Danica sat up, staring at the empty glass. “Not sure you should be drinking, my love.”
“I can do as I please until I have a reason to think otherwise.” She scoffed. “Why? You telling me I can’t drink anymore… ma’am?”
“Like you said. You can do as you please.” Danica plucked the glass from her hand and went to get her own shot of liquor.
Alicia waited for her wife to return, a hint of whisky on her breath. “Icando as I please. Right now, I want to be with my wife.” She tugged on Danica’s bra. It slipped off her body as if it had never been there to begin with.
“You do, huh?” Danica tossed the empty glass onto their bed so she could embrace her wife. “Fancy that. I was thinking the same thing. About my wife, that is.”
“Yes, and I want to do it my way this time.”
“My, my. You’ve only been in my family for a couple of weeks, and you’re already turning into a control freak.”
“Takes one to know one.”
Danica chuckled. “How does my princess want to do it tonight?”
Well, for one thing, let’s consider that my parents are here.Didn’t matter how soundproofed the rooms were. Still weird. “In the shower.”
“Oh, I needed a shower anyway.”
“And I need one now.” Alicia pulled away, taking her by the hand. “A dirty shower.”
“I can’t think of a better way to take a shower, my love.”
Ironically, Alicia didn’t feel as dirty as she wanted in the shower. Rather hard to do so when she now associated everything they did as wives as nothing but pure and lovely.
She went to bed wondering if anyone else would ever think the same thing about her marriage. So far, it didn’t seem like it.
Chapter 6
First thing Monday morning, Alicia was bombarded by a barrage of bullets coming from her assistant’s direction. For some reason, Abby thought the best way to start the week was by rattling off every single appointment her boss had.
“God,” Alicia muttered, sitting at her desk with one hand on her head. “It’s not even nine yet. Did you have to spring that on me right away?”
Abby shrugged. “Just doing my job, ma’am.”
“Yes, yes.” Alicia turned on her computer with a yawn. Since the weekend wasn’t busy enough, what with her parents needing constant babysitting and her wife glued to some developing business news, Alicia also had to be a damn spouse, too. When Danica wasn’t having her fill of her wife’s foremost duties, Alicia was making valiant attempts to remodel parts of their new home and reclaim the sweetness she had felt while in Chicago. Sheesh. That hadn’t been so long ago, huh?
Kinda hard to feel sweet when she was up to her ass in family drama, ringing business phones, and raunchy sex. Thatwas an Alicia Colbert thing.Alicia Moreau doesn’t have time for a sweet lifestyle submission.She hoped her wife would understand.
“By the way,” Abby continued, while Alicia struggled to remember her computer password, “Mrs. Warner called me over the weekend. She wanted to set up tea with you, so I penciled in tomorrow at two. I had to move a couple of other appointments around, though. Hence why today and Wednesday look like a convention.” Abby waited a moment. “I’m assuming that’s okay? You wanted to meet with her, right?”
Alicia unlocked the bottom drawer on her desk. From within, she pulled out a document listing every shareholder of the privately run Moreau Industries. How convenient that the names were arranged alphabetically by first name.
“You bet your ass I want to speak with her.” Not just about business, either, but that would be Alicia’s excuse for going. Monique’s name was already starred on her list. So were Lara Anderseen and the two other members of the Married Women’s Alliance, who also happened to own some shares.For a privately held company, there sure are a lot of shareholders.Alicia supposed that happened with companies as old as hers. Shares were bought generations ago and passed down through offspring. That didn’t include the others brought in over the past forty or fifty years. In the past ten alone? Another list, organized by date of purchase, showed that there had been sixteen new shareholders in the past decade. Most of them were small potatoes, but Alicia would be boiling them anyway.
She would be meeting the primary shareholders on Thursday. Those were the men – they were all men – who owned the biggest chunks of shares. Russell owned the most. Then Danica, for a combined 60% of the total company shares.
Alicia was now on the list as well. Paltry 8% of shares.Pshaw.
“Tomorrow at two is fine. What do we have today, again?”
“You’re meeting with the Greens at eleven and then the Cranshaws at two.”
“I have no idea who those people are.” They were on the list, though.
“I did all the research this weekend. Would you like to go over it?”
