my hot chocolate recipe. My favorite is Alton Brown's hot cocoa recipe,
but the one I make here at home is, 6 oz of grated or coarsely chopped
semi-sweet chocolate and 2 cups of hot milk. I float a tablespoon of fresh
whipped cream (spray can will work, coolwhip will not) into the bottom of your
mug, along with a sprinkle of chocolate curls) and then pour the hot chocolate
over it.
but the one I make here at home is, 6 oz of grated or coarsely chopped
semi-sweet chocolate and 2 cups of hot milk. I float a tablespoon of fresh
whipped cream (spray can will work, coolwhip will not) into the bottom of your
mug, along with a sprinkle of chocolate curls) and then pour the hot chocolate
over it.
****
EPOV from this chapter. It is around 1500 words, so it is almost a
chapter on its own. Please forgive any typos, it hasn't been to my beta.
She'd almost touched me when I pulled out her chair earlier. Bella had not
expected me to be standing there, acting like a gentleman unlike the wild
wolves she had been groped by as if she were a piece of meat for them to toss
around. I had been stunned to see her melt into Esme's arms, as had Esme,
and the thoughts that had gone through Esme's mind made me ache.
“I want to keep her, Edward, not as a donor. Please make Alice's vision
come true.”
I did not have a chance to ask her about it until when the humans were
distracted by their wine, Bella's laced with a slight dose of a sleeping
medication to encourage her to sleep the entire night. When I asked Esme about
the vision, her thoughts showed me hovering above Bella as she offered me her
neck, my family standing in the back as Esme focused on Bella being changed
and being with us forever.
That's not how I saw it though. I saw a monster of intense evil hovering
over an angel, damning her to an eternal half-life if I didn't destroy her
altogether first. Even with the less than pleasant odors of the wolves that I
had grown accustomed to, I could smell the fragrance that would haunt every
step I took for the rest of my days until I met the flames which ended me. I
was repulsed by her for doing this to me, for cracking the composure I've
carefully built over a century, and yet drawn to her for the beauty of her
soul.
I couldn't continue to sit there and when I took another breath, the scent of
the blood in my heated goblet mixed with that of Bella and I had to fight back
my urge to take her vein right there at the table. I wanted to pin her to the
table and drink every last drop. Instead, I fled from the table to recover my
senses, knowing that the truce we had with the Quileute would be destroyed if
I drank from an un-contracted human.
Only the police in the area, as well as the shifters because of our history,
were aware of our existence. We no longer were secret by penalty of death, but
secret to avoid the drama humans could, and would, cause. The
over-romanticizing of vampires is what led Jessica and Lauren to us. They had
gone on a vacation to Italy and encountered the Volturi. They recognized
similar physical traits in the guard as they saw in us. Emmett was not about
to be denied fresh blood straight from the source and we agreed to the
Volturi's system. Now, I am regretting taking on the wolves as donors.
After watching, through Jake's mind, and listening to the fight Bella had
with him, a portion of me was in awe of Bella. She had withstood the advances
of someone she obviously still cares for despite how badly he had left her.
Jake still considered her his 'mate,' and therefore subject to all of his
advances. His thoughts had been so crude as he imagined being intimate with
her, and when she touched him, I had almost cried out that her soul would be
sullied by such an action, but she was only trying to move him away from her.
When she ran away, coming down in her flight to be as far from him as
possible, her scent was compounded with her adrenaline, and I was intoxicated.
She had almost touched me a second time then. Bella was as beautiful on the
inside as the out, and I wanted to taste her, gorge myself on her blood. When
I had run away, she has asked about me; Bella wanted to ensure that I was
alright when it was her fate in question.
Bella dug around in the cabinets of the kitchen, searching for something. I
cursed my inability to read her mind. I wanted to do something for her.
(She's looking for hot chocolate mix, Edward. We don't have any instant.)
Alice called to me silently through her thoughts.
I was determined to be a good host and provide for my family's guest while
she was in our home. It was not Bella's fault that she was not one of the
humans who knew of us, despite her father's knowledge.
I did not want to startle her, so lost in her frustration, so I took a breath
and then called out that we did not have instant. My lungs burned to the point
of incineration. Each word out forced the super heated air up my throat and
scorched my mouth with venom that burned liked acid.
She jumped and I moved so that she could see me as I walked slowly to the
kitchen counter. The dim night light caught on Bella's eyes and I was nearly
lost in their depths. Her eyes glittered in the dark and I could make out the
colors comprising them, further fueling my desire to let my fingers glide
across the smooth skin where her eyelashes fell.
I had watched Esme make some of the beverage confection before and knew what
went into it. I gathered the implements I would need to provide refreshment
for Bella and carefully measured out exactly two ounces of cream into the pan,
followed by four ounces of milk.
