The Other Woman: A Steamy Contemporary Romance (The Bidden Series Book 6)

by Crystal Cierlak

  Natalie nodded and smiled shyly, not quite meeting Audra’s eyes. “Okay. Good night.”

  As she jogged downstairs to her own room Audra wondered whether or not she should tell James that Natalie was there with her. They were no longer together, and it seemed pretty clear from that evening that Natalie wasn’t in a place to speak to James quite yet. But still. If James took her ex-girlfriend home to his house because she was too drunk to go home, would she want to know about it?

  She ran the hot water tap into the bathtub and undressed from the day, unpinning her hair from her usual chignon so that it fell down to her shoulders, the ends gently grazing her collarbones. By the time Sade was crooning through the entertainment system Audra was lowering herself into the bathtub, sighing deeply at the sting of hot water against her aching muscles.

  A sigh escaped her lips as she sank deeper into the oversize tub, submerging all the way down until the water came almost up to her chin.

  Natalie is in my house.

  Her eyes opened at the thought, as if she’d spoken it out loud and was checking to make sure no one had heard her. Which was ridiculous, she realized all too quickly. But the thought came again. Natalie Harlow was spending the night in her house.

  Jesus, I need to get laid, she cursed to herself. It had been so long since she was with a woman that the mere idea of one being in her house was enough to make her squeeze her thighs together. But she wasn’t just any woman, and that was the problem. Because no matter how hard she tried to get her out of her system, Audra could not get over her ridiculous crush on Natalie Harlow.

  Even if there was a snowball’s chance in hell of ever being more than Natalie’s friend she couldn’t do it. Becoming romantically involved with James Fitzgerald’s ex was exactly the kind of relationship and sex drama they avoided for their decade-long partnership. He would agree to do the same in the equally unlikely event of hooking up with one of Audra’s exes.

  She promised herself that once everything in her life went back to normal she’d focus on her own love life. James and Celine were close to finalizing their divorce – for real this time. And while Celine wasn’t exactly moving on with Joe Gallo, neither was she trying to pursue anything more with James. Vic was done and gone months ago. So maybe it was time after all for Audra to focus on herself for a change, and end her cold bed dry spell.

  Then again, she couldn’t much handle a relationship when she had one. What made her think now would be any different?

  She stood and wrapped herself in a towel before stepping out, enjoying the luxury of having tiles that warmed the soles of her feet. She dressed in a set of silk satin La Perla pajamas and padded into the kitchen in search of food. For the second time that evening Audra found herself walking up to Natalie Harlow, sitting at a bar. Only this time the bar was the marble island of her kitchen. And Natalie had abandoned her sweatshirt and jeans for a thin white tee shirt and a pair of velour pants, both of which Audra knew had been found inside the guest bedroom wardrobe.

  Her eyes grazed up and down the length of Natalie’s slender legs, admiring their perfect shape and imagining-

  Nope.

  She squashed that line of thinking immediately and turned her attention back to finding something to eat for a very late dinner. “Smells good in here. Is that bolognese?” she asked as she made her way to the fridge, trying to absolutely not think about Natalie’s legs. Or Natalie’s anything.

  “Mm, isho good.” She had a mouth full of food but the look on her face said it was delicious. “I didn’t even heat it yet.”

  She picked up a serving of the bolognese and set it across the island from Natalie before grabbing a fork and an opened bottle of Merlot. She gestured at Natalie with the bottle. “Would like a glass?”

  Natalie covered her mouth with her hand and said, “I’m good, thanks.”

  Audra sat down before her food and the wine and sighed contentedly. “How’s the guest room?”

  “It’s good. It feels like being in one of your hotels, which you know I think is a good thing. I’d actually love a tour sometime. If you’d be up for it?”

  “You got it. I have a whole art collection I never get to see enough of.”

  “You know, I’m surprised you don’t do more design work. You have impeccable taste.”

