Dominating the Boss 14

I didn’t repeat the plan as we walked towards the entrance of Natalie’s house, something Elena wouldn’t enjoy. She didn’t appreciate being treated as a stereotypical blonde, even in the context of her job. She might not lash out immediately to a client, but she would somehow get revenge, which might be quite radical depending on the severity of the insult. So, I just nodded towards her at the door and received a nod in return. Only then, I rang the bell. 

The door opened a moment later, revealing Natalie, who was dressed in a loose blue dress, one that would be casual if it wasn’t for the rather deep cut in the front, displaying her assets as much as possible without coming across as gauche and tasteless. But the more impressive reveal of the night was her girlfriend, who chose a tight white dress, most of it back absent, showing off her lithe figure, her red hair spilling on her shoulders in a complicated pattern. It was good to have a variance between the redheads. Tiffany was curvy enough to fill my hands, and now Jenny, thin, shapely, and if I was reading correctly, flexible enough to handle an interesting range of positions. 

It was fortunate that I was experienced in hiding my emotions, allowing me to suppress my desire to burst out laughing as a stark realization spread across Natalie’s face as she took note that not only I had brought an unannounced guest along, but that guest was someone she was familiar with. “It was Jennifer, right?” I said as I presented my hand for a semi-formal handshake, ignoring Natalie’s plight in favor of focusing on her girlfriend. 

“Call me Jenny,” she corrected as she shook my hand cheerfully. From her mannerism, it was clear that she would be more comfortable with a hug, but I rather not spook Natalie this early. The presence of Elena was surprise enough. 

“May I present to you Elena, an old friend that was in the town for the day,” I said. 

“A pleasure, dear,” Elena said as she enveloped Jenny in a tight hug, signaling that she didn’t share the same complications with me. I acted like I didn’t notice the sudden storm that started to brew on Natalie’s face. But it wasn’t the only bomb that Elena was willing to drop. She turned to Natalie after pulling back. “Hi Nat, a pleasure to see you again,” she added, giving an even tighter hug, which made a fresh layer of suspicion appear on Jenny’s face. 

“I didn’t know that you knew his date as well,” Jenny said in a sharpness I hadn’t expected from such a sweet girl. But jealousy had a way of transforming people. I wondered about the reason for the sudden spike. She might be one of the people that were naturally jealous, though considering the things I had learned about -and had done to- Natalie, it wasn’t inconceivable that she had legitimate reasons for her response. 

“We met at the airport, on the way back from the last business trip,” Natalie explained quickly. “Right, Elena?” 

Elena chose that moment to display her acting skills. “Of course,” she said, but let her eyes grow wide just for a moment, perfectly copying the stress of a secret almost discovered, not to mention her voice was just high enough to fan Jenny’s fears without confirming them, all without giving Natalie something she could focus on. “Last Wednesday, right?” she added, dropping another bomb to the fire. 

“Saturday,” Natalie corrected sharply, which was a hopeless action, as I could see that it already solidified on Jenny’s mind that there was a secret that she was unaware, and she would dig for it. And considering the things that happened on that visit, I would be surprised if Natalie could take any question about that time calmly.  

“Your home looks amazing, Natalie,” I said, deflecting the discussion in a display of tone-deafness, using the stereotypes about the male population to my benefit. And just like that, the discussion was cut short, but leaving as a question-mark in Jenny’s mind. To make things better, Natalie couldn’t just open the discussion once more without making Jenny even more suspicious. 

The game between me and Natalie started with an unexpected early score. 

“Thanks,” Natalie said, her voice sharp despite her struggle to keep her sudden sourness away from her voice. “Let me give you a small tour,” she said. 

“Would you mind showing me the location of the ladies room, as well,” said Elena, interjecting herself to the situation. 

“Let me help,” Jenny jumped before Natalie could answer, clearly not willing to leave her girlfriend with Elena. Her jealousy was stroked easily, I realized. Jenny led Elena away while Natalie led me in a short tour of the first floor, intent on keeping the discussion casual. 

I didn’t want that, of course. “Trouble in paradise,” I said with a grin the moment the others disappeared at the stairs. 

“Just a momentary flare,” Natalie said dismissively, her desire to keep me away from her personal issues obvious. Unfortunately, she made the biggest mistake by following Brenda’s suggestion and inviting me to her home. 

“I see. I should have told her not to worry. It’s not like there is a chance that you can steal her from me,” I added in an equally dismissive manner before asking another casual question about the house. She didn’t reply to my offhand comment, but I could see that my dismissal annoyed her badly. Excellent, I thought. Now, all I needed was for her to bite the bait, and I would have an amusing night. There was a chance that my dear boss would ignore the opportunity to get back at me, staying focused on her original plan instead, but it wasn’t very likely. 

