I was so used to working with facts and numbers it didn’t occur to me to offer a word of encouragement. This was why I wasn’t very good with people on a personal level. My mind worked with facts, not luck.
“I’m sorry, I’m terrible at this.”
She planted a kiss on my shoulder blade.
“I’d never be brave enough to do what you’re doing,” I said.
“I read about you on the Time Magazine. You took over your father’s European company at eighteen and made it a major success.”
“That’s because I was my father. Everyone who worked for me knew they had no choice but to do their work and follow my leadership. There was no room for doubt or error.”
“How is that so different from what I’m doing?”
“You invested in a large company. By the time you got there the rules had already been set. It’s you who gets to adapt. If you don’t like the way things are, find a way to purchase more stock and be the majority shareholder. Everyone else will have to answer to you. Just make sure you know what you’re doing.”
I didn’t know how the conversation had drifted to business, but we were both tired and shortly after, we fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Here is a full report of the progress so far.” I handed my mother the files.
“Amelia, sit down I want to talk to you for a moment,” she said, getting to her feet as she came to offer me a seat on the black leather couch across her desk.
I had a feeling whatever was coming wasn’t going to be good but I sat down and braced myself.
“Whatever it is that is going on with you, I want you to know that you can share it with me,” she started as she sat down beside me.
I tensed up in surprise. What was this all about?
“I know things have been a little tense between us, but it’s not something we can’t work through.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked in confusion.
“It’s humiliating to host a party for my daughter, who is the guest of honor, and then she disappears halfway through. It leaves people with a very bad image. It makes them think you don’t respect me,” she said.
I didn’t know what to say or even where to start. “And it’s not humiliating for you to try and set me up with someone every time you insist on my presence for these parties?” I asked.
“Amelia, you just turned twenty-one. It’s time for you to start thinking about finding someone,” she said.
“Don’t you think that should be my choice to make?”
“Why have you become so rebellious?” she asked.
Rebellious? Just because I wasn’t going along to whatever plans she was making for me before even informing me? Was she serious?
“Our relationship has always been very simple. We both do our jobs and stay out of each other’s lives.” I got to my feet.
“Stay out of each other’s lives? You’re my daughter.” She was calm and composed.
“I’m not acting out, Mother. This is who I’ve always been. You’d know that if you’d taken the time to get to know me.”
“I’m trying, but you won’t give me a chance.” She got to her feet and walked over to me.
I took a step away from her and said, “What you’re trying to do is find a suitor for me. What you’re trying to do is find a way to control me.”
“Amelia,” she said.
“Stop, Mother. Please.”
I didn’t understand. I’d become what she’d carefully molded. If there were faults in the product she’d created, that was on her.
“I have to get back to work,” I said as I left her office.
A couple of days had passed since my birthday, since my night with Isabel. She’d gone back to work, as had I, but before parting ways we’d thoroughly and tirelessly relived our night of passion.
We’d not made any plans since we both had very demanding careers and I wasn’t sure if or when we were going to see each other again. I thought about her more often than I desired because I found it distracting.
When I got back to my office, I received a troubling call from Germany. One of the drugs we manufactured was receiving negative reports due to some lethal side effects to users when ingested and one of the people who’d been affected by this was suing Winston Enterprises.
I called my lawyers from Germany and shortly after made traveling arrangements. I needed to be there personally to take care of this. The drugs the company manufactured went through thorough testing and if the side effects were lethal, we discontinued the drug or redesigned it.
There had never been any reports of lethal side effects for this particular drug and it had been in the market for almost a year now so I didn’t understand where this was coming from. Someone had made a mistake and I needed to go figure out where things had gone wrong and fix it.
I was about to leave the office when my phone rang. I saw Isabel’s number and stopped to look at it. This was terrible timing because I had to go put out a fire.
“Hi Isabel, I’m afraid this is bad timing. I can’t talk right now,” I said.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I have to be in a flight to Germany in an hour.”
“I haven’t been to Germany in a while,” she said.
I was about to respond when a thought crossed my mind. “If you’re not too busy, maybe you can accompany me.” I was almost certain being with her would calm me down.
“Uh, it’s a bit crazy around here but let me see what I can do,” she said.
I wasn’t sure if I was disappointed, but I tried not to focus on such trivial feelings.
“Okay, I have to go.” I hang up before she responded and left the office, notifying my secretary to inform my mother I was leaving for Germany.
Impromptu traveling always messed with my schedule so I had to postpone meetings with lawyers, bankers and important business associates and as for the ones I was unable to get out of, I had to inform some of my representatives to attend in my place. Others I could handle via calls.
When I was done, I headed to the airport. I never really needed to pack for some of the trips because I had an on call personal shopper who made sure I had everything I required whenever I was in a country.
