Just One Taste
Masters and Mercenaries~Topped Book 2

By Lexi Blake

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✫Blurb✫

One Hot Chef….

Eric Vail has always loved a challenge. After leaving the Navy, he mastered his passion for cooking. As the sous chef at Top, one of Dallas’s hottest restaurants, his skills are pushed to the limit every night. Unfortunately, his ultimate prize still eludes him. Server Deena Holmes is the sweetest thing he’s seen in forever, but she’s as distant as she is beautiful. When they’re put together in the same training class at the infamous club Sanctum, he knows this is his shot. And this former SEAL never misses.

A Woman Who Lost Her Taste for Love…

Deena thinks Eric is the most gorgeous man she’s ever seen, but her heart has been burned too many times before. She’s sworn off relationships for good and she can’t trust herself with a man that easy to fall in love with. She takes a spot as a trainee at Sanctum in the hopes of finding a safe place to explore and experiment. When she discovers her partner is the same chef she dreams about every night, Deena knows she may have bitten off more than she can chew.

A Perfect Recipe for Passion

While exploring the world of Sanctum, Eric and Deena find themselves learning about each other and finding an intimacy neither expected. But when the ghosts of her past resurface, old wounds are reopened. Can their newfound love survive when it’s put to the test?

✫¨´*★REVIEW★*´¨✫

I’m not familiar with Lexi Blake’s Masters and Mercenaries series, so there were some places I got a bit lost.  Just One Taste is book two of the companion series, Topped. For those of you in the same situation, here is a link to the first book of the Topped series, Lucious.

On to the book.  For a story in which part of it is set in a sex club, I expected the sex scenes to be hotter.  Especially since the main characters are supposed to be going through a D/s (Dominate/submissive) training course at the club in an effort to explore their desires.  There’s some spanking, but for the most part, the love scenes were rather vanilla and on par with most contemporary romance stories.

Most of the conflict between Eric and Deena is due to their own internal issues – especially those of Deena.  Her ex-husband burned her badly and she has no intention of getting involved with another man.  She wants to explore her sexuality with no intimacy.  Eric is having none of it – he wants a relationship.  It’s not really until close to the end of the story that his issues play a part in their conflict.  One word: mansplaining.  It’s enough to make any woman lose her cool and Deena does.  Thankfully, Eric gets his head out of his ass long enough to see the light of day and they get their Happy Ever After.

Although I enjoyed Just One Taste, I wanted more heat and more chemistry.  This is a good read for those who like to dip their toes into kinky romance without reading full blown erotica.  It’s a sweet romance with a little bit of edge.