Steven _BWWM Romance

by Katie Dowe

  “Darling,” she purred as she walked over to him. “I am so happy you called. I have been wanting to see this particular show for a while. How did you get tickets?” She touched his arm briefly and answered before he could. “No need to respond. I forgot for a moment who you are.” She leaned into him the very moment the cameras went off!

  *****

  Alicia stared at the newspaper photo a long time before looking at the caption: “Billionaire Steven Hughes out to take in the ballet with beautiful and successful lawyer Clarice Sutherland. The couple were seen here looking cozy outside the theater as they got ready to go inside. Is there romance in bloom?”

  She stared at the picture and examined the girl carefully. She had seen the woman around and did not particularly liked her. She was a criminal lawyer and had been friends with Celia so they had attended the same functions. She had seen the way she treated the help and had heard rumors of her prejudices. Her eyes went to him. He was wearing a blue sports jacket, the color of his eyes, and blue pants. His ash blonde hair was combed back from his face and his face looked strong and handsome with confidence stamped onto it. They sure looked cozy together. She had come back from New York last night and had decided to take the day. She had called Allen and told him she would be out and instructed him what to do. She had had every intention of calling him and asking him to come over later but now she was not so sure. Both of them had indulged in the madness of a blind date and had enjoyed every minute of it but it was now time to face reality. It had been a fling and it was time for them to put it behind them. She had her very lucrative career to think about and he apparently had Clarice Sutherland to think about. Except she now felt as if her world was empty!

  ********

  “Darling, I thought you said you were not interested in Clarice?” Grace Hughes greeted her son the minute he came into the dining room. He had taken off his jacket and washed up in the half bathroom next to the huge living room. He took his seat at the head of the large table and nodded to the maid who came and brought him a drink.

  “I am not.”

  “The picture in the paper says otherwise.” She looked at him curiously. “What happened to Alicia Barnett?”

  “We decided that we were not suited,” he said with a shrug, wishing she would not continue. He had seen the picture himself and had cursed himself for it. She had not called him and he was not going to call her either.

  “Darling, are you sure?”

  “Mother, please! I don’t want to talk about it.” He was a little impatient and was not particularly hungry.

  “Clarice seems to think that you are now a couple.”

  “Maybe she is not as bad as I thought.”

  “You don’t believe that,” Grace said intuitively. “You were super excited when you spoke about Alicia. When you talk about Clarice, you sound like you are on death row.”

  Steven laughed in spite of himself. “You are exaggerating.”

  “I am not!” she retorted. “What happened with Alicia, darling?”

  “Nothing happened.” He paused and waited until their meals were served. “We never seem to find the time to be with each other so it does not make any sense. And I am not sure it is a good idea to get involved with her. She is a career woman and usually they don’t want to settle down and have kids.”

  “You are giving up too easy.”

  “I am giving up before I get too attached,” he said lightly as he cut into his pork chops. He did not tell her that truthfully he was already too attached and it was breaking his heart each time he thought about her, which was every second of the day! At nights he would stay up and relive the times he had made love to her! Clarice had been calling him and pressuring him to take her to dinner or attend functions. Now he had committed himself to going to some charity event with her tomorrow. He was going to have to tell her that he was not interested in having a relationship.

  “Too bad. I really liked her.”

  “You don’t know her, Mother.”

  “I know of her and I admire the way she pulled herself up from poverty to get to where she is. She makes me proud to be a woman,” Grace declared stoutly.

  He stared at her for a moment and then down into his glass of wine. “She really accomplished a lot.”

  “Being career driven does not necessarily means that you do not want the husband and children, darling. It’s simply a way of juggling things and setting priorities straight,” she murmured as she eyed him. “Were you the one who made up her mind about not continuing the relationship?”

  “What relationship?” he asked her mildly. “We only just met and hit it off for a little bit.”

  “Relationships start from a lot less,” Grace told him. “We both know that.”

  Later that night as he laid in bed he reflected on the conversation earlier. He had made the decision rashly but he had read between the lines. He was willing to give one hundred but he was not sure about her! He had gone ahead and fallen in love with her while to her he had just been a diversion!

  Chapter 6

  “They are one of our biggest sponsors, Alicia,” Simon Gutenberg said in his slightly accented voice. The one part of the founder of ColaCo was a tall statuesque man of undetermined age with prematurely white hair that grew to his nape. His brother Peter was much older than he was and did not spend a lot of time at the company. “Sport Inc. is putting on the charity function for the support of athletes and I would really like you to represent the company. You are a beautiful as well as an intelligent asset. You are the perfect one to go along and represent ColaCo, my dear.” He was sitting in his office, the perpetual cigar between his fingers. “I am getting too old for these running around and not to mention Peter who refuses to set one foot outside the house unless he has to come here for meetings.”

