“Just say it, Cecilia. What’s got you so tensed?” I try to stay calm, but worry seeps into my voice.
“It’s just..I really didn’t expect this to happen again.”
That hesitancy and uncertainty in her voice is a clear giveaway. Cecilia is always strong, firm and to the point while discussing any problem. If this news has gotten under her skin, then I can make a safe and wise guess about what it is.
“When were you due?” I ask, holding my breath.
“Two weeks ago. I even took a test. It’s positive.”
I release my breath. This is a known issue. A problem that has a definite, clear solution. Not the best one, but still given our situation and age factor, it’s the most logical one. I wish I could say this was a shocker but having experienced it once before, it doesn’t evoke the same response. I’m calmer and more in control this time.
But I don’t think I can tell the same about my wife. She seems sadder and tenser than the last time. Not a good sign, but I know very well how to pull her out of this.
“We need to take care of it.” My voice is stern. She knows what needs to be done, but I have to spell it out for her for it to sink in.
“Nathan……” she starts, almost in a wailing tone.
“Baby, our family is complete. I’m yours and will always be yours. You have me and you have them. We are good and I’ll always be there for you.”
“But, maybe, we can talk...”
“No,” I cut her again. “Not now. Let me come home. If you want to talk, we shall talk, but baby, please think of the future too. We’ll have to think wisely and not emotionally.”
A beat passes but I wait patiently for her response. I can’t shove it down her throat. She has to agree willingly.
“Okay. But we will talk.” Her voice lacks the earlier defiance or it must be hope. It’s more resigned now, but it’s good. She’ll understand. She has to.
“I’ll see you in a bit, babe.” I disconnect the call.
I stare at the surface of the water as it swallows a stone. The ripples start from the point of impact, spreading farther and farther away. Cracks in relationships are the same. Their true impact can’t be felt in that moment. It fractures, spreading like crevices, leaving destruction as its aftermath. It’s unavoidable. I can clearly see fractures in my relation with Cecilia too. I also know it’s affecting her more than what she’s letting on. Not enough to give up on me or us. She’d never do that. Not after everything we’ve been through. She needs me. Me? I don’t know what I need any more. Composure and a good time away from the stressful monotonous life seem like a good option.
Ringing of my phone once again snaps my focus from my thoughts. The screen flashes with Sara’s bright, smiling face. I wasn’t expecting a call from her. In fact, I had tried not to dwell much over my feelings for her. It has been nearly a week since I spoke to her, excluding the daily stand-ups. I was pretty busy and out of office the last week. She lingered in the recesses of my mind, but my focus was on other stuff. But she’s a good distraction. Distraction I need at the moment to be steered away from reality.
My fingers hover over the screen. There’s uncertainty and trepidation. But it lasts for mere two seconds before I slide my screen and receiver her call.
“Nathan.” Just one word - My name slipping from her lips and I get hard. This is unusual for me. Over the years my control over my urges had grown, but Sara is making me lose it all too easily. I’ve no idea why.
“Nathan, you there?” This time I think beyond my growing erection and focus on her voice. It’s laced with worry. She’s panicking.
“I’m here, Sara. Tell me.” I keep my composure like always. Panicking is always the root cause of failure.
“We’re facing some issues in the upgrade. It’s going beyond the change window but then the issue is from the DB end and not ours, so I’m not sure if we have to continue or just rollback. I’ve been trying to call you from the office phone, but I wasn’t able to get a hold of you.”
Right. My bad. After seeing Cecilia’s missed call, I didn’t even bother to check the other calls.
“I apologize for that. I was preoccupied.”
“That’s ok,” she starts again in the same panicky tone. “I’m just a little worried.” Pause. Sigh. “I..I don’t know what to do..” Pause. Another sigh.
Her reactions are so rhythmic and timed. Even in her panicky, worried state, she creates a sweet melody. I can listen to her soft cries in an endless loop.
