Good afternoon readers! I was sitting here doing some rewriting/editing/deleting/adding to Only One for Me, and I realized that I hadn’t shared an excerpt with you all except for a really short one months ago. The book is coming along and going to the editor next month.  As soon as I have a release date, I’ll let you know.

Background information for the excerpt: Its been 12 years since Cannon and Yasmine have seen or spoken to each other yet they’ve been asked by their best friends, Doug and Sherika, to help plan their wedding because they live in New York City, but would prefer to have it in the bride’s hometown of Memphis. The following excerpt is at the cake tasting. This is the second time they’ve seen each other in the past week.

Disclaimer: The following excerpt has not been professionally edited yet.

*****

Yasmine walked into Ollie’s Sweets at exactly 2:00 to find Cannon already there chatting with Ollie Moss, the owner and head baker. Sherika and Yasmine used to frequent the downtown Memphis bakery as teenagers, and she wasn’t surprised to learn that the bride-to-be had selected their favorite bakery to make the wedding cakes.

“Hi, Ms. Ollie.”

“Look at my Yaz all grown up.” The ladies hugged and Yasmine inhaled Ms. Ollie’s fragrance. She always smelled like vanilla and butter cream icing. She stepped back to get a good look at Ms. Ollie. She still had the same sweet smile and grandmother nature that always made customers feel at home in her bakery.

“Hello, Yasmine,” Cannon’s deep voice stated behind her.

She turned and nodded to acknowledge his presence. Staring up at him, she tried to stifle a gulp or two as her heart beat sped up. He was dressed casually in khakis and a light blue sweater that fit his sexy physique. Cannon had never been overly muscular, but he’d always been in shape, and the way his sweater fit over his arms and abs suggested he still worked out. His fresh scent loomed into her personal space outweighing the aroma of all the cakes and pastries in the bakery. She wasn’t sure how long she could do this, but she’d made a promise to her best friend.

“Well, let’s get started,” Ms. Ollie stated. “Follow me. I have everything set up in the tasting room.”

Yasmine flinched as Cannon placed his warm hand at the small of her back, causing a flow of burning waves to rush through her veins. She cleared her throat and walked faster to escape his touch that seared her skin. As his hand fell, it brushed against her butt, and she gave him a glare. He mouthed “sorry” and placed his hands mischievously in his pocket. She knew it was probably an accident but wasn’t sure how sorry he was about doing it. He’d always known just the right way to caress and kiss her body and no other man had turned her on as much as he had.

When they entered the tasting room, there was a long table laden with dessert plates of miniature cupcakes. On small pink cards, the flavor of the cupcake was written in calligraphy. Yasmine snapped a few pictures with her digital camera to email to Sherika for her wedding memory book.

“There are six mini cupcakes of each cake flavor that I discussed with the bride and groom for you to sample. On the bistro table,” Ms.Ollie paused as she pointed to a small table by the window, “you’ll find a list of the flavors for you to take notes and to check off the ones you like. The bride wants three different flavors since her cake has three layers and for the groom’s cake, two different flavors of chocolate. There’s also bottled water. I suggest you take a few sips to clean your palate before trying a different flavor. If you need anything, I’ll be next door working on a cake for a wedding tomorrow but will be in and out to check on you.”

After she left, Yasmine placed her coat and purse on a chair at the bistro table and Cannon immediately went to the cupcakes.

“Which should we try first?” he asked.

He handed her an empty dessert plate as his eyes roamed over her black cropped sweater that stopped at the belt of her dark skinny jeans, down to her black knee-high boots before rising back up to settle on her face which she knew had to be flushed because her cheeks were burning. She placed her focus on the tasty cupcakes to avoid looking in his direction.

“Can’t decide. They all look delicious, but I know Sherika loves amaretto so let’s try that one and one of the chocolates for the groom’s cake.” Yasmine answered with ease and was surprised she wasn’t as nervous being alone with him as she thought she would despite the way he’d just raked his eyes over her like an x-ray.

She grabbed the two amaretto cupcakes while Cannon grabbed two German chocolates, and they settled in at the table.

“Did you eat something before coming?” he asked, taking a sip of the water.

“Not since breakfast.” She sipped her water. “What about you?”

“The same. You know I love eating anything sweet and couldn’t wait to get here.” He had a sparkle in his eye and a wicked grin crossed his face.

