Takeover Ch. 04

Fia's face is unreadable. "The deal? I let you have sex with my husband, you'll back my takeover?"

Quinn nods. "I'll let you take his virginity, of course. I'm sorry I was so greedy. It'll be just like old times."

"Let me think about it," says Fia.

You shudder. Fia... she's not really considering Quinn's suggestion, is she?

Quinn glances in your direction and winks. "I think hubby likes the idea." She lifts her dress up and is in the middle of pulling it over her head when Fia steps forward and punches her full in the stomach. Quinn doubles over in agony and falls to her knees, the dress still covering her face.

"I thought about it," Fia says sweetly to the winded woman at her feet. "The answer's no."

Quinn wrestles the dress down over her body, gasping, her face a rictus of pain which transmutes to fury when she looks on Fia again. "You fucking bitch! I'll be laughing when everything you've built up is torn away from under you!"

"I know you will," says Fia. "Since you're behind it all. You're the one underwriting Lunghezza Motori's counter takeover."

Quinn's face looks as if she's been punched a second time.

"Oh, I've known for a while," says Fia. "I've got my spies too, you know. Moving shadow-money from your secret offshore accounts to fund Lunghezza Motori while waiting for the perfect moment to withdraw support of Cantarella." Fia's face suddenly sheds its emotionlessness. She's gripped by pain. "You hate me that much, Quinn?"

"Hate you?" Quinn spits. "Of course I hate you. I've always hated you, you snaggle-toothed bitch! You never knew when to back down. Always taking things that weren't yours, using that doe-eyed motherly face of yours. Taking him from me."

Fia blinks. "Who?"

All at once Quinn's face crumbles. "You- you don't remember?"

Fia shakes her head. "Whoever he was, I know you were cruel to him, Quinn. You were cruel to all of them. Sooner or later they realised you were incapable of loving anyone except yourself. Just like Haru did last night at the party." Fia's voice slips down into a whisper. "All of this? All of this over some boy from twenty years ago?"

Quinn stares at Fia, her face stony. "Twenty years? A short time compared to forever, and humiliation is forever, Fia. You'll soon learn what it's like, once I'm done stealing your most precious thing from you. When I've finished with your company, there'll be nothing left but the name - and names can be changed." She glances across at you then, that deceptive sweet smile flashing upon her lips. "Well, it's been fun, handsome hubby. Pity I couldn't show you how a real woman treats a boy. You'll just have to be Fia's consolation prize."

Quinn walks over to the elevator and presses the button. "Enjoy the next round of negotiations, Fia. They will not be at all gentle. And don't bother looking to the Savoys for help - I've already poisoned that well through Milana."

The elevator chimes and she gets in. She turns to face the two of you and winks at you one last time as the doors close.

With Quinn gone, all of Fia's energy seems to fall from her and she collapses onto the couch beside you. She places her face in her hands and starts to weep.

You sit there, half-naked, flustered at the sudden outpouring of emotion from your usually stoic wife. You lean across and throw your arms around her neck, murmuring to her that everything will be alright.

With the back of her hand Fia rubs the tears from her swollen eyes. A fragile smile appears on her lips and she hugs you back. "Liar. You beautiful, kind, darling liar." Then she grins with a strangely childish triumph. "But do you know something? After all that, Quinn's wrong. She didn't take my most precious thing away from me."

You ask her what she means and she hugs you closer to her. "I mean you, dopey. You're no consolation prize. You're my most precious thing."

Blushing, you lay your head against her chest as she runs her fingers through your hair. In a whisper you ask her what's going to happen now.

"Well," she says. "We'll have no choice but to stage a fire sale." She grins down at your blank face. "Just another bit of corporate jargon. It means we'll start selling things off to make the takeover less appealing to Lunghezza. With some creative accountancy, I should be able to spirit us away a little before my enemies on the board fire me, which they almost certainly will. We'll be reduced to drinking wine from fiaschi for a while until we can get things started up again, though. I hope you can deal with that."

Tears start in your eyes. You nuzzle your face into her chest, apologising for everything that happened. You've been a lousy husband, jealous and angry and foolish and...