  “I understand, Simon.” Alicia squelched the annoyance that she was feeling. She was tired after the trip and apart from taking the Friday when she came back she had not had a break. She felt as if she was the one running the entire company and it was wearing her down! Besides she was not sleeping too well and she was telling herself that it was certainly not due to her thinking of Steven! It was almost four and she was still at the office. She would not have minded at all but she was going to have to drag herself off to some function and play nice for the night. “I will be there.”

  “Thank you, my dear. Just tell that gay assistant of yours to call and tell them you will be coming. He also needs to send and pick up the invite.” He waved his cigar at her indicating that the meeting was over.

  “Alicia?” His deep guttural voice stopped her at the door. “You are doing good work.”

  “Thank you.”

  She hurried along the corridor to her suite of offices. “How did it go in the ivory tower of dictatorship?” Allen asked as soon as she came into her suite of offices.

  “Call over to Sports Inc. and ask them to messenger over an invitation for the function tomorrow,” she told him briefly. She stopped before she entered her office. “How would you like to be my date?”

  His eyes lit up. “Would I? It so happens that I am free tomorrow night.”

  “You are free every night, Allen,” she told him dryly. “You don’t have a man, remember?”

  “You don’t have to remind me, darling,” he said with a pout. “But that makes two of us. You had a man and you let him get away. We need to talk about that and what you did wrong.”

  “I am not discussing my personal life with you.”

  “Honey, what personal life? You are married to this job and when you are old and grey and this place does not need you anymore you can cozy up with all the stocks and bonds you invested in.” He looked at her with raised brows. “Look forward to many cold and lonely nights, darling.”

  *****

  Steven saw her the minute she came into the room. It never occurred to him that she would be there or he would definitely not come! He gazed at her hungrily, taking in the sleek and elegant champagne colored d
ress she had on. It was close fitting and swept the floor causing her to hold one end of it in her hand. Her hair was brushed severely to one side and a fat curl rested on her breasts. The dress had very thin straps that glittered with some sort of stones. He could see her white smile between coral lips even from across the room. He watched as she laughed up at the man who had his hand linked with hers. His eyes wandered over to her male companion and relaxed as he realized that he was very definitely gay.

  “Darling, how about a dance? I am beginning to feel like a wallflower.” Clarice linked her hand through his arm as she looked up at him. The function was being held at one of Ryan’s hotel and the place was ablaze with lights and glittering with the jewelries the ladies were wearing. Several of the ‘wives’ of the members of the club where he belonged had also come out and he could see Kelly Takahashi as well as Carrie Copeland seated at one of the tables. He knew that Leesa Wellington and her family had gone away for a week.

  “Of course,” he said politely as he led her onto the dance floor.

  She put her hands around his neck and brought herself closer to him much to his dislike. “This feels so natural,” she murmured as they circled the floor.

  “Clarice-” He stopped abruptly as the couple came alongside them and he noticed it was her. She had her arms around the man’s neck and he noticed that it was not the guy she had come in with. Bart Michaels was a player and someone who used women as if it was nothing and it probably wasn’t! He was a trust fund baby and spent his time jet setting around the world. It did not help that he was tall and handsome with a thick head of black hair and he was younger than he was!

  “Darling?” Clarice looked up at him puzzled and he tore his gaze away from the couple.

  “Yes?”

  “You were saying something?”

  “No.” He gathered her close and finished the dance without looking at them. He was leaving very soon!

  ******

  Alicia moved Bart’s hand firmly away from her derriere for the second time in as many minutes and decided that if he did not behave she was going to leave him standing in the middle of the dance floor! She had no idea why she had agreed to dance with him, but she had to admit that it was probably because she had seen Clarice clinging to Steven’s arm like it was her lifeline! She had pretended not to notice him but she had seen him the moment she came in and even if she had not, Allen had pointed him out to her.

  “I would hate to think that you lost your chance to that vulture,” he had whispered.

  “If that’s his type then I certainly dodged the bullet!” she had retorted.

  “I cannot help myself, sweet thing,” Bart told her with a charming smile that was supposed to make her unbend and make her allow him to maul her. “You have the cutest butt and the cutest everything. I think you are the most beautiful woman in this room and I wish you would let me take you out on my yacht.”

  The mention of yacht had her thinking about Steven and his!

  “No thanks,” she murmured.

  “You don’t know what you are missing,” he told her silkily.

  “As a matter of fact I do.”

  “You are not being nice to Bart,” he said with a pout.

  “Really?” She looked up at him in amusement. His annoying habits were slightly adorable, certainly it did not offend her in the least or maybe it was because she was not into him that way. “Referring to yourself in the third person? Does that really work on women?”

  “Usually.” He flashed her a grin. “But not on you.”

  “I am afraid not.”

