2. CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 2
SIERRA
I giggle as I watch a four-year-old Riley try to walk around in my heels in my childhood bedroom as if she’s on the runway. She struts across my room, before turning, striking a pose and flipping her long black waves over her shoulder. She’s too precious for words.
I came to my childhood home in the Poconos to visit with my uncles for the weekend, which included visiting Ky and Riley. Riley is Ky’s daughter and my niece by all accounts. I love being Aunt Sierra, but I also love her as if she were my own.
I walk over to my bed and put my toiletry bag in my suitcase before zipping it up. I’m all packed up and ready to head back to New York, where I now live. Being here with family is always great, but I need to get back to my life.
Ky gets up from the chair by the window and hugs me. “I’m going to miss you.”
I embrace her back. This is the hardest part, leaving, but my life is in New York now, and I’m proud of the work I’m doing there by helping others .
“I’ll miss you, but we’ll see each other soon. Once school is over, you’re coming up, and we’re going to party like the bad ass single twenty-seven-year-old women we are,” I remind her. Ky is a teacher at a local elementary school, and once school is out for summer, everyone is coming up to visit.
“Uh oh. You said a potty word,” Riley interjects.
Oops, I forgot she was here.
Leaving Ky’s embrace, I kneel in front of my raven-haired niece. Besides the waves in her hair, she looks like her father, right down to her bright blue eyes. He may have been an asshole to Ky and left them both, but he gave her this beautiful little girl. She’s the only good thing that prick has ever done.
I hug her to me and whisper, “I’m going to miss you the most, baby girl. Be good for Mommy. I can’t wait for you to visit me.”
Her little arms circle my neck. “I’ll miss you too, Auntie Sierra.”
Someday I will have a child of my own but until that day, I’ll spoil Riley as if she’s mine. When I become a mother, I’ll never let them question how much I love them.
After pulling away, we walk together to the front door with me wheeling my luggage behind me. With one last hug and a promise to see each other soon, they leave and I stroll into the kitchen to say goodbye to my uncles.
They’re sitting at the table drinking their coffee, deep in conversation. Upon hearing my entrance, they look up and smile lovingly at me. I smile fondly back. If it weren’t for them taking me in when my mother passed away and raising me as their own, who knows where I’d be in my life right now? I owe these men so much, and I’ll forever be thankful to them for all they’ve done for me.
Uncle Tony is my biological uncle, my mother’s brother. With his brown skin and his bald head, he reminds me of Tyrese Gibson, the actor and model. He’s as handsome as my mother was beautiful. They share a strong family resemblance that I also share with them. The only difference is that I have green eyes—which I understand came from my father, although I wouldn’t know since I’ve never met him—and my skin tone is lighter, as if I have a year-round tan, due to my father being Caucasian. Tony’s husband, my Uncle Mark, is a sergeant in the police force and has brown hair with sprinkles of gray. He’s still quite handsome in his own right.
Walking over, I hug them both from behind and give them a peck on the cheek. “I’m out. Love you both.”
“Love you too. Be sure to call us when you get home so we know you are safe,” Uncle Mark says.
“I’ll text as soon as I walk in the door,” I promise to ease his concern.
Spilling the rest of his coffee into the sink, Uncle Tony turns to me and says, “I’ll walk you out.”
Once we get to the car, I put my luggage in the trunk and then open the car door, waiting for him to say what he says every time I leave. “Be careful out there. You’re a beautiful young lady living in the city and there are men that will try and take advantage of you.”
After giving him a sad smile, I embrace him, and he holds me tight to him.
“I will. I’m not Mom,” I remind him in a whisper.
He takes a deep breath, and I feel him nod. He gets this, but it doesn’t stop him from worrying about me, especially considering what happened with my mom and my biological father.
Living the high life in New York, my mother was a supermodel when she met a man who promised her the world and dropped her when she fell pregnant with me. According to Tony, she loved him deeply and was never the same after that. She fell into a funk she never recovered from and most of my memories of my mom are of her being sad, lonely, and distant.
An image of my mom pops into my head of her lying in bed just staring out the window with an empty bottle of wine on the floor. I quickly shake the memory away. I don’t like remembering her that way or feeling like I was never enough to make her happy .
I’ll never depend on any man for my happiness. No man has ever been able to capture any piece of my fortified heart, and if one day there’s a man strong enough to break down my walls, I won’t ever allow him to dictate my future. I’ll be stronger than she ever was.
I’m sitting in a hotel bar in the city on a Friday night having drinks with my friend and work colleague Marisa as we peruse the men in the establishment.
“Oh, what about him?” Marisa asks as she excitedly points across the bar.
I look in the direction she’s pointing and take in the man she’s talking about. He’s cute, but I don’t even get a tingle from looking at him so I shake my head. Not one man here holds any appeal for me.
