Read With Strings Attached for Free Online

she was sweet.
    He hadn’t come to San Amaro to get laid. Hell, he could get that anywhere, any time, even with a cast on his leg, with beach bunnies hanging around all the events. Tanned girls in bikinis were plentiful on the ASP World Tour. No, he’d come home to rest and recuperate, do a little rehab, work out, and connect with his old buddy Matt.
    But here was this sweet little treat. She could be one of those beach bunnies, with her outdoor looks—tanned face with gold freckles over her nose and cheeks that gave her a beachy look. Her long wavy hair was streaked with candy colors—toffee, caramel, golden butterscotch. And she made candy for a living. Sweet.
    He almost wanted to laugh at his own thoughts and knew his amusement transferred to his face. “So how’d you end up making chocolates for a living?”
    She leaned against the bar. “I’ve always been fascinated by chocolate. I saw a chocolate-making demonstration once when I was a kid living in San Diego. It seemed so…luxurious. So decadent.” She looked down at her fingers briefly, then gave him a bright smile. “Hence the name of my company—Decadent Indulgence.”
    “Nice.”
    “Thanks. Of course, I love the taste of it too. Eating chocolate is a sensory experience—it’s smooth and rich. Dark chocolate is the only food that makes our brain produce endorphins, just like an orgasm.”
    Dylan choked on his beer. “Uh…well, that’s good.”
    She grinned. “It’s true. Chocolate boosts serotonin, the brain’s antidepressant, and it stimulates the secretion of endorphins, which helps with stress levels and even pain. And there are anti-oxidants in it that protect our body from damaging free radicals.”
    He gave her a look—a raised eyebrow, one corner of his mouth lifted.
    “Seriously. I studied Food Science in college. Ended up working for Matterhorn Chocolate in San Diego. Big corporate job. I was in a cubicle coma most days.” She sighed. “Well, I worked in a lab a lot of the time too. It just wasn’t for me. Did you know that almost half the world’s chocolate is made by only two companies?”
    He shook his head. “Nope.”
    “Well it is, and one of them is Matterhorn. But the more I learned about chocolate, the more I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to do. There’s a huge difference between that kind of chocolate and small batches of finely crafted chocolate. I had some money saved up, so I moved back here and started making my own chocolates. I got a job waitressing for a while, to keep me going, but I quit that about six months ago so I could work full-time on my own business.”
    “That’s great that you could do that. You must be doing well.”
    “It’s going well,” she agreed. “But at times, it’s almost more than I can handle.”
    “You do it all by yourself?”
    “Yeah. I have a little help now. There’s a girl I work with…mentor…long story…she’s fifteen now and was looking for a part-time job, and so I offered to pay her for a few hours a week. I could use more help, but I’m trying really hard to save up so I can open a store.”
    “Where do you sell them now?”
    “I sell a lot at the farmers’ market on weekends, and I’m getting lots of special orders through my website—corporate orders, weddings, parties—big orders like that are coming in now, mostly through word of mouth, which is great. People can custom order the kinds of truffles they want, and my chocolates have to be fresh, which means I have to work my butt off when the orders come in, but…” She shrugged and smiled. “That’s how it goes. One day I’ll have my store and make more money, and I’ll be able to afford more help.”
    Matt appeared and slid two glasses of beer across the bar toward them and waited expectantly while they tasted. Dylan took a big drink, letting the taste and the bubbles explode over his tongue and down his throat. “Damn,” he said. “That’s killer, dude.”
    Matt grinned.