Natalie's POV:
"You want me to forget about Karla
Estrabao?" I asked the man who stared at me in a firm and patient way.
"I want her to exist only for me. And soon." I loved that possessive way of Michael, it made me love him even more. But I didn't understand where he wanted to go with that. I was already only his.
"What do you mean by that?"
Michael took a deep breath and smiled, bringing his hand over mine that rested on the table, where he began a light caress.
"I want you to leave "Imperium"."
For a few seconds I was completely paralyzed, trying to figure out if I had heard that from him or if my imagination simply had gone too far.
"Natalie..." Michael whispered, waking me up.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes, I thought that well, now that we
are together you don't need to go there anymore." Michael spoke calmly as he drank his red wine.
"Michael, me going there or not, it won't interfere with what we have, baby." I spoke calmly.
"Of course it will. I don't want you there, exposing yourself like that." He spoke serious.
"Until a week ago you liked it, and you
didn't mind." I let out indifferentldy.
The man rolled his eyes and huffed.
"A week ago you weren't my girlfriend." The atmosphere automatically got heavy, spreading the tension between us.
"What does that change? We are just
together officially. Nothing will change."
"Obvious it will, Natalie!"
"In what?"
"In everything! You are mine now."
"And I will always be, Michael!"
"Not being there, dancing for those
people. I want you to be only mine."
"You are my boyfriend, Michael, not my owner." We stared at each other almost spitting fire. Amazing how everything was too good to be true.
"Wow, I can't believe that you just said
that." He spoke standing up fromn
the table, and in the same instant I
regretted for being too rude. I stayed
seated staring at Michael that served
himself a little bit more of red wine, to then look towards the rough sea. I stood up slowly and walked towards him.
"I'm sorry. I just want you to understand, I can't leave." I said touching Michael's arms affectionately.
"What holds you there?"
"I can't simply leave Candece aside. I
can't give up on the project with her."
"Project where only she gains, right?"
"Michael, I also receive very well for it."
"Natalie, you don't need it!"
"If I'm there is because I need it."
"I can give you everything you want, baby."
"I don't want your money."
"I don't want you there. Being with me you'll never need anything."
"Do you really think that I'm the type
of person that will be supported by
another?" Michael looked at me incredulously, it was clear the nuisance of having me clash with him.
"Don't come with your pride, Natalie.
We don't have room for that here."
"I don't want to depend on you."
"You rather stay half naked on top of
that stage?!" He almost shouted angrily.
"Since when does it bother you so
much? Are you gonna play the good
Samaritan as well? Like everyone else?" I said angrily.
"You don't know what people say there, Natalie, how they see you, God!"
"I don't care, okay? You have no idea
what I've heard for it, Michael, nothing they say or think affects me. Not anymore."
"But it affects me, how do you think it
makes me feel? Knowing that everyone in there thinks filthy things about my woman?" I knew how hard that was for him. I didn't take away Michael's reasons. But I couldn't simply throw everything into the air. Candece was an important piece for everything that I am today, and leaving her wasn't the fairest thing
to do.
"Just ignore them, Michael." I tried to
calm him.
"You think it's possible? Look very
carefully into my eyes, Natalie, and tell me, do you really think I can?" He spoke firmly, holding my arms. His eyes conveyed fury, jealousy, power.
"You met me like that..."
"Wouldn't you be able to change for me?"
"And you? Would you be able to change for me?" In that instant our gazes kept connected by a heavy tension.
"Don't turn the tables, Jones." He
grumbled letting go of my arms.
"I'm not turning the tables. I just want
you to think a little. Have you stopped
to imagine what led me to do it? The
reasons why I can't leave?"
Michael that had his back turned to me, now turned around to face me.
"I don't know what led you to do it, but the reasons I can imagine."
His voice tone could be almost acidic.
I wasn't prepared to hear bad things
from him, no, I wasn't. Michael turned
his back to me again and drank all the
wine from his glass.
"What do you imagine, Michael?"
"You don't have the slightest idea?" He
turned to face me again. He looked at me with a superior and arrogant gaze. His voice poured sarcasm.
"You like to be courted, Natalie. You like to be wanted, to be desired."
"You think I'm there simply because I
like to be courted?"