  Audra shook her head before taking a sip of wine. “I have a vision and I hire people to make that vision a reality. I tell someone like Sallie what I see and she finds a way to take it from here,” she gestured absently to her head, “to here,” she pointed to nowhere in particular in the kitchen space around them.

  “I hope that’s how our customers see us. Like we are the ones who can make their dream a reality.”

  “I’m sure they do. How is that going, by the way? Being partners with Joe?”

  “It’s been great so far!” she replied after another forkful of bolognese. “We’re learning how to do everything together. He plays to his strengths and I play to mine.”

  She knew the feeling well. It was an exciting first year at Fitson Entertainment Groupe way back when. “These are the memories that will carry you through the years when it gets hard. Fitson wasn’t always a billion-dollar company. We started by cashing in favors and overcharging horny co-eds. Then we grew and hired more people to carry out our vision. It’s a marriage. It’s work and commitment and loyalty. I couldn’t be part of Fitson without James.”

  And just like that, the mood changed; his name the catalyst.

  “I think I’m going to call it a night.”

  “You can leave them,” Audra interrupted as Natalie started to clear up her plate and fork. “Look on the left side of the bed by the headboard. There’s a secret compartment where you’ll find spare bottles of water. You should probably keep hydrating tonight.”

  “Thank you, Audra. Good night.” Audra held her breath as Natalie touched her shoulder, a brief grazing of her fingertips as she passed by.

  “Good night, Natalie.”

  Audra cleaned the dishes in near silence, the dulcet sounds of soft jazz still playing from her bedroom. Once the porcelain was gleaming and the wine glasses sparkling, Audra dimmed the lights and headed back to her room, her very own private sanctuary. From the touchscreen console of the entertainment center’s control center, she switched from music to the pre-programmed white noise she fell asleep to every night: the sound of frogs and crickets in a pond during rainfall. As she settled under the covers of her bed and let her mind wash clean of the day’s thoughts as she drifted off into sleep, one thought remained front and center: even if there was a chance Natalie ever returned Audra’s affection, she could never act on it out of respect for James.

  The very most she and Natalie could ever be was friends. And it bothered her to realize that knowing so made her heart hurt more than it should.

  A few short weeks later, Audra bumped into Natalie in the unlikeliest of places: the lobby of the London Hotel in New York City, at precisely the moment she was headed upstairs to a private dining room, and Natalie was coming out of The London Bar.

  “Audra?”

  She looked over her shoulder at the sound of her name and gasped at the sight of Natalie in the very same dark navy Victoria Beckham dress she’d been begging her stylist to get for her. She looked radiant with her red hair pulled back and straightened, both modern and Old Hollywood.

  “Hello! Wow, this is an unexpected surprise.”

  “Tell me about it. Are you wearing Stella McCartney?”

  She glanced down at her own ensemble, a classic Stella McCartney suit she chose to wear without anything underneath the suit jacket save for a nude lace bra.

  “Is it too much? I’m meeting my ex, Victoria, for dinner tonight and I’m not sure what my feeling is about that yet.”

  “No, you look so se-“ Natalie caught herself, her eyes rising to meet Audra’s in a suspended moment before she finally finished, “spectacular. Really, you look very beautiful.”

  Was it Audra’s imagina
tion, or was Natalie about to say she looked sexy? She ignored the way her heartbeat quickened inside her chest.

  “Thank you. You look very beautiful as well. Are you on your way in or out?”

  “Out. For now. I’m actually staying here for the weekend. I was just on my way to meet with some old college friends for drinks.”

  “Oh great. Well, I hope you have a lovely time.”

  “Thank you. Good luck with your ex, whatever your feelings are on the matter,” Natalie replied, borrowing Audra’s own words. “And hey if it sucks I’ll meet you at the bar later and we’ll drown our sorrows. I’m pretty sure I owe you one.”

  “I may just take you up on that. Bye Natalie.” She leaned in and lightly embraced Natalie, leaving a brief peck on her cheek as she said goodbye.

