Only One for Me (11 page)

“
Cannon …”

“
Yes, Yasmine?” His voice
was deep. Provocative. Stimulating. She needed to escape, but his
eyes held hers in a deep hypnotic trance that she couldn’t
break.

“
We need to finish the
last two samples for the bridal cake,” she managed to stammer out,
wanting to tear her eyes away from his but couldn’t.

“
Are you sure that’s what
you want to do?” He leaned in closer as she scooted her chair away
from the table. He raised his eyebrow. “Your expression isn’t
saying that. I know you
very
well, or have you forgotten?”

“
You don’t know
me.”

“
I know every single inch
of you.” His baritone voice was serious and sexy.

Sensations blazed through each cell of
her body, for in her heart she knew he was speaking the truth. He
would spend hours exploring her body with his fingers, tongue, and
lips, driving her completely insane.

“
I know that spot on the
back of your neck that takes you past the point of no return.
There’s a special way I would kiss and nibble that area. I do
believe it’s about an inch below your hair line. I used to love
when we would go out, and I would sit next to you, gliding my
fingers along your neck and watching you maintain your composure.
Of course you never could, and we would end up making love in the
car or you would pleasure me all the way home. Thank goodness my
Mustang had tinted windows. I would’ve hated for some perv to see
your head in my lap. We could barely get in the door and ended up
making love right on the foyer floor. Or those three beauty marks
on your outer left thigh. I remember them quite well, as my tongue
would pass them on my way down…”

“
Cannon …” she whispered
as her memory took her back to those times. She quickly went to the
dessert table to hide her face, which she was sure was bright
red.

His damn spot. She had told other guys
about the hot spot, but none of them sent the same electrifying
volts through her like he had. It was as if Cannon’s name was
invisibly tattooed on the back of her neck, and the other guys knew
it was there and could not perform under such high expectations. It
would immediately turn her off, so after a while she stopped
mentioning it. Instead, when men would ask where her spot was
located, she would tell them to go find it. But they never did.
Every inch of her body was programmed to Cannon’s touch.

“
You know I can go on and
on,” he said in her ear, his lips brushing over it as he spoke; his
hands holding onto her hips with his chest meshed against her back.
The familiar warmth and scent of him radiated onto her skin. For a
moment, she wanted to be surrounded by his presence and comforted
for having to be without him for so long. But then reality sunk in,
and she remembered that this was the only man who had ever broken
her heart and getting back into her life wasn’t going to be
easy.

“
I’d rather you not.” She
moved down to the uneaten cupcakes before she did something she
would regret, like turning around and kissing him. “This isn’t the
time or place. Ms. Ollie will be back soon.”

“
Let’s have dinner after
we leave here. You said earlier you were hungry.”

“
All of this sampling has
made me full.” She picked up a plate, but he took it from her and
slammed it on the table. She was surprised it didn’t
break.

“
Yasmine, I know you’re
trying to avoid me, but that’s going to be impossible considering
we’ve been commissioned to help plan a wedding for our best
friends.”

“
The next assignment on my
list is the bridesmaid’s dresses, and I totally doubt you’ll be
wearing a dress, unless there’s something you forgot to tell me.”
She raised an eyebrow.

“
The only thing I know
about dresses is unzipping or raising them up to get under them, as
you very well know.” His eyes were heated with a sexual stare that
she knew all too well.

“
Can we please get through
the cake tasting without traveling down memory lane?”

“
Yaz, I just thought we
could—”

“
We could what? Catch up?
Shoot the breeze? Be friends?” She laughed
sarcastically.

“
Honestly, yes.” He stood
in her personal space, and she stepped back finding herself against
the wall next to the dessert table.

“
Look, Dr. Arrington.
Don’t think for a minute you can just waltz back into my life and
think everything is cool between us because it’s not! You ...” She
stopped as the tears stung her eyes. She wanted to flee as one tear
glided down her cheek.
Darn it!

Cannon stepped closer and wiped it
with his finger, causing another one to take its place.

He
placed his
hands tenderly on either side of her face and locked his eyes with
hers. “I’ve never missed anyone as much as I have missed
you.”

Chapter Three

Cannon stared down at the hurt woman
in front of him. He’d hated the way their relationship ended. She’d
been fed up with his workaholic ways for too long. Yasmine’s father
had been a workaholic who died when she was ten years old, and
Cannon knew that had always bothered her. She always tried to get
him to slow down and relax out of the fear he would face the same
fate as her father. While she’d understood he was in medical
school, she hated when he placed other projects before her. There
were times when he’d been late or cancelled dates and trips because
of his dedication to extracurricular activities and not knowing how
to say no to people. His father had taught him at a young age to be
chivalrous and an active member of the community. What Cannon
hadn’t learned was how to pay attention to his woman. He’d taken
her for granted and had a rude awakening when she was no longer in
his life.

After Yasmine called off their
engagement, he’d never heard from her again despite his attempts to
call her before he left for Brazil. Unfortunately, all of his
calls, doorbell ringing, emails and letters had gone unanswered.
The only time he’d heard from her was when she’d mailed back an
uncashed check he’d sent to cover the cost of cancellations for the
places she had reserved for their wedding. It came back torn up
with a note that read, “Please stop contacting me.” When he
returned from Brazil a year later, he learned from Doug that she
had moved to New York along with Sherika to teach at a private
school.

Cannon wasn’t sure what to expect when
they saw each other again. If they couldn’t be friends, he thought
they could at least be cordial for the sake of planning their
friend’s wedding. However, it had never dawned on him just how much
he’d hurt her. Now, staring at her with silent tears staining her
soft cheeks and her sexy quivering lips, he knew, and he hated that
even more.

