The Job Offer (25 page)

After their bodies cooled off and the
lethargy that comes from being satisfied set in, Anne snuggled against his side
and told him again that she loved him.  She could not have asked for a better
response than the tender smile that lit his face.  He pulled her close to his
side and whispered the same words to her.  They dozed for a while locked in
each other’s arms, satisfied in a way they had never been before, secure in the
knowledge of their shared love.  Sometime later Anne woke slowly, in stages, with
the feel of Ben’s hand lazily rubbing her across her back.  She stretched like
a cat next to him then snuggled into his side again.  She began drifting off
when his spoke, his words waking her with a start.

"You're going to have to marry me,
you know."  She looked quickly at him, and he grinned charmingly at her sleepy
albeit happy expression.  "I can't just have an affair with one of my employees. 
It’s bad for business."

"What makes you think I'll be
staying with your company?"  She was teasing him now but wanted to hear
his reply.

"Well, for starters, I have a
contract.  So, my love, you aren't going anywhere anytime soon.  Secondly, I
have every intention of making you my wife and the mother of my children, so
you working somewhere else won’t work either.  And in case you did not notice,
we didn't use protection again.  At this rate, I'll have you pregnant in no
time, so you had better say 'yes' soon to being my wife.  What do you say to a
big wedding next summer at the cathedral?"

"No."  She shook her head and
laughed.

"That's my girl.  But you will
marry me?"  He suddenly looked worried again, and she put his mind at rest
with a wide smile.

"Yes, I will.  But I should tell
you that you will be getting more than you bargained for.  I come as a package
deal."

"What do you mean?  Is there
something you want?  Name it.  It will be yours if I have any say in it."

"I don’t want anything more.  Only
you and…Well, that’s not what I meant by a package deal.  What I meant was that
you won't make me pregnant if we don't use protection in the future."  At
his confused look she continued.  "It won't work on me because I'm
already..."

She stopped talking because he flipped
her over and began kissing her again joyfully.  Then he looked down at her in
wonder.

"You're happy?"  She looked up
at him with worry.

"I'm very happy.  Ok, I have new
terms.  What do you say to getting married next month at the inn?"

"Yes!  I think that would be
acceptable."  She giggled at his happy expression and the way he began
rubbing her belly.  He scooted down and kissed her belly before looking back up
into her face.

"I have another term."

"You have another one!  You are
pushing your luck today, Stanford."

Ben scooted back up so that they were
face to face again.  "I think you will agree with this one.  If we have a
boy, my term is that he will not be named Benjamin Stanford IV."

"And if we have a girl?"

"That she not be named Jane
Anne."

"It's a deal."

#####

Going for the Gold

Prologue

"
Ni, ni, ni, Dytyna
.  You
need more speed going into the triple lutz or you'll catch your toe pick."

Kerri Sullivan did not look at her coach
who yelled out the instructions but increased her speed as she rounded the
boards and headed back to the center of the ice rink.  Moving her weight onto
her left leg and gliding backwards, she went into her preparations for the jump
that had been plaguing her since the U.S. Nationals.  She lifted her right leg
and leaned forward with her torso then quickly pushed off with her right foot
that she dropped to the ice.

One.

Two.

Three.

She came down perfectly on the ice with
her weight on the front of her right foot swinging her left leg around and
behind her.  Quickly, she leaped in the air again and completed the triple toe
loop in her combination triple-triple jump required for competition.  She
nailed the landing on her second jump, too.  Her feeling of victory continued
as she glided across the ice doing two more jumps before going into her final
spin to end her long program.  The second movement of Rachmaninoff Piano
Concerto No. 2 in C minor ended gradually in exact synchronization with her
spin.

Clap.

Clap.

Clap.

"Beautiful!  Perfect, Kerri!"

