and slung a hand in his
pocket. “Not lost. I was looking for you. Don’t stop what you’re doing, I was
enjoying it.” He moved forward. “Blake—”
“How did you get in? This is a restricted area.” Her
eyes flicked to her apron and back at him, the creamy skin at her jaw
tightening as she furiously wiped away the mess.
“Through the door.” He tried a grin and pulled his hand
back but she dropped her gaze.
“But I have security.” She frowned as her lips formed a
line.
The chilly reception wasn’t surprising. Angela Jenkins,
the original consultant on this job, had described Kirin Hart as defensive and
difficult—and that was before Kirin had told her to get the hell out and never
come back. “Might want to check on that security.” He stepped around a stack of
cardboard cartons. “I told your doorman who I was and he let me come straight
down.”
Finally, sparking caramel eyes focused on him and she
stopped still. A mask slipped across the irritation she’d shown a moment ago
and she gave a half-smile. “What can I do for you?”
He pulled up an industrial looking stool and sat. “If
you’re not going to continue cooking, best turn the stoves off. This could take
a while.”
She laid both hands on the counter and hooked him with a
“give me orders if you dare” look as her chest rose then fell. “The expansion
might’ve fallen through but I still need these new stoves.” The mask was edged
with hard-assed determination and was even more of a turn on than watching her
cook. Her tongue peeped out and she moistened her lips. “I’ll downsize the
chillers, though, so you can take the large one in the next room. It was the
last you sent.”
About the Author
Barbara DeLeo’s first book,
co-written with her best friend, was a story about beauty queens in space. She
was eleven, and the sole, handwritten copy was lost years ago, much to
everyone’s relief. It’s some small miracle that she kept the faith and is now
living her dream of writing sparkling contemporary romance with unforgettable
characters.
After completing degrees in
Psychology and English then travelling the world, Barbara married her winemaker
hero and had two sets of twins.
She still loves telling stories
about finding love in all the wrong places, with not a beauty queen or
spaceship in sight.
Connect with Barbara
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