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"I can afford that.” I felt my heart fall and I hated myself for making him think that I wasn’t going to be there with him for this new and exciting chapter. “We’ll take both seats in first class.” I heard his voice, but I had to see it for myself to believe it. I turned and I didn’t know what to say. “I was on the plane, but I couldn’t leave without you. There will always be other planes, but there will be nobody quite like you.” His face was like seeing the clouds part with the sun shining through.
“I’m sorry…I’m sorry for being late. I had some unfinished business to do. I think that you’ll be glad to know that Jones will not be bothering me anymore. We are going to keep in touch, but only as friends and nothing more.” He took my hand and brought it up to his lips. It was that extra spark that I needed to clench my legs closed.
“I’m not that insecure that I’m going to worry about a friendship with a past love. That would be petty and I’m through giving you the impression that I feel threatened. The next flight is not for 12 hours. I would like to take that time to learn more about you. I think that I have enough in our budget to splurge on a dinner and maybe two rooms with connecting doors. I would never want to assume anything.” I took his hand and placed it against my chest so that he could feel the thumping presence of my heart giving him the only answer that he would ever need.
“I do want to be close to you, but after everything we’ve both been through, it would be better to start at the beginning. I don’t think that we’re going to need the adjoining room unless of course, you think that you can’t handle being close to me. I would think that we have reached the phase in our relationship that we can trust one another.” I could say that, but I wasn’t sure that I could live up to that promise. The motorcycle, his lips on my hand and being close to him in the same bed was a recipe for disaster.
“I think I can handle that.” I had to stretch on my toes to reach his lips. I showed him that there was a promise for more. The orient was a land of mysteries, but the one mystery that I didn’t have was how I felt about him. It was a lot in the last few days. My mind was still going a million miles an hour. I was going to use the anticipation to keep me on the edge. I was looking forward to the Chinese hospitality. I felt that we needed something that was just for us. I wanted this to be the start of something that would last forever. This trip was meant to give us that freedom to be more intimate. One thing was for certain and there were no past loves or present ones that were going to stand in the way.
I was going to have to trust in the both of us that we could keep it in our pants. I wasn’t sure that being in the same room together was a good idea. I couldn’t say anything or that would have led him to believe that I was lost to my own passion. I was hoping to show him in due time. It was going to be interesting when we finally took off the training wheels. We had waited this long, so what was a little while longer. I was just going to have to keep one eye open and contain that passion with cold showers. China was waiting for us with open arms.
BOOK 2 : STEAL ME (PART 4)
Blueprints of Love
Amanda never thought that it was possible to have anything close to love at first sight, but there she was about to embark on a journey that had been ripe with sexual tension from the moment that they met. August Rivers was not an easy man to get to know, but underneath the suave and sophisticated ladies man was a kind and gentle soul waiting for somebody to come around to open him up to real love. They have been through their own form of trials and tribulations to get to where they are today. They thought that it was going to be easier away from any distractions including ex-girlfriends and boyfriends that seem to show up at the most awkward time. They were wrong and what they face now is something that will shock the both of them. Will they be able to keep the spark alive?
Being in a strange and interesting culture was not an easy thing for either one of us to do. I had read a lot about the Chinese way, but it still didn’t prepare me for what I was about to face. They were stuck in their ways and that old tradition had never been stronger than in the business world. If I thought that I had problems with those from the western side of the world, then I was in for a shock on how close-minded these people could be.
Our first meeting with the Chinese didn’t go exactly as planned. I was shunned and ignored from the moment that I entered the room. They didn’t even acknowledge my existence. They referred all questions to August who seemed a little awkward and kept looking at me to understand what was going on. I thought that they had gotten past their antiquated thinking about where women were supposed to be in the business world. It became painfully obvious that the only reason why they brought me along was because August had made it a part of the deal.
“I understand that you have a lot of ideas, but we would really like you to reconsider your position. Mr. Nakamura has always been about traditional values and morals when it comes to creating something that is going to leave a lasting impression. I don’t want to tell him something that he’s going to refuse to even look at. I was hoping that you would be reasonable and maybe a couple of days thinking on it will help you to come to the right decision.” Michael was the son of a prominent businessman and he was tasked to keep things cordial and moving along at a steady pace.
“I don’t understand any of this. You called us here specifically to give you something that nobody else has. Yet you still want to hold onto the old ways with an iron fist. You haven’t even given my partner the respect that she deserves. I am this close to cutting ties and going back to America. I don’t see any reason why we have to contend with being made into puppets for this administration.” I could see that August was getting hot under the collar and he had a tendency to show it without even meaning to.
“It galls me that you think that you have a choice. The contract that you signed is ironclad. There is no way around it. You can have your lawyers look it over, but I think that they’ll agree that you are now our property. Whatever you do for the next five years is considered the intellectual property of the Nakamura industry. Like I said, I think that you need some time to think about it before you make any rash decisions. My father and I have to go out of the country for a couple of days, but when we return, we would really like to get started as soon as possible. Follow the rules and there will be no problems.” Michael was only following his father’s orders. I could tell that he did not want to get on the bad side of a man that could make his life miserable.
