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  “Hello…Are you still there?” Shawn’s anxious voice broke into her runaway thought.

  She cleared her throat of its dry strain.

  “I’m here…and of course I still love you, Shawn.” Miyah’s voice was a hushed whisper. Her conscious told her that she was confessing innocent friendship, but her heart knew different. “You’re my best friend.”

  “Then why did you run, Miyah? Why didn’t you stay with me tonight?”

  The secret meaning within Shawn’s seemingly harmless words sent a slippery shiver through the pink lips of her nether region.

  “I had so much to do.” Her tongue faltered. “I…I needed to get home, that’s all.”

  “No…that’s not it.” His voice had lowered another octave.

  Miyah knew the reason for Shawn’s restrained frustration. Her explanation wasn’t the answer he had been anticipating, and neither was it what she really wanted to say. Despite wanting to reveal the true reason for her sudden escape from his strong arms, Miyah’s tongue went numb and all speech became stuck in her throat.

  “Tell me what you’re thinking…please.”

  Shawn’s bass tapped at her senses and sparked up a daydream in her feverish thoughts. The last word – that gentle, yet firm please – tore down her dwindling defenses against the romance kindling in her heart. Miyah imagined Shawn laying his burgundy head on a pillow beside her, flashing a seductive half-grin her way. In the fantasy, she would reach out and trail her fingertips along the chiseled muscles lining Shawn’s toasty peach abs. Then their two impatient and naked bodies would disappear beneath the warm quilt.

  “I was thinking…of you.”

  “Tell me more.” His manly voice overflowed with a sweet and adolescent eagerness.

  Miyah’s thoughts inched closer to the edge of abandoning reason. She settled into the pillows behind her then cradled the phone against her ear. A deep rose-red blush painted her cheeks, while slippery dew sprang to life beneath the short nightshirt she was wearing. In an instant, big hands were holding her by the waist and scorching waves of heat were rolling over her shoulders once more. You’re perfect, echoes of Shawn’s praise bounced around Miyah’s wandering mind. At the exact moment when hidden cravings were on the cusp of spilling off her moist tongue, the sound of jiggling keys cut her unspoken confession before it blossomed to life and jarred Miyah back to reality. The screech of the front door set her heart into an erratic frenzy and forced her to sit up straighter in the bed she shared with her returning fiancé. Quickly, the woman smothered all traces of her wicked yearnings.

  Miyah hurried out her next sentence.

  “Shawn, I have to go.”

  “No…Miyah…wait…I –”

  She ended the call and rushed to sit the phone on her nightstand. With a fast hand, Miyah brushed away the moisture clinging to her brow. Her racing fingers tidied up the stray curls hanging around her shoulders. On the other side of the bedroom door, heavy footsteps bounded up the polished cherry wood stairs. Shortly after, a tall man, with creamy brown skin and the face of an African prince, emerged into the room.

  “Hey, baby.” A charming grin beamed in her direction. “I didn’t know you were still awake.”

  “I was worried. I haven’t heard from you all night, so I couldn’t sleep.”

  “Oh, yeah…sorry about that.” William pulled his suit jacket off then slung it over the ottoman in the corner. “You know how it is,” he said, while shrugging his shoulders casually. “We were having a good time, and I must have lost track of the hours.” Another bright smile tried to stroke her face from across the room. “Won’t happen again, babe.”

  No immediate response came to her mind, because all of Miyah’s attention was on watching him pull off the striped tie that was already hanging loosely around the neckline of his dress shirt. A small crimson smudge marred the left shoulder of the starched white cotton. As soon as Miyah’s eyes spied the telltale stain, several more became visible – on the other shoulder, around the entire rim of the crisp collar, as well as a small dab on the side of his neck. The evidence was staring at her with menacing clarity; however, the woman didn’t mention aloud what her sight was screaming to her brain. Will made no excuses, but he wouldn’t have to, because Miyah had already conjured up a half dozen on her own to help her fend off the stabs of betrayal pinching her heart. Maybe one of the friends he had been hanging out with was a female and maybe they had shared a dance. Maybe the woman had been drinking too heavily and maybe her make-up had smeared across the white fabric. Whatever the cause for the terrible blemishes, Miyah was certain of one absolute truth – Will loved her. He had placed his diamond ring on her finger, so she had nothing to fear about another woman coming between them.