We moved back to the living room after the short discussion ended, talking casually when Jenny returned from her short trip without Elena, who decided to give me space to work the targets a bit. “Hello, beautiful,” I said with a goofy manner while facing Jenny, in a slightly exaggerated manner that made her chuckle, but otherwise shook her head dismissively. It wasn’t the best way of seducing someone, but that was intentional. I needed to make Natalie feel confident on that front. 

As I hoped, Natalie ignored the significance of my lighthearted flirting, and started talking about something inconsequential about politics, the perfect material for a casual dinner between colleagues. Jenny left the room to bring some refreshments, and Elena walked in before a minute passed, clearly waiting for her chance. 

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Elena said as she walked closer to me. I patted the seat next to me, inviting her close, but after a slight stiffening, she chose to sit a seat much closer to Natalie. Natalie sent me a smug glare, which passed in a moment later. 

Keeping my laughter suppressed at that moment was one of the biggest challenges I had ever experienced in my life. Natalie’s unwarranted confidence was showing itself once more, making her forget the results of the previous times she pitted her will against mine. 

Or maybe she was remembering them, which might be a problem to itself. In every situation, from her perspective, I only won because of pure luck. She thought that it was mostly her own mistake that made her end up in that casino, or my ‘accidental’ stumbling onto the files that held the fake expenses that made her threw herself to my lap in an attempt to distract me from sending them to audit in the office, and it was my luck that I knew the executive in the company that suddenly decided to cancel our orders. Altogether, it created an interesting picture of negligence. 

I made a few poor attempts to interject into the discussion between Natalie and Elena, but Elena kept her attention on Natalie, acting fascinated by her boring anecdotes. I stayed there, doing my best impression of a kicked puppy, which made Natalie smile victoriously. 

A few minutes later, Elena managed to rub her face the wrong way, disrupting her lipstick, which gave her the excuse for another quick bathroom visit without raising any question about her heath. The moment she disappeared, Natalie turned to me with a vicious expression, one that tempted me to impale her until that was replaced with grudging obedience, but I held myself back. 

Patience was a virtue. 

“Trouble in paradise?” Natalie asked in glee, happy to stab me with the same conversational dagger I had wielded just moments ago. 

“Nothing important, just a momentary phase,” I answered, trying to sound affronted. 

“It didn’t seem like it.” 

“Just a phase,” I repeated, underlining my position. 

“If you say so,” Natalie said, her grin threatening to spill out of her face. “But if I were you, I wouldn’t be too confident about your earlier assertion?” 

“What assertion?” I asked, despite being well-aware of what she was talking about. 

“The one declaring that there was no way I could take her away from you.” 

I took a breath before answering, trying to get into the correct mood. At that moment, I needed to reflect a layer of bravado, but cracked enough to reveal a core of wounded male pride, trying to use deflection as a defense mechanism. “If I were you, I wouldn’t propose any bets, not like you have a great track record.” 

From the way her smile stiffened, accompanied by a flash of anger in her eyes, I could deduce that my ploy was successful. “A bet, you say,” she murmured. “Under which conditions?” 

“You’re serious,” I said, fake-flinching to further sell the ruse. 

“Like a heart attack,” she pounced. “Unless you’re cowardly enough to take back your word, of course.” 

“But-” I started, which put a mocking edge to her smile. “Why not, if you think you can handle the consequences,” I added, but once again keeping my voice fragile. After all, why should I warn her about the trap she just stepped in? 

“If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about that,” she answered. 

I waited for a moment, then jumped like a fresh lawyer who just realized the existence of a winning argument. “I need to drop her to the airport just an hour or two, do you think you can handle that in such a short period.” 

“It will be when I drop her in the airport instead,” she answered, happy to come up with such a genius statement, ignoring the fact that it would leave me alone with her girlfriend, or too confident in relationship to worry. I would be glad to teach her the mistake of it. “Unless you’re a cowardly chicken, of course.” 

“And what’s the bet?” I said. 

“My debt to you is no more,” she said. 

“Really?” I said, this time not bothering to hide my smirk. I wasn’t expecting her to be this greedy, not that I had a problem with it. “Honey, that’s not pocket change that we’re talking about,” I said. “Are you willing to put something worthwhile on the table.” 

“Whatever you want,” Natalie said, excited by the possibility of paying back for her humiliation and saving herself from a huge financial burden at the same time.

“For the next year, you will come to my office whenever I want, and follow my commands exactly in there,” I said, smirking at the way her face transformed. 

“That’s too much-” she tried to say, but I cut her off.

“Scared?” I said, mocking her. 