Yasmine blinked her eyes a few times at his comment. Cannon had a way of saying something normal, but there was always a sexual connotation behind it. She thought surely she’d heard emphasis on the word “eating.” Her mind transported her to a time where he’d done just that while they were at his parent’s home visiting for the weekend, and he told her not to make a sound. Starting from her forehead, he’d kissed and licked every inch of her, enticing her breasts in his warm mouth and then lingered in the sensitive area between her legs longer than the other places until he drove her crazy with an unruly, muffled orgasm. She squirmed in her chair at the memory.

“Are you ready to begin?” he asked picking up the chocolate cupcake.

She snapped out of her daydream she’d had plenty times before.“Yep.” She picked up the amaretto one. “Bon appetite.”

She bit into her cupcake while Cannon popped the entire thing into his mouth, leaving a little bit of chocolate icing on the corner of his bottom lip. Yasmine’s eyes settled on the delectable spot. She wanted nothing more but to reach across the table and lick the chocolate off of him and then taste his lips that she’d missed so much.

“Mmm…that was good,” he said and then proceeded to swish his tongue to the side where the icing lay. “You have to try this one.”

I wanted to, but you beat me to it.

For the next twenty minutes they sampled cupcakes and compared notes. Yasmine was trying to keep the conversation only to the task at hand and so far it was working. She found herself a little more at ease with him. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but he’d been a gentleman which was his nature.

“How many more do we have?” she asked taking a sip of water as Cannon stood at the table grabbing two more cupcakes and setting them on the bistro table in front of her.

“This is the last chocolate one for the groom’s cake and there are two more to taste for the bride’s cake. Think you can hang?”

Yasmine laughed and patted her belly. “I think so. I’m actually ready for some real food now.”

“Me too. I guess we ate dessert first.” He laughed and took a bite of the cake. “This chocolate mint flavor is good. I think we have a winner.”

She bit into hers. “You’re right. This really is good. Let’s make it the second layer’s flavor for the groom’s cake,” she suggested, remembering what Sherika said about having a different flavor besides plain chocolate.

“Sounds good to me.” He checked it off on his list and pushed the plate aside, resting his arms crossed in front of him on the table and leaning toward her. “Never been much a chocolate fan. I prefer caramel.”

Yasmine almost choked on her cake and lifted her head to meet his smoldering gaze. There was no laughter in his words or on his face. Instead, she noted the seriousness in his tone and the seductive way his eyes examined her as if he was reading her mind and liked what he read.

“How’s everything?”

Cannon and Yasmine both jumped at the words as Ms. Ollie entered the room. Yasmine was glad for the interruption. The way Cannon had leaned toward her she thought he was going to kiss her and considering where her thoughts had just returned, she would’ve let him.

Cannon leaned back into his chair and patted his stomach. “Perfect,” he answered with a smile and Yasmine was glad that he had. She was still in a daze.

“Good.” Ms. Ollie glanced at the cake table. “I see you have a few more to sample. I’ll be back in about twenty minutes to go over any questions you may have and pack up the uneaten cupcakes for you.”

The smile he’d displayed for Ms. Ollie vanished when she left and replaced with a serious facade once more. Yasmine knew all of his facial expressions and this one was screaming she needed to move and move fast before he reached for her like he had the first time they’d made love.

“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 she 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.”

Hello book lovers! Today I’m revealing the cover for my summer release, Only One for Me. It’s the third full-length book in the Arrington Family Series and is Dr. Cannon Arrington and Yasmine Dubose’s book. If you’ve read my free short story, Simply Amazing, then you briefly met them and are probably wondering what the heck happened considering they had an HEA ending. Well…you’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, check out the cover below and tell me what you think.

A few announcements and updates…

Turks and Caicos

Myself along with my critique partner and dear friend, author Delaney Diamond, won a trip to Turks and Caicos from the Facebook book club, Building Relationships Around Books during the Christmas holidays. The members held a contest just for authors. Who knew the prize was a trip to Turks and Caicos! I’m so excited! My head is already churning with ideas for a novella set on the island and resort where we’ll be staying. I’ll keep you posted!

Book Spotlights

For the past few months, I’ve been doing Book Spotlights in order to promote my fellow authors since so many have helped me. I’ve decided to do two a month this year.  Authors if you’re interested, please email me at Candace.Shaw@aol.com. The spotlights include book cover, blurb, excerpt, (no more than 1500 words) and buy/social media links.

Radio Interview

I’m excited to announce that my first radio interview will be on Friday, February 8^th at 10:00 a.m. Central Time (11:00 a.m. EST) on 96 KIX, an R&B station in Jackson, Tennessee.  You can listen to the interview on the station’s website. http://my96kix.com/  I’ll post the link on my Facebook and Twitter pages on Friday morning.