  Her own shameful conscience wasted no time in forcing Miyah into docile submission. The same finger she had considered using to point at the scarlet smudge on William’s shirt turned back on her. If anyone were guilty of wrongdoing, she would be the culprit. Burning desire had passed from Shawn’s body into hers only a few hours beforehand. Instead of calling to check on the man who was going to be her husband again, hadn’t she been the one who was on the verge of having an adulterous chat with the same so-called friend less than two minutes ago? This last reflection sealed the woman’s lips from instigating any trouble, and she pushed on to a new subject.

  “Did you eat? I made your favorite…roast beef and garlic potatoes.”

  “Yeah, we had a few burgers at the tavern.” Will stopped dead in his tracks. A stern grimace was stamped on his face. “What about you? What did you eat?”

  Miyah swallowed a dry breath. The accusing stare in his cocoa brown eyes was tortuous to endure.

  “It was really busy today, so I didn’t have much,” she said with a thin smile. “A bottle of water and a few carrot sticks.”

  “Oh, okay.” He went back to undressing and laying his clothing aside. “Did you go to the gym and start that routine I gave you?”

  “No…not tonight,” her voice dimmed away. “Tomorrow I’ll go at lunch and again after work to make up for today.”

  “Miyah,” an exasperated sigh slipped from his full lips. “You’re the one who wants to fit into that tiny wedding dress and you’re the one who has to slim down to get into it.”

  “I know, but Shawn needed me to stay late tonight.”

  “Shawn…right.” Will rolled his eyes. “I forgot he gets priority over everyone and everything else.”

  A renewed twinge of guilt stung Miyah’s conscience.

  “That’s not true,” she said, while flipping the covers off her legs.

  Miyah’s intent was to share a reassuring embrace with Will. She wanted to show him that her love was only for him by pouring her devotion into a tight hold around his slim waist. Nevertheless, as soon as her feet tapped the hardwood floor, her fiancé doubled his pace. Snatching a pair of boxers, gray sweatpants, and a T-shirt from his dresser, he turned and made two giants steps toward the bedroom door.

  “Yeah…whatever, Miyah.” Before he vanished from view, William stopped to toss a few more raging comments over his shoulder. Aggravation and bitterness emptied from his mouth. “He always seems to need something from you at the last minute. If he calls during our honeymoon, are you gonna’ catch the next flight back to make sure he’s all taken care of? Maybe if you stop chasin’ after him, you might be able to get some exercise every once in awhile.” A final grunt exploded into the tense air. “After I take a shower, I’m going down to watch TV…Don’t wait up.”

  The door slammed behind him, rattling the framed photos on the bureau at the front of the room. They were snapshots of distant and happier moments in the couple’s fizzling relationship. Miyah, although standing physically unmoved, was only a heartbeat away from spilling a wellspring of salty tears.

  3

  Miyah opened her eyes to the sight of a glowing veil.

  The sunshine spilling through the curtains of the bedroom window illuminated the sheer materi
al. For a few hushed moments, the bloom of plentiful sunrays, a rare vision in Seattle’s perpetually cloudy forecast, brushed away some of the sadness she had fallen asleep with. A quiet hope pushed back the woeful thoughts that harassed Miyah during most of the restless night. A day beginning with such stunning beauty would surely offer bright possibilities in the hours ahead.

  Miyah had made a terrible mistake by allowing illicit daydreams of Shawn to temporarily blind her to her devotion to William. It was an error she was determined never to repeat. She would refocus all of her energy on finding a way to reconcile with her fiancé. When Miyah reached behind her and laid her hand on the opposite side of the bed, the faint optimism she was clinging to quickly faded. The sheets there were barely crinkled. Reluctantly, the young woman turned and stared sullen eyes at the blank spot. The space was mostly smooth; there was no imprint from a man’s body to be seen. Will had never returned to the bedroom last night.

