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Chapter 4
“You do know I am supposedto be here working and building connections.” I turned on my side to watch Bakari, who rested on his stomach. “I must leave this bed within an hour to make the General Electric reception.”
“No one is stopping you,” he said, his voice still rough with sleep.
“You keep stopping me. It was your idea to come back to your room to clean up.” After having sex in the meeting room, he took me back to his suite, and we ordered food. After a hearty lunch of oxtails and rice, we fucked again. Instead of getting up and returning to the conference, I fell asleep in his arms. It was approaching six in the evening, and the reception would end at eight. I needed to network and sell my company since I missed two presentations and a luncheon.
“You’re a grown-ass woman. I’m not keeping you from doing anything. You’re choosing to stay with me.” His eyes were still closed. We were in his grand suite, which had a small private pool he could step into from the sliding doors. Clearly, the manager of Royal Secrets and Bakari lied. This resort was much nicer than mine, which also explains why I stayed at another resort. I blamed Rachon when my company was probably unwilling to pay the costs for me to be at this resort during the conference.
Thinking of my company and neglected responsibilities, I groaned and sat up. I held the sheet to my chest as I searched the bed and the floor for my dress.
“You’re leaving now?” He squinted as if the sunlight that shone through the bright, spacious suite burned.
“Yes. I need to get clean and get to that reception.” I spotted my dress strewn across the desk in the corner of the room.
“Okay. There should be fresh towels in the bathroom.” Bakari placed the pillow over his head and shifted away from me. “Later.”
Suddenly I felt dismissed and stupid that I again let this man have my body who only wanted sex from me. I needed to get out of here. Still holding on to the sheet, I hurried out of bed.
“Hey, you’re taking all the cover. It’s cold in here.” Bakari pulled the sheet back, leaving me standing nude before him. Vulnerable. I hunched over to the desk to retrieve my dress. “Why are you walking like that? I’ve seen you naked.”
I didn’t speak, feeling even more ashamed and exposed. I quickly donned my bra and then my dress. I grabbed my shoes that I’d kicked off near the bed.
“Nikki? Aren’t you going to shower first? You don’t have time to go back to your resort.”
Tears threatened to fall, so I kept my head down, searching the room for my bag. Thankfully it was near the door. “Um...I gotta go.” I picked up my bag and left his suite before I appeared an even bigger fool.
I rushed to the restroom in the lobby of his building to quickly wash my essential parts. I needed to show my face at the reception as much as I wanted to bury it in my room. Make at least one connection, and then I could leave the resort for the night. I added bronzer to my mocha brown skin and liner to my almond-shaped eyes. I fluffed out my blonde-streaked, relaxed mane of chestnut hair that I had shaped to my face. My flower print casual dress draped around my curves. I made up for what I didn’t have in my ass with my full breasts. Staring at my reflection, I appreciated myself. I was a beautiful woman inside and out, and I’d allowed a man to make me doubt myself. A man I’d just met twenty-four hours ago. A man who admittedly probably had no clue that his casual behavior made me feel that way. He doesn’t know I don’t have sex with men without some type of commitment. That he was my first one-night stand. Something that was never on my bucket list.
All I had to do was communicate with him. Funny how two people could be so intimate with one another, licking, kissing, tasting one another, and performing the most intimate of acts. Yet, I was afraid to ask a simple question about what would happen next between us.
I gripped the sides of the counter, hating that I left him like a coward instead of the Queen I’d always been. The past two years have impacted me more than I thought. My mother’s death had made me invincible. I believed that no one or nothing could hurt me worse than losing her. I used to have this confidence that I could conquer the world. That no one could stop me from having anything I wanted. And maybe that was my downfall. My confidence had become cockiness. An arrogance that I was unbreakable. Being diagnosed with ovarian cancer at thirty, the same type that killed my mother knocked me off my throne. Cancer brought me to my knees and had me running from everyone I loved.
A woman in a sundress floated in the restroom, breaking my thoughts. I needed to get out of here, so I added Light Blue to my wrists and behind my ears. Then red glossed my cupid bow lips and stepped back. I looked good enough to pretend for the next hour until I could be alone and reflect more.
Within a few minutes, I smiled my way into the reception filled with mostly white men with a sprinkling of color and women. I mingled in the relaxed crowd, passing out my cards and reassuring potential customers that our software was top-notch. The more I informed people with my usual spiel, my confidence grew, and the melancholy that loomed began to lift. I smiled and engaged in light flirting with a couple of guys who’d attended my workshop, who assured me they would be clients. Happy that the evening had been successful despite playing hooky earlier, I excused myself to get a chocolate martini from the open bar. I would stay a bit longer and then go back to my resort and crash. Halfway to the other side of the lounge, my heart fluttered. Bakari sat at a bar table near the front door, watching me with a drink in his hand. He didn’t blink or smile when we locked eyes, yet I knew he expected me to approach him. I shook my head at him, although I sauntered directly to him, adding a flirtatious sway to my walk. The brother was too damn fine for his own good. Especially the way his brown skin contrasted against his dark polo shirt and coordinating slacks. And he still wanted me even after that awkward way I left his room. My brother’s words taunted me. Sex is more fun when you don’t focus on what’s next. And I had been having fun with Bakari until I started overthinking. Fun that I wasn’t yet ready to end. Based on his steady gaze as I approached, he wasn’t ready either.
Bakari shifted his body to welcome me as I neared him, and I stood between his open legs. “Can I be your nasty girl?” I then pressed my lips against his neck, uncaring that others probably watched us. “Why do you smell so delicious?”
If he was surprised by my change in attitude, he didn’t show it. Bakari sipped from his drink and looked down at me. “Mm...how nasty? Vanity nasty? Or Apollonia nasty?”
I picked up his free hand. “Thinking that scene when Prince fingered Apollonia is still one of the sexiest scenes on film.”
He smiled. “That movie was ancient, yet my parents still refused to let me watch it until I was damn near grown.”
“I snuck and watched it when I was ten and had me tingling all over.” Encircling my arms around his waist, I kissed his goatee. “Come on, Bakari. I need to reclaim who I used to be. I hated how I left your room. That’s so not me. You might be the one to help me get my naughty back.”
“Is that so?” He took another sip of his amber-colored drink and made no move to return my embrace. “Still didn’t tell me how nasty you can be.”
Slowly kissing the palm of his hand, I promised, “Guess you’ll have to see.”
“I don’t work like that.” Bakari finished his drink and placed it on the table. I still held his hand in mine, and he made no moves toward me. His dark eyes glinted playfully, daring me.
I pressed my breasts flush against his hard chest, loving the seductive energy that flowed between us. “Then tell me how you work.”
Bakari focused on my lips as he spoke, “That you understand that we’re just having fun. I’m here for a little work and a lot of play. No time for the drama you’ve already been giving me. You were mad this morning because I left, and I don’t know what the fuck happened in my suite.” He raised his eyes to mine. “Lady, we just met yesterday. I don’t owe you anything.”
I nodded quickly. “Agreed. Realized that the moment I left your room. My emotions are all over the place because I’ve never given my body to a man with no intent.”
