emtee 's Reviews > A Taste of Honey

3.5 stars rounded up

There wasn’t very much character growth or a grand plot or adventure in this short story/novella, but rather it was a “one week in the life” kind of story about a young, working class man and woman, his small-town confectionery shop and the mutual love that had, until this week, remained unspoken. Oh, and lust, too. So. Much. Lust.

This was a new to me author so I had no idea what to expect. I definitely didn’t know how hot, or how funny, it would be, or how much I would be rooting for their HEA. It was a very enjoyable way to pass a few hours.

Betsy had often thought there was something immodest in the motion of driving the pestle into the mortar—more so when she watched Mr. Moon’s expert, forceful strokes, and his shoulder moving beneath his shirt. Even with most of the ovens banked, the linen clung damply to him. Always before, she’d tried to put it from her mind. But Jemima had said, Make a few dirty jokes, so he knows you know what’s what. “This poor mortar,” she said, glancing at him. “She’ll be that sore in the morning.” Mr. Moon dropped his pestle with a clang. It rolled across the kitchen and under a table on the far side of the room.

***
“May I?” he asked, and when she said he might, he lifted her against the wall and took her again. “I’d like you to come while I’m in you,” he said earnestly, and she obliged him with very little effort. She felt very smug indeed as she walked home. She was a seductress. Betsy Piper, confectioner’s shopgirl and seductress. She ought to have cards made up at the printing office.

***

She blushed and smiled. Her hair was tumbling down, on the side. “Should we, outdoors?” “We’d hear someone coming.” He twisted that loose hair around his finger. “So soft.” It was a miracle, the way she looked. There was more architectural mastery in the tilt of her nose than any half a dozen cathedrals one cared to name.