"For what reason would it be? You must love seeing all those people go crazy for you, right? Everyone there would pay whatever it takes to sleep with you." I stayed staring at the man in front of me, with his mocking tone. I just shook my head and smiled humorlessly.
"You are an asshole, Michael." I spoke
before leaving him there alone.
Michael's POV:
I saw Natalie walking in hurried and
heavy steps into the house. Dammit,
I had ruined everything. I closed my
eyes thinking about the shit that I had
spoken.
Dammit, dammit!
I threw the glass of wine on the floor,
seeing the fine crystal shatter into
pieces.
What do I do now?
I shook my head, and walked from one side to the other thinking about what I should do. Was going after her the right thing to do? No, Natalie didn't have to refuse my request. It was obvious that she had the obligation to leave that club. I could never let my woman keep dancing half naked for those disgusting
people.
No, Michael, you were too harsh...
Yes...
No...
In that split second my thoughts were
being bombarded from both sides,
which prevented me from thinking.
Was I right or wrong? I looked towards the house when I saw the light from the master bedroom lit up. And it was to there that I went.
I walked in hurried steps down the hall to the bedroom where Natalie was, and with force opened the door coming across the woman putting her clothes inside her small backpack. She did everything so fast, that she didn't even notice my presence there, or simply decided to ignore mne.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm leaving!" She
seethed furiously and then went back to packing her things.
"You are not going anywhere!" I ordered pulling the backpack from her hand.
"Give me back my backpack now!"
"You are not leaving!" I shouted at her.
"And who guarantees you that?" She
asked in provocation.
"Me."
"You are not my boss, Jackson!"
Natalie seethed and walked towards
the door, when I quickly held her
tightly by the arm. Bringing her body
close to mine harshly. I didn't even
give her time to think. I just kissed her
with want. Our lips crashed with such
aggressiveness that I groaned in pain
and pleasure. Natalie put her small
hands on my shoulders and pushed me, making me let her go.
"I don't want to be here with you!"
"You always want to." I spoke cynically.
"Not today." She shouted angrily, breathing heavily. Grabbing the backpack from the floor, to then walk out of the room, and again I pulled her.
"You are not leaving! And this is not
a request. It's an order!" I let out the
words in a serious and firm way,
bringing Natalie's body close to mine.
"How many times do I have to tell you
that you are not my boss?!" Natalie said glaring at me with that pair of furious green eyes. I smirked, sarcastically.
"How many times do I have to tell you
that I am your boss, whether you want it or not Karla Natalie?!" Natalie smiled sarcastically.
"You are wrong. With Karla you don't
boss around. And you never will... you
know why?"
Dammit. It was her. Karla.
"Because she's your weakness. Because when she reigns, you surrender yourself." Natalie spoke each word in a dragged and sexy way. I backed away a few steps until I felt the bed behind me.
"You need to get used to the fact that
with me your power is nothing. Who's
in charge here is me, Michael." Karla
said throwing me roughly on the bed.
"I will refresh your memory of who is
Karla Estrabao."
My body collided against the soft
mattress. And I quickly tried to get up
thinking that Natalie would leave. But
on the contrary. If there was Natalie,
she would leave. But she was no longer there, in front of me was only her.
Karla.
The brunette was standing, slowly
taking the dress off her so fucking
amazing body. Jesus, at every second I
could see Karla's body showing more
and more. As soon as the fabric was
completely off her body, leaving only
the small black lace lingerie, I Sighed.
Karla looked at me with fury, and
climbed into bed, straddling my lap
without mercy.
"I will show you who's in charge here."
_______________
The brunette removed my member from inside of her, making me cum on her stomach. And slowly let her head rest on my chest. We were sweaty, panting. After our big fight, we had sex and damn boy, it was wild.
"You are my end."
"You are mine too."
___________________
I shifted in bed, feeling my whole
body soft. The clarity coming from the
window took care of concentrating
itself on my eyes. Hell. I stretched
slowly, and sat up in bed. I rubbed my
eyes for long minutes when I came
across an empty bedroom.
Dammit.
That wasn't a good sign. As a result of
last night, I couldn't expect breakfast in bed. And Natalie wouldn't get up from bed to be alone somewhere else, unless it was to leave.