I preferred traveling in some of the smaller company jets but in recent years, the company had upgraded some of the planes to bigger, better modern jets but one of my favorites was a customized luxurious converted Boeing 737.
It was a hundred-seat airliner with a redesigned interior to accommodate only twenty passengers. This Boeing flaunted a spacious lounge with a television, a large bedroom with a king-sized bed and a private bathroom with a hot shower, a kitchen with convection and microwave oven, a refrigerator and a wine cooler and a marble-paneled dining room. This flying luxury apartment was one of a fleet of ten planes.
“Are we ready for takeoff?” I asked the pilot when I got inside and found a flight attendant preparing the lounge.
“Yes, Ma’am,” he said.
I nodded at him and went to take a seat.
“I like what you’ve done with the place,” Isabel’s voice came from the back and I turned to watch her approach me.
I was surprised to see her, especially because she’d sounded unsure about accompanying me on the trip. “What are you doing here? I thought you were busy,” I said, uncomfortably aware of how glad I was to see her.
“I told you, I haven’t been to Germany in a while,” she said as she came to take a seat right next to me.
“How did you manage to get here so fast?”
“I have my ways,” she said.
I smiled at her and put on my seatbelt.
“So, what’s in Germany?” she asked as we prepared for liftoff.
“A problem that needs fixing.”
Isabel bit her thumbnail while she half-smiled at me then shook her head.
“What?” I asked.
She was wearing a snow-white knee-high trench coat that made her eyes
and her hair look even darker. Her pink shade of lipstick made her mouth look very desirable.
“You look great,” she said.
I smiled at her, oddly pleased by her compliment.
The plane taxied down the runway and shortly after started its ascent.
When we were on the air, Isabel got to her feet and went to the wine cooler in the kitchen. She came back with a bottle of white wine and two glasses.
I watched her in wonder as she came over to me, pecked my lips and walked past me, heading to the back of the plane where she’d come from when I’d arrived.
I got to my feet and followed her, wondering what she was up to. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into the bedroom to find a trail of her shoes and trench coat on the floor.
“You thirsty?” she asked and my jaw dropped.
She was wearing a seductively sexy lacy red teddy. The sight of her made my throat go dry and I couldn’t find the words to answer her as I lustfully stared.
“Well?” She had a smile across her face as she held out a glass of wine for me.
I could feel the pace of my heartbeat increasing as I summoned my feet to move forward. My eyes hungrily moved over her sexy frame and I swallowed a ball of air as I stretched out my arm and reached for the wine.
She tilted her head, slowly stuck the tip of her tongue out one side of her mouth and slightly squinted her eyes as she moved the wine glass over to her lips then paused, watching me.
I unconsciously took a sip of the wine and coughed a bit because of the dryness in my throat.
“You okay there?” she asked, taking a step closer to me.
I nodded, fully aware of how painfully attracted I was to her.
“Nice um…outfit.” My brain had shut down. I couldn’t think. Had I just stuttered?
“Glad you like it.”
She took the glass of wine from my hand, placed it on the bedside table and slowly got on the bed, posing seductively.
“Want to join me?” she asked.
I didn’t know why my body wasn’t operating the way it should’ve been. My speech was impaired, my brain wasn’t functioning properly and my feet were weak and couldn’t move.
I somehow managed to approach the bed and she gave me that amused look I’d initially resented. I think she could tell I was having trouble because she sat up from the bed and stood up to help me.
She moved her arms around my body, deliberately pulling me closer to her and her wonderful scent filled my nostrils. Her lips were so close to mine, but I knew her mission was to torture me as she slowly reached for the zipper on the back of my dress and slowly lowered it.
I released a shaky breath as her fingers touched the exposed flesh on my back, moving back up my shoulders to ease my dress off. She was killing me inside, moving so delicately slow.
She pulled my dress down and I summoned my strength to assist her because her speed and deliberate touches were driving me crazy. When I pulled my arms free from the dress, she lowered it down my chest, to my waist and then to my hips, pausing down there to place a light kiss over my panties.
I kicked off my shoes and completely freed myself from the dress and she held me in place, laying soft moist kisses along my stomach while her hands moved gently over my thighs and hips.
She slightly parted my legs and trailed kisses down my lower abdomen and I inhaled deeply as I closed my eyes, knowing the last of my strength was just about to leave me.
Her hands moved over my waistline and her fingers lowered my panties down my legs, making me gasp in anticipation. I couldn’t believe how much power she had over me, commanding my body as though she’d enslaved it.
“On my way over, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I wanted to kiss you,” she said.
Kiss me? I thought, just as her warm moist mouth covered my hot slick sex.
My feet unbuckled at contact and she laid me back on the bed. She didn’t pause as her mouth quickly reunited with my core centre and she continued to fervently explore me, making me go utterly out of my mind.