Kerri looked over at her coach standing
on the other side of the boards then up at the mostly empty seats in the ice
arena they were using for practice today.  There were several people scattered
in the seats, some of them family members of skaters who came to watch the
practice and some reporters covering the figure skating events.  She saw her
mother sitting in the seventh row wearing a huge smile on her face.  Kerri felt
good about practice today.  It went better than she had hoped, and even though
she was only an alternate, she still needed to be ready to compete.  Skating
over to the boards, she pushed open the door that would take her to the bench
where she could put her neon blue guards on over her blades.  She dropped down
heavily and worked at catching her breath.

"Very good, Kerri."  Coach
Baranski's words were thick with the Ukrainian accent she had yet to lose after
twenty years in the United States.  Petra Baranski had been Kerri's coach for
the last five years, and in that time, Kerri's skating had improved enough for
her to win several junior national and world championships, a few senior level
competitions, and, at almost seventeen, become an alternate to the U.S. Women's
Figure Skating Olympic team.  Coach Baranski was also the assistant coach for
the U.S. Women's Olympic team.  "You keep doing it like that, and you may
find yourself in the top ten if Shannon is too ill to compete."

Kerri took the towel her coach handed
her and wiped the sweat from her forehead and neck.  She looked at her coach
with nervous excitement, speechless while she worked at being able to talk
again over her breathlessness.  Coach Baranski raised one of her brown eyebrows
and looked down at her with a slight smile that showed Kerri that her coach was
proud of how well she did in her practice today.  But practice was not
competition her look also said.  "Your lutz was good today, but you still
need work.  I don't like the way you transition with your arms.  You are still
pulling back too soon with your left arm.  We finish for the day, though.  The
Japanese team has the arena booked for the next three hours."

"That was great, Kerri."  Kerri's
mother said excitedly as she reached them by the bench.  Kerri's mother was a
medium sized woman in her forties with a pretty heart shaped face that matched
Kerri's, light brown hair that she wore in a short bob, and blue eyes lit with
excitement and great interest at what Kerri's coach just said.  "Coach
Baranski, will Kerri be competing?  She's worked so hard and it looks like she
fixed her problem with the lutz."  There was a hopeful look on her face
that was mirrored by Kerri.

"Who's to say, Mrs. Sullivan? 
Coach Taylor said to have Kerri prepared to compete on Monday.  I know not if
Shannon is over her illness.  Come,
Dytyna
.  We discuss your performance
now."

"When will we know if I'll be
competing?"

"We will not know until Monday when
we check in at the Olympic arena.  Coach Taylor will know then."

"I'm going back to the hotel to
call your father, Kerri.  We plan on meeting for lunch then head on over to the
hockey arena.  Two kids in the Olympics.  Whoa.  I'll see you later."  She
leaned down and gave Kerri a hug before kissing her forehead.  "Stay out
of trouble."

"I can hardly get into any trouble
in the Olympic village, Mom."  At almost seventeen, Kerri was still able
to feel embarrassment over her mother's over protectiveness and counsel.  She
thought her mother's advice unfounded.  The village was closed off, after all,
from the rest of Turin, Italy and from the fray of the crowds that converged
upon the venues.  She stood up and adjusted the strap of the black exercise
leotard she wore over her black leggings and picked up the towel and a water
bottle sitting on the bench.  She and Coach Baranski left the rink and
discussed her performance as they walked into the gathering room that would
take Kerri to the women's locker room.  When they reached the large open room
at the top of the corridor, Coach Baranski left Kerri to go to Coach Taylor who
stood in conference with an Olympic official by the vending machines.

"You go,
Dytyna
.  I meet you
in front of the building in a half hour," Kerri's coach told her before
she walked away leaving Kerri to walk down the corridor alone.  Used to the
constant interruptions and calls on her coach's time now that she was one of
the assistant coaches, Kerri said "goodbye" and headed down the
corridor.

"That was a great practice, today,
Kerri."  Kerri looked around to see David Rathbourne, a member of the
men's team, standing by the water fountain in the hall that crossed the end of
the corridor forming a T.  He was dressed in his official team sweats right now
but had practiced earlier that morning.  Kerri was the last to practice with
the U.S. team and had the opportunity to watch his performance while she waited
for her chance to practice.  In her estimation, his performance was flawless.