“Edward.” I stopped pouring and looked at her in fear. I must have hurt
her somehow. When I moved, I had to have knocked into Bella, too soft for me
to notice but I bruised her arm somehow. I looked over her arm and then a
gentle smile upon those full lips drew my eyes upwards. As Bella continued to
speak, her voice shattered my pretended aloofness and I longed to whisk Bella
away and have her served the worlds finest hot chocolate, not something pan
made in my home.
“Have you ever made hot chocolate before?”
I was making it wrong. I searched my mind for my memories of how Esme made
it, and I was doing it how she did. Was it not a good recipe?
I stepped away, begging Alice to send me some small clue of what to do. She
offered nothing but her thoughts on drinking from Seth as Jasper pleasured her
with his hands. Jake's thoughts were on how sorry he felt yet was unwilling to
give up the money he made from feeding Rosalie's blood lust and its
accompanying physical lust.
It was... refreshing... yes, that is word, to watch Bella make her hot
chocolate without her mental commentary as she worked. The situation was a
double edged sword of frustration with only the thin line to walk which was
actually refreshing. The rest of her existence was my bane.
“Where are the mugs?”
I tried to take a breath, but venom flooded my lungs instead of allowing air
through. I pointed to the cabinet, indicated the coffee mugs and other
glasses.
(Edward, this is the reason I made us all leave Forks before.) Alice showed
me sitting beside Bella in Biology and luring her out in the woods where I
toyed with her, a bite and a sip here, carefully sucking out my venom and
sealing the wound before giving her another and another before ripping out her
throat.
Bella turned to me, the heat of her body and the cocoa coming nearer. She
almost touched me again, third time is the charm they say. Her close proximity
and the vision from Alice of me holding a mostly naked Bella, her clothes
ripped from my teeth, had given me a less than gentlemanly response, one of
baser instincts.
I needed to get away before I did something regretful. I would not shame my
family for my lack of control. A few days, a month at the most, and I would
be fully gorged on enough blood to possibly withstand her blood.
(Go, Edward, now while she's turned away,) Alice's thoughts yelled out as
Bella set the mug she'd made for me aside. I would have drank it all, for
her. That much would have made me physically ill later as I purged it from my
body, but for Bella, I would have accepted anything she made with her own
hands.
I ran like a coward, away from someone who just wanted to show me some
genuine bit of companionship. The Denali would house me while I fed on the
local fauna.
“I'm sorry, Edward. I wasn't aware you didn't like...”
Her words tore at my long dead heart, wrenching fresh blood from the stone.
My responding words were not audible even to other vampires above the roar of
the engine as I started the car. “Until I'm strong enough to explain it all
to you, Bella. Be safe.”
chapter on its own. Please forgive any typos, it hasn't been to my beta.
She'd almost touched me when I pulled out her chair earlier. Bella had not
expected me to be standing there, acting like a gentleman unlike the wild
wolves she had been groped by as if she were a piece of meat for them to toss
around. I had been stunned to see her melt into Esme's arms, as had Esme,
and the thoughts that had gone through Esme's mind made me ache.
“I want to keep her, Edward, not as a donor. Please make Alice's vision
come true.”
I did not have a chance to ask her about it until when the humans were
distracted by their wine, Bella's laced with a slight dose of a sleeping
medication to encourage her to sleep the entire night. When I asked Esme about
the vision, her thoughts showed me hovering above Bella as she offered me her
neck, my family standing in the back as Esme focused on Bella being changed
and being with us forever.
That's not how I saw it though. I saw a monster of intense evil hovering
over an angel, damning her to an eternal half-life if I didn't destroy her
altogether first. Even with the less than pleasant odors of the wolves that I
had grown accustomed to, I could smell the fragrance that would haunt every
step I took for the rest of my days until I met the flames which ended me. I
was repulsed by her for doing this to me, for cracking the composure I've
carefully built over a century, and yet drawn to her for the beauty of her
soul.
I couldn't continue to sit there and when I took another breath, the scent of
the blood in my heated goblet mixed with that of Bella and I had to fight back
my urge to take her vein right there at the table. I wanted to pin her to the
table and drink every last drop. Instead, I fled from the table to recover my
senses, knowing that the truce we had with the Quileute would be destroyed if
I drank from an un-contracted human.
Only the police in the area, as well as the shifters because of our history,
were aware of our existence. We no longer were secret by penalty of death, but
secret to avoid the drama humans could, and would, cause. The
over-romanticizing of vampires is what led Jessica and Lauren to us. They had
gone on a vacation to Italy and encountered the Volturi. They recognized
similar physical traits in the guard as they saw in us. Emmett was not about
to be denied fresh blood straight from the source and we agreed to the
Volturi's system. Now, I am regretting taking on the wolves as donors.
