Soufflés at Sunrise by M.J. O'Shea and Anna Martin Page B

dating.
    Kai, who had already won a challenge, and certainly did have the final, and the Burned champion title, firmly in mind.
    While they were kissing and touching, it was easy to forget Kai was, technically, his competition. He didn’t feel like competing, though, not when Kai’s hands were rubbing slow circles on his back and Chase felt more relaxed, boneless, than he had in a long time.
    All of their kissing had led nowhere. It was almost an unspoken thing at this stage—they couldn’t have sex in their own beds, not when they were sharing a room with two other guys. And they wouldn’t have sex in the back seat of Kai’s car, or in the bathroom, or in a storage closet at the studio. Chase wasn’t that kind of guy. He wasn’t a prude, he just had standards, and there was no way they could take their time and thoroughly seduce each other if they were worried about someone walking in on them.
    Kai had sublet his apartment too, so there was no chance of sneaking out and taking their relationship to the next level somewhere more private. No, Chase was forced to endure the ongoing torment of having the sexiest man in LA sleeping in the bed next to him—so close and yet so very, very far away.
    So sex would have to wait. Even if Chase really, really didn’t want to wait. Not when Kai tasted so fucking good.
    He pulled back from the kiss with a laugh.
    “Gimme a moment,” Chase murmured, pressing his forehead to Kai’s shoulder.
    Kai laughed and ran his hand over the back of Chase’s head, ruffling the hair up then smoothing it out again. “How you doing, there?”
    “Hard,” Chase blurted, then groaned again as his brain to mouth filter failed him. Kai just laughed and pressed his lips to Chase’s temple.
    They were on the roof terrace of Bryant Tower, the moon high above LA and casting its glow over all of California. Chase thought it must be close to one in the morning. All the others had made their excuses and, one by one, drifted back downstairs to bed. He and Kai were left alone with the potted palm trees and the noise of the water in the pool gently lapping against the tiles. It was a balmy night, the air was thick. It made Chase want to just tug Kai’s shorts down and… no.
    Not gonna happen , he told himself. Not with the final challenge of the week tomorrow.
    Their two challenges previously in the week had all involved tricky pastries—on Tuesday it had been boutique breakfast pastries, a challenge he’d done well in, coming in second behind Kai. That had given him plenty of opportunities to snipe and bitch at Kai on Wednesday, when they had to make phyllo parcels. Phyllo pastry was Chase’s worst nightmare and Kai seemed to excel at it, which had, at the time, been genuinely annoying.
    Their on-screen tension was only broken in the evenings when they snuck into whatever space was free to make out and grope like teenagers.
    “We have shooting tomorrow,” Kai said remorsefully, as if Chase didn’t know. He floated his hand down Chase’s back.
    “I know. They’re not picking us up until midday this time, though.”
    “Wonder why.”
    It would likely mean working into the evening instead of being out in time for dinner. There was probably some production meeting going on, another thing they weren’t privy to. They just got the results of those little meetings when they got to the set.
    With a genuine grunt of displeasure, Chase hauled himself up, adjusted his cock, then reached a hand down to help Kai up off the lounger.
    “You’re killing me here,” Kai grumbled as he reached for the bulge in Chase’s shorts, then pulled his hand away again. “Killing me.”
    They held hands loosely, fingers entwined, as they made their way back downstairs into the shared bedroom. They changed in silence, not wanting to wake Aaron from his epic snore-fest, then ducked into the bathroom to share a sink as they brushed their teeth.
    Kai had let his hair loose, and Chase admired it in the mirror as they