The Night Before Christian by Joy Avery

traveled there.
    “This is where I want
to be,” he said.
    Stepping over scarves,
purses, and shoes, she brushed past him. “I can’t do this.”
    His brows furrowed. “Do
what?”
    “ This . Me
pretending I can be your friend. I can’t. I am in love with you. I’ve always
been in love with you. And because of that love, I’m a sinking, Christian.
Every minute we’re together, I plunge deeper and deeper. I’m drowning.” Tears
stung her eyes. “I can’t do this. It’s not fair to you. It’s not fair to me.
It’s not fair to Yasmin.”
    “You’re right,” he
said.
    Christian took a step
toward her, but she warned him off. “No. Go, Christian. Leave, please. Marry
Yasmin. Have a house full of babies. You deserve to be happy.”
    He ignored her plea,
moving test-your-will close to her. Cradling her face between his hands, he
said, “You’re right again. I do deserve to be happy. You make me happy.
No other woman can do what you do for me. No other woman.”
    Everything moved in
slow motion, or it could have been the speed of light. She wasn’t sure. The
second his lips touched hers, her mind went numb. He kissed her cautiously at
first. Exploring, teasing, filling her with desire.
    It wasn’t long before
his passion grew, both their passions grew. The heat of his mouth sparked a flame
that ignited her entire body. She melted a little more with each stroke of his
tongue. He offered so much and she unapologetically accepted it all. Greed drew
her closer to him. Hunger kept her there.
    It’d been two years
since she’d been kissed like this. Two years since she’d been kissed by him.
Both at once were overwhelming, but she’d weather the devastation to her system
if it meant enjoying this a second longer. Christian snaked his fingers up the
back of her neck and entangled them in her hair. Holding her head in place, he
deepened their kiss.
    She wanted him unlike
anything she’d ever wanted before. Her heart cried out to him, her body cried
out for him. Her soul simply cried because it knew this had to end.
    “This is wrong,
Christian,” she said against their joined mouths. “This is so wrong. You belong
to someone else.”
    “I belong to you. I’ve
always belonged to you.”
    His words tore through
her fog of desire. Resting her hand against his chest, she pushed away from his
spellbinding mouth. Her lips ached from the intensity of their kiss. “What are you
saying?”
    Christian dragged a
finger down the side of her face. “I’m saying I couldn’t marry another woman
when I’m completely and absolutely in love with you. I’m saying I’d risk my own
life—in the deepest waters—to save you from drowning. I’m saying let me to be
your life preserver.”
    He searched her eyes as
if attempting to gauge how his words had affected her. Oh, they’d affected her.
So much so that she wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. “You ended your
engagement?”
    “Yes.”
    For some reason, panic set
in and she backed away from him on shaky legs.
    Christian reached out
and hooked her around the waist. “Oh, no, you don’t. Don’t run from me now.”
Nestling her against his chest, he said, “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
    How pissed Yasmin
must be . Of course, she only said it in her head. Out loud, she said, “You
said you loved her.”
    “I’m sorry. I said what
I had to say to be able to walk away from you that night. If I would have
stayed, I would have made love to you in a thousand different ways.”
    She chortled. “I think
I would have had some say so about that.” She wiggled out of his embrace. “How
do I know you’re not saying what you need to say now?”
    “I’ve never played with
your feelings, Emory. I won’t start now?”
    What in the hell had he
believed he’d done a few nights ago? “You shouldn’t have cancelled your
wedding, Christian. Especially because of me.”
    “I didn’t do it for
you, Em. I did it for me. For the first time in a long time, I’m