Something Forbidden (22 page)

“I’ll be in touch,” Chloe said. “Have a safe ride home.”

Neither Katie nor I said a word on our way down to the parking garage. I tried to gather my thoughts, but it was like trying to rake leaves in a windstorm. I’d watched her fuck another man. Finally. But it hadn’t been the first man she’d fucked. Would this be the last time? Or would she want more?

Inside the quiet cab of our car, the silence was deafening. I cranked the engine but didn’t immediately pull out of the parking spot.

Next to me, Katie put a hand on my leg. Her face looked sharper, lit only by the fluorescent lights of the parking garage. “I love you,” she said. Then: “Are we okay?”

How could such a complex question be boiled down into one three-word yes-or-no question? And yet I had an answer for it. “Yeah. We are.”

Her hand traveled up my thigh as a smile formed. I wasn’t erect anymore, but I wasn’t exactly flaccid, either. “Sorry we left you frustrated there at the end.”

“It’s okay.”

“No,” she said, tucking her hair back behind her ear. “It’s not.”

She dropped her head into my lap, unzipped me, and fished my stiffening member free. As she took me into her mouth and I quickly scanned the empty parking lot for people, I wondered when that dream-like feeling would fade. I watched Katie’s auburn hair bob in my lap, her tongue doing wild things to my cock, and thought for the last time that night,
Who is this woman who looks so much like my wife?

Chapter
10

“Yes, I understand...yes, I can do that, but—” Katie made a face, but kept listening to whatever was being said on the other end of the phone.

“Uh, huh...right.”

We hadn’t even crawled out of bed. It was ten in the morning. I couldn’t remember the last time we’d
both
slept in so late, yet after last night’s marathon sex session with Chloe and Greg, we both needed it.

We’d come home around 2, apologized to the babysitter, then crashed. Neither of us were ready to talk about what had happened beyond simple reassurances. The talk would come—later this morning, I was hoping—and all would be all right. Only, it didn’t seem to be playing out that way.

“Okay, I’m on my way.” Katie sounded annoyed at whoever had called her so “early” on a Saturday morning. “Yes, I understand.”

She jammed her thumb against the End button and tossed it down to the foot of the bed. Flopping onto her back, she blew out a loud sigh and shook her head. “I need to get to the airport.”

“What?” That wasn’t what I was expecting. “When? Why?”

Her snort was one of exasperation. “I need to get on an airplane that’s leaving in two hours. I’m not sure that’s even possible. There’s apparently some crisis in our Hong Kong office. Apparently I’m needed there.”

“Hong Kong?” She’d been traveling a lot, but that was by far the most distant she’d been.

“It gets worse. They need me there for three weeks.”

“Three weeks? That’s a long time.”

She looked guilty. “At least I won’t miss the opening of the speakeasy?”

I still hadn’t told her the name I’d come up with, and somehow I’d managed to keep it a secret despite the menus and promos being created. I wanted the place to be my gift to her. “It’s still so long. And…”

“What?” she asked.

“It’s going to sound silly, but I was kind of looking forward to spending a little time, just you and me.”

Katie touched my face. “I’ll see what I can do to get back. Trust me, I’m not a fan of this, either.” She rolled out of bed, grabbed her robe from the bathroom, and began packing. “I’m going to do my best to get home earlier. Can you go wake Mya up and get her ready?”

****

I could handle being a single dad for three weeks. I could even handle being a single dad for three weeks while putting the finishing touches on my bar opening. The nanny, Eleanor, helped. So did my parents and Nadia.

Katie being out of the country actually made a few things easier, too, like being able to review menus with
The Katherine
letter-pressed onto them, or having a phone conversation without having to call the bar
the speakeasy
.

The hardest part wasn’t even the void of sex—although after these last few months of fucking like newlyweds, the lack of sexual relief wasn’t the easiest thing to deal with, either.

No, the hardest thing was not having Katie with me. My best friend. My companion. I missed being able to talk to her about how her day was. Or relate a crazy story I’d heard from a drunk at the bar. Or wake up in the middle of the night and know that she was at my side, peacefully asleep.

We did end up having that post-swing conversation, only about a day delayed and over the phone. It was my morning, her night, and she’d been traveling for nearly 15 hours. Not ideal circumstances, but for me, it couldn’t wait anymore.

“How are you feeling?” I said. “About our night with Greg and Chloe?”

“Gosh, from where I am now, that feels like ages ago.” Her laugh had more sigh behind it than exhilaration. “I had fun. You?”

It was so much harder to have this talk without looking into each other’s eyes. Was this a test or a genuine question? I took it as the latter. “Yeah, it was fun. A lot of fun.”

“You got a little closer to Chloe, I noticed.”

Again, I wished I could see her face. Instead, I was forced to sift through her tone in search of jealousy. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t—”

“Relax, honey. Everything was happening all at once. A lot of unplanned things happened.”

The image of Chloe and Katie sixty-nining was suddenly all I could think about. “Yeah. I thought you told me you weren’t curious about that.”

“I wasn’t…until I was.” Now the exhilaration was there, although only just so.

“And now?”

“I’d be lying if I told you that wasn’t fun, too. I guess I just never thought about it seriously.”

My mind was blown. But this wasn’t why I’d started this conversation.

“So what next?” I said.

“Are you asking whether I’m going to start
exploring my sexuality
? Because I’m perfectly happy with my sexuality as it is.”

“No, I mean…about Greg and Chloe.”

“How about we just play it by ear? Right now, I need to get through these next three weeks—as do you. When all this craziness has died down, we can figure the other stuff out.”

