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.
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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.”
On the afternoon of Thursday, January 10th, I was perusing my emails as I usually do and saw an email from assistant editor Shannon Criss from Kimani Romance Harlequin. My heart dropped, and I was too terrified to open it. I hadn’t sent anything to Harlequin or anyone else in the past year. The last I’d heard from Kimani was a rejection letter the year before for Cooking Up Love, so I couldn’t figure out why she would be emailing me. I took a deep breath and clicked on the email. She basically stated she wanted to speak with me about possibly writing for Kimani. I immediately began to laugh as I thought back to a conversation I’d had just a few days before with my dear friend and critique partner, author Delaney Diamond. Delaney had asked me what would I do if a traditional publishing house contacted me about writing for them. I told her I didn’t know because I truly enjoyed self-publishing.
Candace Shaw 