Only One for Me (14 page)

“
No, not at the present
moment.”

“
All those successful men
in Atlanta and one hasn’t wifed you up yet? What are they,
blind?”

“
I date, and I’ve had
boyfriends over the years but … I don’t know,” she shrugged, “just
haven’t found the one.”

The band began to play, and Yasmine
turned her attention to the stage. Moments later their food
arrived, and he was quite surprised when she poured another glass
of wine and even asked if he wanted more since his glass was empty.
He declined because he’d had a beer earlier while watching a game
at the bar.

“
So, why haven’t you
gotten married yet, Dr. Nosey?” she asked.

He grinned. “Like you, I hadn’t found
the one.”

Nodding, she took a sip of her wine.
“Zaria seems like a nice lady.”

“
Zaria the Diva? No. I
have my eyes on someone else.”

She looked taken aback. “Oh … well do
you think you should be out with me tonight?”

“
As a matter of fact, yes,
considering it’s you.”

She sighed. “Cannon, we agreed not to
go down this road.”

“
So you can actually look
me in my face and tell me you don’t feel anything for
me?”

With her eyes downcast, she twirled a
shrimp around in the grits and then pulled it up with cheese
hanging from the fork before placing it back in the
bowl.

“
No,” she said, shaking
her head. “I can’t tell you that. I’ll always care for you. You
were a big part of my life for over two years.”

It wasn’t exactly what he wanted to
hear, but at least it was a start in the right direction. He nodded
and took a bite of his chicken while she finally ate the shrimp
that she’d swished around in the grits.

They ate in silence for the next
thirty minutes while listening to the band and finishing their
dinner. Justin came over to check on them, bringing out his peach
cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream. After they ate dessert,
Yasmine said she needed to head home.

“
Thank you for having
dinner with me.” Cannon leaned on his car facing
Yasmine.

“
You’re welcome.” She
turned to open her door but hesitated. “I had a really nice time.
I’m glad I decided to stay.”

“
Maybe we can go on
another date while you’re in town.”

She laughed and shook her head. “You
just don’t quit, do you?”

A slight wind blew and whiffed her
perfume mixed with her scent into his nose, bringing his arousal
from earlier back to full attention. He stepped toward
her.

“
Not when I want
something.” His tone was serious. Direct.

A sexy grin crossed her lips, and she
closed the gap between them. “And what is it that you
want?”

“
You.”

And then she smiled that same damn
beautiful smile that made him fall in love with her, and he knew he
couldn’t hold back any longer. He grabbed her hard to him as a gasp
flew from her parted lips.

“
I’ve missed the hell out
of you, Angel face,” he said as he lowered his lips to her
trembling ones.

“
Show me.” Her words were
a whisper on his lips.

He kissed her slowly at first,
savoring her pouty mouth as she exhaled and moaned. Yasmine meshed
her body as hard as possible against his. She pressed into his
chest, and he undid the buttons and belt on her trench coat to get
a better feel of her against him. He ran a hand down to her
breasts, kneading the right one through the satin of her blouse as
breathless moans escaped her throat. He plunged his tongue deeper
into her mouth, and she willingly accepted it, dancing it around
his as she ran her hands along his face and hair. He backed her
against his car while lifting one of her legs around his waist as
she steadied herself on the other one.

“
I missed you,” he said in
a raspy tone against her mouth. He cupped her face gently and
nibbled on her bottom lip. “Missed you like no other.” He pushed
his hard erection, which was straining against his pants, toward
her pelvis so she would know exactly what she was doing to him. She
raised her leg even higher on him so his manhood was in between her
thighs.

“
I missed you too,
Cannon,” she said, pulling his mouth into hers once
more.

He pressed his erection hard against
her again and held her still as he cupped her buttocks pulling her
toward him. “You feel that?”

“
Oh yes!”

“
Miss making love to you,”
he said in between kisses. “Miss being engulfed in you. You hear
me, baby?” He ran his tongue down the side of her neck.

“
Yes … Cannon. I’ve missed
you so much.”

Her sweet scent and heated kisses were
doing him in. He wanted to unzip his pants and slide into her right
there against the side of his car, but he’d already seen one SUV
pull into the parking lot and some other people leaving when he and
Yasmine had first walked outside. Besides, it had been twelve years
and their first time after so long wouldn’t be there. He wanted her
in his bed.

Out of breath, she pulled away from
him when they heard voices coming toward the parking lot. Yanking
her coat shut, she leaned back against her car.

“
I guess we forgot this is
a busy parking area,” he said as he stepped to pull her against him
once more.

“
I gotta go.” Grabbing her
keys from her purse, she hurriedly pressed the remote.

“
Wait. What?” He was in
shock.

“
We can’t do this,
Cannon.” She got into her car. “I can’t do this.” She shut the door
and started her car. He tried to open it, but it was locked. She
rolled down the window.

“
Yasmine, tell me what’s
wrong.”

She turned her head to him, her eyes
glaring with tears. “You hurt me, and I refuse to let you walk back
into my life as if you didn’t.” She backed out of the parking lot
as he stared after the car.

What the hell just
happened?

Chapter Six

Cannon sat in the VIP section nursing
a rum and Coke—mostly rum—and listening to the band play their jazz
rendition of Alicia Key’s “If I Ain’t Got You.”

Must they play
that?
He took another swallow of his drink
and slammed it on the table.

After Yasmine sped off with his heart
again, he decided to go back into the restaurant considering he had
the table for another hour. He wasn’t ready to go home yet to
another night of needing to be with Yasmine. Ever since Doug had
asked him to be the best man, all he could think about was her.
Over the years he’d thought of her, but was always able to shut it
off with finding something to keep him busy. Now that she was
actually in the same city as him, the urge to be near her was
wreaking havoc on his brain.