Thank you so much for all of your support during my journey. It will be a year this May since Cooking Up Love was released and so many wonderful things have happened that it has been almost overwhelming at times. But thank you readers for your support. I love receiving emails, tweets, Facebook messages and comments on my website telling me how much you’ve enjoyed my books. It keeps me motivated to write more and there’s more to come in 2013!

Besos

CS

Hello, book lovers!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours!

Hello book lovers! I hope everyone is ready for the holidays.  I ordered all of my gifts on the Internet in the beginning of December and they have all arrived. Now to wrap them and put up a few decorations around my home. My parents are coming this Sunday and just the wreath on the front door isn’t going to please my mother at all.

I wanted to share another excerpt from my short story, Simply Amazing just in case you haven’t downloaded it yet. Its the prequel to the third book in the Arrington Family Series, Only One for Me. The story is doing quite well with reviews, sitting on a few Amazon bestsellers list as well as readers emailing me or sending me messages on Facebook and Twitter that they enjoyed the prequel and want more of Yasmine and Cannon. (Its coming, I promise.) It was a nightmare to write because I prefer to write full-lengths so don’t hold your breath looking for another short story from me anytime soon. But who knows…ideas are always popping up in my head, and I had a dream last night that would be a cool short story. I need to jot it down before I forget.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday! See you in the new year!

CS

A handsome medical student learns how to stop and smell the roses from a flirty, sexy teacher.

Blurb

Cannon Arrington has pushed aside a social life to dedicate his time to medical school, extracurricular activities, and helping others … that is, until he lays his eyes on the angelic face of Yasmine Dubose. For Cannon, meeting her was like a breath of fresh air. Something about the bubbly, sexy teacher makes him realize he needs to stop and smell the roses.

Yasmine has had a crush on Cannon since high school, but he never noticed the nerdy freshman. Now she’s blossomed into a woman who’s full of life. She knows Cannon’s drive for success is important to him, but she fears he’ll become even more of a workaholic than her father, who died when she was a child.

Will Cannon settle down and learn how to balance his career and love life, or will he lose the simply amazing woman who has stolen his heart?

Excerpt

(A little background about the excerpt. Cannon participated in a Read-a-Thon at a local elementary school and read a book to Yasmine’s class earlier that day.)

During the afternoon, Yasmine’s class worked on their thank you cards and drew pictures of scenes from the book. She tried to stay focused, but nerves overtook her as she thought about whether or not to contact Cannon to give him the cards. She’d promised her students she would make sure he received them, and if he ever came to visit again, she knew that would be the first question they would ask.

That evening, Yasmine sat on the couch with her laptop and all of the thank you cards stacked up on the coffee table. She decided she was going to email Cannon and ask him for his address so she could mail the cards in one big envelope, along with the pictures of him reading to the students.

Muffled hip-hop music began to reverberate through the ceiling, quickly followed by a loud crash interrupting her contemplative mood. She sighed and stared up in the apartment she’d lived in since her senior year of college. Apparently, the new tenants above her were having a party, as usual. At the time, it made sense to rent an apartment a few miles from campus, but now she was ready to move.

Trying to tune the music out, she read over the email, deleted it for the fifth time, and began to type out another one.

“Dear Cannon … no wait … that’s too formal.” She deleted it. “Hey, Cannon. No wait. Hey is for a horse, at least that’s what my mother says. Let’s see. Hi, Cannon. Yep. That’s better.”

Hi, Cannon!

Thank you so much for reading to my class today. My students enjoyed it very much. To show their appreciation, they made you thank you cards, and I would like to mail them to you. If you could send me your address when you have a chance that would be great, or call me at 555-0819.

Sincerely,

Yasmine Dubose

“Perfect. That sounds better.”

She read it ten times, deleted it, walked away from the computer, typed it again, deleted it, took a shower, retyped it without her phone number, and then added it back in.

Okay, this is ridiculous. You aren’t the shy little girl you were in high school. It shouldn’t take two hours to send an email. You’re a strong, independent woman who simply needs a handsome man’s address to honor the request of her students.

Yasmine pressed send and closed her laptop before she changed her mind.

*****

Chime.

Cannon glanced at his laptop when his email account notified him he had a new message. He was reading over a ten page paper he received back that afternoon and wasn’t interested in anything outside of it.

Sheesh.

