Chapter 4
"You look like hell," Benjamin commented as she dragged herself into the office. Ironically, for once she was early even though she felt as if she had walked the fifteen blocks from her apartment to get to the agency.
"Thank you," she said dryly as she made her way into her office after picking up her messages from the receptionist. She was about to close the door behind her when she noticed that Benjamin had followed her in. "Is there something I can do for you?"
"You met with Mr. Coleman last night at his office. How did it go?"
She opened her mouth to say something snide but decided against it as she went around sitting gratefully on her chair and leaned her head back. The numerous medications she had taken were having their effects on her body. "He made a few changes."
"Like what?" he asked anxiously as he sat in front of her desk.
"He wants to include plus sized models in the ad."
He sat back and stared at her. "Did you put those ideas into his head?" Benjamin asked her as he stared at her accusingly.
"Let me see." She tapped her chin. "One of the most powerful men in the beauty industry allows me to put ideas in his head." She stared at him until he looked away.
"I wonder why he suddenly thought of that."
"Maybe he is seeing that not only skinny assed women are entitled to look good while wearing his brand of beauty products. Who the hell knows?"
"I hope you did not say anything like that to him."
"I did not. Would you mind going out and closing the door behind you? I feel as if I continue talking, I am going to hurl any minute now."
He got to his feet in a hurry and Sasha almost smiled at the look of distaste on his face.
"You should take something," he said primly.
"Trust me, I have taken a lot of ‘something.’ I am just waiting for it to kick in."
He nodded and left the office.
She sighed and closed the door. She felt like crap. And she had the deadline to think about. Stephan Coleman had said that he needed the ad out in two weeks’ time which meant putting in a lot of overtime.
Her extension rang and she reached for the phone slowly. "Yes?"
"I have Stephan Coleman on the line, Sasha."
"Put him through." She frowned and wondered what it was this time!
"Sasha, sorry to call you so early." His deep voice sounded in her ear and had her closing her eyes.
"It’s okay."
"Are you all right? You sound a bit off."
"I think I am coming down with the flu even though I never get sick. But don’t worry, I dragged myself in here to get to work on the ad."
"I am not worried about that. Should you be at work?"
"Maybe not, but here I am."
"I understand that chicken soup is the best thing and lots of liquids."
"I am not drinking any chicken soup," she told him. "I have orange juice and tons of water, so I will be fine. What do you need?"
"I think we should discuss last night."
"You mean where you told me to include the plus sized women-"
"No," he said slowly. "I need to talk to you face to face."
"Why?" she asked him bluntly.
She heard a phone ringing on his end and heard when he talked to someone. "I have to go, but we need to talk." He hung up before she could say anything. She stared at the opposite end of the office. He was going to tell her that he wanted her off the account! The frightening thought had her heart increasing its beat and she felt her hands trembling! She had somehow given him the impression that she was coming on to him and a man in his position could not afford that. Benjamin was going to kill her and then fire her. This was going to be the perfect excuse for him to do that. Furthermore, her career would be ruined. If she bungled a huge account like that, there was no way she was going to be hired ever again in this industry! Maybe she should warn him of what was to come, but she could not rouse herself to do that! She had spoken to him as if he was some ordinary person and not the man who had the power to ruin things for her and everyone who worked in the company. What was she going to do?
*****
Clive Barrett read the proof quickly before looking over at the woman seated in front of his desk. "What do you have against these women? They are beautiful and smart and are doing a lot of good things with their brains as well as their money. They are perfect."
"They are not perfect!" she said sharply, and then reining in her temper, she smiled at him. "Do you know what it is to be a black woman looking for a good black man to settle down with, Clive? You are a white man so it is very easy for you. These women pretend that they are comfortable in the skin that God gave them and then they turn around and marry rich white men. What does that say?"
"It says that love does not know color," he said slowly as he looked at her. "If you go ahead with this piece, you are opening up yourself to people saying that you are filled with envy."
"I have interviewed a lot of sisters who happen to agree with me and a lot of white women who are resentful of the fact that these women are marrying men who should be marrying them."
He stared at her and then laughed. "You sound like an avenging angel. These women marry these men because as I hear the different stories they happen to be in love. It is not a matter of the color of their skin."
"It should be," she muttered. "It is not offensive, Clive, and you can see that. It is an article that will give birth to a number of very interesting discussions, discussions that will sell papers." She looked at him hopefully. He stared at her for a moment and then nodded.
"Go ahead, but the minute one of these ladies gets to feeling offended by this then I am cutting it. Is that clear?"
"Of course," she said with a big smile. "It will be the biggest discussion this paper has ever seen. Take my word for it."
