Chapter 10 #2
B-Syde had been signed to Cobra but his contract was null and void after the first payout didn’t garner the numbers he felt were owed. The conversation for reversion of his rights as an artist took place at a missed boardroom meeting due in part to an empty clip.
What followed was a hefty repair bill to restore Cobra’s Lamborghini after B-Syde and his boys shot that bitch up as a negotiation tool for what was to come if he wasn’t let out of his contract. Paperwork arrived at B-Syde’s door that same night, officially making him an indie artist.
Asao: Samari Janaé,
B-Syde: That’s you?
With a frown Asao considered his response then sent the words with no reservations.
Asao: Yeah, that’s me.
B-Syde: Bet, I’ll make it a priority. Give me a couple hours and I’ll have something for you.
With that handled, he locked his phone and closed his eyes, mentally running through a list of things that had to be in place in order for things to work like he wanted.
There were plenty of local artists he planned to put on stage. He wasn’t a selfish man and always paid it forward anytime the opportunity arose. Asao was also very business minded, so the festival would be an introduction to the handful of artists they were signing to their label.
A label I don’t have a fucking name for.
While Asao chilled near the house, Samari was at the shoreline, allowing water that moved close enough to cover her ankles before creeping away to settle the anxieties that had been building since Asao had pulled up on her.
The conflicting emotions played a round of tug of war with her head and heart. Logically, she understood what she felt was a combination of things. A year had passed since Mase had ended their relationship.
She hadn’t dated, crushed on, or considered giving her time to another man in the months that followed.
After she crossed the year mark, she felt confident in the solitude of making her needs and feelings a priority.
A man wasn’t required, but after two days with Asao, she was already addicted to the way he made her feel.
Her emotions were all over the place with the desire to run and hide seconds before things shifted and she wanted to crawl into his lap and be consumed by his world.
The conflict was stressing her the hell out.
In the back of her mind, the reminder that men let her down stayed on rotation, pulling her back each time she felt herself falling.
But in reality, she believed Asao wouldn’t let her down.
He was everything he’d professed to be. Her gut knew this and so did her heart.
But like a teenager with a crush, the fear of trusting was still there.
She flexed her toes and pulled her feet from the water soaked sand, deciding to head back to the house.
She missed being close to the source of her internal conflict and being close to the water had chill bumps covering her skin.
The sun was setting, which took with it the warmth that kept her temperature balanced.
After trekking back through the sand toward the house, Samari grinned at the sight of Asao stretched out on one of the lounge chairs.
She smiled at how sexy he appeared, face relaxed, one arm folded behind his head while the other was pushed under the hem of his hoodie.
His brown skin was a contrast to the jet black texture of his beard and thick brows that hovered above his closed eyes.
The slow and steady rhythm of how his chest rose and fell meant he was either asleep or close to it.
She dragged her eyes from him long enough to locate a free standing shower station a few feet from the house. That was her first stop, and once she cleared the sand she’d brought with her, she carefully navigated the stone path that led her to the left of the deck.
Her eyes moved to the lounge chair next to the one Asao occupied but she decided against it and climbed next to him instead.
There was barely enough room so she ended up draping half her body over his, nearly smiling when he unfolded the arm that had been behind his head and dropped it around her body to keep her from falling over the side. She bit her lip to contain her smile.
“You know it’s two of these shits, right?”
Samari smiled and nodded against his chest, inhaling the blended aroma of weed and his cologne. “I can’t share this one with you?”
“Yeah you can, wit’ your needy ass.”
She grinned, tilting her head back to find his eyes still closed. “Why I gotta be needy?”
“Because you want to be all up in my skin.”
Samari laughed and snuggled in closer. “It’s cold out here.”
“That don’t have shit to do with why you’re all up on me.” Asao dropped a kiss to her forehead and gripped her thigh, hiking it higher over his.
“What kind of women do you date?” Samari wasn’t a hundred percent sure that there wasn’t a woman in his life, but from what she’d learned about him so far, she couldn’t imagine Asao to be the type of man to disrespect a woman he considered a priority.
Asao didn’t speak right away.