“Sara, breathe. Slow and deep.” My tone is relaxed. I’m not even ordering her.
And she does just that. I hear the slow and steady gush of air being expelled from her lungs. Oddly enough, it calms me more.
“I’m sorry,” she mutters. “Let me explain it to you.” There is still that lingering doubt which I want to erase completely. With me around, she has nothing to worry. Absolutely nothing.
“You have nothing to fear, Sara. I can take it from here.” But no. That sounds wrong. I don’t want to doubt her capabilities. “If you want me to that is,” I continue. “If not, I can guide you and let you do it all on your own. Whatever you prefer.”
I rarely give anyone choices. I’ve always preferred taking the call. It doesn’t surprise me that Sara has already started to become that exception.
“I’ll do it.” That’s my girl. I knew it. I have gauged her enough to know that she won’t ever be the one to step down, no matter how dire the situation gets. “I want you to guide me, though. You know it the best. You hold the authority.”
‘Thanks for reminding.” I’m gifted with her short chuckle. “You better remind yourself that timely, especially when you’re playing by my rules, and that smart mouth and dominant trait of yours decides to take over.”
Subtle, but not subtle enough. Ms. Writer will definitely latch onto that.
“What?! I mean, I…..” Poor girl. It’ll take her time to get used to my sudden change of topics. “We’ll see. I won’t be making any promises.”
This is where I grab her hair in a tight fist, bend her over my knee and fuck her. It’s a delicious challenge. In addition to my cock, she arouses that fighting, dominant streak of mine too. It’s been dormant for far too long.
“Will you please stop distracting me, Nathan? I’ve got a huge crisis in my hands.”
The table’s turned already. She has got her voice back and all thanks to one offhanded remark of mine. Interesting.
“By the way, one quick question. Has no one else complained about you distracting them with your sinful voice and words every so often?”
Smart. I know what she’s truly going for. It’s more her jealousy than curiosity speaking.
“You’re good at researching, I’ve heard. You’ll have to find this one out on your own. But Ms. Dare devil, don’t go about asking the ladies if I make them wet just by my words and looks. Even if that’s true, I doubt they’ll be admitting it in the open.”
“That’s expected,” she tells in a flat tone. Maybe my words hit a nerve. Women aren’t always easy to read.
“Coming to the topic at hand,” I start. “Care to shed more light on it?”
“Yeah. I just got a latest update that - they are not sure how long it might take. They are working on it, but they wouldn’t mind rolling back.”
It’s so typical of them. But I won’t be doing any rework on this. I’ve got the dates for this activity after a lot of persuasion. I just can’t let them ruin all my efforts.
“Not happening.” This time my voice takes a commanding tone. I can get on the call with them right this moment and set them straight. But I won’t. I want Sara to handle things her way. In her style.
“They aren’t so sure of fixing it. If it’s not up in two hours, we’ll be hearing complaints from the customers. Then we’ll be in bigger trouble…”
“I understand the gravity of the situation,” I cut her, rather harshly. Sara can’t bow to them this easily, no matter what they have to say.
/> “Of course, you do,” she bites back. “That’s precisely why you were ignoring all the calls from office, am I right?”
I snort and a rumble escapes my throat. She fucking accused me of being irresponsible and I actually laughed about it.
“Sorry,” she starts again. “I didn’t mean to be rude to you, but this might not be a big thing to you after having experienced worse, but for me, it is. It’s the first critical release that you’ve assigned me. And though it doesn’t require any high technical expertise, it’s still my duty to see it to the finish. I’m taking complete accountability for whatever happens.”
“Accountability will always be on my head, sweetheart. But I do understand your concern and I’m here to help you out.”
“Sweetheart? It’s been ages since I was called that.”
My chirpy, blatantly, bold girl is sad that her boyfriend doesn’t call her sweetheart. She’s way above such terms of endearment. I’ll prove that to her. One day soon.