After watching, through Jake's mind, and listening to the fight Bella had
with him, a portion of me was in awe of Bella. She had withstood the advances
of someone she obviously still cares for despite how badly he had left her.
Jake still considered her his 'mate,' and therefore subject to all of his
advances. His thoughts had been so crude as he imagined being intimate with
her, and when she touched him, I had almost cried out that her soul would be
sullied by such an action, but she was only trying to move him away from her.
When she ran away, coming down in her flight to be as far from him as
possible, her scent was compounded with her adrenaline, and I was intoxicated.
She had almost touched me a second time then. Bella was as beautiful on the
inside as the out, and I wanted to taste her, gorge myself on her blood. When
I had run away, she has asked about me; Bella wanted to ensure that I was
alright when it was her fate in question.
Bella dug around in the cabinets of the kitchen, searching for something. I
cursed my inability to read her mind. I wanted to do something for her.
(She's looking for hot chocolate mix, Edward. We don't have any instant.)
Alice called to me silently through her thoughts.
I was determined to be a good host and provide for my family's guest while
she was in our home. It was not Bella's fault that she was not one of the
humans who knew of us, despite her father's knowledge.
I did not want to startle her, so lost in her frustration, so I took a breath
and then called out that we did not have instant. My lungs burned to the point
of incineration. Each word out forced the super heated air up my throat and
scorched my mouth with venom that burned liked acid.
She jumped and I moved so that she could see me as I walked slowly to the
kitchen counter. The dim night light caught on Bella's eyes and I was nearly
lost in their depths. Her eyes glittered in the dark and I could make out the
colors comprising them, further fueling my desire to let my fingers glide
across the smooth skin where her eyelashes fell.
I had watched Esme make some of the beverage confection before and knew what
went into it. I gathered the implements I would need to provide refreshment
for Bella and carefully measured out exactly two ounces of cream into the pan,
followed by four ounces of milk.
“Edward.” I stopped pouring and looked at her in fear. I must have hurt
her somehow. When I moved, I had to have knocked into Bella, too soft for me
to notice but I bruised her arm somehow. I looked over her arm and then a
gentle smile upon those full lips drew my eyes upwards. As Bella continued to
speak, her voice shattered my pretended aloofness and I longed to whisk Bella
away and have her served the worlds finest hot chocolate, not something pan
made in my home.
“Have you ever made hot chocolate before?”
I was making it wrong. I searched my mind for my memories of how Esme made
it, and I was doing it how she did. Was it not a good recipe?
I stepped away, begging Alice to send me some small clue of what to do. She
offered nothing but her thoughts on drinking from Seth as Jasper pleasured her
with his hands. Jake's thoughts were on how sorry he felt yet was unwilling to
give up the money he made from feeding Rosalie's blood lust and its
accompanying physical lust.
It was... refreshing... yes, that is word, to watch Bella make her hot
chocolate without her mental commentary as she worked. The situation was a
double edged sword of frustration with only the thin line to walk which was
actually refreshing. The rest of her existence was my bane.
“Where are the mugs?”
I tried to take a breath, but venom flooded my lungs instead of allowing air
through. I pointed to the cabinet, indicated the coffee mugs and other
glasses.
(Edward, this is the reason I made us all leave Forks before.) Alice showed
me sitting beside Bella in Biology and luring her out in the woods where I
toyed with her, a bite and a sip here, carefully sucking out my venom and
sealing the wound before giving her another and another before ripping out her
throat.
Bella turned to me, the heat of her body and the cocoa coming nearer. She
almost touched me again, third time is the charm they say. Her close proximity
and the vision from Alice of me holding a mostly naked Bella, her clothes
ripped from my teeth, had given me a less than gentlemanly response, one of
baser instincts.
I needed to get away before I did something regretful. I would not shame my
family for my lack of control. A few days, a month at the most, and I would
be fully gorged on enough blood to possibly withstand her blood.
(Go, Edward, now while she's turned away,) Alice's thoughts yelled out as
Bella set the mug she'd made for me aside. I would have drank it all, for
her. That much would have made me physically ill later as I purged it from my
body, but for Bella, I would have accepted anything she made with her own
hands.
I ran like a coward, away from someone who just wanted to show me some
genuine bit of companionship. The Denali would house me while I fed on the
local fauna.
“I'm sorry, Edward. I wasn't aware you didn't like...”
Her words tore at my long dead heart, wrenching fresh blood from the stone.
My responding words were not audible even to other vampires above the roar of
the engine as I started the car. “Until I'm strong enough to explain it all
to you, Bella. Be safe.”
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I ALWAYS love to read Edwards point of view...
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