After Christmas - A Nadine and Charlie short story | Book 1.1

Charlie

For two glorious days, Nadine and I hadn’t even left the bed to eat. We opted to order takeout and fed each other tapas while lying naked in each other’s arms. After spending most hours between the sheets, time came to get back to reality.

The 27th of December came too fast. On call since midnight, I thought I would get off easy. Unfortunately my phone rang around four a.m. A suspicious death. Nothing special, but they needed a trained eye to assess whether it was a homicide or not. Me picking up startled Nadine awake.

She pouted when I hung up. Her naked body made it nearly impossible to leave the bed. Unwillingly, I leaned over and planted a kiss on her forehead. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back down. When I landed on the mattress, she straddled me.

I groaned. How cruel of her, placing such temptation in front of me when she knew I had to go.

“Sorry, Nade, duty calls,” I sat up, leaning on my elbows. “It’s probably nothing, but you’re welcome to tag along if you want,” I offered. “Or you can make yourself comfortable and wait until I return.”

She begrudgingly released me from her thighs. “I might stick around for a few hours, sleep, then run errands. And I have the regular livestream tonight. But I would love to see you after, if you’re free?”

Of course I wanted her back in my bed as soon as possible. “That sounds perfect,” I grinned as I leaned in for another kiss, this time on the lips. “Your place, or mine?”

She picked hers, which was bigger and more luxurious.

Maude Saunders, my colleague, picked me up. A long drive through the suburbs led us to a semi-detached house with an overgrown lawn. At first glance, the case seemed like a simple accidental death. An elderly man stumbled down the stairs and broke his neck. His live-in caretaker, his son, hysterically called an ambulance. The victim was declared dead at the scene, but one of the EMT’s suspected foul play.

I agreed.

The victim’s position seemed off to me. Too straight, not at all like he took a tumble. His body covered in bruises obviously not sustained during the fall. Judging by their colours, they were in various stages of healing. And then there was the peculiarity of his torn left auricle. While still attached to the skull, the ear’s cartilage had almost completely broken away. There was no good explanation for that, other than somebody had pulled it excessively hard.

I suspected elderly abuse and chose to investigate the possible homicide.

We brought the son to the precinct under the guise of taking his statement. I decided to interrogate him. He soon broke down and admitted resenting taking care of his father, which turned out to be harder than he expected. In the end, he decided to ‘help’ him along by pushing him to his demise.

We wrapped everything up by lunchtime.

Cady, the youngest member of my team, ordered me a sandwich. “Congrats on finally getting together with Nadine,” she said, handing it to me.

“Thank God for that,” John remarked, while gobbling down his packed lunch behind his desk. “I thought you two were going to continue flirting forever.”

Maude seemed curious and asked, “So, who made the first move, Charlie?”

I thought about it. Who did? Nadine confessed her feelings to me first, even though I didn’t pick up on what she said. Preoccupied with her being drunk, the message behind her singing ‘All I want for Christmas is You’ went right over my head. When she confessed being madly in love during the Christmas livestream, it dawned on me who she was talking about. Only then I acted, rushing to the studio like the idiot I was and confronting her head on.

Of course, the whole world, except me, had realized long ago her incessant flirting indicated a genuine interest, instead of a form of teasing. I had been such a dunce.

“She did. She finally spelled it out in a way that I couldn’t misinterpret,” I admitted.

“Honestly, Charlie,” Maude tutted, “I asked myself many times how such a bright young man as yourself could miss all the signs!”

“I didn’t,” John mumbled, his mouth still full. “Nadine uses her looks as a weapon. Remember, she ‘strategically’ kissed Charlie to steal a case file?”

I hadn’t forgotten. Her little trick earned me a suspension. But that harsh memory softened when Nadine confessed that kiss made her fall for me.

As if reading my thoughts, Nadine appeared in the doorway to our office. I grinned as she strode toward me, hips swinging as if walking down a catwalk. She hopped onto the edge of my desk, right next to me. I leaned back to unashamedly check her out. She looked good in sheer black tights with one stripe running along the back, and her mini skirt barely covered anything. Her green silk blouse complimented her red hair. Cut tantalizingly low, it seduced me with glimpses of her cleavage.

I swallowed. My mind went straight to her naked body underneath her clothes.

She smirked when she caught me studying her. “I hoped to join you for lunch, but I see you’ve already eaten.” She leaned in closer, whispering in my ear, “Maybe we could take a shower together tonight. I can still smell the sex on you.”

That’s right. I didn’t shower this morning, assuming I’d come back home before starting my normal workday. Blushing, I hoped no one around me noticed my musky body odour.

Maybe she exaggerated. Nadine enjoyed teasing me.

She pushed my chair back with her stiletto and climbed on my lap.

“Nade, stop. You know you can’t do that here,” I objected.

She pursed her lips but obeyed. Before she got off however, she leaned in again and whispered, “I’m gonna fuck your brains out tonight.”

My body reacted instantly at her saying that. Fuck. I would have to remain seated for a while, as my slacks left little to the imagination.

Nadine

Charlie offered me to stay at his place. Sticking around made little sense. But I agreed, because I liked basking in his scent while I slept. I hoped if and when Charlie got back, we would have breakfast before getting on with our day.

I also had to return to the real world. The last time my crew saw me, I dragged Charlie out of the studio on Christmas day. That started our delicious sex marathon.

I abandoned my sidekick, Dale, in the middle of the livestream, leaving him to deal with the fallout. He hadn’t contacted me since, so I didn’t know if he was happy for me, or about to tear me to shreds.

Wearily entering the studio, I tried to gauge Dale’s mood. He managed to keep a straight face for a moment, before offering me a wide grin.

“There she is, Mrs Greyson! You must’ve had one hell of a good time, since you’ve been radio-silent from the moment you left.”

I sank down in my chair and stretched. “Hmm.”

Dale chuckled. “That good, huh?”

“Dale, he is a sex god,” I proclaimed. My expectations were met, and then some. I experienced more orgasms during the past few days than in the year leading up to them. Charlie sure had a gift.

“I’m glad for you, but now focus. There’s only twelve hours left until the livestream, and we basically have nothing. Get creative.”

“Sure thing. First, I’m going to apologise to the audience for leaving and then talk about the fact that I have a boyfriend for fifteen minutes. Afterwards…” I took a case from the pile and flipped through it. Deciding this wouldn’t do, I tossed it aside and took the next file. It seemed promising, with several leads to speculate about. “I’ll write a script outline for this one.”

“Wait, boyfriend?” Lancy asked, taking the dossier from me to look at its contents. “Aren’t you moving a little fast from jumping in the sack with him two days ago?”

“You’re forgetting that she’s been pining for this guy for a year,” Bree, our tech assistant, reminded our fact checker.

“Apparently he has been pining for me, too.” I winked. “I’m going to surprise him for lunch, by the way, so I’ll be gone for an hour and a half or so.”

“Nade, there’s no time,” Dale groaned.

“Sure there is! I’m so full of energy and inspiration, I can write two scripts before ten p.m. if need be.”

Going over to the precinct to meet Charlie turned out to be a bust. He sat behind his desk, already eating. I decided to toy with him a little, but with his colleagues around, he wasn’t having it. So, I punished him by whispering, ‘I’m gonna fuck your brains out tonight’ into his ear.

His breath hitched and he shifted in his seat, trying to conceal his growing erection. Exactly the reaction I hoped for. Satisfied, I left him there, horny in anticipation of tonight’s promise.