A Piece of Me

by Yvette Hines

  He’d never looked towards having children, but at that moment, with a dark cloud over his head that Amana possibly had miscarried, he wanted that baby like his lungs wanted the next breath.

  She would tell me, his mind declared. But, he was afraid she’d try and brave it alone and inform him tomorrow at work in between pouring him a cup of coffee and briefing him on his schedule. He wasn’t having that.

  Opening his top drawer, he removed a set of keys to his personal car. Most of the times Dan drove him around, but he kept a car at the office for when he needed it. He needed it now. Rushing towards the door, he barely stopped himself from colliding with Wanda, one of the admin staff from HR.

  “Oh, goodness, Mr. Stephens.” She pressed herself against the open door.

  “Whatever it is, Wanda, I don’t have time right now. I’m on my way out.”

  “But, Ms. Hudgens asked me to cover your afternoon meetings for her. You have one in fifteen minutes.” Even unwell, Amana had arranged someone to fill in for her.

  Damn, he forgot about everything in his rush to get to Amana. “Cancel it.”

  “Okay… will you be back for the two--”

  “No.” He moved passed her. “Cancel the whole damn day.” Over his shoulder, he yelled, “If there’s an emergency call me on my cell phone, but other than that I don’t want to be disturbed.”

  Wanda’s ‘Yes, sir’ followed him down the hall as he headed towards the stairs, not in the mood to wait for the elevator.

  Six minutes later, he was peeling out of the parking garage adjacent to his building and into the uptown traffic. Seven minutes after that he was pulling into the lot across from Amana’s condo. She was close enough to walk to work, however, he’d strongly urged her not to after her husband’s death, because frequently she was coming to the office and leaving the office while it was still dark.

  Entering the code to the main door that let him into her building, he took the elevator up to her floor. Once he arrived, he knocked on her door and prayed she was there and not at the hospital. He didn’t know if he was over reacting or not, but on the way over his mind conjured up every possibility, most of them not good. As he waited, he tried to listen for any sound of distress coming from the other side of the door. Feeling the bite of his keys in his hand, he realized his fists were balled tight. Taking a deep breath, he made an effort to calm himself.

  The door opened and Amana stood before him dressed in tank top and shorts. His body immediately reacted to the fact she wasn’t wearing a bra beneath it.

  Pulling his gaze from her full breasts, he noticed the frown on her face.

  “Sir, what are you doing here?”

  “May I come in?” He didn’t want to have this discussion in the hallway.

  Stepping back, she allowed him to enter and closed the door behind him.

  He moved deeper into the great room along the hardwood floor. Facing her, he noted there were no signs of illness in her features. Outside of her apparel, the only thing different about her was that her hair was straight and pulled up into a high ponytail when she normally wore it down and with soft curls. She looked younger than her twenty-nine years--innocent. “You took a sick day.”

  Folding her arms under her breasts, she looked towards the floor. “Well, I just needed a day to myself.”

  She stood closer to the kitchen bar, while he was in the center of her living room, only about eight feet separated the two of them but that damn emotional wall made it seem like more. “Why?”

  Raising her head, there was fire in her eyes, “Am I not allowed personal time, Mr. Stephens?”

  Shoving his hands into his pockets, he growled, “You know you are, Amana. However, normally you let me know in advance and annotate it on my calendar with fifty reminders so I don’t forget or call you repeatedly with questions.”

  “Forgive me,” she snapped. “I didn’t mean to do anything outside of the norm--”

  “Amana.” Her name slipped from his lips. In an instant, he could clearly see something was wrong with her. It wasn’t that she was showing signs of pain or sickness, but it was her mannerism and the way she shifted from one foot to the other that let him know something wasn’t right. He didn’t come here to debate office protocol, but to check on her and get one answer. “Are you pregnant?”

  Her brown eyes softened. She licked her lips then said, “I don’t know.”

