Late Nights (5 page)

“Thank you. It was something I learned about in one of my college marketing classes. I should get back to my office and finish getting things together for our meeting next week,” she said, easing around him to make sure her body didn’t touch against his. “Enjoy the rest of your day, Mr. Hamilton.”

Moving completely away from Sterling, Sasha walked around a group of women who were doing a horrible job at pretending they weren’t staring at her boss. Before this morning their interest in him would have hurt her, but now was a different story. He could date all five of them for all she cared. She just knew if she didn’t get away from Sterling as fast as possible she might actually tell him what she thought about him.

Chapter Six

“Sasha, you practically threatened Genise and me with bodily harm if we didn’t show up here tonight. Why are you giving us the silent treatment? Don’t you want to talk about improvements for
Luxury
?” Akisha asked before taking a bite of her food.

“I could have kept my initial plans with my friends. I know I’d be doing something a lot more exciting than staring at your face,” Genise complained, snatching a breadstick out of the basket in the middle of the table. “What’s wrong with you anyway? You’re usually in such a good mood after working with your boss.”

“I don’t want to talk about him,” Sasha snapped.

If she never laid eyes on him again it would be just fine with her. She sunk too much of her precious time into a man who didn’t even want her.

Why couldn’t she have seen the truth before Sterling so rudely rejected her this morning? She never considered herself one who valued having a man at her side. She had always thought of herself as a pretty self-confident woman.

Well, it was a good thing for the next two days she would be working at
Luxury
instead, or she might end getting fired for insubordination.

“Okay. What did your boss do now?” Akisha asked, reaching for her iced tea. “I swear it seems like you and Sterling get into some kind of fight every other week. The sexual tension between you two is suffocating, but neither one of you are willing to act on it. Don’t you think its way past time one of you did something about it?”

“I agree. I think they’re worse than any other couple I know.” Genise sighed, staring at her. How are we supposed to learn anything about men? If you can’t get him to bend to your will, I’m betting Sterling would do anything you ask him to do. I’ve seen how he looks at you.”

“I’m not here as a dating guide for the two of you. Furthermore, I wouldn’t sleep with Mr. Sterling Hamilton if he was the last man on Earth. I’m done wasting my time on him,” Sasha blurted out, scarcely unaware of how hurt her voice sounded. “I’m going to focus my time on finding some hot guy who is worthy of me.”

“Sasha, what happened today?” Genise asked, all of the teasing gone out of her voice. “Tell me what he did. I swear, if you made you cry, I’ll pay his old ass a visit.”

“Me too,” Akisha chimed in. “No one mistreats our sister and gets away with it.”

“Sterling isn’t old,” Sasha said, defending the man she still loved.

God, not taking up for Sterling was going to be a hard habit to break, but she would learn to do it.

“I don’t think he would be considered young by anyone but you. How old is he, maybe around forty-three or forty-four? I believe I can call him old all I want because it’s the truth.”

Sasha glanced down at her half-eaten cold plate of homemade pasta and pushed it away. She hadn’t really had much of an appetite since leaving work. Sterling had tried getting her into a conversation outside his office before she left. But she just walked past him like she hadn’t even noticed him standing in his doorway.

“Do you really care to hear about my problems?” Sasha questioned. “I’m making something out of nothing. You know how I can be sometimes.” She knew that her sisters would probably see today’s incident in a totally different light than her.

“Sasha, if it’s enough that you barely touched your food tonight, of course it makes your problem very important to us,” Genise jumped in, surprising her.

“Yes, it does,” Akisha said. “Now tell us what is going on. We are family and we are here for you.”

Her sisters’ concern shocked Sasha because Genise and Akisha spent so much time competing with each other. She didn’t think either one of them had the ability to come together and give her any kind of support.

She guessed there was a first time for everything and today must be that day for the Williams sisters.

Sighing, she tried to tell them what happened. God, this was one time she really needed Rachelle here with her. She loved Akisha and Genise, but Rachelle was the sister she related to the most. However, maybe it was time she formed a closer bond with her sisters, besides their triplet connection.

