Page 4 of Own Me

I pick up my glass with the speed of a person dying of thirst and take a long drink. I hold it in my mouth until it felt safe to talk about something other than my raging lust. “What do you do?” I ask, not supplying an answer to his earlier question.

Sterling's eyebrows arch, and a cocky smile quirks at one side of his mouth. That sensual smile does strange things to my belly. “I see what I want. Then, I take what I want and make it better than it was before.”

“What does that mean exactly?” I ask, squeezing my thighs together, trying to calm my throbbing clit. Every word out of his mouth sounds sexy.

“You could say I'm an entrepreneur…” he explains. "in a manner of speaking."

I jump when his knee brushes against mine. An electrical shock elicits vibrations through me.

His gaze moves to his drink, and he downs it in two gulps. Sterling immediately signals for a refill.

After his drink is set before him, his stare returns to me. “What about you, Ayana? Tell me something about yourself.”

“I'm an only child. My sweet grandmother raised me after my mom died when I was twelve years old. I never knew my father, and I don't care to. My mom was very young when she conceived me, or so I was told. The boy wanted nothing to do with a baby.” I glance down at my hand, feeling sadness bite through my heart. “My granny sacrificed a lot for me to become the woman I am today. She was my only family but died from COVID complications a year and a half ago. She was my everything, and I miss her every day.”

Sterling’s eyes soften and his naughty smile fades. “I'm so sorry. That must have been tough for you.”

“Very,” I say and take a long sip from my drink.

“Do you have any other family nearby?”

I shake my head. “Not really. I have a great aunt and uncle living in Virginia, the last I heard. I never met them, so the only family I have is my best friend, Shayla." His face holds a look of compassion, but I change the subject. “Enough about me, let's get back to you. Do you have a family?”

“Just my mother,” he says. “She lives in Florida. After my father passed away five years ago, my mother wanted to move and be near her only sister and her family." He takes a sip of whiskey. “I also have two cousins here that I'm close to. They are brothers who own their own security business, among other things.”

I nod. “There is nothing like family, is there?”

“I agree wholeheartedly,” he says. “Is there a boyfriend in the picture?”

“My situation with my boyfriend is complicated at best.”

“Then make it uncomplicated.”

“That's my plan. I'm breaking up with Chris, that’s his name, when he returns from his business trip.”

He nods and grins as if my decision makes him happy.

“Are you married? Do you have a girlfriend?” I inquire.

Sterling rakes his hand across his face before answering. “No, to both questions.” He downs the whiskey in one gulp this time.

I wonder what that was about. I don’t dig but take a sip of my drink instead.

Sterling’s gaze locks with mine again. “I’m not one to beat around the bush. You are a beautiful woman, Ayana.”

From the way he drags his gaze up my frame, I feel a thrill from my head to my toes.

“Thank you, Sterling. You are an attractive man.” I cock my head to the side. “But I’m sure many women say that to you already.”

“More than I care to remember, but it means a lot coming from a lovely woman like you. I would like to continue this conversation somewhere more private. What do you say we have this conversation at the hotel across the street?"

I raise my brows, wondering how many women he had propositioned in nightclubs like this and on this very night.

“Is this how you usually ask a woman to accompany you to a hotel?”

“No, it’s the women that do the inviting.”

“Oh,” I say to his bluntness.

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