"Thanks, David.  You looked really
good out there."  David was four years older than Kerri, and she had a
huge crush on him.  She had a bad case of hero worship; at least that was what
her mother called it.  Kerri had been following his skating career for the past
four years ever since he competed in the Salt Lake City Games and finished
fourth.  She heard that he still dating Shannon and had been since the
beginning of the season last July.  But the rumor mill also had it that they
would probably be breaking up after the games.  Her stomach gave a little
flutter when David walked over and flicked her strawberry blonde pony tail,
smiling the whole time into her jade green eyes.  Vaguely, she heard the sound
of the men's locker room door opening down the hall, but she did not turn to
look at whoever left the room because her gaze remained locked on David's
smiling face.

"So, Kerri...  A few of us were
planning on going over and watching the ice dancing short program tonight
instead of staying in the dorms.  Do you want to come?"  Kerri couldn't be
sure, but he appeared to be flirting with her.  She looked into his blue eyes,
lost in their beauty.  His dark blonde hair was still wet from his shower, and
she wanted to touch it.  "You certainly are a pretty thing, aren't you?  So
what do you say?"

"I'm afraid that I can't
tonight," she told David feeling both flustered by his invitation and
disappointed that she could not go along with the group.  Her heart sang
because David asked her along.  He noticed her and wanted to spend time with
her!  "The men's hockey team is playing the Swedish team tonight, so I'll
be cheering them on."  All season long David had kept his distance from
her, and she was overwhelmed by his talking to her now.  Her stomach quivered
with butterflies when he smiled at her.  Oh boy!  She felt her face warm with a
blush and gave him a shy smile.  He noticed and gave her a knowing smile in
return.  The man was positively gorgeous, she thought.  How she wished she
could go over to the arena with the others.  "My brother is starting
forward.  Maybe, after the Games we could...?"

"Too bad you can't come, Kerri.  It
would be fun to have you along."  He took her pony tail in his hand again
and held it for a second before letting go.  Then he winked at her and walked
away.  She sighed and had a wistful smile on her face as she watched him walk
up the corridor toward the main entrance.

When he turned the corner at the top of
the corridor, she looked around the hall where she stood and saw Jakobe
"Jake" Takeda leaning against the wall by the men's locker room
watching her closely.  He was the three time reigning men's world champion, the
gold medalist in Salt Lake City, and was expected to take the gold again at the
end of the week.  She always thought he was one of the most focused skaters on
the senior tour, and his powerful style laced with animal grace had caught the
attention of non-skating fans and advertisers alike around the world in
addition to the legions of fans of the sport.  His intense stare made her
slightly uncomfortable, and she turned to begin the walk down the other end of
the hall to the ladies' locker room.

"I'd stay away from him, if I were
you."

That stopped her, and she turned back
around.  He was dressed in black workout clothes, his signature color, and his
skates added several inches to his already tall muscular frame.  His hair was
black and his eyes a light brown in his handsome face.  She knew from a feature
done on him last month that he was twenty four years old and was the son of the
Japanese Takeda Athletics CEO and the British national championship pairs
skater, Evelyn Andrews.

"Excuse me?"

Kerri could feel the power emanating
from his body even from the twenty foot distance between them.  It was his
intense gaze and seemingly casual stance, she thought.  Everything about Jake
Takeda intimidated her.  He was like a tiger ready to pounce, but she did not
move when he walked over only stopping when he stood right in front of her. 
Mere inches separated them and she had to crane her neck up to look him in the
eye.  She could feel the heat from his body reach her and could smell his spicy
cologne.  Her heart began to beat wildly in nervousness and she wanted to
flee.  But she did not move and held his gaze unflinchingly.  She tried hard
not to reveal just what he was doing to her by standing so close.  She could
see why he had become so successful both in and outside of the sport.  Jake did
not say anything as he watched her, but she could feel the power and charisma
oozing from him.