by Yvette Hines
Walking away from the dress, she went into the bathroom to shower and put on her make-up. She knew what the problem was. Why her emotions always went haywire when she was alone. Because she had nothing else in her life but work. And Mr. Neal Stephens.
Her job and boss had become her world in the last two years and in the last year, since his near death experience, it had begun to feel like the only reason she did anything was for her boss. When Kevin, her husband and best friend, had still been alive, it had been a lot easier to separate work from life. Or so she had been able to convince herself. In the last days Kevin had been battling with cancer, he’d been open with her, telling her things about herself she had not wanted to hear and definitely didn’t desire to face.
Regardless of the truth of Kevin’s words, his death had nearly crushed her. She’d lost her best friend, a man she’d known since college. If it hadn’t been for the support of her boss, she may never have recovered and gone on. Mr. Stephens had been the first person she called, and he’d rushed to the hospital and had allowed her to cry in his arms. For once, Neal Stephens took care of arrangements for her, when normally it was the other way around. He’d taken her home, tucked her in bed and then proceeded to call her and Kevin’s families and set up the funeral arrangements. So, all the things she’d done for Neal in the last year had only been a repayment, her own thanks.
After she’d showered and put on her makeup, she returned to the room and slipped into the dress her boss had gotten her. Even though her mind had objected and told her to go with her own clothes, he could buy things, but he couldn’t make her wear it.
However, she wasn’t trying to offend her boss. No, that wouldn’t go well at all. Not for what she ultimately wanted. Tonight, they would be away from the office and she would use the personal time to discuss something important with him. Something that would help her life gain perspective. Now that the company was in the black again, she could step back and focus her energy and emotions towards something else.
Next, she slipped into her silver sandals. They were the ones that she’d planned to wear with her black dress, but still looked great with the new one. As she stood and admired herself in the mirror, she put in a pair of diamond studs and a simple diamond tennis bracelet. They were the last things Kevin had given her. She couldn’t help but marvel at their beauty as she stared at herself. The gift was exquisite, but not what she had wanted from him.
However, the man who had never hesitated in giving her anything had refused her the one thing she wanted most of all. But, she couldn’t fault Kevin; she knew he had his reasons.
Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her silver clutch and headed out the door. If one man had left her empty handed, then she would see to it that another man didn’t.
Chapter 2
Neal watched Amana step from her car and hand the valet her key before the restaurant, at the bottom of The Hearst Tower. Meeting her at the curb, Neal allowed his eyes to roam her from the top of her perfectly coiffed hair, swept up off her shoulders to the natural colored paint on her toes. His imagination of how the dress would look on her when he’d purchased it was nothing compared to the reality of seeing her sexy body encased in it. The purple material against her brown skin with amazing.
“You look lovely tonight.” If this was a real date, he would have leaned in and kissed her on the lips, or at least the cheek. Not to mention, picked her up from her place, but Amana was adamant that she would drive herself. Besides, this wasn’t a date. Now, if he could get his body to comprehend that information, instead of heating his blood, it would be great.
“Thank you, Mr. Stephens. I must say you look rather dashing yourself in the all black suit, the purple handkerchief was a nice touch.” She smiled and the gorgeous plum colored lipstick made her lips more inviting.
Not a date. Clearing his throat, he held his bent arm out to her. “Shall we go in?”
She slid her delicate, long fingers around the bend of his elbow. His feet took one step after another, but most of his focus was on the warmth of her touch that seared him through his coat and shirt. If this was a date, he would have reached his free hand across his body and covered hers, but it wasn’t a date. So, he shoved his free hand deep into his trouser pocket and removed the temptation.
Once inside they were immediately shown to their table in one of the private dining rooms. After seating Amana, he claimed his own chair. The wine waiter was two steps behind the maître d'. Neal took the wine list and ordered a bottle of Ornellaia. Promptly after the first wine waiter left, their server showed, filled their water glasses and handed them a menu and departed.
“This place is wonderful.” Amana commented as she looked around at the décor of the room as well as what she could see through the open door.
The server had asked if they wanted the door closed, but Neal had given them permission to leave it open. Another reminder to him that this was not a date, just him taking his personal assistant out for a fine meal to thank her.
“I’ve been here a few times for different reasons and it still impresses me. The food is excellent and the staff courteous.” The wine arrived, after he tested and approved it, the waiter filled each of their glasses to the respectable level and walked away leaving the wine in a bucket beside the table.
Amana tasted her wine and marveled, “This is really good. I’m always afraid to order wine, because I think I’m going to select the wrong thing.”
“Then I’ll have to set-up a winery visit one day.” He lifted his glass and sipped.
“There’s no need. You’ve already done enough, Mr. Stephens.” Lowering her head, she stared at her menu, but not before Neal noted the darkening of her golden brown cheeks. “The day off, the massage, the stylists and even this dress…”
“No, Amana, I have not done enough. Look at me,” he requested.