“Once again, I’m sorry for not picking your phone earlier.” If I would have known it was her, I would have probably picked it up in a beat, and not because of the task she’s working on. No. I would have just wanted to talk to her. Even if she would have been the one talking, I would have still been all ears. A reprieve. That’s what she is to me. “I was caught up with some other issues,” I explain.
“Personal?”
I have a messier problem waiting for me at home. I’d actually pick the angry customers over my sad and pissed wife any day. And all because I chose to let go of the damn rubber on a couple of occasions.
“You can say that,” I offer as an answer.
“Oh. Well, what do you want me to do?” she asks in a stern voice.
“Wait for me to show you every damn thing I imagine doing to you.”
She gasps and the line goes silent. It’s so easy for me to surprise her at every turn. What she doesn’t realize is that it’s much easier for her to entice me in every damn way possible.
“If I permit you, that is,” she declares haughtily.
“Are you saying there is even a minute chance that you’ll be refusing me? If that were really the case, you would have snubbed me off already. You would never have entertained this.”
“I’m not,” she stresses. “I’m so curious to learn more about you that I’m just finding it hard to resist your advances.”
“You’re labelling my bickering as advances?” I snort. “This is nothing.”
“So what do you want me to call it?” she argues. ”The great Nathan Bankers is flirting with his employee? A mere subordinate?”
“A small correction. Positions don’t matter much to me. Even if you were to be my boss, I’d possibly still give it a shot.”
“So, are you admitting that you’re indeed flirting with me?”
“No,” I answer briskly. “I’m too old for the high school flirting. I’m just trying to be as discrete as possible about my intentions. It all depends on how receptive and welcoming you’re to the idea.”
“Nathan, I’m not able to wrap my head around this development. What do you want from me?” She’s not playing me. Her confusion is genuine.
“Everything you’re willing to offer. I’m good with friendship too. I’ll obviously be clinging onto the fact that it can turn to something more in due time.” This was not a part of my plan. But to be very honest, I had no plan to start with. With Sara, everything has been so spontaneous. I really didn’t think things through.
She lets out a heavy breath. “I’m game.”
This early? I didn’t see that coming at all. Those two words of hers have opened a lot of doors for me. They’re exactly what I craved for.
“For being friends,” she clarifies. For now, Sara. It’s going to change soon. “We’ll have to draw lines and you’ll be playing by my rules. Am I clear, Nathan?”
I want her uttering the same words when she is wriggling underneath me with her wrists clasped behind her back, my unwavering gaze on her and my cock buried deep inside of her. The very thought has my dick growing hard against my shorts.
Before I can give her back, I hear a loud, shrill ringing sound. That has to be her desk phone.
“Yeah, Sara here.” Pause. I hear her musing out loud. “Yes. I’ve been discussing with Nate on that and its possible implications. Can you give me a minute? I’ll get back to you.” The authority is back in her tone and that makes my dick harder. I’m worse than a teenager now.
“Nathan, I’m on mute. Let’s strictly talk business. We can talk about our extra-curricular activities later.”
Extracurricular? She couldn’t have termed it better.
“Yes, Mam.” This is amusing
“What do you suppose I do? It’s your call.”
“What do you want to do, Sara? Tell me what you strongly feel.”
“I don’t think rolling back is an option after coming this far. We should pull through,” she tells confidently.
“It’s not just them. You should monitor them and be at their side until it’s done. Are you up for it? It might take whole night,” I warn her.
“Yes. I understand that. I’ll be here, or will connect from home. Either way, I’ll see it till the end. You can trust me.”
“I trust you. I know you can do it. Make them trust you as well and for that, they’ll have to witness what you’re capable of. To make that happen, you’ll have to utilize your authority and make them do what they seem pretty unsure of at this point in time. You have to push them and order them if they don’t agree. Once it’s all done and over, they’ll start to respect you. Until then, don’t give up on them and just hold on. Worse case, you can always reach out to me.”
