324 The surest cure to stress
Since they would take a break soon for their wedding and honeymoon, Desmond and Zaria were busier in the next several days. At the next monthly board meeting, Zaria couldn’t hold her head up for more than half an hour before she sleepily rubbed her eyes. She was becoming lazier by the day and she was only in her second trimester.
“The two of you are overdue for a break.” Lucy remarked when the meeting was over and it was only she, Natalie, Desmond and Zaria left. “Natalie and I will take care of Preston and Fort Group while you’re gone.”
“You would do that?” Zaria emotionally glanced at Lucy then Natalie.
“Of course I would. What are friends for?” Natalie hugged her, chuckling when the latter looked like she had been saved from a life or death kind of emergency. Pregnancy was making her much more emotional than usual, and they had all been the prime witnesses of her endless affection.
“Nat needs all the experience she can get as a company CEO. We will not reveal to the board who will temporarily take your place while you’re on your break, of course. We don’t want them going off on you. But don’t worry, I believe in her potential.” Lucy explained.
“I have never doubted Natalie’s skill.” Desmond seconded her idea. After all, they all knew Natalie was one of the geniuses behind the success of the Sparks’ hotel chains before she left the family business.
“Can we go yet?” Zaria yawned.
Desmond chuckled. “Of course, my love. It’s time for our appointment. Or if you want, we can cancel it so you take a nap and then the doctor can come over later.”
“That will not be necessary. I’ll nap later.” She was too excited for her ultrasound to delay for a second.
.....
“Tell us what you decide!” Lucy called after them.
“Will do.” Zaria promised. When she hit the eighteen week mark, the doctor had told them they could find out the gender of their baby if they wanted. They were still deciding whether or not they wanted to know.
When they left the board room, Lucy finally had the chance to talk to Natalie about Dawn.
“Like we feared, Nathaniel is not the only one who knew about Dawn. It has been launched.”
“Oh no.” Natalie let out a long sigh. “That slimeball is six feet underground but we cannot get rid of him completely, can we? He still left traces of himself.”
“Now, don’t be upset, sweetheart. Do you think I would be Lucy Roatta if I let him have his way?” She mysteriously smiled.
Natalie thought about it and shrugged, unable to find an explanation that made any sense. “Are you really going to make me ask?”
“It’s fun.” Lucy admitted. “You see, Creszone was stolen from me before. I was able to get it back before it went live but I decided since then that I would never make the same mistake again. When I created Twilight, I also threw in a few viruses only I could detect, they were so hidden. I only cleaned it up seconds before I launched it.”
Natalie finally caught up. “And now, the version of Dawn that has been launched has viruses in it? What if they have an antivirus?”
“I thought about that. An antivirus can only detect a threat. What I have in Dawn are a series of incomplete antiviruses. Launching the software will activate them and boom!” Lucy was having way too much fun with that. The way Natalie saw it, she might have even been looking forward to Dawn getting stolen.
“So what will happen?”
“Although they made the big announcement, they still have it in the test run stage. Which means they are going to use all their computers to get it running for the sake of testing. Within half a day, the virus will spread and they can say goodbye to all their projects. Yup, including the backup. I only spared their gadgets because their poor employees would lose their phones and PCs in the process. They don’t know what’s going on and don’t deserve that kind of fate.”
Natalie shivered. “I really don’t want to mess with you.”
“Come on, it will be fun.” Lucy jokingly coaxed her.
“So, where do I come in?” She reminded her of the important business they were discussing.
“Right.” Lucy opened a file. “Once I teach those pesky flies a lesson, Dawn will be ready to launch with its real name. Are you ready?”
“I was born ready.”
“Good.” Lucy smiled. “Because the launch banquet will be tomorrow night.”
“Tomorrow night? That’s not even enough time to plan a banquet, let alone one as huge as this.” She protested.
“You are worried for nothing. Elena planned the banquet ages ago.”
“Oh.” Natalie let out a breath. For a moment, she had forgotten that Lucy was not talking about Preston and Fort Group but about Twilight. So she would be a partner of Twilight now. No wonder Lucy didn’t want the board of Preston and Fort Group to know she would be stepping in for Desmond. While Twilight was now a partner, it was still a different company.
_____
The following evening, Natalie was getting ready for the banquet when Devonte walked into her room.
“You are early.” She kissed him gently on the lips and held up her dress for him to see. “I didn’t have much time to prepare since Lucy sprung the banquet up on me. What do you think? Is this dress good enough?”
He studied it with a hand on his chin. “It feels like something is missing.”
“Or not.” She ditched it on the bed and rummaged through her closet for another. After what felt like an hour of hunting through the innumerable gowns, she took out a black one and showed him. “This one? I’m trying to look like a boss lady without being too intimidating.”
He pulled her into his arms. She was only wearing her strapless bra and panties, and he was already hard as a rock from seeing her this way when he walked in.
“You’re not helping. I’ll not get dressed at this rate.” She complained, but not without leaning into his embrace and wiggling her backside against his hardness.
“You of all people should know that I enjoy taking off your clothes more than helping you put them on.” He kissed her neck.
“No, no, not the neck!” She reminded him. “I don’t think I have a turtleneck gown—not that I would look good in one—so you better be gentle.”
“You would look good in anything, babe.” He kissed her gently, carefully not to leave a mark. “But you would look even better wearing nothing.”
As soon as he said the words, he cupped her boobs through her bra. Her nipples were poking through the fabric and he couldn’t wait to touch and taste them. He unbuckled her bra and palmed both of them, earning a moan.
“Do you know what the surest cure to stress is?” He asked against her ear as he rubbed her nipples between his thumb and forefinger.”
“What?”
“My tongue.”
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