Own Me (Savage Bosses)

15. Sterling

CHAPTER 15

Sterling

I hold the box with the tennis bracelet in my hand. I never intended to give Lux the bracelet. Instead, I wanted to illicit a reaction out of Ayana. Her fiery response doesn’t fail me. Each time I come at her, she comes back swinging and gaining more of my heart each step of the way. That woman will keep me on my toes in and out of the bedroom. I’m such an ass for playing these games. I must stop, or I will lose her. How could I be so stupid? Ayana is not like any other woman. I should’ve known the tricks wouldn’t work.

A knock sounded at the door. I slid the box with the tennis bracelet into my bottom desk drawer.

“Come in,” I call out.

I’m surprised to see the IT technician enter my office after I hear a knock and say, “Come in.”

“Sorry to bother you, sir.” Oscar shuffles on his feet, fiddling with the tablet in his hand. “But there’s an issue I need to bring to your attention.”

“No problem.” I gesture to the chair across the desk from mine. “Take a seat. What’s going on?”

“Well, it’s just, I was monitoring Ayana’s internet activity like you asked.” He sits, then reaches to set the tablet on my side of the desk. “I just wanted to report that she was on a website that isn’t on your company-approved list.”

“Was she shopping?”

“Not exactly. You’re not gonna like this.”

It’s valuable to have more material for my master plan, I pick up the tablet and see a website emblazoned with the title Boss Be Damned. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this gold mine. This is fantastic.

“Do you have her username?”

“She posted while on our servers, and I did a little reading.”

“And?”

“It’s—” He clears his throat. “Sorry—It’s just, well, I kind of used context clues.”

“She talks about me, doesn’t she?”

He nods. “Yeah, you hired a new assistant to work alongside her, correct?”

“Yes, just recently.”

“Then, she must be BlacqQueen333.”

“Of course, she is.” What an appropriate name for such a strong, independent, Black woman. I lose myself in the website as I start scrolling. “Excellent work, Oscar.”

“Oh, thank you, sir.”

He leaves me to my research and my thoughts. My plan is working, I realized as I read Ayana’s comment about me being a douchebag. Damn, I just wish I had a cooler code name than Mister Bossy Pants.

I want to know everything about Ayana. I close out the page and open up the Facebook account I hardly used. I type in Ayana Banks. My lips turn up at the corners. Thank God her page isn’t private. I browse through picture after picture.

In one picture, she’s looking up at the sky, but I see her supple lips turned upward into a smile. On another one, she’s at the beach. Again, the perfect angle of her profile catches the ideal position. In another one, she looks full at the camera with her bottom lip caught between her teeth. Again, I smile, but all I want to do is to feel her plump lips against mine again.

I zoom in on her face, and my heart swells with deep affection for this woman. The asshole cocky attitude I put on around her is a farce. Running a finger along my bottom lip, I stroll through more of Ayana’s page. The more I see, the more I desire her.

Ayana Banks is a challenge. But I’m up to the challenge of winning and owning the one woman as strong-willed as I am.

I’m at a place in my life where I want more than dating different women and one-night stands. I want one woman to come home to every night, and I want to wake up the following day with her in my arms. I crave a family and want to one day have a little girl and a son of my own. There is one woman that I wish to have that with in the future. That’s Ayana. But before I can make that happen, I must get her to know the real man I can be. Not the one who plays games to irk her nerves. But the one who will wine and dine her and eventually win her heart, body, and soul.