  “Ah well, I tried.” He twirled her around and suddenly she started to enjoy herself. As soon as the music ended and something lively came on, she moved with him, deciding against leaving him on the floor.

  Steven could not take his eyes off her. He had stopped dancing with Clarice and was drinking the second glass of champagne, his eyes trained on her. She was circling the dance floor, causing quite a sensation until Kelly and Ciara joined her. She was the center of attention and when her gay companion came over to join her, the crowd parted to give them room.

  She was exquisite, he thought longingly.

  “She is making a spectacle of herself,” Clarice said darkly as she came over to stand next to her.

  “She is a very good dancer. They all are,” Steven murmured, his eyes on her.

  “She is not ladylike but then again people like them rarely are,” she said scathingly.

  Steven felt the anger snapped inside him and he opened his mouth to blast her! “People like them?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Actually, I don’t. Why don’t you tell me?”

  She looked up at him and realized too late that she had made a mistake. “Nothing,” she said with a brilliant smile. “Let’s go get something to eat, darling. I am starving.”

  “I have to leave.” He extricated his arm from her hand. “You stay and enjoy the rest of the evening. I will leave the car for you and ask the driver to take me home.”

  “But I thought we would go back to your apartment!” she cried, feeling him slipping away from her. She should not have made that stupid remark!

  “I am afraid not,” he told her. “Goodnight, Clarice.”

  She watched him walk away and almost ran after him! As she continued looking at him, she saw when he stopped at those wretched wives’ table and spoke to them. She also saw when Alicia Barnett got up and when he took her arm and led her out! What the hell, she thought furiously as he led her outside. What was he doing?

  *****

  “I am sorry to cut in,” he murmured as he dropped his hand the minute they left the room. “I want to talk.”

  “You left your date?” she asked him coolly.

  “She was not exactly my date.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “We need to talk,” he repeated.

  “So talk.”

  “Not here.” He looked around and noticed that several people were hovering. “Was that guy your ride?”

  “No. I drove my car.”

  “Good. Let’s go back to your apartment. I gave my ride away.”

  “To Clarice?”

  He nodded. “Please, can we just go?”

  He was silent on the way to her apartment and she was surprised that he let her drive. Most men she knew would want to take the wheels. She turned on the music and let the sound of Lionel Ritchie filled the air around them. Apart from looking at her for a little bit, he did not say anything.

  He followed her up to the apartment and taking the keys from her, he unlocked the door and followed behind her closing the door behind him.

  “I am going to change. There is wine in the cooler, help yourself.” She went towards her bedroom without waiting to hear from him.

  She had just taken off her dress and was coming back from her closet when she saw him sitting on the edge of her bed with his hands between his legs. She felt completely naked in the tiny flesh colored teddy she was wearing. “You did not want wine?” she asked him casually as she approached the bed.

  “I want you,” he told her bluntly. He had taken off his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt.

  “I thought that the novelty had worn off. You know, sleeping with a black woman.” She gasped as he yanked her close to him.

  “Cut it out,” he said roughly. “You did not call.”

  “And you had your pictures taken with a bitch,” she said softly.

  “I thought you were too busy for me.”

  “So you decided to go for second best. Hell, she is not even a close second.”

  “Shut up.” His tone was mild but his movements far from that. He hauled her up and took her mouth with his in a kiss that stole what was left of her breath! The kiss shuddered through her and reminded her potently of what she had been missing for the past couple of weeks or more. His tongue entered her mouth setting off fires that almost combust them into pieces! Alicia’s hands curled around his neck digging into
the nape and catching strands of his hair as she returned the kiss.

  He released her abruptly but only to hurriedly take off his clothes. She waited on him and he lifted her onto the bed, his erection very evident. He tore at the flimsy material in his haste to get to her nipples. His mouth closed over the hardened bud, his teeth driving her crazy as his fingers went and found her mound. She screamed and clawed at him desperately. He lifted his head and climbed on top of her, sinking his erection deep inside her.

  “Did you screw her?” she asked him hoarsely, her fingers digging into his shoulders.

  “Who?’

  “Don’t play with me!”

  “After making love to you, I could never be with anyone else,” he whispered softly.

  The potency of his statement had her trembling against him. With a trembling sigh, she wrapped her legs around his waist and started moving!

  *****

  “We are eating ice cream in bed?” he asked her indulgently as she climbed back on with the carton of butterscotch ice cream and two spoons.

  “After that amazing bout of sex we deserve some sort of treat,” she told him with a grin as she handed him the spoon.

  He glanced at the bedside clock. “It’s almost one a.m.”

  “What are you? The weight police?” she asked him.

  “Not at all.” He scooped out some. “But you were the one telling me that you were watching yours.”

  “You only live once and I probably lost six pounds with that very energetic bout of sex we just had,” she told him as she scooped out a spoonful and put it into her mouth.