No, no...
I got up from bed, pulling the bed sheet along my body and looked out
the window. The deck was empty.
I descended the stairs of the house
looking everywhere, and no sign of her there. I returned to the bedroom and saw a small note:
"You need time to think things through. Natalie."
I crumpled the small paper, discounting the anger that I felt. She had left, without even saying goodbye. I threw the paper on the floor and went towards the bathroom, if she was thinking that I would go after her, she was very much mistaken.
Natalie's POV:
"I can't believe that you left him alone there." Laura grumbled as she unpacked her things.
"I left! And I don't regret it."
"Let me see if I understood. You were in a romantic dinner, right?" Rydel asked as she walked from one side to the other.
"Yes."
"Then you fought, had sex. And you left?"
"Exactly, Rydel."
"I thought that after sex, you two would be okay." Laura spoke quickly.
"He also thought that. But Michael
has to learn that sex doesn't solve
everything." I exclaimed as I finished
unpacking.
"What was the reason of the fight?"
"He asked me to leave "Imperium"."
Rydel and Laura looked at each other as if they already imagined.
"And you think he's wrong?"
"Yes, Rydel."
"Try to understand his side, Nat, you
can't be comfortable when your partner is dancing for a bunch of people."
"I don't take away his reason regarding that." I spoke sitting on the bed. "I just wanted him to try to understand me. I can't drop everything like that. It's my life."
"Just like it is your life, it's his life as
well. I think that you two should talk. Dialogue is the key to a good relationship. You can't just have sex and expect your problems will solve like that."
"You should have more sex."
"Mercy, Hansen. They already have sex all the time. I don't know from where they get so much fire."
"From the same place where you got it
at Janet's party." Laura said laughing.
"What?" I asked without understanding.
"Rydelson went crazy at your sister-in-law's party."
"Laura, shut up!" I squinted my eyes towards Rydel who blushed.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing, Nat." The shorter one said
quickly.
"If dancing on top of a table to the
sound of Queen B is nothing, kill me
once and for all." I opened my mouth in a perfect "O".
"You danced on top of a table?" Rydel widened her eyes.
"And almost wanted to take off her
clothes!" Laura laughed.
"You have got to be kidding!"
"I'm not! Lauren filled the prissy Miss
there with alcohol. And those were the results."
"Rydel, I don't even know what to say..."
"Don't say anything, I already asked forgiveness to Jesus."
"You have to ask forgiveness for the sins with Troy as well."
"What sins?"
"I don't know very well what happened But I heard certain noises coming from the bathroom the night of the party. And who was there? Rydel and Troy."
"Mercy, be quiet. You don't even know
what happened."
"And neither do you apparently!"
"Laura, leave her alone, you are making Rydel embarrassed."
"What? Everybody has sex."
"Laura!" The shorter one exclaimed
embarrassed.
"Ok, let's go back to Natalie's matter. As I was saying, you need to talk, and a lot."
"I don't know, maybe Laura is right.
Michael and I would never work out."
"You should have thought about that
before starting a relationship with him, Nat. You know, I'll tell you something. I never imagined that your relationship would come this far, it's obvious that Michael loves you, there is no doubt." I stayed in silence only hearing what the shorter one had to tell me.
"I agree with Rydel, and I think that
Michael was the best person that you have ever met." Laura said sitting next to me.
"I don't doubt that, girls. But Michael
needs to try to be more volatile. I'm not like the others that he bosses around. And besides, he must be furious with me for having left him alone."
"He won't want to see you so soon."
"Exactly."
"Do you think he'll be at the company
today?"
"I doubt it, for what I know of him, Michael won't show up today."
And he really didn't show up. The
movement at Jackson's Industry were
very calm. During the day I got some phone calls, spreadsheets to upgrade, meetings to reschedule. But other than that it was a total boredom. Which consequently made me look at the screen of my phone every five minutes waiting for a life sign from Michael.
That never came.
Perhaps I had been inconsequent,
perhaps I shouldn't have left before
talking. With Michael things were very impulsive and emotional, from both sides. I didn't want to ruin everything with him. And neither clash nor fight with him. But over time, I built around me a kind of force field that protected me from every and any situation that would offend me. Maybe it was what happened with Michael. I repelled him before he even started to throw out ideas that I knew he didn't have about me. But that time or another could be spoken.
