Nathalie's Makeover Ch. 06

She played with that fucking necklace as she carried on. "The thing I found out about myself." She stuttered. "Is I am submissive, Yves is a powerful man and really I can't say no to him. He is my master. Don't you see if Nathalie came out and you could be comfortable in her skin, and be proud of her not embarrassed making her hide in the shadows we could all be together."

I laughed sarcastically. "Fuck you have no idea do you. I am not Nathalie, this is me and I like being me, yes I enjoy the dress up, but that's for behind closed doors. Fuck you didn't even talk to me, why couldn't you just be honest with me?"

"Because I could see you were scared to let go. I thought we could grow into it slowly and you would see how wonderful it could be, the three of us together. Love if you just let Yves be in charge, and put away your stupid male ego and stopped fighting him this could have been so different?"

"Sorry Viv but I think you need to leave, I think we are done."

That conversation drove me even harder I hated Yves with a passion and I made it my mission to fuck him over, every time we were pitted against them in a bid I went out of my way to ensure we won.

I focused all my energy into grinding Pauls Company into the ground. I used every trick I could think of. It went to a whole new level when I uncovered a slightly underhanded project brief we were asked to tender for. It was a new build installation. When I read the project brief at first it looked good and we started to put together a bid, but part way through and after digging a little deeper I discovered a few well-hidden loopholes in the contract that were weighted so heavily in the clients favour it would make it hard to put in a competitive bid. I explained it all to Mike and he thought it was pretty slippery practice the way they had worded it, he thanked me for being so alert.

We decided to stay in the bidding race but ours was going to reflect what we had discovered and our chances of winning were almost zero.

I got a rush of adrenalin when I found Yves was tendering as well and he was the project lead. I wondered if in his eagerness to beat us he might miss the loopholes.

I decided to use Viv, it was pretty low but hey this was war. She sounded really happy to hear from me when I rang and we organised a lunch date.

The moment she walked in my heart stopped beating for a few seconds, she was as beautiful as ever, but now she looked elegant and sexy, she dressed to impress. Her clothes were now designer labels and she was the epitome of the modern day business woman. We greeted each other with a kiss and hug. At first the conversation was slow and forced, but as we chatted the chitchat flowed and some of our old sparkle returned. As she talked about her salon she fidgeted ruefully with that fucking necklace with his name emblazoned on it. I tried to ignore the rising anger as she went on to say how well it was going, the one subject she shied away from was Yves. As we got comfortable she asked about work, I swung the conversation around to the new tender and I whispered conspiratorially. "Viv this is going to be so big, a special opportunity, there is so much prestige attached to winning this. I have heard unofficially that there is a lot more work in the pipeline if this goes well. She seemed intrigued, nodding along, so I went into more detail revealing that we were so enthusiastic we were putting in a bid that was so low we would lose money. She gave a nervous little titter like she was divulging state secrets. "You know that Yves is working on the same one don't you?"

I shook my head. "No I didn't know." I smiled. "Oh well that gives me a little more incentive to keep the price even lower."

She slumped back disappointedly in her chair sighing. "Really, do you hate him that much?"

I boasted. "Hate is a strong word, but let me say, he will never win a contract that we are bidding on." I added rather forcefully. "I can't wait to steal another one from under his pompous nose."

Her demeanour darkened and she snarled. "Nath, can't you let the past go? From what Yves said you guys must have more work than you can handle anyway." She reached across the table and picked up my hand. "Love keeping this hate bottled up inside you must be hard, open up your heart, you don't have to be friends but surely letting go of those feeling would make your life more enjoyable. It seems to me all you are concentrated on is screwing Yves."

I laughed. "Maybe so but it gives me great pleasure every time I see him lose, but hey if he wasn't so useless they might win occasionally."

It sort of brought the luncheon to an early end, she looked unhappy. "Nath I am sorry I hurt you. You seem so bitter. I love you, but I don't think we should see each other again, all this anger, is not healthy and I hate seeing this side of you, it's not like you at all. My Nath was caring and loving and kind."

It was my turn to snarl. "Yeah well he beat that out of me."

Following that lunch date Viv obviously told him what I said because he doubled down his effort, which of course is exactly what I wanted. Yes I felt guilty for using her in my plot, but fuck it she chose him, and that thought eased my conscience.

As we uncovered more of the contract we increased the price on our bid and of course we missed out.

It turned out Yves did win. The moment I heard I laughed long and hard.

I kept a close eye on their progress over the first month and it didn't go well, it turned out they didn't know about the pitfalls and were caught with their pants down. Yves had been so eager to beat me he had totally over looked some of the finer detail and he had not completed proper due diligence, and yes they were in big trouble.

They fell behind schedule and as it dragged on, it went to litigation and they lost, they lost big time.

I wasn't totally surprised that once they found out how much trouble they were in Viv called me. "Nathan you bastard, you knew all along didn't you?"

I struggled to contain my snigger. "What are you talking about Viv? I don't understand."

"You know damned well you shit. You used me to set Yves up. You knew all the time that contract was a poisoned chalice."

"Viv we did our sums and yes we always knew that was a difficult project, it's why our bid was so high, It's not my fault Yves did not do his job properly."

"You have turned into a vindictive nasty little bastard Nathan, how could you be so cruel."

"Hah! Cruel, talk to Yves about cruel, he is the one who assaulted me, let's not forget that."

She hung up without further comment. I slumped back in my chair. I wanted to feel elated and happy that I had fucked him good and proper, but it was an empty churning feeling and I didn't get the joy I wanted. It was the fact that Viv now felt that way about me that spoilt the moment.