I lost track of how many tummy-flutter scenes there were in Divinity & the Python. Shaynie & Cameron had a lot of chemistry.
One of my favorite scenes, though, was when Cameron shows up, seemingly drunk, at Divinity in the dead of night…after standing Shaynie up for a coffee date they’d planned. She, dejected, had the decadent ganache she’d ordered boxed up, and it’s on the table near where she (profoundly irritated—he stood her up and now shows up hammered?!) sits Cameron down inside the old funeral parlor and out of the cold. Here’s what happens next:
‘….“What is that?” he asked.
“Ganache.”
“Ganache,” he echoed, tasting the word. Then he beckoned for more.
She could have handed him the fork. Probably should have handed him the fork. But feeding him…it was just automatic. And he liked it. It was in the way his mouth closed around the ganache, the way his head fell back. The sounds he made. It was like spying on something secret, something sacred; and when he licked his lips her tongue came out too, like an echo.
“Straight out of a fantasy.” He opened his eyes, plucked the fork from her fingers. “You try.”
There was no time to say no. The fork slipped between her lips and her mouth flooded with silken chocolate. Her eyes flooded with his satisfied smile.
He forked up more pie for himself. “This is what I missed in Has Beans?”
And this is what I missed in Has Beans? God. Her heart was pounding.
“There’s only a bit left.” He offered it.
“Go…go ahead.” She looked at the ganache, not him.
“Uh-uh. It’s yours.” He stabbed it. “My punishment for standing you up.”
“No.” She shook her head, eyes averted. “My gift to my guest.”
“Uninvited, unannounced guest.”
She met his gaze. “That’s okay.”
His smile, not The Smile but a real, gentle, smile, made her heart flip. “We good now?” he asked.
“Yeah.” There was chocolate on his lip. She reached out, reflex.
His tongue darted, also reflex.
Skin hunger.
The contact was like an internal gasp and she could taste it; sweet chocolate, salty skin. Her mouth went arid and she looked up, stretched up.
He jerked back. “Nuh-uh. No. Bad plan, Shaynie.”
She flinched, face on fire. He captured her chin before she could turn away. “Don’t. It’s just…Shaynie, I like you way too much for that.”
For what? A kiss in the candlelight? Weren’t you supposed to like people you kissed in the candlelight?
Sigh. I loved creating Shaynie & Cameron’s love story—and I loved being reminded of this scene when I tripped over this Martha Stewart recipe for <drumroll> Chocolate Ganache the other day on Facebook:
Chocolate Ganache
3 tablespoons slivered blanched almonds
6 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups (spooned and leveled) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Lightly sweetened whipped cream, for serving (optional)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make dough: In a food processor, pulse almonds until finely ground. Add sugar, flour, and salt; pulse until combined. Add butter, pulsing until coarse crumbs form with no large butter lumps (dough should clump together when pinched with fingers).
2. Immediately transfer dough to a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Using a measuring cup, evenly press dough into the bottom and up the sides of pan.
3. Bake in center of oven until golden brown and firm to the touch, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.
4. Make ganache: Place chocolate in a large mixing bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Pour hot cream, through a sieve, over chocolate. Stir until smooth and creamy in texture. Mix in vanilla.
5. Pour chocolate mixture into center of cooled tart shell (if chocolate is lumpy, pass through a sieve). Let stand until set, about 2 hours, or refrigerate for 1 hour. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.
Enjoy your Chocolate Ganache – and pick up Divinity & The Python, Secrets & Shadows Book I
Then indulge yourself in Andrew’s story, Secrets & Shadows Book II, Within the Summit’s Shadow
