15. Boundaries
Boundaries
Nadine woke up with a throbbing headache.
One bottle had turned into three as she and Eddie sat in the wine cellar, discussing the rules of her “exploration” as Dr. Flournoy so eloquently put it.
Eddie hadn’t required much, but what he required gave Nadine pause.
In her office, Nadine rubbed her temples as she replayed the conversation over and over in her head.
“I am not asking for much, Nadine. But if this is going to work, as a couple, we need to set some boundaries.”
“What kind of boundaries?”
“I don’t think I need details of everything that you all do.”
“Ok. I can respect that and…”
“I’m not done, Deanie…”
“Oh. Sorry. Continue.”
“If you start to develop feelings, real feelings, let me know.”
“Feelings? As in fall in love?”
“Yes. If you feel a deeper connection, I need to know because you falling in love requires a different type of space and a different conversation.”
“I mean, what would that mean for us?”
“We’ll cross that bridge if it gets that far.”
“Would you want to meet them? If it gets that far...I mean.”
“Eventually, but not right now. Nor do I want them around, EJ. I don’t need the confusion for him. Not saying you’re confused…shit…you know what I mean.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“This is about us. Our marriage. No one and nothing else.”
Nadine had already broken two out of the three rules.
Zaire was around EJ every day. And now Eddie had officially met her.
Surely, this was too close for comfort on so many levels.
But Zaire was irresistible. Even if she was miles apart, she’d want her.
Nadine was like a moth drawn to a flame, more than willing to get burned.
Was that the “feelings” Eddie warned her about? If so, Nadine was going to be fucked.
Nadine’s stomach was queasy, and she couldn’t be bothered to eat breakfast. She tossed back two ibuprofen with some water as she logged into her first meeting of the day. Mitchell was already looking annoyed as the team gathered to talk strategy.
“Good morning everyone,” Nadine said. “You too, Mitchell.”
Mitchell snorted as he rolled his eyes. He looked as if he just rolled out of bed. “I’m just not a morning person, that’s all. Sorry if I seem so unpleasant.”
You’re unpleasant any time of the day, thought Nadine.
Nadine gave a weak smile. “Well, thank you anyway for taking this meeting. I know early morning strategy meetings are unusual, but I want to get to the bottom of things before we move forward with DigiCo. I am glad to have a representative here. Thanks Clyde.”
Clyde Waters, current VP at DigiCo nodded. “Sure thing, Nadine. We want this merger to go through smoothly so any questions you have, I am here, along with my team.”
“Great. Let’s discuss last quarter’s numbers.”
Just then, Nadine’s office door opened. Quietly, Zaire came in, bringing a cup of coffee on a saucer, along with a spice cake muffin.
Nadine had baked them earlier in the week during one of her stress-induced fits.
She tried to focus on the meeting on her screen, but her eyes perused Zaire quickly, taking in her wide hips, joggers, and Emory t-shirt that did little to hide her hard nipples.
Now that she knew what Zaire had under those clothes, all she wanted to do was get them off of her.
Fuck. Focus, Deanie.
Nadine blinked, trying to replace her lust with some type of neutral expression. Upon second glance, she noticed a Post-it on the cup.
You need to eat, beautiful.
Nadine looked up as Zaire was giving her a wink as she headed back out the door. Nadine smiled.
“Nadine? Did you hear what Clyde asked?” Mitchell’s annoyed voice broke through her thoughts.
“Sorry. Could you repeat, Clyde?” Nadine was embarrassed that she wasn’t paying attention. It’s what Zaire did to her all the time, it seemed. Distract her until she was flustered.
Clyde graciously continued. “Nadine, I am not sure what the issue is. We’ve sent you our numbers for last quarter and our projected numbers. We wouldn’t mislead you.”
Nadine nodded, taking a sip of her coffee. Oh, my god. She even put the right amount of hazelnut creamer. She had to stop herself from moaning in delight and refocus on her meeting. “I understand that, Clyde. But that’s not the report I have. It is way over what you said.”
Nadine watched as Clyde looked through his notes, then sighed. “Nadine, I don’t know what to tell you, but the numbers on my end are right on target.”
Devi chimed in. “Mr. Waters, I also double checked, and this isn’t what I received to forward to Mrs. Moody.”
Clyde frowned. “Well, maybe it was an error on my assistant’s part…”
“It wasn’t,” chimed Agnes, Clyde’s assistant. “I ran it twice and checked before sending it over to Devi. I also cc-ed Mitchell.”
“And Mitchell replied back that everything seemed ok,” Devi confirmed. “Then I uploaded it to the cloud.”
