Ecstasy Island 1: Stay With Me by Maureen Smith

Author:Maureen Smith [Smith, Maureen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Erotica, Romantic, United States, African American, Romance, Multicultural, Multicultural & Interracial
Amazon: B00LPYPSZW
Publisher: Wordsmith Enterprises
Published: 2014-07-11T04:00:00+00:00

***

SHE HAD JUST stepped through the door of her suite when her smartphone rang. She dug it out of her shorts pocket and looked at the screen. When she saw her father’s number, she automatically tensed, then counted to five and reluctantly pressed the answer button.

“Hey, Dad.”

“Sydney,” Hugh Russell said in his stern voice. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d addressed her with any semblance of warmth or affection. “I just spoke to your sister—”

Of course.

“—and she told me about the conversation she had with you this morning. I wasn’t pleased to hear that you’re over there meeting strange men—”

Sydney rolled her eyes. “I’m not meeting strange men.”

“That’s not what your sister told me.”

“Well, she’s mistaken,” Sydney countered, padding across the suite to sit on the edge of the bed. “I met one guy. No need to blow it out of proportion.”

She could picture her father’s disapproving frown, his black brows drawn tightly together. They were so thick and bushy they’d reminded Sydney of caterpillars when she was a little girl. She remembered the time she’d crawled into his lap and traced his brows with her fingers until he grew annoyed and told her to get down. She’d never tried that again.

“I ran into your old boyfriend, Bryce,” her father informed her. “He just got promoted to senior financial analyst at the investment firm he works for. He’s making six figures now and driving a Benz.”

“Good for him,” Sydney murmured. She knew where this was going.

“He asked about you. Said he hadn’t seen or spoken to you in a while because you’d stopped returning his calls. I still don’t understand why you broke up with him. He’s a smart, ambitious young man who’s going places. You’d be lucky to have him.”

Sydney smirked. “But not the other way around, right?”

Her father paused. “You know as well as I do that successful men like Bryce are in high demand. It was foolish of you to let him go.”

“I let him go,” Sydney said with forced calm, “because he was a boring, egotistical jerk who only cared about himself.”

“Did he ever cheat on you?” her father challenged.

She frowned. “That’s not the point.”

“Of course it is. Everyone has flaws. If Bryce’s only flaws are that he’s a little dull and has an ego, I think you can live with that. You’re not perfect either.”

Sydney flinched, stung to the quick.

“Anyway, I told him to call you when you return from your trip.”

“What?” Sydney sputtered in protest. “You really shouldn’t have done that, Dad. I’m not interested in getting back with Bryce.”

“Well, maybe you should be. You’re twenty-seven years old, Sydney. You’re not getting any younger. You ought to be thinking about settling down and starting a family. Look at your sister. She met a nice young man in church, married him and didn’t wait to start having children. She did things the right way.”

Sydney sighed. She’d heard it all before.

“That’s great for Ellie, but she and I are two different people,” she reminded her father.

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