“This is not the last that you’re going to hear about this. I was given some assurances that we were going to have a license to create. We are artists and what we do is something that not many people can. We work well together and you haven’t even made the effort to look her in the eye. Amanda is an integral part of all of this and for you to dismiss her out of hand isn’t something that I’ll tolerate.” It was nice that he was sticking up for me, but I wasn’t sure that this was the place or the time for something like that.
The chairs were supposed to be comfortable, but my back was hurting something fierce. They were designed to be ergonomic and made for a productive workforce. I shifted in my seat continuously trying to find a comfortable position. I was aware of the way that he was looking at my body. I felt self-conscious around this man.
“I am very disappointed that this meeting didn’t go the way that I had hoped it was going to. My father is not going to be very pleased when he hears about how stubborn you can be. I thought mistakenly when we had our in-depth discussions that you were on board. Be careful what kind of waves you want to make. I can tell you from personal experience that those that go against my father don’t last very long in whatever business we are conducting with them. He has a long reach and a power base that exceeds even yours Mr. Rivers.” Michael was being formal, but this was the way that they were raised to show respect to those that they worked for. That is if they were men. Women were pretty much left to sit on the sidelines.
August went over to him wearing his emotion on his sleeve and grabbed him by the collar of his starched shirt. He rumpled the blue fabric and the tie was askew on Michael’s frame. It didn’t look like Michael was at all concerned about the way that August was behaving. He never lost his composure and very gently removed August’s fingers from around his metaphorical throat.
“I believe that you need to keep control of your anger, Mr. Rivers. It will do us no good to be at cross purposes. You can fight it all you want, but I think that you’ll find that it will be futile. My father is a man of honor, but he knows how to conduct business with a forceful and demanding way. He does not speak your language and he considers westerners to be a waste of skin. It took a lot for me to even get him to agree to work with you. He was the one that made the contract. That is the very same contract that you signed and sent back to me digitally.” Michael with his coifed black hair and almond colored eyes momentarily looked in my direction and gave me a sideways glance that made me feel like he was trying to make me burst into flames.
“This is a lot to process. I apologize for grabbing you like that, but you have to admit that you laid a bomb in our lap. We had no idea that you were going to be so strict that you wouldn’t allow us the freedom to show you what we can do. I’m going to have to give this some thought and weigh my options.” August was trying to remain calm, but it was difficult with this man trying t
o run roughshod over us.
“I will forgive this trespass one time and one time only. Don’t presume that you can put your hands on me for any reason. I know that emotions are running high, but that’s no excuse for this kind of unprofessionalism. Ignorance is not an excuse and one that is not going to be tolerated. Your day begins at 8:00 AM our time and ends 5:00 PM unless otherwise stated. You have two days to make peace with your situation or we will see you in court. I think that you’ll agree that you want to avoid that at all costs.” Michael was wearing a red power tie and the glasses were mostly for show.
I was terrified of saying anything in case that it would be subjected to scrutiny. I thought that I was independent and had a mind of my own, but here it felt like I was a second-class citizen. There were women in business, but they really didn’t raise the bar for the rest of them. They followed along with the owners’ wishes. It was only if they were able to break free and become their own boss that they were given a bit more than a casual glance.
Michael closed the door gently like he was trying to make a point. August immediately slammed down his hands on the table so hard that it actually made me jump to my feet. I was shivering in place.
“I don’t even know what to say. I have more than enough money to fight them, but it would be a never-ending battle for years to come. I would lose my reputation. You haven’t said much. I know that he can be intimidating, but you have to stand up for yourself in order to be recognized. I didn’t like doing all the talking for us. We are a team and I would hope that you would act like one.” His anger towards Michael and his father was now spilling over. He saw me as a target and he was using me to get rid of some of that pent-up frustration that he felt.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what to say and everything that Michael said was in the face of what we believed. He came in here shaking your hand and I knew that something was wrong when he didn’t even look at me. I didn’t feel that it was necessary to say anything. He had a script before coming in here and he was following it to the letter. Nothing was going to make him deviate from what he was going to say.” I was just as angry and I wanted to scream, but to do so would only feed into their perception of us.
“I came here in good faith and they slapped that in my face. I thought that I had a good standing with Michael over the phone, but I see now that he was only putting on a face. Telling me what I wanted to hear and then slipping a contract through the cracks. I did take him lightly and he made me feel like we were on the same page.” August had turned a crimson red and I thought for sure that steam was going to come out of the top of his head.
I placed my hands on his shoulders in a gesture of good faith. I could feel the tension in his muscles and there had to be a way to relieve him of what he was feeling. I could think of one way, but to use my body in that fashion would be the wrong way to start this relationship.
“We have two days to think about what we’re going to do. It’s really not a long time, but we don’t have to think about it right now. Let’s get out of our head and do something fun. We’re here in a city that we don’t really know. I say that we embrace it.” I turned his head towards me and I saw the look of defeat in his eyes.
I could smell the Chinese Food cooking on the industrial sized Wok in the back of the restaurant. There was nothing like authentic Chinese Food. There was one place back home that had taken their recipe from their homeland and brought it to my table.