“I was outside work this morning when Sterling stopped me. My heart sped up because I thought this might be the moment I’ve been waiting for,” she admitted softly.

“Go on, tell us what happened,” Akisha encouraged.

“Sterling was standing right in front of me looking too handsome for words. I was trying my best not to show him how excited I was to see him. The next thing I knew he’d moved closer to me and then he touched me. I couldn’t control myself. I stopped being a level-headed woman. All I could think about was placing my hands on his gorgeous body, so when I touched him he…”

“Go on.”

“He jerked his hand away from mine and quickly took a step back. Like the feel of my hands on his body disgusted him. He acted like it was an experience he
never
wanted to have again. Now do you see why I’m upset with him? Wouldn’t you be hurt, too?”

Akisha and Genise glanced at each other before looking back at her with huge smiles on their faces. “Girl, don’t you understand men at all?” Genise questioned. “Sterling didn’t move back because he didn’t want your touch. He moved away because he liked it way
too
much.”

Sasha’s brow pulled down into an affronted frown. “I seriously doubt what you’re telling me is true,” she said. “You and Akisha weren’t there this morning. I saw his reaction and it wasn’t good. He looked upset like he had gotten thrown off his game.”

“Genise is right,” Akisha agreed. “Sterling wants you and probably has for a while. Sometimes it’s hard for certain men to let the woman make the first move. When you touched him it probably did throw him a bit, but don’t have any doubts about this. Sterling is very attracted to you.”

“Every time I come to your job for a visit I’ve seen the way he watches you when he thinks no one is looking at him. He’s going to make another move and it will be sooner than you think. You can bet on it.”

Sasha was dumbfounded by Akisha’s comments.
Why is Akisha telling me all of this when I know it isn’t the truth
?

She believed her sisters would be on her side about Sterling’s behavior today, but they were proving to her that blood wasn’t thicker than water. Akisha and Genise were doing the exact opposite. They were siding with Sterling. How could they do this to her?

“How about we just drop it?” she suggested, knowing that she wasn’t going to get anywhere with them.

“I want to know what the two of you have been up to today,” she said, changing the subject. “Did anything exciting happen? It seems like trouble follows my two little sisters no matter where they go.”

Sasha wanted to move the topic on to something else because she was done talking about her horrible day. Sometimes her sisters didn’t know how to take a hint, but she hoped right now it would be different.

After things went atrociously wrong at work, Sasha wasn’t going to stay on after the promotion at Comforts Sleep Company campaign was over. She would give her two weeks’ notice as soon as possible. She had to leave before Sterling tried to make her forgive him.

Anyway, she was beginning to think her time could be better spent working exclusively at
Luxury
with Rachelle. She only hoped that her big sister wasn’t going to fight her on this. However, she wouldn’t know until Rachelle got back from her honeymoon.

“Sasha, Genise and I know how once you get your mind set on something it’s hard for anyone to change it, but I really think you should listen to us and not blow off Sterling so quickly. Yes, I’ve only met him twice, but I consider myself a very good judge of character.”

“Sterling comes across like a really good guy. I think he would make an excellent boyfriend for you. He couldn’t be any more horrible than the guy you dated about three years ago,” Akisha said, trying to push the issue home one last time.

“Akisha, will you please just leave it alone?” Sasha sighed. “I’m done with Sterling. I’m going to move on.”

“Fine, I’ll leave it alone for now, but I think you’re wrong about Sterling,” Akisha snapped, picked up her plate off the table, and then stormed off.

Taken back by Akisha’s reaction, Sasha sat in silence as her sister disappeared into the kitchen. Akisha wasn’t prone to getting upset so easily when someone disagreed with her.

Something else was up with her. So, what was going on?

“What’s wrong with her?” She looked back at Genise, who was finishing off the last of her breadstick.