I laughed. “Katie Callahan, moving forward without a plan?”

“Well, it’s not like you can say it’s the most shocking thing I’ve done recently.”

We did our solid best to have conversations like that every day, but every day, the conversations got a little shorter and a little more abstract. Even from the other side of the globe and on her mobile phone, her voice came through crystal clear. The
I love yous
and the
I miss yous
could have been coming from the next room over. But they weren’t, and after two weeks and with the bar’s grand opening less than a month away, everything just got more and more academic.

“Everything’s set for opening night. Just need to finalize the VIP list...” Nadia was talking, clipboard in hand, but I barely heard her. I was too busy missing Katie.

“Hey, hey!” Nadia said, snapping her fingers. “Earth to Max, you there? I need you with me. Just a few more weeks now, and you can go back to La-La Land.”

It would be a shame losing her as the manager of Callahan 2, but I needed her operating my newest bar. The speakeasy would be a tricky thing to make popular: almost hidden from the outside, small on the inside, reservations required on peak nights, and a dress code right out of the 1920s. My hope was that all those things would create a buzz that would be irresistible for the young hipsters of the city.

“Sorry, sorry. I’m here. What were we talking about?”

“VIPs. I need you to look over this list and let me know if you have a problem with any of them.”

Nadia handed me the clipboard and I distractedly reviewed the names. We’d decided at the last minute to invite the rich socialites of the city to this event. It was Nadia’s idea, actually, but it was a good one. People would keep coming back on the off chance that they’d spot one of the B-list celebrities.

I recognized most of the names, but was beginning to wonder why Nadia thought I’d have a problem with any of them. Until I came upon two. I looked up at her. “Have the invites gone out?”

The brunette shook her head. “Course not. That’s why I’m asking you to look, but don’t take too long...we only have a few days left.” She craned her neck to see the list. “See someone I should nix?”

I glanced back at the names.
Greg and Chloe Reynolds.
Of course their names would be on here. They were young and rich socialites. And really, I had no reason to protest them. It’s just…I didn’t think I wanted them in this part of my world.

“Um, no.” I forced a smile. I was being silly.

Nadia looked at me funny. “Everything okay with you?”

Could I talk to her about this? Tell her about the crazy sex adventure that Katie and I were on? How she’d slept with another man, not once, but twice, or how she went out dancing with the man’s wife and made out with other guys?

“I just miss Katie is all. It’s crazy. How quickly it all goes. We’ve been together for nine years, but she’s gone not even a two weeks and I start forgetting her?”

Nadia set her pen down on the scheduling notebook and reached for my hands. “You’re not forgetting her. It’s just the way you deal with missing her. And it’s natural.”

Nadia’s wedding and engagement rings caught in the light, a large diamond encased in warm gold. Her wedding felt like ages ago, and as I drew up a mental timeline, I realized it had been over a year since she’d married John.

“How do you and John deal with it? Living apart. Here I am, crying about a couple weeks, and he’s been working in New York since the restructuring.”

Nadia pulled her hands away and stared at me like she had a secret. “It’s not the best arrangement, but we’re dealing with it.”

Now it was my turn to probe. “What?”

“John and I have an...understanding.”

I blinked. This was unexpected. Even with everything I knew about the young woman, I didn’t expect
this.
“You’re swingers?”

Nadia blushed beneath her deep tan. “I don’t know that that’s what we’d call it. More like an open relationship, I guess.”

I ran my hand across my scalp as I tried to put it all together. Here I was, struggling with my own issues with an open relationship, when my right hand man (or woman) was living the life right beside me.

“You’re not going to fire me, are you?” I’d never seen Nadia nervous, and when I looked up at her, I saw that her question was more of a tease than one of serious concern. “I could arrange another viewing for you if it would save my job.”

That moment from three years returned in a flash, Nadia sprawled face down on the bar as some stud fucked her hard.

“You knew I was watching?”

Nadia laughed. “Yeah. It made is so much hotter. I probably wouldn’t have gone that far if I didn’t see you hiding there.”

“I’m sorry.”

Nadia shook her head. “Don’t apologize. Like I said, it was hot. I like being watched.”

“I thought marriage would mellow you out.”

“Is that what it’s supposed to do? Because in my experience, it’s been the opposite.”

I tried to imagine John, quiet John, acting like Greg—or even me, for that matter. It didn’t gel, but then again, people probably wouldn’t suspect that I’d get off on something as kinky as watching my wife in a threesome with another couple.

“Yeah, definitely doesn’t have to.”

After a relaxed silence, Nadia asked, “You and Katie are alright, right?”

The question triggered something uneasy in my belly. “Yeah. Why?”

Nadia shook her head. “No real reason. Just wondering.”

I started to ask her to elaborate, then spotted Chloe settle in at the bar. It was the first time I’d seen her since our crazy night together, and while that should have made me feel at ease with her, I felt everything but.

I pushed out of my seat. “Excuse me for a second, will you?”

Nadia nodded, going back to her books as walked toward Chloe. It felt like walking up to a live grenade.

“Hey, stranger,” the now-familiar blonde greeted as I moved behind the bar. This afternoon, she was wearing skintight jeans and a tunic shirt that she’d belted to emphasize her slender build. Her skinny style jeans were tucked into a pair of slouchy brown boots and her pale hair hung short and free around her pretty face.

“Hey yourself,” I said. “The usual?”

“You look great, as usual,” I said.

She stretched, the tunic pulled tight enough to outline her bra. I looked, just as she’d intended.