  Two and a half hours later, out of sheer curiosity, Audra turned for The London Bar instead of the lobby and searched among the patrons for a familiar redhead in a gorgeous designer dress. She found her at the bar, bathed in ambient lighting and stormy blue eyes heavy with inebriation.

  “Are you… high?” Audra couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Mmm-hmmm. My friend Lisa is on this epic road trip across the country and smuggled in her car weed she procured legally in Colorado. We sat outside, drank, smoked a blunt. It was amazing. How did you know?”

  Audra took the empty stool next to Natalie and rested her chin on her palm supported by her elbow on the bar. “Your friend Lisa isn’t the only one buying pot legally.”

  “No! You? Oh my god that is scandalous, Audra.”

  “How so?”

  “Because you’re so prim and proper and elegant. Elegant people don’t smoke blunts.”

  “Sure, we do.” She turned to catch the eye of the bartender, waving her down with a flick of her fingers. “Before I had my medical card I had a very charming dealer named Aidan who still carried around a beeper, bless his heart. Hi,” she said, quickly pivoting her attention to the bartender once she was in front of her. “I’d like a martini with an extra olive, please. Thank you.”

  “But you’re so…” Natalie struggled to find the words. She struggled to just open her eyes completely. But the words were starting to become coherent the more she talked. “You’re so adult. You’re a COO and you have a mansion in Beverly Hills.”

  “I wasn’t born an adult, Natalie. I was your age once. Thanks,” she winked at the bartender as she placed the martini in front of her. “You’re allowed to have your shit together and get fucked up every once in a while. Otherwise, what’s the purpose of life?”

  “Sex.”

  Audra’s head whipped back to meet Natalie’s eyes. “What?”

  “You asked ‘otherwise what’s the purpose of life?’ and it’s sex.”

  “You mean procreation.”

  “No, I mean sex. Tangled limbs and sweat and orgasms. That’s what makes life worth living if not the other.”

  “The other what?” Audra shook her head, trying to forget the very sensual image Natalie painted of lovemaking and focus instead on whatever the hell Natalie was talking about.

  “The other thing you said.”

  “About being an adult?”

  “Actually, I don’t remember. What were we talking about?”

  Audra laughed good-naturedly and downed the rest of her martini. “You need to come over one night and let me smoke you out. I had an Imagineer from Disney design water feature out by my pool. Watch it stoned and it’s just like being at the happiest place on earth.”

  “I’m in. Let’s go right now.”

  “We can’t go right now,” she burst again with laughter. “We’re in New York. But text me when you’re back and we’ll plan a night. The rule is you have to turn off your phone. Trust me you do not want to read back the emails you sent while stoned out of your mind.”

  Natalie burst into a fit of giggles beside her, making her laugh, too. “Okay, then I will bring the perfect stoned food: chocolate milk and watermelon.”

  “That sounds super weird but sure.”

  “Oh, wait! I forgot to ask. How was it with your ex tonight? Did the, uh, suit have the intended effect?”

  “I don’t know. It’s like we were both testing the other to see what it felt like to be together again if it felt like anything at all.”

  “And?” In what felt like slow motion, Audra watched Natalie’s lips as they parted to breathe in, then stayed apart as she held her breath. She followed along the lovely curves of her face until she met her eyes again. They were darker in the ambient lighting of the bar, and she noticed with interest, heavy with more than just inebriation.

  “It felt like the past. For her too, I think. We were never really friends to begin with so what do we have now that our relationship didn’t work out? Passing acquaintance throughout the years?”

  “Personally I think that’s why a lot of relationships fail. Either because they weren’t friends to begin with or they didn’t become friends along the way.”

  She felt it there just within reach: the line she was not meant to cross. She collected a few bills from her clutch and put them on the counter for the bartender before turning to face Natalie.