When she lifted her head and held him in her dark brown eyes, his heart slammed against his chest. “You gave me a kidney. That’s not something I take lightly.”
She shrugged, as she always did, an attempt to brush away the importance of her actions. “I’m a donor. It was bound to happen eventually.”
He gave a dry chuckle. “Well, we won’t rehash this argument. I just wanted to tell you that these little things that I manipulate my way into doing for you are nothing compared to your sacrifice. Most people say thank you,” he jested.
Her face lit up as she laughed. “Then thank you, Mr. Stephens.”
“No Mr. Stephens. Hell, Amana, I’m carrying a piece of you, I think Neal will do just fine.”
“Neal it is then.”
They stared at each other across the table for a moment, neither of them willing to break the silence. Even when he’d spent all that time in the hospital and rehab, she would come and visit him, stay long hours into the night and encourage him, yet she never used his first name. Now, a current flowed between them heavy and pulsing at the sound of his name coming from her lips. His first name had always seemed simple to him, but hearing it come out of her mouth made it seem sensual and inviting.
Thankfully, the server returned and took their orders.
Once he departed, Amana began, “I didn’t get a chance to set up the meeting with you and the legal team to discuss--”
“We are not going to talk about business tonight,” he declared, adding more wine to her glass then his own. She hadn’t finished her first, but he still brought it back up to level. He wasn’t trying to get her drunk, just making sure she was relaxed.
Raising her glass, she asked, “Okay, then what would you like to discuss?”
He thought for a moment. Over the years she had worked for him, he knew a lot of things about her, and in the last year, they’d grown closer and discussed both of their upbringings and swapped funny childhood anecdotes. However, even in the last year there had been one subject neither of them broached and that was relationships. As if somehow they both had silently agreed not to talk about it.
In the
past, her marriage and his relationship with Paulette had been a barrier, a wall between his feelings for her that was never supposed to be crossed. But, now, it was all he wanted to know, what he was itching to discover about her.
“Tell me, something, Amana.” He swirled his wine in his glass. “You’re a beautiful black woman, so why haven’t you dated?”
Setting her wine down, she kept her gaze on her fingers playing with the stem. Finally, she looked up at him. “You remember me the first year after Kevin’s death, I was barely functioning, just a shell.” She lowered her hand to her lap. “If it wasn’t for you being so considerate and not firing me, when I was screwing up left and right…”
“You’ve never screwed up.” He recalled that year, her eyes always filled with shadow and dark circles beneath them. She had lost weight; spent too many long hours at work, fixed errors that most people would have thought were minor. For the first time in his life he’d felt fear, recalling everything he’d ever heard about actions a grieving spouse could take. It had been his mission to see Amana pull through it. He remained at the office late with her, came in early so that she wouldn’t be there alone. It was part of the reason he and Paulette began to have so many arguments, but to him it had been worth it to finally begin to see Amana smile. He continued, “You may have forgotten a few things here and there, but nothing irreversible.”
“My family was there for me. My mom took off a month from work and helped me. But, it was the months that followed that got hard. I appreciate still being employed.” She gave him a small smile.
“You’re welcome. However, you still have not answered my question. Why are you still single? I’m sure there has been someone in this last year.” He sipped his wine, gazing at her over the rim.
“Too busy maybe…” she gazed passed his shoulder, not meeting his eyes. “One day just came after the next.” She glanced at him. “Besides, my boss is a task master.”
“This year has been hectic, but it paid off.” He tilted his glass towards her.
Touching her glass against his, she added, “Yes. I’m sure tomorrow the employees and their families will appreciate how well it paid off.”
The first course of their meal arrived and the conversation migrated to summer concerts coming to town and memories of concerts they had attended when they were teenagers.
As one course turned into the next, Neal couldn’t help but compare the ease in which he conversed with Amana about any subject. None of the women that he dated ever seemed as fascinating and real. He equated it to the fact that they were not attempting to build a romantic relationship, just CEO and assistant. No, after all they had been through they were more than that, they were friends.
Halfway through the main course, he angled his fork on the edge of his plate and leaned back in his seat. It was time to discuss the real reason he’d brought her to dinner. He desired to give her something substantial that would truly mark and signify his gratitude. “Amana, I want you to be honest with me…” He paused, waiting for her to give him her full attention. Once her soulful brown eyes were focused on him, he continued. “If you could have anything in the world--. Correction, if I could give you anything…a car, trip, house, a diamond waist chain, anything, what would it be?”
Resting her fork on the side of her plate, she took a moment to lift her linen napkin and pat the corners of her mouth. “Neal, you should know by now that things aren’t important to me.”
He did know that, but he refused to do nothing. “I do, but I’m not taking nothing as an answer.”
As time ticked by, he thought she wouldn’t give in and would make finding a way to repay her an arduous task on his part. But then her lips parted and an incredible sentence tumbled from her mouth.
“A baby. That’s what I want out of everything in the world.”