He received a B+ because he had a few typos. He hated anything less than an A, unless it was a hard B, but he was too intelligent and too much of a perfectionist to even accept that. The professor had written a note in red on the cover page:

Excellent A paper, but you need to get a proofreader for the next one because I may not be so lenient next time.

Cannon read through the paper, taking note of all of his careless mistakes. He was surprised at his errors, but Raven blamed it on his lack of sleep and taking on too many outside projects. She was the more focused twin who concentrated only on her classes and elected not to have any extracurricular activities outside of medical school.

Chime.

Cannon tossed the paper on his desk and proceeded to his bed, where the laptop sat. He had two emails waiting. One was from his sister, Bria, and one from Yasmine Dubose. Baby sister could wait. He clicked on Yasmine’s name and read the short message, imagining her bubbly voice in his head.

He read it again and smiled. He’d been thinking about her off and on during the day and kicking himself for not getting her phone number, but he thought it would be inappropriate to ask for it in her classroom. Instead, he’d planned on asking Doug to set something up with Sherika and Yasmine to see her again, but now he didn’t have to. Her number was staring back at him on the screen.

He quickly checked his sister’s email. At seventeen, Bria was into boys, shopping, and sports. Captain of her soccer team, she wanted him to know that they’d won the game thanks to her winning kick and that their youngest sibling, Shelbi, had been elected to sophomore class president. He emailed Bria back with congratulations to both sisters.

His stomach grumbled, reminding him of something he’d meant to do since two o’clock. Eat. He glanced at his watch. It was nine at night.

He proceeded to the kitchen as he dialed Yasmine’s number and opened the refrigerator. The left over pizza was gone. Thanks, Raven. Everything else was breakfast food. He grabbed the eggs, cheese, an onion, a bell pepper, and ham to make an omelet.

“Hello?”

His heart smiled at the sound of her beautiful voice in his ear.

“Hi, Yasmine. This is Cannon Arrington. Are you busy?”

“Nope.  Just grading papers.”

“Working on a Friday night? I’m surprised a woman as adorable as you isn’t out on a date.”

“Thanks for the compliment, but I needed a break. The last few dates I’ve been on were horrible. One guy just rambled on about himself the entire time.”

“He was probably nervous being around you. Some men become big blabbermouths when in the presence of a lovely woman.”

She giggled. “Thank you.”

“Just speaking the truth.”

Silence.

He cleared his throat. “So how’s your mother?”

“She’s fine. Still teaching AP biology and chemistry. She only has a few more years before retirement, but I have a feeling she’ll work beyond that.”

“Your mother is a wonderful teacher. I learned so much from her.”

“Thank you. I’ll let her know you asked about her. I wanted to get your address so I can send you the thank you cards.”

“Of course.” He whisked the eggs into a bowl. “Let me know when you’re ready to jot it down.”

After he gave her his address, they caught up on their lives since high school, her funny stories about teaching so far, and her noisy neighbors. He let her do most of the talking because he wanted to know everything about her; plus, he enjoyed listening to her bubbly, sweet voice. She wasn’t the nerdy, shy teenager he remembered. She was full of life and had blossomed into a delightful, intelligent woman.

Before he realized it, it was after two o’clock in the morning. He’d retreated to his bedroom after eating his omelet and had stretched out on top of the comforter.

“Yasmine, I didn’t realize what time it was…” His sentence trailed off into a yawn. “It’s 2:15 in the morning.”

She yawned. “Yeah … it sure is,” she replied in a sleepy tone and yawned again. “Cannon, stop yawning. You’re making me yawn. I have to be up at six in the morning for a breast cancer walk.”

“I’ll let you go to bed.”

“I’m already in bed,” she moaned. “Nice and snug.”

Her moan wasn’t supposed to be sexual, but the thought of her nice and snug in bed had his mind in the gutter. It was definitely time to let her go, even though he didn’t want to. Instead, he’d rather listen to her sleepy moans in his ear until the sun came up.

“It was really nice talking with you.”

Silence.

“Yasmine?”

“Huh … mmmm … Cannon?”

I see a cold shower in my future if she keeps moaning and saying my name like that.

“I’m going to let you go to sleep now,” he said reluctantly. “Have fun at the walk.”

“Mmmm … okay. You too.”

He chuckled. She was definitely drifting off to sleep. “Go ahead and hang up.”

“Good night, Cannon.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, and he loved the way she said his name as if she’d been saying it for years. As if she was the only woman meant to say it like that. It stirred in him a fervor that he couldn’t explain.

“Sweet dreams, Yasmine.”

Copyright by Candace Shaw, December 2012

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