Lemon Truffles - Love Instantly

Two hearts forever intertwined by one, wild, hot, passionate night…

Cheng had… left behind his friends, family and his entire way of life to risk everything by placing all his bets on her. Wow. It must be amazing to live with that kind of certainty. To want to be with someone so badly and know so fully that everything was going to work out in the end. Angela couldn’t take this. Her head was swimming from the glass of wine that was really starting to kick in right now of course, her emotions were in a jumble, and her hormones were in a knot as he stood so close she could smell Cheng’s cologne.

It was a heady mix of a citrusy, masculine fragrance that suited him interwoven with his own intoxicating essence and pheromones that had combined to call out to her like the sirens. She remembered this scent all too well. It triggered a memory that drew her right back to their night together in Hong Kong. The memories of their bodies interlaced came back vividly, in full color as they assaulted her mind. Angela had the kind of explosive chemistry with Cheng that she couldn’t deny or control, no matter how conflicted and confused she felt right now. He was also still holding her hand up to his forehead, looking at her with the kind of yearning she personally knew and understood all too well…

CeCe Monét

The Chocolate Chronicles
Volume 1:

Lemon Truffles – Love Instantly

·
Los Angeles
·

This novel is completely a work of fiction. Characters – including their names, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are otherwise used fictitiously. Any similarity from this book to events occurring in real life – including location(s), or person(s) living or dead is wholly coincidental.

P.O. Box 4464

Carson, CA 90749

The Chocolate Chronicles Volume 1: Lemon Truffles – Love Instantly
Copyright
©
2012 CeCe Mon
é
t

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever, except for short excerpts appearing in book reviews. For reprint or excerpt permission inquiries, please contact the author by e-mail at
[email protected]
or write to Diva C Publishing, c/o CeCe Mon
é
t, P.O. Box 4464, Carson, CA 90749.

http://cecemonet.com

First published and distributed in the United States of America in March, 2012.

Cover photo used with implied permission from an AMBW online group’s public domain images.

Acknowledgements

This book is dedicated to all of the people who really believed in me, supported me and helped me to get this book finished – thank you!

To my son and main source of inspiration to keep going every day – Caleb because without you, I wouldn’t have found the courage to do any of this. Remember to always follow your dreams baby!

Special appreciation and much love going out to my entire family and to my true friends – most especially to Cameesha Gordon. Thanks homie, you’re the best!

Cheng wasn’t some sappy guy who believed in love at first sight, winning the lottery or getting lucky in some other random, mysterious, bullshit way. In fact, he was studious, industrious and most assuredly believed in the power of an individual’s own hard work and sheer will power. Okay, so his classmates and close friends also knew he was an avid prankster, at least during his school days. Still, he had worked his ass off and had earned some of the highest grades in his business classes when he was attending the University of Hong Kong.

He was also multilingual and had managed to learn three languages fluently – English, Mandarin, Cantonese, as well as one dialect – Shanghainese. So Cheng simply didn’t believe in being lazy. Nor could he lollygag with nothing more than wishful thinking about how good things would somehow magically come to him as he sat around on his ass. He believed in carving out his own path, making things happen and taking action to manifest what he wanted into reality. This was why he was now one of the youngest members of a corporate management team that oversaw one of the largest manufacturing conglomerates in China.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, he was only twenty-five years old and already had his own office, shining like a super star amidst the vast sea of worker bees who were his peers. Cheng wasn’t taken in by any of the so called glitz and glamour of his seemingly sexy job, status or wealth either. He’d already seen the world, was responsible overall and generally careful with his money. He’d also sacrificed a lot to get to the top so quickly in part by working endless hours.

Trusting his gut instincts had always paid off, so he’d taken calculated risks, putting his career and reputation on the line numerous times to be super outspoken. Thus, Cheng had been taken seriously more often than not when he knew he was right about a direction the company should take. After all, his father had taught him how to handle business people and Cheng had a knack for speaking to them respectfully, though assertively.

Cheng was good too at winning people over one-on-one or in small groups to socialize with them and persuade them to see things his way. He enrolled his colleagues in his visions then enlisted them to execute those goals. Then they were much more likely to support his initiatives companywide. Networking with his father’s connections and having several of his late father’s colleagues as mentors hadn’t hurt either. So Cheng had basically foregone his personal life in order to get to where he was now, always putting work first instead.

In times of quiet reflection though, like now when it was late in the day, the office was totally deserted and he was basically past his productive prime time for the day, he knew. Cheng knew that he was missing out on so many of those things that made life really worth living. He stood looking out of his office high rise’s floor to ceiling windows, seeing the lights of the city glowing with vibrancy all around him.

So much of life seemed to be passing him by. All of his days were blending together as they were spent much the same way, especially since both of his parents were gone now. Cheng worked, went home and slept for a few hours, then went back to work. Wash, rinse and repeat. Day in and day out. The only thing that occasionally broke up the monotony was his various business trips, like the one he was scheduled to be leaving for tomorrow.

Cheng glanced at the clock and decided to go grab a late dinner and a drink at one of the many nearby hotel restaurants in Kowloon. His flight wasn’t scheduled to depart for another twelve hours and it seemed silly to bother going all the way home now. He wasn’t sure how long he’d have to work today and was only going to be gone for a few days so he had his lightly packed carry-on luggage with him already.

Maybe he could kill some time and go to Novotel’s Tasca Bar before making his way to the airport? Cheng shut down his computer, got his blazer and roll away suitcase before he finally left work for the day. He walked the short distance to the hotel’s entrance, made his way through the lobby and eventually landed at the type of hotel bar he’d been searching for. He ordered himself a double Kaolian on the rocks and requested a dinner menu from the bartender.

As Cheng contemplated whether or not to get a savory fried noodle dish or the appetizer sampler platter instead, he saw her. A woman who’d captured his attention so completely, he nearly dropped his drink as he watched her take a seat at the other end of the bar. She was beautiful, with a sleek, toned frame, slender, graceful fingers, large, round, beautiful eyes with creased eyelids, toasted almond colored skin and hair in tight curly ringlets that came just past her shoulders. Surprisingly, she also had an American accent when she ordered her apple martini in English. Most of the Black women he’d seen in HK were from Africa, though there were occasionally a few from the UK as well.