  “Will?” Miyah raised her upper body and called out to him.

  She allowed a few staggered seconds to pass by, but the faint echo of her own voice bouncing off the bedroom walls was the only answer she received.

  Pulling on her robe and slippers, she made her way into the upstairs hall. While walking along the short corridor, Miyah tried to loosen her tangled curls with her fingertips. After leaning her head into each of the second floor rooms, she found them all disturbingly silent.

  “Will, are you down there?” A second yell over the banister also received a mute response.

  Once downstairs, Miyah peeked through the blinds of a window facing the front yard and driveway. Her eyes spied exactly what she had expected; William’s car was gone. He had left her without muttering a frosty good morning or a hasty goodbye. A frigid chill slid between the thin gap separating the cotton robe from the nape of her neck. Gooseflesh ran across her bronzed back, heightening the sense of barren isolation scraping at her mind. The cream-colored walls of this house should have been nurturing the laughter of a happy couple that was feverishly anticipating long-awaited nuptials. Instead, last evening marked the fifth night in a row that the man Miyah was pledging her life to had made his sleeping arrangements elsewhere. Her fiancé’s arms had not folded Miyah in a loving embrace for quite some time, and the sinking loneliness gathering in the pit of her stomach was becoming more unbearable with each passing day.

  Tick…tick…tick. The clock hanging near the fireplace in the living room caught her attention. At quarter past seven in the morning, the day had barely dawned on this side of the planet; nonetheless, a persistent shadow had already returned to cast a shroud of melancholy over Miyah Lynne one more time. As the April sun was boldly proclaiming its presence to the outside world, here in this isolated room – where a tiny crack was beginning to cleave her heart into two fragile pieces – Miyah was slowly coming undone.

  Shawn Dougherty glanced up from wiping off a dining table.

  An excited smiled lifted his rosy lips. Even if he had intended to hide his glee at seeing the gorgeous mocha-skinned woman entering through the glass door at the front of his restaurant, it would have been an impossible task. The moment Shawn saw Miyah’s lovely face floating toward him, everything else dropped away from his attention. His only focus was on reawakening the small spark that lingered between them last night. A hasty embrace…a sizzling stare…a hurried conversation dripping with long-awaited possibilities were only a small fraction of all the masked feelings Shawn had been wanting to share with Miyah.

  “There she is,” he said while approaching her. “I was starting to worry. I was wondering if you had quit and moved on to better paying opportunities.”

  Shawn was teasing her, but the woman’s eyes barely registered his presence. Although her stunning irises – an alluring shade of melted gold that no other female possessed – were staring directly at him, Miyah’s eyes were empty. There was sadness hovering at the corners of her bowed lips. Shawn experienced the wounded expression as if the hurt were his own.

  “Miyah, love…what’s wrong?”

  His question snapped her out of the daze she had been lost in. When she shook her head, her long dark curls shifted against her flawless neck and shoulders.

  “Shawn…I’m sorry, I was thinking about something.” A weak smile barely pushed her luscious butterscotch cheeks up. “I’m fine. How are you this morning?”

  She wasn’t telling the truth. More than feeling her sorrow under his own skin, Shawn could see the pain written all over her precious face. The heavenly glow that usually lit Miyah up from inside was almost completely drained away. An unseen shadow was trailing behind her and smothering the inner sunshine that would normally grace Miyah’s every step.

  “Forget about me,” he spoke to her tenderly. Before Shawn could hold himself back, his hand moved forward. He laid the tips of his thumb and index finger against the curve of her face. “Why aren’t you smiling, Miyah?”