“I accept, but only under the condition that I will see your resignation letter on my table first thing Monday,” she said. 

I acted stunned for a moment. After all, we were talking about a multi-million non-compete agreement. “Only if we remove the restriction of the office from the bet,” I said. “For the next year, you’ll be my toy, whenever I want, however I want, no matter the audience? Deal?” 

Even then, Natalie didn’t think before giving a confident nod, sure of her victory, not having a clue that she was being manipulated. “And how we’re going to be sure about what happened.” 

“Video evidence,” I said. “And of course, the victory condition is the full penetration, from you to her. No high school bullshit about kisses or second bases. Full conquest, or nothing.” 

“Deal,” Natalie said, presenting her hand for a shake, unaware that she was signing away her freedom. 

“Your funeral,” I said, this time with no problem to let my confidence show. “But let me give you a fair warning, Elena is a real tease.” I gave her the warning only because I could see that the time for warnings had already passed. The confidence had solidified on her face, enjoying the thrill of a definite victory early. 

Before she could answer, we were distracted by a familiar voice. “You guys look chipper,” said Jenny, who just walked into the living room, carrying a tray of wine, and a stout glass filled with a bright amber liquid. 

“We managed to solve a particularly tricky thing about the marketing plan,” Natalie said in the rapid confidence of a serial liar, not even pausing to think. It wasn’t perfect, her words were more forceful than what was necessary, and the eye contact was unnecessary. It was one of the things that separated a skilled amateur from a professional. 

“Good, because I don’t want work-talk at the table, it’s going to be a strictly social evening.” 

“That works well for me,” I answered even as I reached for the tray. “The scotch is for me, right?” 

Jenny nodded, and I took the glass, draining it quickly, giving the excuse Natalie needed to drop Elena to the airport instead. I took a generous sip. “An excellent choice.” 

“Thanks, but Natalie was the one that chose it,” Jenny said, and I raised my glass to Natalie in appreciation before draining the rest. 

“Weren’t you going to drop your friend back to the airport,” Natalie asked, acting like she just realized it. 

“Damn it, I forgot. She is going to kill me.” I stopped for a second. “Natalie, could you do me a favor and drop her to the airport instead.” 

She was quick to hide her satisfied smile, making it disappear before Jenny could turn to face her. “I don’t know, maybe we could call a taxi?” she said, playing it off to sound reluctant. 

“Please, boss,” I pushed forward, somehow managing not to put a mocking edge to the word. Then, I turned to Jenny and asked. “It’s not a bother for you, is it,” I asked. 

“Of course not,” came Jenny’s rapid answer, the obligations of being a hostess forcing her hand, even though it was clear that she wanted to do the opposite of it. A flare of jealousy passed through her field of vision, but Natalie missed it, too busy enjoying my supposed mistake. 

“Excellent, you’re a doll,” I said, a diminutive statement that Jenny didn’t enjoy if her scrunched face, and Natalie’s widening smile, was any indicator. 

Then, Elena arrived, and marking the start of one of the most unwieldy social situations I had experienced. On the one hand, I needed to flirt with Natalie’s girlfriend without actually succeeding, but also without turning her off completely. On the other hand, I needed to screen the flow between Jenny and Natalie so that Natalie could focus on Elena without Jenny noticing. And like it wasn’t difficult enough, I needed to make the latter seem accidental not to make Natalie suspicious. 

That much was manageable but difficult. But of course, there was also Elena, who wasn’t really happy with my improvisation, because it suddenly reduced her role quite a bit. Her revenge came in a way that fit her personality, in the form of her hand, discreetly caressing my length, just enough to make sitting extremely uncomfortable, all while subtly flirting with Natalie. 

It was a difficult hour, but finally, Elena made a show of checking her phone. “It’s the time for my plane,” Elena said as she stood up. Natalie nodded, trying not to be seen too enthusiastic, but she let enough to slip, and Jenny sent a suspicious glare to her. 

“You won’t be late, do you, honey,” Jenny said possessively, who, despite our best efforts, was starting to get suspicious. “We still have the dessert, of course.” 

“Actually, honey, it might be for the best if you served the dessert to Nathan. You never know just how long the traffic might take,” Natalie said, ignoring Jenny’s pointed glare. Natalie noticed Jenny’s annoyance, but playing obvious worked better for her. After all, if she won tonight, not only she would get a huge financial windfall, but also she would get rid of me. 

Too bad that she didn’t realize that, once again, she was playing a rigged game…

They left, leaving me alone with Jenny. “Another scotch?” she said as she stood up, and I nodded. While she was in the kitchen, I received a message from Elena, informing me that she had managed to swipe Natalie’s phone, which would allow her to answer instead of Natalie. 

Now, everything was ready to start the plan…