The Chocolate Made Me Do It by Dakota Trace

Annabelle is a LOVER of chocolate. She is also attracted to the owner of her favorite chocolate shop. But she can’t fall for him and won’t admit to anything more than The Chocolate Made Me Do It after their fling.

Annabelle is in love with the creamy chocolate confections Zephyrus Raincloud crafts in his shop, “The Delights”. While it wouldn’t take much for Annabelle to fall in love with him, she’s leery of risking her heart on a man who can’t see past the color of her skin to the warm affectionate woman she is. After one brief encounter, she swears it can’t happen again. But Zephyrus has decided she now belongs to him. How far will this chocolate maker go to seduce her into his way of thinking?
Warnings: This title contains graphic language and sex.

Zephyrus Raincloud owns The Delights, the best chocolate shop around. He also creates some of the best chocolate combinations anyone has tasted. But living and working in the city hasn’t gotten him past his late father’s prejudices. The rest of his family has no issue with ‘skin color,’ but he won’t look past his Apache upbringing to date white women. On the other hand, he has noticed Annabelle and is attracted to her, especially her height. She even had him creating new delights for this wonderful, loyal customer.

Annabelle is addicted to the chocolate treats from Zephyrus store. She is a financial advisor and her friend, Zephyrus’ sister Hestia, asks for help with the store’s books and paperwork. While they really need the help with the books, Hestia is really matchmaking. She has seen how Annabelle and Zephyrus look and act around each other but never do anything about their attraction. And Hestia ends up locking them in the shop overnight. But she makes the mistake of leaving a note telling Zephyrus to get over his prejudices of white women and Annabelle finds it.

Now Zephyrus has a real challenge. He had decided to court Annabelle when they got locked together and she ran from him over his issues. He even withholds his chocolates to get her to date him. They end up having sex at the end of the date, but she won’t see him afterwards. Zephyrus has no idea why…

It turns out Annabelle is not so white after all. Her mother fell for an Apache herself, Annabelle’s father. But he wanted nothing to do with them. When her mother died young, Annabelle was sent to her father but he died soon after as well. She grew up with his family, but was always considered an outcast among the Native Americans because of her white mother. She is not willing to live like that again, with that attitude from the man she loves just because they spent the night together and he feels honor-bound to offer for her.

Zephyrus has barely gotten over his own prejudices. Now his is facing those Annabelle grew up with as well as her own fears. Will these two ever get together?

The Chocolate Made Me Do It is fantastic! An interfering big sister/friend. A smart, sassy woman who is great with numbers! A man who can cook chocolate better than anyone else and thinks up new ways to temp her with it. Again, we have a man deciding he wants the girl and then stopping at nothing (well, good things only) to convince her to be his. He takes no for an answer, but finds good, yummy ways to temp her again and again. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he, himself, is yummy as well (love that long hair, and that he has never let another woman “take it down” and play with. Now that was sweet). He is even willing to go to her substitute parents and ask how to win her. At least for me, Zephyrus came across as very romantic.

I do have one WARNING for you ladies: there is way too much detailed description of the many different chocolate desserts Zephyrus makes in the story. If you want to read The Chocolate Made Me Do It in safety, find/buy some dark chocolate and slowly dissolve it, don’t chew it. This way you have chocolate throughout the story without gaining weight. (I think I craved cake and my fav candy bar the entire time I read The Chocolate Made Me Do It, really!)

I really enjoyed The Chocolate Made Me Do It. There are some hot, sexy (yes, graphic) scenes between Annabelle and Zephyrus that are great. This is one of my favorite stories by Dakota so far (favorite of her short stories), so be sure to check The Chocolate Made Me Do It out the next time you are in the mood for a quick, spicy read.