His heart stopped, started, then stopped again and finally slammed against his chest and beat in a rapid pace while heat began to pool in his lap causing his cock to twitch. He hadn’t expected that. “Excuse me?”
She waved her hands in front of her face and her eyes stretched to the size of half dollars. “Oh, no, Mr. Step-- I mean, Neal. Not from you.”
The words didn’t make him sigh with relief. Strangely, he felt offended that she looked so horrified at the thought of him fathering her baby. Taking a liberal swig from his wine, he hid his emotions beneath a cool veneer. “Then with who? Is it someone we work with or from another company you’d like for me to set you up with?” God, the last thing he wanted to do was play match maker for Amana with another man. He’d cut his own tongue out first. The power of his jealous emotions rocked his core.
“That’s not it. I don’t need a man.”
He frowned.
She giggled. “If I was going to do it the old fashion way I would. However, I’ve decided to go another route.”
“Why? You’re an attractive woman. I know you loved Kevin, but you’re not even thirty yet and could still marry again.”
“I know, but I don’t want to have to wait to meet someone, then date, get engaged and finally marry them before I can start on a family.” She glanced away, then back. “I tried that route the first time and still I have nothing.” Clouds of sadness formed in the dark depths of her eyes. “Kevin and I had planned to start trying, then the cancer was found and…”
Neal knew Amana to be a rational and meticulous woman, leaving him with no doubt that if she were voicing this to him, she’d already thought it out to the fullest. He had no plans to trivialize it and announce all the cons to her decision only to be countered by her pros. “What is it you need from me?”
“I have decided on being inseminated.”
“Artificially?” He couldn’t refrain from commenting.
“Yes,” she declared. “However, the agreement of our health insurance policy has become a barrier.”
“In what way? I know the insurance covers the procedure because a few people have used it.” Quarterly, the insurance company sent him stats on the medical services used by his employees. In protection of the people’s privacy, it didn’t release names only numbers.
“I’m sure in those cases the couples had been trying for more than a year with documentation from a physician of their infertility.”
“Ah.” Now he was beginning to understand.
“Since, that’s not the case for me… it will not cover. So I’ve been paying out of pocket for the consultation and preliminary screening and exams.”
“And you want me to--”
“Get the policy amended so that single women can have the same advantage of parenthood as those married or in long term relationships.” Amana’s upper body was leaning forward and her voice was slightly elevated and impassioned.
She would have made a great political advocate, he thought. He finished off his second glass of wine and assessed her. There was no doubt in his mind that Amana would make a wonderful mother. She was thoughtful, caring and the most generous person he knew. Add to that there was a daycare on premises, there would be no reason for her to quit work. Besides if she was thinking of leaving, she was honest enough that she would have given him that bit of news with everything else she’d laid on him tonight.
He pondered his reason for bringing her to the restaurant and wanting to give her something that was remotely close to her saving his life and at the moment the lavish gifts he’d been considering seemed trite and worthless. Now, before him was something substantial he could do, something he wanted to do, second only to starting his company fifteen years ago.
“I’ll give you the baby.”
Her features became distorted with confusion. “You mean you’ll get the policy modified?”
“I will look into doing that, but it’s not something I can do overnight. It will take time and I’d have to bring it to the board for votes. The whole process could take months before its available to you.”
“So, how do you propose I get pregnant?”
“By me.”
What in the hell, were the words that went through Amana’s mind. However, the message must not have got to her core, because the butterflies from earlier had begun dancing again. Pushing away the desires of her body, she had to think logically about all of this. The last thing she wanted to do was offend her boss.
She observed the man across from her, impressively dressed in his designer suit. He was an attractive man, with his short, straight blond hair, light green eyes surrounded by thick lashes, a narrow nose and a squared jaw line. His skin always held a light golden appearance as if he was fresh from a vacation, never appearing pale and washed out, even in the winter time. After dropping that bombshell of his, he was casually leaning back in his chair as if he’d just proposed they upgrade the front lobby of the company.
Lowering her voice, she whispered, “Neal, you can’t be serious.”
“I’m very serious,” he said, not missing a beat. “You want a baby and I don’t mind giving it to you.” He paused for a moment, looking down at his strong wide hands. When he returned his gaze to her, he continued, “Honestly, I never thought about when I wanted to have children. Usually, if asked I would say someday, but hearing you talk about how determined you are to have a baby, that in some way this child will fill a gap in your life…” He shrugged. “Maybe it will do the same for me. Hell, I’ll be forty next year. It’s about time I got a move on.”
“Look, Neal, unlike me, you have women clamoring to get into your bed. Do you know how many calls I field for you a day? Any of them would have a baby for you in a heartbeat.” At least three to four times a day some woman would call asking if he was available, wanting to know if they could have his private number or requesting his appearance at some function with them. However, her boss had been very specific since returning back to work, that if it wasn’t undoubtedly business related, he didn’t want any messages. She had admired his drive to see his company succeed once again.
“And try and clean my accounts out soon after they do it.”