“
I hurt you,” he said,
sighing softly. “And I’ve felt guilty about that every single day
we’ve been apart.”

She stared up at him with her
heartbreaking eyes before looking away, shaking her
head.

“
I don’t want to discuss
this. Besides, Ms. Ollie will be back soon.” She tried to move, but
he encircled his arms around her waist, holding her firm against
him.

“
Yasmine … there is so
much I need to say to you, which is one reason I would like to see
you outside of the wedding planning so we can talk. We need to
talk.”

“
There really isn’t a need
to. You’re my past, and I wish to keep you there.” She squirmed out
of his embrace and placed a few feet of distance between them.
“Besides, I don’t care about anything you have to say or how guilty
you feel for hurting me. And I can’t believe you missed me.
Puleeze. It’s obvious you didn’t want to marry me or you wouldn’t
have …” Her voice trailed off. As she turned away from him, he
grabbed her to him once more, this time holding her tighter against
him.

“
That’s not true, and you
know it,” he stated through clenched teeth. “I never said I didn’t
want to marry you. I just wasn’t ready at that particular
time.”

“
Exactly, because you had
your
once in a lifetime opportunity
to pursue, which was more important than being
with me.”

“
I never said
that.”

She managed to push him away, and he
was quite surprised at her strength, but she was angry.

“
I was young and naïve and
thought my world revolved around you. Whatever you did, I supported
you and placed my dreams on the backburner. When you were accepted
to John Hopkins and asked me to marry you, I was in the process of
applying to graduate schools. I received an acceptance letter to
Vanderbilt a few weeks after we were engaged, but by then we were
in the process of planning our wedding and making plans to move to
Baltimore in the fall. So then I started researching grad schools
in the Baltimore and Washington, DC area and that’s when you
changed our plans.”

“
Why didn’t you tell me
about Vanderbilt or that you wanted to obtain your master’s
degree?”

“
Because during that time
you were stressed with rounds at the hospital and waiting to hear
back about the grant as well as the residency programs you applied
for.”

“
Yasmine, I—”

“
Oh just shut up! I don’t
want to hear anything you have to say. I didn’t want to hear it
then, and I don’t want to hear it now. You’ve missed me? Well guess
what? You
had
me.
I was all yours.”

She turned away from him, grabbed the
last cupcake to sample, and headed back to the bistro table fuming.
“Ms. Ollie will be back soon, and we aren’t done.”

“
This conversation isn’t
over with yet,” he said, rejoining her at the table. “We still need
to talk.”

“
No we don’t. I just want
to get through this process and go back to my life without you in
it. However, I promised my best friend she would have the best
wedding ever, so if that means having to be in contact with you
during this planning process, I can agree to be cordial but nothing
more.”

“
I can respect
that.”

He wasn’t sure if he was telling the
truth or not, for there was more he needed to get off his chest
just as she had done, but this wasn’t the time or place. Seeing her
again reminded him even more how much he’d missed her. How much he
needed her back in his life. He knew in his heart he would always
love her, but being in her presence confirmed he was still in love
with her.

Ms. Ollie entered moments later and
Cannon and Yasmine gave her their choices for the cakes. After
saying their good-byes, they walked in silence to the parking lot.
Cannon was trying to search for the right words to say without
messing up their agreement on being cordial. Yasmine did seem to be
in a pleasant mood while Ms. Ollie packed up the mini cupcakes. He
knew it wouldn’t happen overnight, but Yasmine had always been the
only one for him, and he planned on getting her back.

As they approached her car, he was
hesitant in saying good-bye. She’d turned him down for dinner, and
he didn’t want to push her away. She needed time to get used to him
being in her life again. As she unlocked the door, her phone began
to ring with Brandy’s song “Best Friend.”

“
What’s up,
girl?”

Cannon opened the door for her as she
leaned over, tossing her purse and the bakery bag in the passenger
seat. His eyes settled on her butt sitting tight and firm in her
jeans. She was more curvy now, with hips that he wanted to grab and
lift up on him or push her into the car and kiss her senseless as
he had on their first date. He couldn’t get enough of her sexy lips
that night as she sighed breathlessly in his arms, running her
hands through his hair and down his face. His manhood stiffened at
the memory.

“
Really? Goodness, that’s
a lot of money, girl.” She continued with “uh huh’s” as she
listened to who he assumed was Sherika.

“
Okay, I’ll see what I can
do. Don’t worry about anything.”

“
What’s wrong?” he asked
when Yasmine pressed the end button on her smart phone.

“
That was Sherika. The
wedding coordinator sent her the estimate for the flower
arrangements, and it was outrageous. She’s going to email a copy to
me so I can figure out how to cut the cost before Sherika signs
with this particular florist.”

“
Would you mind forwarding
the invoice to me? I know of some florists that may be less but
still do beautiful work.”

She cocked her head to the side with a
puzzled expression. “Sure. I’ll do it when I get home.”

“
What?” He shrugged. “I
like to help out, you know that. Trust me, I know nothing about
floral arrangements.” And he didn’t, but anything to stay in
contact with her, because at this point the rest of their
assignments didn’t involve each other.

She slid into the car. “Okay. Will
do.”

“
Thank you,” he said as he
closed her door with a smile.

*****

Yasmine sat on her bed with her laptop
going over a presentation for next week, but her thoughts kept
traveling to Cannon. She hated that she’d let him get so close to
her, and now his scent was embedded on her skin, tormenting her
sanity. She hated the way he’d held her in his arms as if she
belonged there, and now she longed to feel them around her once
more. She hated he saw the tears on her cheeks, but wanted so
desperately to lay her head on his chest and cry her eyes out for
being without him for so long.