"Please stop that," she says, taking your chin in her hands and lifting your face to hers. New tears glisten in her eyes. "I'm the one who's to blame for all this. At Quinn's party... those women and their boys, those wolves. I should have protected you from them, kept you safe, and instead I just threw you to them. To save myself." She crushes you back against her chest and kisses the top of your head. "It's a woman's duty to protect her husband, and you're the one who ended up protecting me."

Enveloped in the warmth and scent of her body, your tears stop flowing. In a murmur you ask her what she means.

"Like Quinn said," replies Fia. "I was greedy. A greedy barracuda that was never satisfied. Until I met you, that is." She traces the edge of your chin with a lazy finger. "You know, every day at the office, in all those interminable meetings and constant negotiations and battles with the board, the only thing I could think about was how soon I could rush home to you. Nothing else really matters all that much to me anymore. As long as I have you, I'm happy. There's nothing Quinn can do to harm me now." She kisses you. "Like the vows say, "in poverty as in wealth', though I don't think being forced to move back to my family home can really be called being thrown into poverty." She chuckles. "How do you fancy going into the wine-making business? There are fields and fields of old-stock grapes that we can work on building up. Maybe Haru can come and work for us. I think he'll be in need of a job soon. You'll have to promise not to kiss him, though. It'll make me jealous."

You snuggle closer, telling her you don't mind what happens either as long as she doesn't mind having to eat more rustic dishes.

"I can already see you working the farmstead's old wood stove," Fia says, her eyes aglow. "Oh, and you're dressed only in an apron so that I can attack you whenever I want."

Her words remind you that you're still half-naked. The image of Fia coming up behind you and trying to distract you as you cook makes you harden. Soon you're sporting another erection and mortified you thrust your hands over your crotch to try and hide it.

Fia laughs when she sees what's happening. "Wow. My words did that? Or maybe it was that kiss earlier?" She takes your hands away gently, and you only put up a token resistance. You feel your body growing hot, almost feverish.

Of course. The drug that Quinn slipped you. It's still working.

Fia slides her hands along the length. "You're like diamond. Well, it seems a shame to waste it." She lifts you gasping into her arms, then, and carries you up the stairs to the bedroom. She kicks the door open and staggers inside before throwing you onto the bed and climbing on after you.

On all fours she starts to lick you, making you shudder in delight. Then she stops momentarily and gazes up at you, her eyes dark and hot.

"I want to spoil you, okay? So please come in my mouth as quickly as you like."

You shake your head and blushing, your voice little louder than a whisper, you tell Fia that you want her to make love to you. You want to be totally hers, to give her your most precious gift. You're ready, now.

"Worried that someone else might steal your virginity before me?" asks Fia. Her expression is a confusion of arousal, shame and amusement. But excitement quickly dominates the other emotions and her grin deepens, her eyes flashing dangerously.

She leans forward and kisses you while she pulls up her pencil skirt one-handed, bunching her skirt around her waist. Her underwear is white, dark between her legs with her excitement. She peels them down and impatiently wriggles them off. Then, still kissing you, she takes hold of the hem of your shirt and pulls you over on top of her.

She grasps your hardness in her hand and guides the head against her boiling sex. She's dripping with excitement. You shudder, overcome with desire. But Fia just rubs you against her, her other hand stroking your buttocks while you continue to kiss.

Gasping, Fia breaks the kiss at last. "It's so strange," she breathes, her eyes hooded, her face flushed. "I feel like I'm losing my virginity as well. I mean, this'll be my first time having sex with someone I love."

She slides you into her then. You cry out at the exquisite pleasure of the boiling stickiness that engulfs you. So this... so this is how it feels to be inside a woman.

Fia. You're inside Fia, your wife. The woman you love.

She pulls you closer to her and you instinctively start to move your hips, shivering with delight at this new and intense sensation. Fia directs your naïve, eager thrusts, her hands on your hips guiding you faster, now slower, varying the delightful rhythm of your penetration. You roll your eyes, panting as pleasure wracks your body. Saliva trickles from the corner of your mouth and Fia pulls you down on top of her, hungrily licking the saliva away and piercing her hot tongue into your mouth.