*****
Sasha could not stand the suspense. She kept wondering if she should stop working on the campaign! If he was going to fire the agency then what was the point anyway? She waited until the end of the work day before she made the call. He had not called her back even though she waited on him to do so. She took his card with her out to the car and dialed his number as she sat there. "This is Stephan."
"Stephan, this is Sasha. I am on my way out from work. Are you going to be at the office for the next hour?"
"I am. Are you planning on coming by?"
"May I?"
"Of course. I got so swamped that I did not get a chance to call back. Please, come one over."
Sasha hung up from him and sat there in her vehicle. She was feeling a lot better now as the medications had started to work. She started the vehicle had headed out, sincerely hoping that she would not have to tell Benjie that they were fired!
*****
This time it was earlier and there were a few employees hanging around. The doors were pushed open as several well-dressed women hurried out without giving her a second glance. She had worn a dress today, one made of fine dark blue wool and knee length boots. She had a thick white scarf around her neck and her knee length jacket touched the tops of her boots. A different guard nodded at her and instructed her to take the elevator up. When she got off at the top floor, she noticed a line of well made-up women manning the telephone lines. They gave her a cursory look before going on about their business. She grimaced as she realized that they were used to beautiful women coming and going in the building and how plain she must appear to them.
A tall, well-dressed woman got to her feet as soon as she came into the office. "Ms. Fullerton, my name is Gracie Manning." Her smile was practiced and professional. "Mr. Coleman told me to send you right in."
"Thank you." She nodded and hurried to the door pushing them open. He was on the phone and gestured for her to come in.
She made her way down the steps and sat on the sofa they had used when she had been there. She concentrated on what she was going to say as she waited for him to finish his call. She looked up as he came around and sat next to her. "You do not look ill," he observed.
"The miracle of the pills and liquids I took." She turned towards him and clasped her hands together. "Please, don’t let us go because of something that I did. This account means a lot to not only me but everyone at the agency."
He looked at her with a frown on his brow. "I don’t understand-"
"You said you wanted to talk about last night and I assumed-"
"You assumed that I was planning on taking the account from your agency?" he said slowly, his gray eyes wandering over her face. "Whatever gave you that idea?"
She sagged in relief and suddenly felt foolish. "So you are not planning on firing us?"
"That is the farthest thing from my mind."
"You said you wanted to talk about last night."
"I do." He got up and went to his desk and pressed the intercom. "Gracie, no more calls please and you may leave whenever you are ready."
He came back and sat next to her. "I am not usually at a loss for words, but I am going to try and explain."
This time it was her who looked at him with a frown. "Explain what?"
"When I first saw you rushing inside the conference room that morning, I felt irritation and then fascination."
"Come again?"
He linked his fingers together. "Last night, I felt it again, but only this time it was stronger and it was more than fascination." He turned to face her. "I am usually confident and go after what I want without hesitation, but this time something more than the physical is at work here and I have to tread carefully."
"I don’t understand what you are saying."
"I am attracted to you," he told her bluntly.
Sasha stared at the handsome, powerful man sitting next to her in shock. "I don’t know what that means."
He smiled a little at that and taking her hands in his he stared at them for a moment before looking up at her. "I want to sleep with you, have you in my bed and make love to you and hope that by saying this to you I am not opening up myself for a sexual harassment suit."
She stared at him for a moment and then to his surprise she burst out laughing! "Is this some kind of prank?" She looked around the office. "Is someone going to come out with a hidden camera?"
"No," he said softly as he held onto her hands. "It is not a joke."
She stared at him for a moment. "So you are telling me that you, Stephan Coleman, CEO of one of the largest beauty lines in the world, one of the hottest and sexiest man in the business, a man who has been with countless beautiful women wants to sleep with me, Sasha Fullerton, who the last time I checked was short and wears size twenty clothes. Have I left anything out?"
"The part where I am attracted to you," he murmured.
"Do you hear how ridiculous that sounds?" she asked him.
"Why?"
"Okay, I think I get it. You need to experiment. You have been with thin women and women of Asian descent as well as black and white women. Now you want to know what it feels like to be with someone like me."
"I don’t look at it that way."
"I do." She pulled away from him. "If I don’t sleep with you, will we still have the account?"
He got up slowly and Sasha felt the tremor of awareness as he stood in front of her. "Yes, you will."