Genise shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know what Akisha’s problem is tonight. All I know is when I picked her up from work she was very quiet. You know how much she loves to talk and she didn’t say twenty words to me. I almost forgot she was even in the car. When I did ask her what was wrong, she didn’t tell me anything. So, your guess is as good as mine.”

Okay…something was definitely not right, and before the night was over Sasha promised herself to pull Akisha to the side and find out what was going on with her.

“How are things going at your job?” Sasha asked, putting Akisha to the back of her mind. She hadn’t spoken with Genise about her new business venture with her partner Noah Ashby in over two weeks.

“Noah is getting ready for the big reveal. He has been working nonstop for the past two months to get everything perfect. Did you forget what a perfectionist I told you he was? I think the concept was a wonderful idea. I’m crossing my fingers we’ll get a lot of business.”

“Have you decided when you’re going to ask him out on a real date?” Sasha asked. “I know you told me he was still bitter after breaking things off with his girlfriend of over five years.”

“Sinclair was a bitch with a capital ‘B’ for cheating on Noah with his own cousin,” Genise complained. “Noah is such an incredible guy and I do want to ask him out on a ‘real’ date, but I’m a little nervous since his last relationship.”

“Don’t let that stop you from going after what you want. Who knows, he might say yes,” Sasha pointed out.

“Noah is already apprehensive about dating another woman, period. I know I have a hurdle to jump since the last woman who shattered his heart was black. I’m not sure what to do,” Genise confessed softly as confusion filled her voice. “I want him so much, but I don’t want to push him too soon and end up scaring him off.”

Sasha was surprised at how her normally assertive sister was nervous about asking Noah out on a date. Ever since Genise had turned sixteen she couldn’t remember her youngest sister not having a boyfriend…
ever
.

What was so different about Noah? Why was he making her feel so insecure?

“Genise, why don’t you just ask him out and see what happens? You aren’t acting like yourself at all. You’re the most spontaneous person in our family.”

“I know,” Genise admitted, “but I really like Noah and I don’t want to do anything to mess this up for me. I’m beginning to think he could be the one. Didn’t you think Sterling was the man of your dreams until your misunderstanding with him?”

A refusal was at the tip of Sasha’s tongue to brush off Genise’s question, but she couldn’t reject the truth. Sterling used to be the main reason she loved getting up for work every morning, but it wasn’t like he still felt the same way about her.

“You’re right. I can’t lie and deny how I used to feel about Sterling, but I have to let it go and move on. What woman sticks with a man who shows her how he really feels about her? Sterling Hamilton doesn’t want me and the sooner I get it through my head the better off I’ll be, because I still have a year on my contract and I can’t spend it harboring bruised feelings. I don’t care if I’m breaching my contract with him.”

Now, all she had to go was get her heart to go in the same direction as her head.

Chapter Seven

“What’s your problem tonight? You’ve been in a bad mood since I came over with the snacks and beer for our weekly poker game. You’re usually taunting me about how badly you’re going to kick my ass.”

Taking a long sip of his beer, Sterling glanced at his best friend before placing the bottle back down on the table. About an hour before Holden was supposed to show up he thought about canceling their plans.

He wasn’t in the mood to talk, but he knew his old work buddy would have showed up anyway. He was having a horrible time, especially after the way things ended at work with Sasha. She actually walked past him like she hadn’t heard him talking to her.

Why in the hell did he move his hand away from hers outside work today? The crushed look on her beautiful face stayed with him all day, and anytime he tried to apologize she walked away from him. He hated how Sasha’s big and inviting sienna eyes no longer had the usual sparkle when she looked at him. They lacked any of their usual interest and it was a blow to his heart.

Hell! She totally misunderstood his reaction.

She didn’t comprehend how he couldn’t let her silky hands touch his body
too
long. He was already fighting down this burning need not to place her enticing body on his desk and have his way with her.

No, he did the right thing by removing her hands. Yeah, it might have hurt her feelings a little bit. However, he wouldn’t have known what he might have done next if he had allowed Sasha’s soft hands to stroke his body any longer than those few short seconds.