Something Forbidden (19 page)

We took our time this time, making love without talk of Greg or the fantasy. We were together, Katie and Max, and reveled in our love.

Chapter
9

Despite the Art Gallery Adventure, as we’d started referring to it as, we didn’t get together as a foursome immediately following. Life had to do with some of it—Katie’s travel picked up again and The Katherine’s opening started to swallow all my free time. Mostly, though, I think neither of us was ready to take it to that next level just yet, despite the excitement.

We relived Katie’s wild night, though. Many times over the next couple months. We even purchased a mirror for the bedroom, although it wasn’t as ostentatious as the one that Chloe and Max had, apparently. Still, it was fun to watch us go at it in the reflection, and if I angled it just right, with my head cut off and Katie’s body rippling under me, I could imagine that it wasn’t me drilling into her but someone else.

That wasn’t to say that we didn’t have any connection with Greg and Chloe. Katie and Chloe typically got together for lunch once a week, if she was in town. I made sure to keep my evenings open after those nights because Katie usually came in on fire.

Chloe was in touch with me, too. Every time I saw that it was her number, my heart starting beating and my conscience warned not to answer it. But I couldn’t stop myself. To get a different perspective on the evolution of my wife was just too tempting.

“Katie keeps mentioning a guy named John,” Chloe said during one of our conversations. “Do you know him?”

“Yeah, He’s one of my manager’s husband, actually. Katie and John used to work together.”

“Hm…interesting.”

Jealousy shifted inside of me. I thought about seeing them in New York, at The James, and Katie’s reaction when I suggested she liked him. “They’re just friends.”

“Probably,” Chloe said.
Probably.

“Why? Did she say something?” My paranoia kicked in.

“Not really.”

I tried to keep the worry out of my voice. “What is it, Chloe?”

“It’s nothing. Just, well…it’s nothing.”

She was killing me. “Tell me. Spill it.”

“I think she likes him is all. She hasn’t, you know, admitted anything, but…I just have this feeling. He lives in New York?”

“Yeah. He and Nadia, his wife, have a long distance thing right now.”

“Huh…” Chloe said. I didn’t like the sound of that. “Probably nothing.”

Probably.

I was working with Nadia more and more as we started getting serious about The Katherine’s opening. The devil’s in the details, they say, and Nadia was great about covering all those pesky details. She worked with the PR firm to get our promotions ramped up. She started interviewing key staff members. We spent hours pouring over what the linens would look like, what kind of food to serve, and even what kind of music to play. It was inevitable that the conversation would swing to John and Katie eventually.

“So how are things with John?”

“As good as they can be when you only see each other on the weekends.”

“Tell me about it. Sometimes, it feels like that’s the only time I get to see Katie.”

“Things’ll settle down eventually. This is the dust settling,” Nadia reassured.

“You ever worry about all the traveling? And you and him being apart?”

Nadia laughed. “Like cheating? Never crossed my mind.”

I nodded. Nadia knew me well enough to know something was up.

“Don’t tell me you’re worried about Katie.”

“I’m not.” I wasn’t. Why would I be? She had permission to fool around if she wanted to.

“Good. You guys are the most solid couple I know. You’re an inspiration.”

“Thanks.”

An inspiration. Solid. That’s what we were, and Katie confirmed it a week later when she told me that Greg had asked her to meet her for lunch.

“I told him no,” she explained that evening. “I just don’t feel comfortable doing that, you know?”

“You two seemed to hit it off,” I said, drawing a sharp look from my wife. “I mean personality wise, not…physically.”

Her lips curled up. “Not
just
physically.”

“Right,” I said, feeling my heart ignite.

“I still don’t know. He wouldn’t want it to be just lunch…” She bit her lip.

“Would you?”

“That’s the part I really don’t know. I’m awful, aren’t I?” she said.

“No, you’re sexy, Katie. And I’d be fine with it, too, if you wanted it to be more. Just remember to come home to me and tell me all about it.”

Katie laughed nervously. “Okay, but don’t hold your breath. That feels too much like a lifestyle, and that’s not what I want. Besides, like I said, the next time we play, I want you there.”

****

Time passed. Tax Day came and went. Katie’s trips picked back up. She was gone more than she was home. We hired a nanny, finally, a wonderful older woman named Eleanor.

We celebrated our ninth anniversary early because she was going to be in London on the actual day, although we briefly considered celebrating it out there. In the end, it would be too expensive to pull off and too busy for the both of us. Katie teased me on the actual anniversary, though, texting me that she about going out dancing to
celebrate for the both of us
. The thought of her alone in a strange city drove me up the wall.

That was the thing. As time stretched out from the Art Gallery Adventure, Katie got more comfortable with the teasing. She even went dancing a couple times with Chloe, both times coming home with tales of making out with strangers on the dance floor. Chloe confirmed the stories the next day in calls that I knew I shouldn’t take but couldn’t help myself from answering.

“I think she’s ready for more,” Chloe said after one such night. “You should have seen her last night, Max. She had a cloud of men around her.”

“She told me about some tall guy who was really into her?”

“Yeah, there were a few of those, but I saw her really going at it with one of them in the back of the club. I swear he had his hand up under her dress.”

“Really?” Heat sizzled across my face. She hadn’t mentioned that.

“I don’t know. It was dark and she didn’t say anything on our way home other than that he was a good kisser.” Chloe’s laugh was cruel. “But the point is, I think she’s ready for more. She’s in town next Friday. I’m going to suggest you guys meet Greg and I for drinks.”