Nadine flared with anger but kept her cool. Mitchell has access to the cloud. He probably switched it on me. She flashed a smile. “I see. No harm, no foul. Agnes, from now on I am alright with you sending me things directly. No need to CC anyone. No need to upload to the cloud.”
The meeting continued without much incident. But Nadine had made it up in her mind: Mitchell had to be dealt with. At the conclusion of the meeting, Nadine asked Devi to stay on. She took a huge bite of the muffin to try and calm her nerves. Before she could say anything, Devi began to rail.
“Mitchell switched the reports. I know he did. Mrs. Moody, I’d never upload the wrong report. You have to believe me.” The young woman was utterly frantic. She’d been Nadine’s assistant since returning from work and had been nothing but stellar.
“Devi, I believe you.” Nadine rubbed her temple. “But I need to prove that Michell did this. Without a doubt.”
Devi was typing furiously. “On it. Let me give a call to IT and get some logs. I’ll keep you posted.”
“And not just his logs to the cloud. I think we need a deeper dive. Be discreet.” Nadine felt it in her gut that something was going on more than just misplaced reports. It wasn’t about embarrassing Nadine. It was about making her seem utterly incompetent. Mitchell was gunning for her.
Nadine ended her call, then moved on to her meeting with advertising.
She was still furious but kept her composure.
When she finally had a break, Nadine stormed into the kitchen and headed straight to the pantry.
She grabbed sugar, flour, vanilla and other seasonings to bake.
What was she going to bake? She had no idea.
She just knew she was pissed and other than eating the rest of the muffins, this would calm her down.
She was in her own world, sifting flour when she felt a pair of arms around her waist. Nadine looked down and smiled.
“Let me guess, you’re stressed,” Zaire said as she leaned into give Nadine a kiss to her neck. Instantly, she felt the tension release. Nadine thought Eddie was the only person who could do that to her. Zaire seemed to have a magic touch, too.
“Dude at work is trying to pull some shit. I just…I can’t catch a break.” Nadine turned to Zaire. “I appreciated the coffee and the muffin, by the way. That was really sweet.”
Zaire smiled. “Anything for you, Cookie. I’m always going looking out for you.” She moved Nadine’s hand away from the sifter. Her heated, brown eyes narrowed in on Nadine’s. “But I can think of better ways to help you decompress.”
Nadine chuckled. “I’m sure you can, baby girl. But I have to work.” She looked at her watch. “Besides, you’ll have to pick up EJ in a couple of hours.”
“Aren’t you the boss? And I don’t need hours to get you off…” Zaire was untying Nadine’s apron, slipping it off her waist.
Nadine shook her head. “Mighty confident aren’t we?”
“I can show you better than I can tell you.”
Zaire grabbed Nadine’s hand, leading her up the steps toward the bedrooms. Before they could enter the guest bedroom, they were tearing each other’s clothes off.
First, Zaire removed her t-shirt, then her joggers.
Nadine drank in the sight of Zaire as she stood dressed in only lilac panties and bra.
The color of the bra against her skin reminded Nadine of her favorite taffy candy.
She was, in a word, perfection. Sweet perfection.
Nadine moved forward, slipping the straps of Zaire’s bra down, pulling the flimsy cups to reveal the tight, dark buds of her breasts. She bent down, taking one into her mouth, sucking and licking, delighting in the taste of Zaire on her tongue.
“You taste so fucking good,” Nadine moaned around the nipple, the vibrations of her voice stiffening them further. She felt Zaire tug at her hair as she moved from one nipple to the other, teasing her with her hot, wet tongue.
“Nadine,” Zaire breathed, her back against the dresser. “Kiss me.”
Nadine smiled against her breast as she released the nipple with a wet pop.
Zaire pulled her up by her neck, crashing her lips onto hers.
Their tongues danced and tangled as if they were fighting for dominance.
In the end, Nadine won, as she sucked Zaire’s tongue, marveling at the feel of the piercing against her lips.
As she kissed, Nadine snaked a hand into Zaire’s panties, parting her puffy, wet pussy until she found exactly what she was looking for.
“Fuuuuck,” Zaire cried as Nadine’s fingers teased and flicked her pierced clit, her fingers slick with the moisture she gathered from her heated center.
“Tell me you like that,” Nadine demanded. “Tell me, baby.”
“I like it,” Zaire moaned. “Fuck. You know I do.”
Nadine moved from Zaire’s clit and plunged her fingers deep inside her pussy, curling them until she could feel her walls tighten around her.
She was so close to coming. Nadine burned with desire, spurred on by the satisfaction of being the one to make her come.
She moved her fingers faster, the sound of Zaire’s wet pussy and moans being all that she could hear.