  “Then why are you sitting in your condo in silence.” There was no music or television playing and by the haphazard way the pillows were on the couch told him she’d been laying there before he knocked.

  “My period was supposed to start three days ago and it didn’t.”

  He forced the air out of his lungs before he passed out from forgetting to breathe. The woman before him could be carrying his child. He moved to her, close enough to touch, but he kept his hands to himself and he asked, “Have you taken a test?”

  “No.” Her voice sounded small.

  “Why not?”

  A single shoulder lifted and then dropped. “I didn’t want to get my hopes up and it came back negative and I was just running late this month.”

  “If that’s the case, we’ll deal with it.” Needing to touch her and lend her his strength, he cupped her shoulders.

  “Okay.”

  “Do you need me to go to the store and get one?” He rubbed up and down her arms. Her skin felt cool and he didn’t know if it was from nervousness or the air conditioner.

  “No, I have a package in the bathroom.”

  “How about you go take it and I’ll be here when you come out.”

  She nodded and headed towards her bedroom. Stopping she turned back to him. “Thank you, Neal.”

  Before he could say anything, she was gone.

  Sitting on her couch, he stared out the glass doors leading to her balcony and waited. On the short drive there, he had made a decision and regardless of what the result on the stick was his actions would be the same.

  ~YH~

  Amana gripped the stick and crossed the floor of her spacious master bedroom. It was past the minutes for the indication markings to show up on the test, but she hadn’t looked. She didn’t want to find out by herself. Neal had come all the way to her condo and he deserved the right to know at the same time she did. It confounded her how she had been so ready to do this baby thing alone with a donor and in one night, she had decided to conceive with a friend. Not just any friend but her boss. Her confidante and, as he’d proven again today, her number one supporter.

  She didn’t fool herself into believing that she would have hopped in the bed with any single male friend who’d made the offer. Just Neal. There had always been something about him from the first day she’d met him. Her honor had allowed her to fight off her attraction to him, because she was married to her best friend and loved Kevin too much to hurt him. However, over the last two years it had become harder and harder to keep her emotions at bay. Now they had possibly taken the first step into parenthood and she couldn’t dream of anyone else she’d rather go through the experience with.

  “What was the reading?” Neal rose from the couch as soon as she walked into the front room.

  “I didn’t want to look at it without you,” she confessed.

  “Then we’ll do it together.” He walked over to her.

  Raising the item between them, she took a deep breath and then turned it face up.

  “A plus still means positive on those things, right?” He asked seeing the same bold cross in the center of the little screen.

  Lifting her head, she said, “Yes.”

  “We’re going to have a baby!” His arms surrounded her and he picked her up off the floor and kissed her.

  All she was aware of was the passion in Neal’s kiss and her feet floating through the air. Gripping the back of his neck, she pressed her body against his and allowed him to command her mouth. Her heart swelled in her chest and everything she’d been attempting to hide and trying to fight flooded her
soul.

  “I love you.” The words tumbled from her mouth before she could stop them as the kiss ended.

  “What?” His light green eyes shifted from right to left, searching as they stared into hers.

  As her feet returned to the floor, she considered the option of spinning her words and pretend she hadn’t said those three. However, she didn’t want to. Even if her confession complicated things more than they were now and she lost her job, she wouldn’t take them back.

  “I love you.”

  His arms went slack and she stepped out of his embrace, feeling cold and unsure of herself. Seeing him standing there quiet, she figured she’d stunned him speechless. Deciding to continue with honesty so that her conscious would be clear, she began, “I’ve probably loved you for years, but I refused to see it. Why would I? I was happily married. As you know, Kevin and I met in college and became inseparable, started dating and married soon after graduation. I never questioned my feelings for him, because there’d never been anyone else who I felt close to. I knew he was my best friend and I loved him.”