Her sweet scent had filled his aura,
and he could still taste the warmth of her on his lips. His hands
longed to roam over her body, which had responded to his touch with
the same urgency that had built up in him for so many years. It was
going to be damn near impossible to stay away from her. His
addiction to Yasmine overwhelmed him, and now that he’d had a
sample of her, he was feigning for more.

“
What’s up, man?” he heard
a male voice say in front of him, pulling him out of his daydream
of Yasmine.

Cannon looked up to see his baby
sister, Bria, and her husband, Rasheed Vincent. Bria, who was
almost five months pregnant but barely showing, leaned over and
kissed him on the forehead. He shook hands with Rasheed who then
sat in the opposite chair and pulled his wife onto his
lap.

“
What brings you two out
tonight?” Cannon asked, surprised to see them. “I thought you’d be
at home rubbing cocoa butter on your wife’s miniature
basketball.”

“
Bria had a craving for
crab cakes and some other stuff.”

“
Memphis mud pie, collard
greens, and lobster mac ‘n’ cheese,” she answered, looking through
the menu. “Oh and some coconut shrimp.”

“
Right. All of that.”
Rasheed laughed. “Save some for the other customers,
baby.”

“
What brings you here by
yourself, big brother?” Bria asked. “No date tonight?”

“
Let’s see, where do I
begin?” Cannon downed the rest of his drink and then grabbed the
menu to order an appetizer. He wasn’t a heavy drinker for he hated
not being alert at all times.

“
Wait, is this going to be
a long story? Because I’ll probably need to go to the ladies’ room
soon.”

“
Bree, you went before we
left the house,” Rasheed said, rubbing his wife’s belly.

She cut her eyes at him and said in a
teasing manner, “Is your uterus pressing on your
bladder?”

“
No, not exactly,” her
husband said before turning to Cannon. “Man, hurry up and tell the
damn story. What girl got you in here all melancholy and what
not?”

He quickly told them about eating
dinner with Yasmine, kissing her and her speeding away like he was
the black plague.

Bria stood and kissed Rasheed’s
forehead. “Gotta go to the ladies’ room. Baby, you know what to
order.”

“
Everything but the
kitchen sink?” Rasheed asked with a wink.

“
Ha! Very
funny.”

Cannon smiled at the back and forth
playful banter between Bria and Rasheed. Cannon was elated when she
announced they were getting married. Before her husband, she was in
a relationship with a man that lied and cheated on her during most
of their relationship. The last straw was right before they were
supposed to get married, the guy finally admitted that not only had
he cheated but his side chick was pregnant. Bria was devastated,
and it took willpower for Cannon and Sean to not throw the guy in
the Mississippi River.

At first, Cannon wasn’t too sure he
like Rasheed either. He was a famous, retired basketball player
with the reputation of being a player extraordinaire on and off the
court. Everyone in Memphis knew he changed his women like
underwear. However, Rasheed wanted a woman who loved him for him
and not his millions, which was why he kept a merry-go-round of
women. Bria didn’t care about his money, and after working out her
trust issues and falling for his game of seduction, she realized
that Rasheed was the only man for her.

“
Bria showed me a picture
a while back of you and Yasmine,” Rasheed said after the waitress
left with his long order. “You two looked really happy together.
Especially you. I’ve seen you with other women, but that smile you
wore while gazing at Yasmine, I’ve never witnessed
before.”

“
Yasmine was very special
to me. Still is, but she doesn’t want to have anything to do with
me.”

“
Naw, man, I disagree. If
she truly didn’t want anything to do with you, she’d make sure to
never see you doing the planning of this wedding.”

“
We don’t have a
choice.”

“
Trust me. Women will find
ways to avoid you. Besides, she kissed you and then ran off, which
means she definitely still has feelings for you.”

“
I just thought by now she
would’ve forgiven me.”

“
Bree briefly told me what
happened years ago. She may have forgiven you, but women don’t
forget anything. Trust me. Every blue moon Bria likes to remind me
about the time when we were in the car and a stripper called about
her and some of her girls dancing for me. I wasn’t even interested,
but Bria will never let that go. She says it in a teasing manner,
but I know she isn’t teasing.”

“
Teasing about
what?”

The men were so engrossed in their
conversation, that they didn’t see Bria return. She sat back on her
husband’s lap with a raised eyebrow.

“
Nothing, babe. Just
talking about Cannon’s dilemma,” Rasheed said with a wicked
grin.

“
Humph. Sure you are,”
Bria said, thumping Rasheed playfully on the cheek. “Cannon, I
think you may want to give her some space. She obviously still
cares about you, but women don’t like to unexpectedly run into
their ex boyfriend’s without a plan. Plus, you’re planning a
wedding together, which is what you were doing when you broke up.
I’m sure that has brought back a lot of unwanted memories that she
has buried.”

Cannon nodded and sipped
on his water. “Okay, so give her some space. I can do that.”
Right?
He wasn’t sure if
he believed himself or not considering he just wanted to jump into
his car and drive straight to her house to finish what they’d
started in the parking lot.

“
I would take it slow.
Don’t rush anything if you really want her back.”

“
I hear you,
sis.”

Cannon sat back and listened to the
music for a while before leaving the love birds. He decided to play
it cool and give Yasmine some space … but only a little.

*****

Yasmine sat on the deck overlooking
the Mississippi River, sipping hot chocolate and trying to figure
out how she got herself into this mess. She was back in the place
she was a few years ago where the need of wanting Cannon so badly
consumed her thoughts and invaded her sleep. She’d daydreamed about
him, dreamed about him, and even went so far as to search for him
on the Internet. She found journals he’d written and documentaries
about the medical clinics he had opened with Doctors Unlimited, the
non-profit organization he founded with some other doctors after
his yearlong mission trip to Brazil.