“You’re too picky,” she accuses as she flings her dark hair over her shoulder.
“No, I’m selective.” She rolls her eyes.
Marisa planned this night out for us because she thinks I’m in a drought where men are concerned. She’s free-spirited and loves all the men. The yin to my yang.
“It’s been a year since you dumped Russell. Stop trying to force yourself to feel something for someone and just have some naughty fun. You don’t need to be in a relationship for nasty, dirty sex,” she encourages with a wink. I’ve had plenty of sex with the men I dated, but I can admit it was never nasty and dirty. They were nice guys but there were never fireworks.
After dumping Russell, I went on a self-imposed man ban because what was the use of trying anymore? There’s no point.
“I think I’m destined to be single for the rest of my life. However, it would be nice to be able to have an orgasm that is brought on by a man and not a vibrator...” I pause then grumble, “Not that there have been any men who can bring me one, and even if there is, I don’t think I’ll be finding him tonight.”
Often after having sex with one of my exes, there were many nights I went home and had B.O.B.—my battery-operated boyfriend—finish the job. There’s got to be something wrong with me because as hard as they tried, I could never truly let myself go with them.
I’m taken from my thoughts when Marisa speaks again, and I lift my drink to my lips. “Trust me, there are men out there who can get it done.”
Maybe she’s right, but then again, maybe I’m broken and always will be.
“You know, orgasms are like cooking. I could do it myself, but I prefer someone else to do it for me.” She winks and her statement almost has me spitting out my drink as I laugh. “Look, all I’m saying is you need a little fun in your life. You don’t need to be out here looking for Prince Charming who you’ll marry and ride off into the sunset with. You just need Mr. One Night Stand who can bring you out of your funk.”
Of course she would feel that way because Marisa has no problem using men for sex. She doesn’t see a need to settle down, but she does enjoy the company of men. Maybe she’s on to something here. One night with no promises.
“The men I’ve had sex with, I’ve always been in a relationship with them. I may not have loved them, but I did care about them,” I admit, wishing one of them could have made my stomach flutter with butterflies.
“I’m telling you, Mr. One Night Stand could be here tonight, waiting for you to make a move. Your underused lady bits will thank you for it. She has a vitamin D deficiency.”
“Vitamin D?”
“D is for dick, and your vagina is lacking in it.”
I choke on my drink while I laugh and Marisa giggles along with me.
Could I do it though? Meet a man and proposition him for sex? Just one night and never see him again? It’s not like the man would be using me. On the contrary, we would be using each other. But I don’t imagine I’ll find that guy in this bar tonight, he’d have to be something seriously special for me to consider it.
I take a sip of my cocktail, finishing it off. Damn, that went down quick. “I’m heading to the bar for another, you need anything?” I ask as I look at her half-empty glass.
“Nah, I’m good, but shots are always fun.”
Right, shots. I can get those. “You got it, be right back.”
Standing from my seat at the high table, I traipse up to the bar to get us more drinks. There’s an empty seat beside two men facing each other talking, so I plop my ass on the stool while I wait for the bartender, who is currently at the other end of the bar.
When I smell a lovely scent of spicy, woodsy cologne, I turn my head to my right. The man beside me has his back to me, still facing his friend. He has dark brown hair and is wearing a tight black thin long-sleeved shirt. As he talks to his friend with his hands, I see the firm muscles of his back move and find myself riveted as I watch them tighten and relax.
Odd, I’ve never been entranced by a man’s back before.
Is he that muscular all over?
I don’t know if it was the sex talk with Marisa, the alcohol, or both, but I’m seriously interested to see if this man looks as good from the front as he does from the back. What if his toned back is just an illusion though and once he turns around he has missing teeth and has a huge hooked nose, I ponder while watching his firm muscles continue to flex.
I wonder what they would feel like under my palms as his body thrusts into mine, his back slick with moisture from the exertion.
Whoa, where did that thought come from?
I haven’t even seen his face, but I can’t help this magnetic pull of attraction I’m feeling toward him. I’ve only seen his back, and I can’t stop staring. The entire bar fades around me while I study him .
Then his movements stop and his body turns to face the bar. His profile is extremely attractive; he has a straight roman nose and a strong jawline covered in a dusting of facial hair. Surely his face has to be just as nice from the front. As I think it, his body slowly turns to face me.
I’m stunned as I stare at him like he’s some kind of exotic exhibit.
He’s jaw-droppingly gorgeous, like he could be a model gracing the cover of magazines gorgeous. Like women must trip over their own feet when they pass by him because he’s so gorgeous. I don’t think there has ever been a more handsome man created, and I can’t stop gawking at his beauty.
After thoroughly examining all his stunning features my gaze finally settles on his eyes while his whiskey-colored irises stare into mine curiously. His eyes linger down my body, then back up to my face, and I feel my cheeks heat from his perusal.
