Page 10 of Heaven Leigh’s Little Halloween

“No, uh… Sir?” She fumbled, wondering what she was supposed to call him.

“Angel will be fine, chiquita, as long as you behave yourself. Now, if you end up in trouble, you’ll be calling me Sir while I spank your bottom with a spatula.” His tone was gentle but there was an underlying note of warning there that made it clear he was a Dom of some sort.

Her eyes flicked to the white rubber batter spatula and then back to him. She tucked her hands behind her back and tried to look obedient. “Okay, Angel. Master Derek said I’m supposed to help you. What do you want me to do?”

Again the smile flashed, and he pointed to a stack of metal bowls. “You can start by washing those. I’ll need them back soon.”

Doing dishes wasn’t her favorite thing in the world, but it did make her feel better about her choice of clothes. She wrinkled her nose and collected them for washing, but then stopped and looked around uncertainly. “Where?”

“Ah. Right, I should show you around first.” Angel straightened and wiped his hands on a towel before giving her a quick tour. “Through there is the main kitchen.” He pointed behind her. There was an open archway separating them. “Be careful when you go in there. Chef isn’t fond of interruptions.”

Heaven shivered. Chef Connor was Hayleigh’s Daddy and she’d heard plenty of stories about how he dealt with “interruptions”.

“But space is tight here and the Ranch wasn’t built with my work in mind, so we share a lot of the facilities, for now. I work in here as much as possible.” He was expressive with his body as he spoke and now he spread his arms wide to indicate the alcove.

“Must be hard sharing a kitchen with them cooking meals all day,” she commented. Maybe she was a little spoiled, but she would have had trouble doing anything creative with all that noise.

“It can be. I’ve asked Master Derek to come up with a new space for my work. Maybe a small building. He’s considering how to handle it, so we’ll see.” He shrugged. “Until then we’ll make do. This way,” he added as he turned.

“Storage for my supplies and specialty equipment is in here. It’s a butler’s pantry luckily, so there’s room for the coolers and our own sink. You can wash in here for small loads. Sometimes when there are big functions or holidays, we just have to highjack the dishwasher to run a load for us, but we won’t need to worry about that until next week.”

Heaven frowned. “Next week?”

“Halloween,” he said with a laugh. “You’ll be excited about that, of course. It’s usually all the Littles can talk about by this time.”

She suppressed the sigh. Of course it was, and he wasn’t wrong, but she didn’t want to get into another conversation about how she didn’t like the holiday. “Oh.”

“Maybe if you do well, you can help me with the creations I’ve planned for the party, but for now we’ll see how you do with cleaning. Take a few minutes to look in the cabinets and see where everything is and then start on the bowls.”

He left her to get to it, and she finally let out the sigh she’d been holding in. She realllly hoped the Halloween thing wasn’t going to keep coming up. It was starting to feel weird.

Even though she was glad not to have to brave the busy main kitchen, the larger sinks would have made her job easier. The stacking bowls, of various sizes, were stuck together and had to be pried apart slowly with lots of hot water before she could wash them.

Each one held some different sticky ingredient, and it made her curious to see what he was making, but as soon as she brought back the clean, dry bowls, he gave her another job. She spent the morning going back and forth, fetching ingredients, washing things, and even cleaning out one of the cabinets while she checked expiration dates and made inventory lists.

“These need to go in the cooler to chill for a half hour. Be careful with them,” he warned as he handed her a heavy metal tray.

On it were twenty delicate chocolate bowls. She took a second to examine them, admiring the detail work. Except for the coloring they might have been real China bowls. He’d imprinted the outside rim of each with a graceful pattern of swans all the way around. The chocolate itself was dark with white swirls making it look like marble.

Angel cleared his throat. “If they don’t chill quickly, they won’t hold their form,” he pointed out.

“Sorry!” She turned, carefully, and took slow even steps to the storeroom. She didn’t even attempt to open the door while balancing the tray one-handed. That was asking for disaster, so she set it down on the counter first. Once it was safely shelved, she went back to get the next tray.

It took several trips to get them all squared away safely and then she reported back to him. He smiled. “Good girl. Most Littles I wouldn’t trust to be so careful, but Derek says you’re a baker?”

She flinched at the praise. She should have been used to it by now, they were big on positive reinforcement at the Ranch, but it still hit her weird sometimes. “Yes. Well, I—I was. I’m not really sure what I am anymore,” she said truthfully.

Angel nodded. “This is a good place to find yourself, I think. It has been for me anyway. It’s kind of magical. Things don’t always make sense here, but eventually everything seems to come together. It will for you too.”

She wished she could be sure of that. It seemed almost impossible to believe her life would ever settle the way she wanted it to. “Thanks. I hope so. In the meantime…” She shrugged. “I’m glad to be here.”

He regarded her for a moment and then nodded as if deciding something. “I think we’ll work well together.”

Heaven wasn’t sure why that sent a little flutter of happiness through her mid-section, but it did, and she grinned.

When the bowls were finished chilling, he filled each one with scoops of a rich chocolate mousse and some whipped cream. They were topped with a drizzle of spicy caramel, and then, as a pièce de résistance, he allowed her to plant a rearing chocolate carousel horse in the center of each bowl.

The horses stood out. There were different types of chocolate, some with swirls, and they came in multiple styles—at least ten that she noticed. “These are so cute,” she exclaimed.

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