  The intensity of Neal’s gaze made her tremble inside. Turning away, she went to stand by her balcony window, still holding the test. “Then I met you and I felt things I’d never felt before, but I didn’t give into those feelings.” She glanced over her shoulder and looked at him. He followed her across the room, but he still kept his distance. “Truthfully, they scared me. They were too raw and too intense.” Turning, she watched passengers gathering at the station waiting for the light-rail. “Kevin was the one that noticed. A month before he died he told me.” She shut her eyes feeling tears welling up, Kevin had still been her best friend and it grieved her to have lost him so young. “I denied it. I wanted to deny it. I wanted to believe that my husband was the only man I could love.” Opening her eyes, again she inhaled a shaky breath gaining a semblance of control. “I told him I loved him and he told me he knew I did. So, when I asked him how he could believe I had feelings for you, he said that I never looked at him the way I looked at you.”

  She turned and stared at the strong man, the father of her baby, and waited for the questions or accusations. His features were unreadable and she wasn’t sure what to expect from him.

  “The day my plane crashed, Patricia and I got into an argument.” Neal took a step towards her, leaving two feet of space.

  Amana was unsure where the conversation was leading so she remained silent, allowing him the time to talk as he’d given her.

  “It was about you.” He took another step. “She wanted to get engaged. Hell, she had every right to want me to propose to her after so many years. When I told her I wasn’t ready, she said it was because I wanted my assistant.”

  A single step remained between them and she felt as if she were captivated by his light green eyes.

  “She screamed that I was waiting for the opportunity to fuck you now that you were free.” His gaze traveled down the length of her body and then back to her face. Now his eyes were intense, his pupils dilated only leaving a small ring of green. “I denied wanting to… I told her that she was jealous and crazy. I lied and I knew in my heart that I was lying. She took off angry in one direction and I in the other trying to run from my feelings.”

  Amana couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her chest became tight and she was struggling to draw in a breath.

  He lifted a hand and caressed her cheek. “I drove to that airport like the hounds of hell were after me, because if I stopped for one moment too long, I was turning my car around and going to you.” His hand slid around the back of her neck and pulled her towards him. “There you were barely out of the all-consuming grief from your husband’s death and I wanted to take you in my arms and hold you.”

  Neal’s other hand caressed her waist. She was trapped against his body. However, she didn’t have the urge to move away.

  “You see, Amana, Patricia was only partially correct.”

  “How?” she squeaked, her throat constricted with emotions.

  He gave her one of his devastating smiles. “It was true I wanted to fuck you, as you’re more than aware, now. Let’s not forget how it came about that you are carrying my baby inside of you.”

  The muscles in her stomach fluttered.

  “The part she didn’t know was that I didn’t just want between your luscious thighs…I wanted in your heart.”

  She whimpered. Fresh tears flooded her eyes, but this time they were of happiness and she didn’t try to fight them, just allowed them to roll down her cheeks. “You’re there. I love you, Neal.”

  “I love you, Amana. What I want more than anything is to not only be a father to our child but your husband, too.”

  Pressing her hands against his firm chest, the strength of his heartbeat pounded against her fingers. “Are you asking me to marry you, Mr. Stephens?”

  Leaning down, he licked her bottom lip and whispered, “Do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Stephens.”

  “Yes.” She guided her hands up to his shoulders.

  “Now kiss me.”

  She did.

  Epilogue

  Neal paused in stride on his way from the cabana bar with two fruity island drinks in hand and stared at his wife. Amana lay beneath the umbrella shading on the beach with their three month old son, Jacob, asleep in the baby bouncer. It was their one year anniversary and after they returned home from Jamaica Amana would be back at work. He didn’t want their time as a family to end, but he missed having his wife with him at the office. Over the last four months there had been a temporary assistant working with him. Even though Wanda from human resources had been filling in for Amana and was highly efficient, it just wasn’t the same. His wife had the ability to anticipate his wants, desires and needs both professionally and personally.

  “Mr. Stephens, do you plan to bring me my cool beverage or continue to watch me?” Amana lifted her beautiful eyes and looked at him over the top edge of her book.