"Good," she said briskly. "I am going to do my very best to forget that we ever had this conversation. This is-"
He cut her off as he pulled her into his arms. Sasha braced her hands against his chest but did not stop him as he lowered his head to hers. She moaned deep inside her throat as his lips touched hers. Stephan cupped the sides of her head as he took her lips, his tongue darting inside her mouth slowly. Sasha felt her limbs tremble and her fingers unconsciously curl into his crisp light blue shirt. She felt the steady beating of his heart against her fingers and the racing of her own heart against her breast. His tongue ventured further into her mouth and she moved closer to him unconsciously as she felt her skin heating up. The kiss was potent and had the power to send the tremors racing through her body. His mouth captured hers completely as he deepened the kiss, his hands hard against her face as he brought her up against him. His mouth moved over hers with the slow expertise of a man who had done this many times before eliciting a response from her that spiraled something inside him. He felt the arousal and the surprising fire finding its way through his body as he kissed her. He wanted to do so much more but he needed to give her time and himself a little space to figure out what was happening. He had told her the truth about being attracted to her and had spent most of last night tossing and turning as he tried to figure it out. He did not believe in ‘types’ the way some men did but always went with his feelings. He knew women because he worked with a lot of them and always admired their beauty and resilience. He lifted his head, his gray eyes stormy as he looked down at her, taking in the parted lips and the dazed expression. "I had to stop," he whispered as he used his thumb to trace the full bottom lip. "You are not ready," he whispered, his voice seductive as he stared down at her.
Sasha did not move. How could she when he was hypnotizing her? That’s it! she thought dazedly. She was standing before this powerful, handsome man and he was hypnotizing her with his touch and the look of desire in his shades of gray eyes. She stayed away from sappy romances, never believing that there was anything foolish like love at first sight or that a person could be attracted or wants to strip off every inch of clothing and let a man have his way with her. She stayed away from movies that portrayed women as helpless and who had a hard time saying no to something like this! She should say no firmly and walk out of his office, but she could not move and she felt the betrayal of her body as she looked up at him. He bent his head again and this time she was more prepared. Her lips opened beneath his and he met her hunger with fervor of his own as his tongue darted inside her mouth. Somewhere, a phone was ringing, but it seemed like somewhere far away or it had nothing to do with them. His hands dropped to her waist and pulled her closer to him as he deepened the kiss. But the persistent ringing of his phone finally registered and he ended the kiss, his gray eyes stormy as he looked down at her before with a deep growl he stepped back and turned to walk to his desk. "Yes?" He listened for a moment and then said, "I will be right there." He hung up the phone and braced his hands against his desk for a moment before he turned to her. "I have a-"
"I have to go." She gathered up her stuff quickly, feeling her hands trembling. She was trembling all over from the unfulfilled desire crashing through her and she had never felt so much mortification in her entire life! He caught her as she was about to go up the steps.
"I want to see you," he said urgently. "I have to go and deal with something or I would not be leaving."
"You want to have sex with me."
He shook his head. "I want more than that." His hand was hard on her arm and she did not pull away. "I want to explain, but I have to go. I need to see you again." His hand released her arm to go beneath her chin. "I want to kiss you again, but if I do I won’t be able to stop." He stepped back from her. "Go, please."
She did not need a second bidding as she hurried up the next few steps and walked swiftly to the door. She opened it and got out fast, relieved that his secretary had already left. She leaned against it and took several deep breaths, her eyes closed. It took her a few minutes before she could move off and head towards the elevator. She did not want to think about the craziness that had just taken place in his office. She could not think about that right now. Maybe when she went home and was in the comfort of her apartment she would try and analyze what happened but not now!
*****
The recollection at what he had done played out in his mind as soon as he was headed home. He had acted without thinking and that was unusual for him. He had been thinking about her certainly, but he had had every intention of keeping what he felt at bay, certainly not acting on it until they were both through working on the ad campaign. He did not mix business with pleasure and that was something he had lived by for as long as he was in business. Emotions tended to cloud things and he could not afford that, but he had jumped the gun and he had kissed her, finding that if he had not stopped and if she had allowed him, he would have taken her right there in his office! His hands tightened on the steering wheel as he drove through the circular driveway and up to the front door of the manor. He sat there for a little bit, his brow furrowed as he wondered how to get back control of the situation. He could tell her that they should just concentrate on the business part of their relationship before venturing into something else. He was sure she would agree to that. But having touched her and feeling her lips with his, how could he resist taking her? Kissing her again? He jumped slightly as the man materialized out of nowhere. He bit off a sigh and turned the engine off getting out of the car and nodding to him as he handed him the keys. "I won’t be going back out, Sidney."
"Right, sir," the man said with a slight bow as he waited for his employer to move away from the vehicle before getting in and moving away.
He went inside the foyer and handed his coat to the maid as she hurried over to him. "I am eating my meal with Mother tonight," he told her quietly. "Is she up?"
"Yes, sir. I believe she is waiting for you."
"Thank you." Stephan walked away and bounded up the stairs. He hesitated a moment and then went straight to his suite. He needed a minute before he went to check in on her. He strode into his bedroom and poured himself something to drink. He needed to think a little and wash away the taste of her if he could. He poured the whiskey and drank it straight, grimacing as the strong liquor hit his stomach. He closed his eyes briefly and then made his way to his mother’s room.