Baby For The Bear

“But it could,” Ken said. “We could skip this place and do it…that way. Naturally.”

“But we have a contract for that,” she said.

“So? We can tear up that contract and make a contract for this. I can still pay you the stipend and the $75,000. But it would be just us, no doctors.”

Now she did look back at him again, with a disbelief, an incredulity, a complete boggling of her mind, that she had never experienced in her life. “A contract for that? Would your lawyers actually make up a contract for that?”

“With the retainer I pay them,” Ken answered, “my lawyers do whatever the hell I tell ‘em.” And he smiled a confident smile at her.

“Oh my God,” was all Samantha could say. She was truly in another world, the world of billionaires and the power that they wielded. As incredulous as she was at Ken’s proposal—or his proposition, as the case may be—she had no doubt that he could make anything happen that he wanted to happen.

“Tell me something,” said Ken. “Are you…attracted to me at all?”

Was he kidding? How could he ask her a thing like that, as if he didn’t know the answer. He must know the answer. “Ken…I…” she began, and couldn’t finish.

Ken said, “This could be better…nicer…more satisfying, if you want to think of it that way, for both of us. Doing it naturally, we could make it better. And for the answer to the other side of my question…I’ve felt attracted to you all along. You had me when you sat in my office and told me not in so many words to go to hell for taking away your job.”

She leaned over, put her elbows on her knees, and put her face in her hands. “Oh, Ken,” she blurted into her hands with her face hidden.

Now he dared to move closer to her and put just one arm around her. “Samantha, will you look at me? Please?”

Samantha did as he asked her. But she was now truly speechless.

“Let me ask you again. Are you attracted to me?”

And once again she could not answer in words, but with a shake of her head.

“Enough that you wouldn’t mind going to bed with me?”

And there it was. He had actually put it into words. She shook her head “yes” again.

He smiled tenderly at her. “Samantha,” he said, “I want to go to bed with you. I want to make you pregnant…in bed. Have you ever been to bed with a morph?”

“No,” she admitted.

“I can tell you this, then. If you went to bed with me, I’d fu*k you like no human male ever could—more than a human male could. A hell of a lot more. I’d make it the best time you could ever have, every time. And I wouldn’t stop ’til you were carrying my cub. Hell, I wouldn’t stop even then. Knowing you were pregnant with my cub would make me want to fu*k you even more. And I’d do it as long as you were able to have me, and as long as it was safe for the cub. And you wouldn’t have to worry about a thing. I’d take care of you, provide everything you needed.

“I know how this all probably sounds, like I’m offering to make you my ‘kept woman’ or something. Maybe that’s not the kind of relationship you want, or not the kind of relationship you’d ever want, and I understand that. I guess you probably appreciate your independence more than that, and I respect that. But Samantha…even if you want to tear up the contract, and even if you don’t want to have the kind of relationship we’re talking about…I still want to go to bed with you. I still want to show you how beautiful I think you are. Can you maybe at least think about it?”

“Ken,” she said, “that’s…an awful lot to think about.”

“I know,” said Ken. “And since it looks like you’re not going to be going back to the doctor for fertility shots and we’re going to be tearing up the contract, maybe you’d like to think about it on the ride back to your apartment.”

“Okay,” she said.

And together they left the Couples’ Room to tell the doctor that they were putting the whole thing on hold. Which was Ken’s polite way of saying, I’ll pay you for the appointment, but otherwise forget about it.

*****

The limousine ride back to Samantha’s apartment was quiet. They drank no more champagne. Samantha sat at one end of the back seat, starring out the window, watching the city buildings roll on past. Ken sat at the other end, watching Samantha.

When they reached her building, Ken insisted on getting out with her and walking her up to the door of her apartment. Samantha accepted, and up into the building they went. At her door, they stopped.

“I didn’t bother you on the way back,” he said, “because I wanted you to have some time just to think. Do you need more time?”

“I don’t think so,” said Samantha.

Ken frowned slightly, not an angry frown but a softly disappointed one; a frown of acceptance. He shook his head and said, “Okay. But will you at least call me if you need anything?” And he turned around to head for the stairs. The sound of Samantha’s voice made him stop and turn.

“Ken…”

“Yes?”

“I meant…I don’t need any more time to think. Do you…want to come in? Can you just send the driver on…and come in?”

A smile blossomed amid the sexy stubble of Ken’s face. “I can totally do that,” he replied. And taking his phone from his jacket pocket, he walked back to her door as she reached into her purse for her key.