“Just drinks?”

“Drinks and sex, I hope.”

****

We were spending a quiet evening in, both of us working on our laptops at the dining table.
Study hall,
Katie called it. This had become the norm. When Mya went down, if we weren’t busy getting caught up in the bedroom, we were busy catching up in our work. Katie was pouring over some audit reports when she paused, looked over at me, and asked the question I’d been waiting to hear for days.

“So Chloe asked if we wanted to meet her and Greg for drinks.”

I replied with the question same question I’d given Chloe. “Just drinks, or...?”

I saw Katie’s smile light up her eyes behind her glasses. “
Or,
” she said. “If you’re up for it.”

I had a brief, intense vision of Greg and Katie, their naked bodies bathed in shadow as they rutted in the dark. I took a deep, steadying breath. “Let’s talk about that.”

“Sure.” Katie took off her glasses and batted her lashes. “What do you want to talk about?”

She went coy.

I went blunt. “Sex with other people.”

“A familiar subject these days.” She giggled.

I reached across the table and took her hands in mine. “Honey, are you going to be okay with me and Chloe?”

Katie expression tightened. “I think so.”

I could read the rest of her thought:
it’s not fair if I’m not.

“I don’t have to go there. I can just watch...” I hoped I sounded sincere. For the most part, I was, although I won’t deny it, part of me (a very hard part of me) liked the idea of sex with Chloe.

“Really? You’d be okay with that?” she asked.

“This is about the two of us
together
, not our individual desires. I’m not going to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

The tension ran out of her face. “And you’re comfortable with me sleeping with Greg?”

“Little late in the game to be asking that, don’t you think?”

Katie laughed. “I mean,
watching
me sleep with Greg.”

“I can’t wait for that.”

****

“So here we are,” Greg said as a server placed our drinks in front of us.

I’d decided on a double bourbon and Coke, needing something strong and direct to calm my frayed nerves.

“Here we are,” I repeated.

Greg sat across from me, a beer before him and the same easy smile I’d noticed the first time I’d met him. We sat at the bar in the Azure Lounge, a small bar on the first floor of the boutique hotel, Azure. I checked my watch. Just past nine. We had the babysitter until around one a.m.—two if we needed to stretch it out. I couldn’t decide if fours hours was too much time or too little.

It was really weird to be standing next to a guy who’d fucked my wife—Katie’s
lover.
He didn’t mention the encounter, he was too much a gentleman to do that, but I could see it in his eyes. The balance of power had shifted in the slightest of ways. We were no longer just a couple guys with a fetish for wife-watching. He had something on me, and by the end of the night, he’d have even more.

“How about a toast to you and Katie joining the club,” Greg suggested, drawing me back to him. The two of us had come ahead of the women. That was part of the game.

I didn’t feel like this was a celebratory kind of thing, but raised my glass anyway. I even managed to make a joke, even as I felt everything falling apart around me. “Do we get matching jackets?”

“It gets a little easier,” Greg said.
Was I that obviously nervous?
“But not really.” He laughed. “I mean, that’s what keeps drawing us back, right? That thrill that sometimes feels like panic?”

“Yeah.” I knew what he meant, but that wasn’t quite it. Something else had me on edge, and that
something else
walked in at that moment with my wife.

Chloe was a bombshell—even more, she knew it. Katie had more natural beauty and grace than the blonde could ever have, but Chloe carried herself like a glamour model. She wore a short, yet loose black dress, cinched around her narrow waist by a glossy black belt, and tall, spindly heels elongated her diminutive size.

Katie walked in behind her, more dolled up than usual in a short black skirt and red blouse—not quite the wife and mother I woke up next to every day, but still familiar. Even if she weren’t my wife—even if these two were strangers to me—I’d gravitate toward Katie and her authentic beauty.

And yet, when Greg turned to me and mouthed,
Here we go,
it was Chloe that I found myself approaching.

That was the game. Or a twist on the game. Instead of sitting back and watching them get picked up, we were role-playing—only it was the other man’s wife that we were role-playing with.

“Buy you two a drink?” Greg asked.

I smiled at Chloe, falling into the wingman role. I wondered how many times the blonde played second fiddle to any woman.

“Please,” Katie said. “I’ll take a margarita.”

“And you?” I asked the blonde. We shared a smile as we settled into our fake personas.

“I’ll take the same. Tequila sounds fun.”

We stayed around the bar, pairing off with each others’ spouses much like we had over dinner a few weeks back. Only tonight, the pairings had the potential to go further than casual conversation.

“I really like your blouse,” Greg said, his eyes sliding into the generous scoop of Katie’s red top.

Chloe rolled her eyes and looked at me, whispering, “Do you have a better line?”

“You don’t need me to tell you how good you look,” I said. “But if you want, I can tell you that every guy in this room wishes they were me right now.”

Chloe batted her lashes. “Not great, but better than his.”

“Thanks for being generous,” I said. “You two local? Or visiting?”

Pretending to be a stranger felt a little forced, but it was easier than it would have been with Katie since Chloe really
was
mostly a stranger.

“Local,” she said. Her drink arrived and I handed it to her. “Katie and I are on a girls night out.”

“I’m glad you picked this spot,” I said.

As the drinks flowed, the role-play got easier. Chloe was easy to talk to, and after a while, I even managed to give her more attention than Katie and Greg, who seemed to be picking up right where they left off. At one point, Greg had her laughing harder than I’d seem her in a long while. Jealousy swam through my veins, washed to the furthest reaches of my body.