A Night To Remember – Available August 15th at WCP

 

 

Watching her best friend die was the hardest thing Emma Dupre has ever had to do.  It felt as if she’d lost the only person who would ever love her.  Nickie was more than a friend.  He was like a brother.  When Nickie was first diagnosed with Leukemia, Emma knew she would do anything to make Nickie’s last days happy. 

 

Moving to Expect, Colorado, to a small rental cabin in the mountains because it had been Nickie’s lifelong dream was a small price to pay to see him happy for a little while. 

 

The day of Nickie’s funeral in the tiny cemetery outside of Expect, Emma couldn’t imagine ever getting beyond the emptiness left in her life.  But she had no idea how much her life will change the night her world collides with Kyle Sabian. 

 

After walking for hours, trying to outrun the crippling grief, Emma meets a stranger on a dark deserted stretch of Colorado roadway, and finds comfort in his arms.

 

Kyle Sabian doesn’t want anything more from her than a one-night encounter.  She understands that.  It doesn’t matter when he tells her that night will mean nothing to him, Emma only wants to forget the pain of losing Nickie. 

 

Waking up in bed next to a stranger who has fulfilled her every fantasy and eased the emptiness for a little while, Emma regrets her reckless behavior.  She walks away from the stranger and never looks back. 

 

Starting a new life in Denver, Emma finds an accounting position working at a lumber mill.  Soon after the move, she discovers that she is pregnant. 

 

 

When her son is born, Emma names him after her best friend who died.  Nickie is a constant reminder of the man she can’t forget. But the man she can’t forget, the stranger who haunts her dreams and makes her wish for things that can never be, also makes it impossible for Emma to find love with another man.

 

Nickie’s happiness is all that matters to Emma and yet she can’t help but feel guilty about her decision not to try to find Nickie’s father and tell him about their son.  But the words that he told her that night keep Emma from trying to find him.  She is convinced he would not want any reminders of their affair.  Although money is tight, she and Nickie are happy. 

 

And then one day Emma comes face to face with the man of her dreams.  The stranger from two years earlier, who now holds both Nickie and her future in his unsuspecting hands.  Kyle Sabian has just purchased the company that Emma works for.   

 

All of the desires Emma tried to forget resurface to remind her of just how much she lost that night.  Kyle never knew that he took her heart as well as her innocence that night. 

 

It isn’t long before Emma learns of Kyle’s reputation with women.  She believes that his only interest in her is to continue their affair.  Emma stands to lose too much to give in to his temptation. 

 

Kyle might not want the responsibility of a child conceived that night, but Emma doesn’t believe he will simply walk away from his son either.  She believes that if Kyle chooses to seek custody of Nickie, he has both the power and the wealth to get it. 

 

 

For more than two years, Kyle Sabian couldn’t forget the night he spent in Emma’s arms.  Kyle had needed a break from the pressures of being one of the most successful architects in Colorado.  Deciding to spend the weekend at his home in Expect had seemed like an insignificant decision at the time.  The last thing he expected to find on the night of one of the worst storms of the season was the woman that will haunt him from that night forward.

 

Kyle had all but given up on love after a bitter divorce that left him believing all women were the same.  The only thing they wanted from him was his money and his prestige.  Emma changed all of that the night she spent in his arms and now, two years later she still had him believing in things that he’d all but given up hope of ever having in his life.  The reality of Emma Dupre was every bit as seductive as the fantasy he has built up of her in his mind.

 

For years, he’d searched for her without fail.  And then one day, after he had all but given up on ever finding her again, she walked into his elevator, for a company he’d just worked out the final details of ownership of and all of those dreams of her that night come back to remind him of how much he wants her.

 

But everything that Kyle says from that day forward only puts her further out of his reach.  Emma still doesn’t trust him enough to tell him the reasons why she gave herself to him that night.  And she seems determined to keep right on running away in spite of everything he does to try to convince her that night wasn’t just a casual affair.

 

The lumber mill that Kyle purchased had been losing money for years.  Major cutbacks would need to take place soon if the business was going to become profitable again.  Emma’s position must be eliminated even though Kyle knows how important it is to her.  He offers her the position as his assistant to keep her employed and close to him. 

 

Kyle asks his head of security, a long-time friend to find out what Emma is hiding.  When he learns about her friend’s death, Kyle believes she was in love with Nick and that the pain of his death was the reason Emma gave herself to him that night.  

 

Discovering that Emma became pregnant after their night together, Kyle’s first reaction is to be furious with her for not telling him about their son. 

 

Emma doesn’t trust Kyle one little bit and his angry reaction to everything she does only makes it harder to believe what he tells her he feels for her is real.  But she is so frightened of losing her son that she will do whatever he asks to keep Nickie.

 

How can he possibly convince her all of his anger that night was his only defense against emotions he couldn’t trust as real? 

 

Kyle convinces Emma to move in with him so that they can raise Nickie together.  He is hoping that being near her each day will convince her how important she really is to him. 

 

 

 

Living together makes it impossible to resist the attraction they still have for each other.  But even after they make love again, Emma is afraid of repeating the same mistakes of her past.  She doesn’t want Kyle to feel tied to her out of an obligation for the child they share together.  Emma tells him that she can’t marry him for all of those reasons.  She loves him too much to settle for a marriage of convenience. 

 

When he hears her say those things, Kyle at last tells her the truth about that night.  How much she changed his life for the better and how frightened he was of never finding her again.  When she walked into the elevator after all those years, he believed it was a sign.  Kyle assures Emma that he doesn’t want to marry her out any obligation but because she is the only woman, he will ever love.