I moaned and squirmed under her while her tongue teased the now extremely sensitive part of me, sending countless waves of sensations all through my body. I cried out in pleasure, thrusting my pelvis forward and she applied more pressure with her tongue then gently slipped inside me. Shortly after that, she sent me plunging into a fit of orgasmic spasms.
I hated how good she was at giving me pleasure because that little fact made her exceptionally unique and no one had ever done that to me.
She got on top of me and I ran my hands over the sexy lacy garment she was wearing. I couldn’t believe that little outfit had rendered me absolutely powerless.
Things between us progressed really fast from there. When we got to Germany, Isabel kept herself busy though she wouldn’t tell me what she was doing. I got into work mode, visited the factory and had the drugs that were causing problems tested.
Turned out they had a foreign contaminant so they had to be pulled from the market. A new batch was carefully made and tested to replace the contaminated ones and the person suing was anonymously offered a more than generous settlement.
Isabel was called back a day after we arrived so she didn’t stay long but we made most of the period of time we spent together. She brought out a new side of me. She made me laugh. She made me soft. But weirdly enough, I liked it.
My stay in Germany lasted three days. After I fixed the problem and was certain careful measures had been taken to make sure there wouldn’t be a repeat of what had happened, I went back to New York.
I found Isabel in my apartment waiting for me and something about it made my heart beat. It was like the first time my heart had ever palpitated. She’d made dinner and set it presentably on the dining table. We sat indulging in the surprisingly delicious meal, aware that I was experiencing something new, something foreign but I didn’t let it shake me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
We occupied most of our conversational gaps with work talk. Isabel filled me in on most of what was going on in her business and I did the same with mine.
I found her fascinating. She had great dreams. Healthcare wasn’t just a business venture to her as I came to learn, it was a passion.
She took my advice, purchased more stock and bought out most of the shareholders, then hired the best minds in the business quickly becoming a healthcare magnate.
During that period, we tried to see each other as often as possible, but it proved hard because our careers were far too demanding.
After three months of an intense love affair, Isabel grew impossibly busy. We were always in two different continents or countries. We tried to communicate as often as possible, but since I was incapable of an emotional relationship, it became a bit strained.
When she wanted reassurance, I was unable to offer it because I believed she knew I was with her in a manner I’d never been with anyone else and that should’ve said what I couldn’t.
When she wanted companionship and I was too busy, I thought she understood because we’d never let what we shared get in the way of our work life. So in a way, it was complicated but I thought we both understood each other.
I was too afraid to step out of my world and live the life that dared me to want more, because I thought and believed I already had everything.
My mother eased up on her attempts to reach out to me, which I liked. We were finally on the same page. She respected me as a business woman and I respected her in the same capacity. She didn’t use Eric to get to me but his struggle in Belize was still amusing to me.
I could’ve helped, but he thought he deserved the position and the added responsibility so I stayed out of his way.
During my fifth month with Isabel, I believed things were going to work out in every aspect of my life. I was willing to try and explore the possibility of giving her what she needed from me. I wasn’t quite sure I knew what that was, but she made me daring enough to want to give it a chance.
A coup
le of days later, I received a troubling call from Mr. Price.
Isabel was in the hospital.
She was critically ill.
Apparently, she’d had lung cancer all along and during the last few months, it had spread to other vital organs and there was nothing doctors could do for her.
I refused to go see her. I couldn’t believe the news. There were these sharply disturbing pangs of pain with every beat of my heart every moment I thought about it.
Why would Isabel let me get close to her, let me trust her, having known she had a terminal illness? Would she really be that cruel?
I thought about it for days.
When I couldn’t function, I decided to go see her. It was out of anger and frustration rather than responsibility and concern. I wanted her to see just how pissed off I was. But the moment I walked into her hospital room, all that rage disappeared.
Seeing her so pale and weak awakened something in me. Sympathy.
I was seated next to her bed, terribly afraid of what I was about to lose.
“You hate me, don’t you?” she asked.
I wanted to say no, but she knew I’d be lying. “Yes, I hate you.”
“I’m sorry, Amelia. I want to explain something to you, if you’ll let me,” she said.
I watched her for a moment then nodded.
“If it was up to me, I’d spend my every waking moment with you.”
“No… no, Isabel. You don’t get to say that.” My heart was breaking and I wasn’t even aware of it.
“I love you, Amelia. I don’t know if you understand what that means, but you’ve become one of the most important people in my life.”
“No, don’t say anymore. I don’t want to hear it,” I said as I got to my feet and took a few steps away from her.
“For some stupid reason, I genuinely believed this would be easy on you. I didn’t think it’d hurt you. That’s why I never said anything. It made it easy to be with you.”
I looked at her as though she’d just slapped me hard across the face.
“Because I don’t feel anything?” I asked, trying to contain the rage brewing inside.
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