{"id":2792,"date":"2015-12-14T06:49:59","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T11:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/?p=2792"},"modified":"2016-02-17T16:41:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T21:41:57","slug":"shades-of-chocolate-chapter-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/shades-of-chocolate-chapter-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Shades Of Chocolate – Chapter One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ShadesofChocolate_V1<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Bakery Romance Series – Three bakers meet at a food conference, becoming long-distance friends. Each baker faces trials and tribulations, testing their faith in God.<\/p>\n

Shades of Chocolate, Book 2 in The Bakery Romance Series, is now available for pre-order<\/a>! Below is the first scene from the novel:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chapter 1<\/p>\n

The security guard grinned at Toni, wiping the crumbs away from his mouth. He placed the partially-eaten pink, heart-shaped cupcake on a napkin. \u201cHappy Valentine\u2019s Day.\u201d
\nShe returned his smile, snuggling beneath the winter cape her fianc\u00e9 Brian had gotten for her last birthday. \u201cHappy Valentine\u2019s Day to you, too.\u201d She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. \u201cI\u2019m here to see Brian Carter.\u201d
\nThe guard nodded. \u201cGo on up. His admin told me you\u2019d be stopping by for lunch.\u201d
\n\u201cThanks.\u201d Toni\u2019s high-heeled shoes tapped against the waxed floor as she strolled toward the elevator. Clutching the handle of her picnic basket, she entered, pressing the button for the third floor. \u201cI\u2019ve got to make it through this lunch.\u201d She closed her eyes, the cool interior of the carpeted elevator bringing her a little comfort. Hopefully, her surprise Valentine\u2019s Day lunch with Brian would give them a chance to talk about the problems they\u2019d been having.
\nShe exited the elevator, strolled to the double oak doors that led to Brian\u2019s office. She slowly opened the door, blinked several times, her heart pounding. What in the world? This had to be a bad dream. Brian clutched his secretary, Gia, in his arms, kissing her! He moaned, opened his eyes, spotted Toni in the doorway. He dropped his arms, his light brown skin reddening.
\n\u201cToni\u2014\u201d He started toward her.
\nShe froze, unable to move. She finally backed up, slamming into the wall behind her, her eyes locked with Brian\u2019s. She opened her mouth, but she couldn\u2019t speak. She glanced at Gia, who grinned, her eyes sparkling. Gia\u2019s unbuttoned blouse granted Toni a peek at the lacy pattern of her bra. Finally finding her voice, Toni groaned, closing her eyes, her heart continuing to pound.
\nShe swallowed when Brian approached, the tangy scent of his cologne surrounding her. She\u2019d usually found joy in Brian\u2019s scent, but now, the nauseous odor of his aftershave just made her sick. He reached for her.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t touch me!\u201d
\n\u201cBaby, just give me a minute to explain.\u201d His deep voice filled the room, as Toni made her way toward the door. Gia buttoned her blouse, grabbed her pantyhose from the floor and rushed from the office.
\nThe chocolate muffin Toni had eaten an hour ago swirled in her stomach. A sour taste filled her mouth. The picnic basket slipped from her sweaty, shaky hands and fried chicken and chocolate pie exploded from the container onto Brian\u2019s immaculate beige carpet. Her Valentine\u2019s Day card landed on top of the pie. The intermingled scents of chicken and chocolate filled her nose, the food making her stomach cramp. She pressed her fingers to her quivering mouth. A sour taste filled her tongue. Brian approached her, grabbed her arm.
\nVomit gushed from her lips, right onto Brian\u2019s fancy leather shoes. He dropped her arm. Blackness swirled around her, and she blinked. She couldn\u2019t faint, not right now. She needed to give Brian a piece of her mind. She glanced at him. He studied his shoes, refusing to give her any attention. Did he really care more about his shoes than their relationship?
\nShe rushed from the room.
\n\u201cToni!\u201d
\nHis voice echoed behind her but she couldn\u2019t stop. Somehow, she finally made it outside to her car, got in, dropping her keys while trying to put them into the ignition. She couldn\u2019t drive, not like this. Her phone buzzed, but she ignored it. Salty tears slid down her cheeks as she gripped her steering wheel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Bakery Romance Series – Three bakers meet at a food conference, becoming long-distance friends. Each baker faces trials and tribulations, testing their faith in God. Shades of Chocolate, Book 2 in The Bakery Romance Series, is now available for pre-order! Below is the first scene from the novel:   Chapter 1 The security […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paovYP-J2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2792"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2836,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions\/2836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ceceliadowdy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}