I unlocked my phone one more time
as soon as it beeped with a notification alert. I opened the text, but it was only Laura saying that she would leave earlier for having an headache. I responded quickly and locked the phone.
I worked the rest of the day. It was so
weird to be there without her. Without seeing him, or the sound of his sweet but at the same time arrogant voice giving me orders. Or the simple murmurs of the employees saying how Michael was rude. Maybe he was, actually he was. But not with me.
I thought about calling him, sending a text. But at every instant my subconscious screamed for me not to do it. I had given him time for him to think, and he would determine how much time he needed.
I waited for my working hours to end to then start packing my things and leave. I grabbed my bag and got up from the table. Checking my phone one last time, and no sign of him. I huffed irritated thinking about how insignificant I was to him, so far not even a single text message.
I walked in slow steps to the elevator,
which seemed to take forever to go
down. Indiana was incredibly under
water that night. The torrential rain only made me cuss God and the world for not having a taxi in sight nor someone to give me a lift.
I closed the coat on my body, and
grabbed the small umbrella. I walked
in hurried steps to the other side of
Jackson's Industry under all that water. Seeing the weak movement of the cars in that street. Dammit. The heavy rain made my high heels highly smooth, it was when I decided to take them off. I crossed to another street when a car stopped next to me, making a bit of water splash on my clothes. I prepared myself to cuss when I realized who was inside the car.
"Get in." Michael spoke quickly.
"What are you doing here?" Michael smiled.
"It's better if I explain with you inside
the car, don't you think?" I nodded and entered the car quickly wetting the padded of Michael's favorite car. But he didn't even seem to mind, his countenance was somewhat worried in my direction.
"Take off your coat." I looked at him without understanding, did he want to have sex precisely now?
"Take it off, Nelly, and put on mine. You are soaked." I sighed, and with certain dificulty took off the wet coat, throwing it on the car's floor. Michael stayed looking at me, and then started the car to leave.
The drive was made in a pure silence,
it was starting to be a bit awkward. But I wouldn't be the first to talk. Time or another Michael casted me a calm gaze, but soon returned his attention to the dark street. Until we stopped in front of my building. The man turned off the car, and then everything went silent, hearing only the sound of the rain hitting against the car.
I sighed and opened the car door to get out, but soon felt him pull me.
And when I turned around he took
my lips in a soothing and slow kiss. I
closed my eyes feeling Michael's soft lips moving against mine with the world's greatest calmness. I missed this. His tongue asked for entrance and I allowed it. That kiss was different, it wasn't carnal nor laden with desire. I could feel in it a great
relief for having him there, with me.
Michael prolonged the act to the
maximum he could, and then was
gradually stopping the kiss with small
pecks.
"I'm sorry." He whispered almost inaudibly to me. I sighed and touched his jawline with my fingertips.
"I didn't want to speak those things yesterday, I swear to you, Nelly."
"I believe you." He opened his eyes, letting me get lost in his eyes. They were so beautiful that night, that I could spend hours and hours looking at them.
"I love you, ok? I spent the entire morning thinking about everything. About us, about me, about you, and about Karla." I smiled, it could be comical how Michael separated Karla from me. As if we were two different people.
"I thought you were angry, and hating
me the whole morning." I spoke leaning against the passenger seat. Making Michael smile.
"No, I didn't hate you. Perhaps only at
the time that I saw your note. But not
after. I just stayed thinking really."
"You could have at least called me, don't you think? I waited for a sign of you all morning."
"I'm sorry, Nelly. I needed some time to think."
"And you came to what conclusion?"
"Well, I came to the conclusion that I
rushed when I requested that. Not that I regret it, I really want you to leave that place. But I imagine that you must have strong reasons to be there. Or to have gone there. Reasons that I really want to know, maybe that's what's missing in us. I want to know every little bit of your life, Nat, but before I want you to forgive me for everything."
"I forgive you, and I'm sorry too." I
whispered to him. "For everything. For the misunderstanding, for the way how I spoke and acted." Michael smiled and grabbed my hand slowly, giving a little kiss.