  “Well, I am returning to L.A. tonight. I’m probably just about due at the tarmac and I don’t want to keep the pilot waiting. It was very good to see you, Natalie.”

  For the second time that day Audra leaned in to kiss at Natalie’s cheek. Only she came up too short when Natalie moved her head an inch at the last moment, and Audra caught the corner of her mouth instead.

  “Sorry, I-“ she began but stopped when she realized that there in a hotel bar thousands of miles away from home, a stoned Natalie Harlow was checking out her breasts. It was only for a moment, so quick that if she hadn’t seen it she never would have believed it to be true, but it happened. When Natalie’s eyes met hers she saw in them everything Natalie failed to hide.

  Guilt for having been caught looking.

  But something else entirely for looking in the first place.

  “Good night. Text me when you’re home again. I’ll whip up a batch of pot brownies.”

  Something about that moment was engraving itself into her permanent memory. The elevated confidence of having actually caught Natalie Harlow, the object of her long and suffering affection, checking out her partially-on-display breasts. It was a vindication so sweet it pleased her. She stepped out into the evening New York air and was chauffeured away to the heliport before boarding a helicopter headed for the airport.

  It wasn’t her imagination, she decided by the time she arrived home at her empty Beverly Hills mansion. Natalie thought she looked sexy in her Stella McCartney suit. And she was definitely checking out her rack. Audra knew unequivocally that nothing would ever come from it. But it was enough for her to know that for even a moment, Natalie Harlow looked at her not as a peer, but as a woman.

  And maybe a friend.

  . . . . .

  Audra, James, and Natalie will return in the next book, Contested Heart.

  Can’t wait? Read an exclusive preview now!

  PREVIEW OF CONTESTED HEART

  S waths of expensive Egyptian cotton ribboned around smooth skin and taut muscle, tying three naked bodies together. At the center, lithe and sated from an endless night of lovemaking, rested Natalie Harlow. Curls of her long red hair cascaded against the crisp white pillows like copper-colored rubies. To her right, Audra Robertson lay fast asleep, a whisper of soft snoring escaping her pink lips. To Natalie’s left, James Fitzgerald lay with his eyes cast towards the ceiling, half shadowed by the dwindling flicker of candlelight in the bedroom.

  She was too tired to move. She didn’t mind the ache in her bones when she recalled with sweet delight the way she’d molded against the warmth of James’ hard body, or melted into the softness of Audra’s.

  The three of them coming together for a night like this was more and more common these days. Even with the seemingly never-ending work schedules, client demands and flight
s crisscrossing the country, still they found the time to devote to each other.

  The three of them.

  Against the world.

  At the touch of James’ hand, her skin prickled but she remained still, motionless. Content to bask in the afterglow of an evening so perfect she could scarcely have imagined anything so sensual. So personal. So tender.

  At the sound of James’ voice, she smiled. She started to open her eyes -

  “This can’t keep happening,” he whispered above her.

  -but quickly decided it against it. The sounds of snoring had dissipated entirely from her right side, and a long moment later came her lover’s reply.

  “I know.”

  The bed shifted beneath her as Audra repositioned her body, with obvious care not to disrupt Natalie, as if she were still asleep and not listening in on a conversation obviously not meant for her to hear in spite of their proximity.

  “She’s going to have to choose, Audra.” The bed moved again, this time on James’ side. “We’re not in our twenties anymore. We have our business. Responsibilities.” A quick exhalation of breath interrupted his admission. “Family.”

  “There is a reason we are where we are right now, James. We’ve known for a long time now she won’t choose.”

  “Not if it means hurting one of us, “ he concluded.

  Natalie parted her lips to breathe so as to make no sound. A voice within her screamed to let them know she was awake, that she heard everything they were saying. And yet. And yet she kept still. And she listened. And she ignored the ever increasing beat of her heart.

  James and Audra. Talking about how she would have to choose between them. To knowingly break the other’s heart. To make the hardest decision of her life.

  To be with only Audra.