A Gift from the Goddess novel Chapter 110

!! Important !! - You need to have read up to at least Chapter 96 to avoid spoilers. Continue reading at your own discretion.

This is just a short one-shot between Aria and Aleric during their time at the cabin. Explicit warning.

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Meat… herbs… garlic… butter… carrots….

I stared at the ingredients as if they were a dangerous foreign entity.

Not to say they were, but it wasn’t exactly like I knew how to approach what I was going to attempt. Things had seemed so much easier when I was just reading about it… opposed to having to actually do it.

With a sigh, I picked up the kitchen knife and began peeling the carrots; preheating the pan on the stove whilst I did so.

Aleric had been doing the cooking for us both, having at least some experience with it. During times when he’d been on duty for the Winter Mist, there had been moments he’d had to cook whilst making camp somewhere random.

I, on the other hand, had experience that went only as far as boiling water for tea. After all, I’d lived my whole life surrounded by attendants and chefs.

But it couldn’t be that hard, right?

I wanted to surprise him and give him a night off. Between the time spent with me and patrolling, I was sure he was getting exhausted. I thought this might be a good way to show my appreciation for his hard work.

I’d only read a few cooking books before, but I hadn’t retained much. I knew the basic principles and theories, and knew what steps to do. The issue was in actually executing it though and making it taste good in the process.

The cabin had come stocked with bare essentials to last a while, the vegetables coming from a small, adjourned greenhouse and the meat was whatever Aleric picked up from hunting on patrol. Altogether, we were pretty fortunate considering we were in the middle of nowhere.

—*Slick.*

I winced, looking down to see I’d cut myself.

I definitely needed to focus more. It wasn’t like I could heal quickly, thanks to the silver ring.

After washing my hands and the knife, I threw out the spoiled carrot and tried again. He was going to be home any minute and I’d wanted to be finished before that. Though that was probably just me being overly optimistic considering my skill level.

Carefully, I proceeded to finish with the carrots, though taking far longer with it than I perhaps should have, and threw some butter, herbs and garlic into the pan. When that was sufficiently all nice and melted, I placed the meat on top, satisfied it at least smelt nice. That was surely a good sign if nothing else.

“What are you up to?” Aleric then said from the doorway.

I looked up sharply to see him there, a little surprised since I hadn’t heard him approach over the sound of the pan.

“Oh, I’m ah… I’m cooking,” I said, a little embarrassed. “I wanted to surprise you before you got home.”

“I’m still surprised,” he said walking behind me to wrap his arms around my waist. “Surprised you haven’t burnt the house down.”

“Hey!” I yelled offended, squirming in his grasp. “Come on, it smells good!”

But he held me against me, laughing as he refused to let me go.

“Aleric!”

“No, you’re right, I’m sorry,” he said, his head travelling to my neck and nibbling gently. “It does smell pretty good.”

Though I wasn’t sure whether he was still talking about the food.

“Ok, well I need to finish up here and I’ll—.”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence though, instead losing my chain of thought. His hand had started tugging up the hem of my dress and immediately begun trailing across the bare skin of my stomach.

“I… I um,” was all I said.

What was I doing?