"Sleep with me tonight?" He asked sweetly, leaving me no other choice but to accept.
Michael's POV:
I couldn't sleep that night. A million thoughts invaded my head at every second, not giving me a chance to rest, not even for a minute. I looked to my side, seeing Natalie sleeping serenely beside me. She looked simply wonderful. She was wearing my formal white shirt that reached the middle of her butt covered by a small white lingerie. That she decided to put on after we made love. We made love after the long and tense conversation we had. I was determined to know more about her, find out every path that the brunette I loved so much had traveled. And they weren't easy. I found out that Natalie hasn't always
had a bad financial condition, but
everything started to crumble down
when her father started gambling,
losing all the money and possessions
that the Jones family owned. I stayed
wondering if there wasn't a way to
make him stop, but she explained that
when her mother found out everything was already lost. That Alejandro Jones had already bankrupted. And that when he didn't have anything else he started to force his wife to work hard, and in the end the woman had her money taken away and lost again.
This leaving Natalie and Sofia without absolutely anything. I swear that I felt
bad for that, but it was far worse to see the woman crying as she remembered. The addiction took over her father, leading to drinking and drugs. She spoke with pain how hard it was to see her mother getting beaten up every night when he arrived home. The desperation of seeing such scene never left her head, that scene left incurable marks.
I closed my eyes, and stared at her
again. I made a light caress in her dark hair, making the woman sigh as I remembered our talk few minutes ago:
"Karla Estrabao emerged by a necessity." Natalie spoke wiping some tears.
"How did it start?"
"After my mother kicked my father out of the house, we had to find a way to support ourselves. And my mother's salary wasn't enough. Sofi had health problems when she was very young, and the little money that my mother earned wasn't enough for everything." I stared at the woman that was telling me everything with sadness. I pulled Natalie closer to me.
"I decided to go after a job. But as you
can imagine, no one wanted to hire me. After all I didn't even have any kind of expertise in any area. I returned home, but before I met Candece in an old coffee shop near my house. For some reason God sent her to that place. In the beginning I was scared, she showed me everything, the club and what the girls did there. And soon I thought that she wanted me as a prostitute and I refused.
But she explained that those weren't the plans she had for me. So I accepted. In the middle of all the humiliation that I was living, that was the only way out, Michael." Natalie spoke letting the tears fall, and I wiped them with my thumb.
"And after?"
"After I became Karla Estrabao. I was
trained by her, Candece gave me all
the coordinates to make me some sort
of seduction machine. With time the
club that was weak started to grow. We realized that my shows reached a big audience. And I along Candece lifted "Imperium" to the level it has today I started to gain realy well, which made my mother suspicious of my work. Until one day she found out." The brunette lowered her head and took a deep breath. And I stroked my hand lightly on her back, in a soothing caress.
"She hated me, Michael. Never in all my life I expected to hear the things she said to me. I felt like the worst person in the world, the dirtiest and impure. I cried for months as I remembered every word that she spoke. She kicked me out of the house, and I left to never return. I left everything in a perfect state, and
promised that every month I would send an amount of money to help her with Sofi. In the beginning she refused, but then the necessity spoke louder." Natalie took a deep breath and continued to speak.
"At that time I already knew Laura, she worked at Jackson's Industry along with Rydel, and they got a job for me there. Then, I became all of this. Natalie Jones, the secretary of a multinational by morning, and Karla Estrabao the stripper by night."
"Have I gotten myself into a trap?" I spoke in a playful tone that made her smile in a sincere way.
"Maybe yes." I smiled and inched closer to her, pulling her face for a calm kiss.
"I admire you a lot, you know? After all of this, I can only say that now I'm even more in love with you, Natalie."
I looked into her green eyes and saw
that they were teary, I deposited a small kiss on each side of her face to finish with one on her lips.
"I want to be the differential in your life, I want to make you happy."
"I know that you will make me very
happy, Michael."
"I promise. I will never disappoint you, baby."
And it was with those words that I defined our future. I would make Natalie Jones happy.
____________
NOTE: The next chapter will be pretty
normal, it will be like a filler chapter
but it has some things that will be very important for things that will happen ahead.