“You trying to see if you qualify?”
She grinned. “I don’t want a man.”
“That’s pretty fucked up considering you’ve got one.”
“You’re not my man, Asao.” He outwardly claimed her and she privately accepted everything he offered.
Being with him felt as natural as breathing.
She didn’t have to think about it or question the why or how.
Existing in his space just worked and felt comfortable in a way she hadn’t even experienced with Mase.
“You laying all up on me feels like I’m your man.”
She smiled at the arrogant confidence in the low rasp of his voice. “We’re just chillin’.”
“Nah, we’re building, Mari. Everything I do is intentional and I don’t give this type of attention to a woman unless I have plans of exploring more than just her body.”
She lifted her head from his chest and elevated her chin so her eyes reached his face. “You don’t hang out with women?”
“I fuck women, but nah, I don’t hang out with them. And when my goal is busting a nut, even that’s intentional.”
Samari rolled the corner of her lip between her teeth, considering the question lingering on her tongue before she said fuck it and asked. “What about the woman you were arguing with the night we met?”
Asao ran back that night and Tori popped into his head. He wasn’t about games or being elusive. At thirty-two years of age, a woman who couldn’t handle the harsh reality of his honesty couldn’t handle him.
“My ex. We had sex the last night of my tour and she mistook that to mean she could reclaim a spot that would never belong to her again. That was some shit she made up in her head. So when she pulled up on me at the club, I wasn’t interested in entertaining her attempt to be seen.”
“Wait, that was less than a week ago.”
He had sex with his ex less than a week ago…
She wanted to pull away but knew the move would be received as childish. Regardless of what he was talking, he hadn’t been her man when he’d slept with his ex and he wasn’t her man now. Who he had sex with wasn’t a topic she had a say in.
“When did you end things?”
“A year ago.”
“Why?”
He grinned and peeled his eyes open, lowering his gaze to her pretty face. “In order to have room in your life for something new, you have to let go of things that no longer serve your purpose.” When Asao winked, she rolled her eyes.
“But you still have sex with her.”
“Contrary to what you’re building in that pretty little head of yours, I don’t trust my dick to any woman willing to open her legs for me. Tori served a purpose.”
Samari narrowed her eyes. “And if that purpose needs to be served again?”
“That depends on whether or not you’re fucking with me.”
Samari wanted to be upset but she had to respect his honesty. Instead of being childish about the situation, she accepted what they were, two grown ass people with pasts and situations that put them on very different paths. They were here now and she decided to let now be her focus.
“Why did you bring me out here?”
Asao opened his eyes again, this time he stared into her pools of brown for a minute before responding.
When he handed over his answer, it was honest and raw.
“Because I know what it feels like to need peace, a place to just be without pretense or expectations. I also know what it feels like to be too gotdamn hardheaded and stubborn to let someone be that for you.”
The words gut punched because they were more true than she wanted to admit. Sheree was her girl. Samari could be open and honest with her about anything but just because she could didn’t mean she was.
Sheree had her own shit to deal with, her daughter and the weight of a new marriage, Samari refused to be another line item on the check list of stressors in her girl’s life.
She also felt like a failure because of the deal with Cobra.
Sheree had been so proud and the L Samari took felt not just personal but like she was letting her girl down too.
“If you understand, does that mean you’re hardheaded and stubborn too?”
Asao chuckled. “Yeah, I am.”
His hand moved to the side of her head and the pads of his fingers glided over the soft curls that sprouted.
Samari was a couple months past needing to get them shaved again but she hadn’t yet decided if she would keep her signature look.
The feel of his fingers massaging her scalp had her sidetracked.
“This you or did the label make you cut your hair like this?”
“Me. It’s been that way since high school. I tried to dye half of my hair blue for homecoming and messed it up. When it turned out purple, I just shaved it off. My mother thought I was going through something and made me see a therapist for like a month.” Samari rolled her eyes.
“Damn, that’s fucked up.” Asao lifted one of the ringlets from the side that wasn’t shaven. “You didn’t let it grow back?”
“No, it was cute. You don’t like it?”