  He moved forward. “I thought you were deep in your novel.” Kneeling beside her, he handed her one of the two drinks.

  Sitting up, she smiled at him as she took a liberal drink from the straw. “What can I say, where there’s a deliciously handsome man close by I can’t help but be drawn to him.”

  Leaning forward, he kissed her and tasted the pineapple coconut juices on her full lips. “I hope that’s just me,” he growled.

  “No worries, dear, I only have eyes for you.”

  Taking a drink of his beverage he lay on his side beside his wife and admired her in the sky blue bathing suit. “The same goes for me.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Have I told you how sexy you look in that swim suit, today?”

  She laughed, the husky sound traveling along the tropical breeze. “You said that about every suit I’ve worn over the last three days.”

  “I’ve sincerely meant it every time, too.” Amana had always been attractive to him, but since she’d carried their child, he noticed and appreciated the changes motherhood had made on her body. Her breasts were larger, her hips fuller and her ass was both plump and firm. At night, he enjoyed kissing the slight roundness of her stomach, the remaining evidence of where his child had been housed for nine months. Assessing her form, caused the blood to rush south in his body and fill his shaft with heat.

  If it was darker out, he would have pulled her beneath him and pushed her bathing suit aside and made love to her on the beach, whisper soft words of love in her ear so not to awaken their sleeping child. It was not only too bright at the moment, but crowded as well.

  Glancing up, towards the more shaded section of the umbrella’s shadow, he watched the rise and fall of his son’s chest. Jacob had grown and plumped out since his birth and was a bright and alert child. His son’s chubby almond features were surrounded by a head full of dark curls. It amazed him how every time he looked at Jacob how his heart swelled and how much pride he felt being his father. At night he read to his son and told Jacob about all the things he would teach him an
d what they would do together when he got bigger. He and Amana were planning on having three children, in two years when they started on the next one; he hoped it would be a little girl with his wife’s lovely eyes and gorgeous smile.

  Thinking of Amana took his gaze away from his son and back to the beautiful woman beside him. “I set our dinner reservations for seven is that fine?”

  “Perfect.” Lifting a hand, she caressed his bare shoulder and allowed her fingers to trail across his chest. “My parents should be back from their snorkeling excursion by then and I can take Jacob to their room”

  He was glad his in laws had come with them on their anniversary trip. Stan and Melinda stayed away, touring Jamaica and giving the Stephens privacy, but tonight was their anniversary and his in-laws were taking the baby for the night until tomorrow morning.

  Amana was nursing and didn’t like to be away from their son for more than a night. He cared for Jacob and loved having him around, depending on him as a father, so he agreed with Amana.

  “Since we still have a couple hours before dinner, what do you say we find something back in the hotel room to do with our time?” Reaching out, he cupped Amana’s hip, sliding his hand around the curve and squeezing her ass, making it clear to his wife what he had in mind.

  “Oh, Neal, you must have read my mind.” A saucy smile curled the corner of her lips as her fingers brushed along his abdomen moving lower. At his waistband she subtly dipped a finger below it and grazed the tip of his sensitive cock with her nail.

  “Shit.” The single word broke from his tightened lips on a groan. “If you keep that up the rest of these vacationers are going to get an eyeful.

  Her eyes darkened, and were full of passion as she swept along the crest one more time then removed her hand. On the tip of her finger, he noticed the slight shine of his pre-cum and he watched her slide the digit between her lips, closing her mouth around it.

  Slowly she pulled her finger out. “We have about an hour before he’ll awaken for a feeding,” she whispered.

  With those lovely brown eyes he could clearly see the message she was relaying to him about what she wanted to do when they got into the room. Erotic images flooded his mind, but in his fantasies he saw him pleasing her in multiples ways, as well. His wife had become quite the seductress since they’d married and he desired her boldness just as much as her new body.