  While Shawn restlessly awaited her answer, his soft touch drifted under her chin then upward again and alongside her face. Sweet…Pure…Innocent…Miyah embodied everything Shawn cherished in a woman. Even though she had already promised herself to another man long before the two of them had ever met, Shawn wanted her for himself. He adored the beautiful woman, whose long lashes were fluttering under the brush of his fingers, exactly as she already was. With a heart overflowing with love and laughter, and a full-figured and curvy body he had imagined folding into his arms almost every night for the last two years, Shawn only saw perfection when he looked at Miyah.

  If he had met her first, would the scene they were sharing now be playing out in a different way? Would her face still be filled with drooping sadness? Would her eyes be holding the distinct remnants of the tears that dotted her lashes perhaps only a few minutes ago?

  The bell hanging over the front entrance chimed. Shawn didn’t bother to look up at the new arrival, but the distraction was enough to sever his connection with Miyah. Her eyelashes flickered open and a blush spread across her face. She pressed her lips together tightly then moved away from his palm. His heart ached to bring Miyah close to him and to comfort her. Shawn wanted to banish whatever was ailing her spirit, and to restore the golden twinkle to her sullen eyes, yet he was bound by her wishes. He would never force Miyah to accept his affections.

  “I should get the ovens warmed up.”

  With those departing words, Miyah hurried around Shawn and disappeared through the swinging doors that led into the industrial-sized kitchen.

  For the remainder of the morning, she seemed determined to avoid any contact with him. There were no timid dimples smiling at Shawn while he completed his routine walk-thru to check on the busy staff floating around the casual dining bistro. No gentle eyes greeted him when he entered the humid cooking area to make sure orders were flowing smoothly. No contagious giggles were heard from Miyah while she guided the other bakers in preparing batches of her delicious and sugary recipes. Whenever Shawn came within five feet of her, she would move on to another station in the kitchen or suddenly become distracted by a conversation with one of the hot food chefs or one of the waiters. At noon, instead of sharing their usual meal in the employee lounge or having a witty chat on the benches behind the building, Miyah disappeared until her break was over and then immediately returned to creating her pastries. All day, there was never a moment when she was free for Shawn to talk with her, and he would never attempt to abuse his position as her manager to make Miyah come to him.

  After a few hours of enduring her frigid treatment, Shawn kept his distance. He doubled his concentration and energy on running his business, and did his best to sweep all thoughts of Miyah from his mind.

  When his silver wristwatch ticked closer to 5 PM, Shawn walked to the open doorway of his office. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned his broad upper body at an angle facing the rear exit a few feet away.

  The restaurant wasn’t due to close until ten and the second half of the workday was getting underwa
y. As the nightshift settled into preparing for the evening crowd, the early staff was mingling among them and doing their last minute clean-ups. It didn’t take long before Shawn spotted Miyah floating through the small crowd and toward the coat rack. Her curly head never made a motion to look in any direction except toward the exit. After flinging her canvass bag over her shoulders, she crept out the door. As far as Shawn could guess, she never intended to say goodbye to him.

  Although the thought grieved his heart, he contemplated allowing her to leave in silence. Perhaps tomorrow their treasured friendship would be restored. Shawn would have to go on quietly adoring her, but at least she wouldn’t be completely absent from his life.

  After an anguished minute of trying to wrestle his spirit under control, the yearning blazing inside his chest finally broke through the wall that was holding Shawn motionless and defeated. He stomped forward and pushed past the gathering workers. Their greetings fell on mute ears as his single-minded mission urged him to follow Miyah’s path. He wouldn’t allow this void to hang between them any longer. For two years, Shawn had watched the man she lived with slowly smother her confidence. He had wordlessly endured seeing the brilliant flames in her eyes dwindle down to near nothingness. Now, tonight, and at this crucial moment, the man who had grown to love Miyah as if she were already his own bride could no longer remain mute about the depth of his affections and desires for her. Twice he had tried to reveal his veiled feelings to her and twice she had fled from him. Even so, before she ran from his touch, each instance had revealed a wealth of discovery to Shawn. He had seen the passion simmering in her sun-kissed irises and had felt the prickles of electric flowing from her skin into his. The quiver of her tinted lips was genuine, and that enthralling reaction was part of the truth he was searching for.