“I understand. I’ll do it. Thanks for your invaluable advice.”
“My pleasure. Now get this done soon so that we can discuss more about our extracurricular activity,” I tease.
“Sure thing, Nate.”
I wait but she doesn’t disconnect and starts to talk on the other phone. “Rolling back is ruled out. Let the business wait, I’ll handle them. All you guys should focus on right now is finishing your task. You can leave the rest to me. I’ll closely be monitoring you guys, so come to me directly with any updates. Let’s do this together. It’s a mutual trust and I believe you guys can pull it off. Let’s not give up at this stage.”
She starts addressing their concerns and I disconnect the call. I like her. I really do. She reminds me so much of myself when I was her age. Maybe that’s why I’m able to connect so easily with her. She’s a lot like me.
“One burietto please,” I ask the lady at the counter and she prints my bill. I pay in cash and leave the line. I’m little doubtful about getting dinner at home. Cecilia wouldn’t have prepared dinner. She would have asked the kids to eat out. She wouldn’t care to eat and I can’t talk to my wife about this delicate issue on an empty stomach. That left with me just this one option. A quick snack for dinner. After a short wait, I go to collect it.
“Nathan?”
I turn around at the sound of a sharp voice. I am met with dark green orbs of a tall, slender, sexy woman who might be in her late thirties. She has shoulder length blonde hair that frames her face. She feels oddly familiar but I can’t get myself to remember her. The problem is at the moment, I’m clearly distracted by her cleavage. With the top two buttons of her shirt undone, she’s offering quite a tease. We men get diverted easily, especially if the distraction has anything to do with some skin show. It’s just not me. Some express it, some don’t. What truly counts is whether we act on those urges. Most don’t. Me? I don’t want to, not after all this time. But my track record in the past, especially before Cecilia has been bad.
Waving her hands in front of my face, she snaps me out of my thoughts.
“Come on Nathan, I know I’ve changed a lot over the years, but you have to recognize me!”
That’s when I clearly study her without giving much attention to her curves. OK. Now I know who s
he is. If I had focused more on her face and voice, it wouldn’t have taken me this much time to recognize her. The first thing I remember her is how loud she was. She has always been a loud one on bed and that’s not something common. That particular trait of hers definitely stands out.
“Of course. Hi, Mathilda.” I flash her a warm smile. I step forward into her personal space and gauge her reaction. When she continues to smile, unperturbed by my closeness, I give her a swift hug and step back. “I must say, you’re still a beauty.”
I have always known when, where and how to play the gentleman card. I might have never been in a serious relationship with any of these women, but I’ve always treated them with respect. They were not just use and throw for me. I have always been friendly and nice to them. That won’t be changing now either.
“Nice running into you again.” She smiles again and nods her head. She’s clearly anxious about something or is she plain intimidated with me? Hard to tell. “Can we grab a seat? I would love to catch up with you.”
I had planned on eating alone and making a quick call to Sara to get some updates. But for old times’ sake, I can try to be more accommodating for her.
“Sure,” I tell, guiding her towards an empty table.
She takes a seat opposite to me. Keeping my hands folded on the table, I appraise her with a raised brow. “Want to grab something to eat?”
“No, I’m good, thanks.”
I can start a generic conversation, but the way Mathilda is eyeing me with unabashed curiosity or should I dare say attraction, it’s better to let her initiate this conversation.
“So, Nate, how have you been? It’s been nearly twenty years…” She leans back on her seat, giving me a smug smile.
Women tend to give subtle signs, which I expertise at picking. She is well aware that it’s bene more than twenty years. My son is eighteen now, and he was born two years after my wedding. Last I was with Mathilda was before my wedding. I’m positive about that. She knows this. She wants me to correct her, show her that I remember our time together. She wants to convince herself that the chemistry between us still persists. For what joy? I’ve no idea. I can still play along.
Enticed by you (Miraculous Love Book 1) Page 8