Page 66 of Why Cheese?
Roq draws a skewer and dangles it before my face. “These are test samples. We cut off slices to check for density, color, taste. We’re not wasting anything.” His words are simple but the tone clangs with a warning I can’t understand.What did I say?
Cam takes the skewer from him. He worries on a cube of bread, then glides it across the surface of the cheese pond. I swear, the bread does a little pirouette before he twirls it up—spilling not a drop of cheese—and places it before me.
“Try our hours of slaving over a vat of warm curd,” Cam says. Lost in his eyes, it’s not until my lips touch the cheese that I realize a man is feeding me. An incredibly hot man who looks like he’s picturing me wrapping my mouth around sausage instead of cheese.
I nearly choke not from the delightfully creamy fondue, but the image of me sucking Cam off right here while the others… Would they watch?
“Did you add peppers to the pot?” Cam asks, worry replacing his rampant lust.
Waving my hands in front of my face, I try to shoo away my blush, but it’s shifting from shame-rouge to embarrassed-crimson. “I’m good,” I assure him, then I nod to the cheese sauce. “This is amazing.”
I pick a cracker from the board Brie put out and dip it through the cheese. Without a dashing rogue staring me down I’m able to savor not only the rich, velvety cream but a sharp tang as well. “What did you add?”
Roq sits cross-legged across from me. “Swiss, emmentaler, gruyère—”
“A touch of camembert for spice,” Cam says with a laugh.
“There’s a little brie too, in case you, uh, missed it,” Brie adds.
“Can’t go wrong with cheddar,” Cheddy shouts as he hurls a mess of cheddar curls into the pot with a laugh. Then he rips a hunk free from the baguette and drags it through the cheese. The others are more delicate, preferring the cubes.
“But no Roquefort?” I ask playfully. A hint of a smile twists about Roq’s lips.
“No,” Cam interrupts. He picks up one of the dollar store plastic cups filled with wine. “That bitter goat would spoil the whole thing.”
The tension ramps up to an eight. Even with Roq and Cam shooting daggers at each other, it’s hard to get much higher with fondue. Cheddy grabs another hunk of the baguette and scrapes down the sides of the pot before submerging it in cheese.
Just as he goes to take a bite, Brie chides him. “Where are your manners?”
“Oh, sorry.” Cheddy stops taking a bite then he unleashes a loud belch. “My compliments,” he adds while daintily wiping off his mouth.
All four of us laugh. As the tension slips away, we dig in. Even though I have my own skewer, which I tentatively slip into the pot, Cam keeps giving me bites of his. To my relief, after Cheddy’s torn through the whole loaf, Brie arrives with another two and gets to cutting.
“I can do that,” I say and take the cutting board. It’s a little odd to dice up bread while it’s on my lap, but I give it my all. “Eat up. You guys have to be starving.”
“You heard our devilishly enchanting mistress,” Cam says. “First one to hit pot wins.”
They take this challenge seriously, all small talk gone as they work hard to get through the remaining fondue. To Cam’s consternation, Brie and Roq keep adding more pieces of cheese just as he’s getting close.
I finish up the first quarter. “Where did you get so many baguettes?”
“The bakery is often open before the sun rises,” Roq says.
“And the wine? Let me guess, the liquor store’s open late.”
“Oh, that old bottle was left down in the cellar ages ago.” Cam hefts it up and spins it around to inspect the label. “It’s a lucky thing it didn’t turn to vinegar, though that would make a delicious sauce.”
“There’s something I’ve been wondering. If you eat when you’re human, how did you survive so long down in the cellar?”
I expected a few laughs, maybe daring tales of them sneaking out to restaurants or grocery stores. Cheddy could leave a sword as payment. Something like that.
Instead, I get dead silence. I saw down through the bread and peek up. Everyone’s looking at Roq, their faces stricken. Rather than talk, they sullenly chew.
“We…” Roq blinks and sits up higher. “We have the cheese.”
“That’s it?”
“There’s also the whey. Cheddy quite enjoys that,” Roq says. The man in question shrugs, then he flexes his biceps.