You accept her tongue, allowing Fia to explore your mouth and teasing her with your own. You fumble at the buttons to Fia's blouse and she takes her hands from your hips to help you. With a better idea of what you're doing now, your thrusts are faster, more confident. Fia pants and gasp against your mouth as your kiss grows deeper still.

Soon her blouse lies open and you break the kiss to turn your attention to her beautiful breasts. Unsure of how to remove her bra, you instead pull the cups down just enough to release her thick nipples which you immediately attack with lips and tongue.

Fia pulls your head to her chest, moaning. "Please. Please bite them. Oh! No, a little harder. Ah! Yes, like that."

The softness of her breasts, the scratchiness of the lacy trimming of her bra rubbing against your face, the wild scent of her, her impassioned gasping moans all drive you close to the edge. You pull back, slowing your thrusts as you grimace with the almost-pain of the excruciating tension rapidly filling you, but Fia grabs your buttocks and forces you harder and deeper inside her.

"Come for me," she whispers, her voice hoarse with need. "Don't hold back. Come for me, darling. Come as much as you can. Make me yours."

Her urgent pleading and the rising heat inside her is too much for you to bear. With a final, wild thrust you come. Your vision turns white and you cry out as thunderbolt of pleasure spears up your spine to explode in your head. Still thrusting, you spill what feels like your entire being into her, into Fia - your wife, the woman you love more than anything else, the one you'll be together with forever, sharing her home and bed - filling to overflowing with your life the woman you'll raise your children with, who you'll be ever faithful to, having and holding until death do you part...

Until death...

----------

Eyes closed, you're lying on exquisite softness. Firm, strong arms are wrapped around you. There's a scent, a beautiful floral scent tinged with perspiration and an earthy spiciness, the lingering smell of sex. Your body is drained, every limb powerless to move, and all you can do is murmur her name as you remember who you are and where you are and everything that happened.

Fia. Fia. Fia.

So this is what love is. And now you've done it all, given yourself to Fia. Your heart feels full enough to explode and you turn your head so that you can kiss the deliciously soft and fragrant warmth of the woman you love.

"Has my little fishy woken up at last?" The voice from the unseen Fia is sleepy and teasing. You feel hands slide across your back and along your spine to entwine in your sweaty hair.

You lift your head up to look at her. Fia smiles down at you. You stay that way, like a child in his mother's arms, while she pecks you with tiny butterfly kisses all across the sweaty skin of your face and neck.

"You taste salty, my little fishy. I feel like I could work up another appetite."

You giggle. She isn't really all that much like a barracuda after all, you tell her. She can't be. Barracudas aren't soft and warm like she is.

Fia laughs. "Is that so? Well, maybe I'll stop referring to myself as 'the Barracuda' then. It's a stupid nickname, anyway. Did I ever tell you how I got it?"

You're about to say that Quinn already told you, but the thought of talking about that woman makes your stomach turn, so you just shake your head.

"Well," says Fia. "When I was a kid my teeth were all crooked. Badly crooked, like a train wreck. My family didn't have any money so there wasn't anything I could do about it. The other kids used to tease me about it. 'Look out, here comes the barracuda!' they used to say. I cried about it all the time until my mother told me that I should use it to my advantage. 'Just look them in the eyes and tell them, 'Yes, I am a barracuda!' and then sock them one in the mouth.'" Fia sighs. "She was a wise woman, my mother. It was the best advice anyone ever gave me. Of course, I got my teeth straightened when I had the money to do it, but the name stuck."

You snuggle closer. Now you know the true story behind it, Fia's nickname doesn't seem at all scary anymore.

With a contented sigh, Fia rolls onto her back and puts a hand on her stomach. "You came an awful lot, you know. It feels like I'm full to the brim." She strokes her belly. "I'm so full I don't think I can be a greedy barracuda anymore. I'll have to find myself a new nickname."

You reach over and take her hand in yours.

"How about 'mom'?" you suggest.

Fia cries out in delight and pulls you on top of her. She crushes you to her, kissing your neck and mouth until you're breathless, and it's not long before the two of you are eagerly striving to make Fia Collatini, formerly 'the Barracuda', live up to her new nickname.

The End