The atmosphere thickens with lust around me.
Then he smiles. His teeth are just as perfect as the rest of him, and oh my god, he has dimples. Of course he does. This man is the total physical package, without a visible flaw. My lady bits start to tingle, and it has me changing my mind about a possible one-night stand. Here I was thinking I would never find a man in this bar, and the perfect male specimen magically appears as if beckoned for only me.
“He’d like to know your order,” he says in a deep, husky voice that makes my skin prickle, and my heartbeats quicken. His eyes twinkle in amusement.
I scrunch my eyes at him in confusion. What is he talking about? He lifts his chiseled jaw to the bar, and my eyes follow in that direction.
The bartender is looking at me with a raised eyebrow, and it’s then I realize what this hot guy said about my order. The bartender must have asked what I would like to drink.
Shit, this is embarrassing, and what the hell was I going to order anyway? Think, Sierra, think. “Um…” I suck on my bottom lip as I try to remember what drinks I came here for. I’ve never been this perplexed .
What the hell is wrong with me?
Hot guy chuckles and places his hand on my chin, pulling down to release my lip from my mouth with his thumb. A zing zaps through me straight into my core and has me squeezing my thighs together. His eyes darken for a moment before peering down at the movement of my thighs, and he shakes his head before he speaks to the bartender. “She’ll have Sex On The Beach.”
Will I? Hmm…I think I will, with him.
Finally finding my voice, I respond, “Thank you.” I mean I should thank him for my drink, right?
“You’re welcome…” He pauses and raises a brow in question.
Shit, he doesn’t know my name. Do I know my name? Yes, I do.
“Sierra,” I finish for him.
“Sierra,” he repeats as if testing my name on his tongue before his eyes roam my body once more, and I thank god I wore my emerald green halter dress that clings to my body like a second skin with the hem stopping mid-thigh and my girls on display.
His roaming eyes stop on my face. “Beautiful name for a beautiful girl,” he says as his lustful eyes penetrate mine. He has to be feeling this crazy attraction like I am because it is so tangible that I feel like I could touch it.
It’s then I realize I never got his name. “And you are?”
“Kason,” his rough voice replies, and he puts his hand out to mine.
Bringing my shaky palm up, I place it in his larger one. He wraps his big strong digits around mine, sending shock waves up to my shoulder and butterflies fluttering in my stomach. He looks down at our connected hands as if analyzing them for a moment, but instead of shaking my hand, he brings it up to his mouth and places a soft kiss on the back, sending more sparks through my body before he releases me.
If a single kiss on the hand has me beginning to feel arousal, what would it be like to have him kissing other parts of my body ?
The bartender brings my drink over, and I quickly gulp half the glass down as Kason tells the bartender to put the drink on his tab, never once removing his heated gaze from me. I become mindless with desire as this instant undeniable chemistry swirls around us.
Just then, Marisa comes over, breaking our connection. “I got a call from my boyfriend, I got to go.”
What’s she talking about? She doesn’t have a boyfriend, and before I can think any more about it, she throws her arms around my neck and whispers into my ear. “He’s fucking hot. I bet he could deliver on the orgasms for one night.”
I can’t help the giggle that escapes my throat as she pulls back and gives me a wink before she practically skips out of the bar and into the hotel lobby.
“What’s so funny?” Kason asks in his sexy rough timber that has my libido stirring.
“You really want to know?”
“Absolutely.” He nods, smiling.
Now I could blame the drinks I had tonight or my dry spell for what I’m about to do, but I think it’s actually him and this immediate allure he has. There’s something about him that seems to bring out my inner vixen. Slowly, I lift my butt from the stool, place my hands on his firm thick thighs, and position myself between his open legs as his eyes grow dark with unmistakable arousal. Raising my hand, I bring it around his neck and lower his head down to mine, moving my lips to his ear, and whisper, “She thinks you could deliver on giving a girl orgasms tonight.”
After a few moments, I feel the heat of the deep breath he must have been holding release on my shoulder. It causes my arousal to increase. Grabbing my dark locks in his hand, he fists them, moving my head back so we are now face to face. He runs his nose along my neck before giving my ear a little nip .
“I can guarantee you I can. I want nothing more than to show you right now. We can leave here, I’ll get a key to a room, and I’ll fuck you so hard you won’t be able to walk tomorrow. Trust me, you’ll be satisfied.”
Pulling back, his sinful eyes stare into mine, daring me to follow through with his offer. I don’t hesitate. “Prove it,” I say and pick up his hand.
Kason takes cash out of his wallet and slams the money on the bar before he turns to the man he was talking to and says, “I’ll see you later, Jonas.”
Then he leads me to the elevator. There’s no hesitation in my steps.
I think Marisa is right. A one-night stand may be just what me and my girlie parts need to get out of my funk.