The Other Woman: A Steamy Contemporary Romance (The Bidden Series Book 6)
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Or to be with only James.
She could feel both pairs of eyes on her. The dark blue-green belonging to him. And the icy blue belonging to her. Her skin flushed. Heart raced.
Everything had been perfect. Sure it was all a bit unconventional. And if you asked her two years ago if she ever thought she’d wind up in what was basically a polyamorous relationship with a man she met at a members-only sex club, and the woman who owned it, she would have laughed herself to tears.
But it was her life. She was a successful businesswoman, new homeowner, and had fallen in love. And it was Audra and James who agreed to their new strange way of life. And she was in her twenties. What else was she supposed to do but live her life fully and without explanation?
All she needed to do was remind them of what they had. By show if necessary.
But she stopped just short of fake yawning awake when James said in a low voice, “If we wait for her to decide we will run out of time and then the truth will have to come out, Audra.”
“I already told you, James, we are not telling her!” she hissed. “Not until-“
“There will never be a right time. It’s going to change her life as much as it is ours,” he argued.
Natalie’s limbs burned with the urge to move, to sit up and ask James and Audra what the hell they were talking about. What was going to change her life? To change their lives?
“If we don’t tell her and she finds out we knew the truth all along-”
“She’ll leave us anyway,” Audra finished for him.
“Then she leaves us.”
Natalie clamped her lips shut to keep from gasping. James was talking about the possibility she could leave him, and he sounded relieved? Or resigned to a fate he wasn’t sure might happen?
“One way or the other she’s going to find out about the baby.”
ALSO BY CRYSTAL CIERLAK
Visit CrystalCierlak.com for more content and announcements about upcoming releases!
Set in the Bidden universe, featuring James Fitzgerald and other characters from Bidden:
Fading Dusk
"You and me. No one else. Nobody ever has to know."
Camilla Morley has a secret. Heir apparent to her father’s lucrative export dynasty, she leaves everything behind to start over new, and protect the dark truth that can never come to light.
In Los Angeles she creates a new life. As the personal assistant to billionaire James Fitzgerald, Camilla has gone from conducting her own life’s drama, to managing his, and learning everything she can from him. But just when she thinks she’s left the ghosts of her past behind, tragedy strikes, and Camilla is lost in the world of her own making, trying to make sense of the senseless.
When the man who shares her secret shows up in the last place she expects him to, he brings with him more questions than answers, and a confession that will leave Camilla wondering which world she belongs to. And a fear that everything she knows about him is deadly wrong.
Fading Dusk is a romantic suspense novel, and the first in a trilogy that is set in the world of and features characters from The Bidden Series (Candidate Four, etc), also by Crystal Cierlak.
THE ROMANCE OF NICK & LAYLA
Nick (a famous pop star) and Layla met and fell in love when they were both young and stupid, and fell into the superficial trappings of fame and wealth. They soon discovered that they brought out the best and the worst in each other, and their marriage - a secret to even their own families - suffered as a result.
"The Romance of Nick and Layla" is a COMPLETED series of six novellas that tells the story of a couple's dysfunctional relationship over the course of ten years.
Walk Away
Layla doesn't believe in love, and yet there is only one man in the world who has ever had her heart: Nick Hudson. A pop star famous the world over, Nick is everything a girl would want in a man. But their secret marriage is taking a toll on Layla's life, and every day she's finding it more difficult to stay with the man who gives her every reason to walk away.
Sorry
White Flag
Damaged
Undone
Heartlines
AWAKENING RIELLE
Welcome to the apocalypse. Liberation has a strong foothold in Raving Thistle, rooting out morality in a society intent on living out the end of days according to its basest instincts. Rumor has it one man - known as 'The Immortal' - has found a way to live on forever, subsisting on the rarest commodity: a woman's virtue. Resigned to persevering by any means necessary, Rielle intends to sell her purity in exchange for a chance to survive, and a piece of immortality itself.
Awakening Rielle
Observing Rielle
Entrapping Rielle
Tasting Rielle
(and 6 more)
Be sure to also check out works written as Lauren Bolt, Crystal Cierlak’s penname!
Convince Me To Stay (A Weekend Escape Erotic Short)
Dating Hollywood's hottest A-lister isn't exactly an easy job for Kimberly Preston, but no matter how much she loves Vince Jackson she's ready to break it off with him completely and move on with her life. Will one last night remind her of how good they are together, and can she be persuaded to stay when Vince asks her not one, but two life-changing questions?
Convince Me To Stay is a standalone story, 3,500+ words. Cliffhanger or HEA? That's for you to decide. Part of the Weekend Escape Erotic Short series from Lauren Bolt.
The Duchess of Spring (Elemental Lovers), a Mixed Harem Fantasy Serial
The Lady of Winter has awakened a magic that has remained dormant in the blood of the Royal Elementals for generations, thanks to the help of a mysterious dignitary visiting from a foreign land, and is declaring war on the realm, starting with the Spring Court.
When Zinnia is forced to flee the palace at the command of Finn, the officer sworn to protect her with his life, she goes without question. As she escapes into the night in a caravan of court attendants she learns not only of the true nature of the threat in the North but also the truth about secrets that have been kept hidden her entire life.
If the Lady of Winter grows stronger and more powerful as she learns to wield her magic, an army from every court won't be enough to stop her. The only way to fight magic, the Duchess of Spring realizes, is with magic. But if she is to convince the other courts she'll need to tap into her own magic first. That's where Finn comes in... though it may cost him his life.
Once Zinnia has sparked her magic to life can she convince the others, starting with the Prince of Summer, that the only way to stop the Lady of Winter is to work together, to infuse the bloodline magic into a unifying power together?
The Elemental Lovers is a mixed harem fantasy serial. Each part is approximately 10k words and features mature sexual content involving multiple partners of mixed gender (mixed harem).
I Only Need An Hour (A Weekend Escape Erotic Short)
“Pretend that you love me. Like you can’t get enough of me. Make me believe that-“ I stopped to collect myself in the moment, and to recall exactly what I had decided I needed. “Make me believe you desire nothing but making love to me for the rest of your life.”
A married woman absconds to a discreet room to spend an hour with a handsome stranger and fulfill her most desperate desire.
I ONLY NEED AN HOUR is an erotic short story for mature readers only. There is no cliffhanger.
2,500+ words
The Wildlings (A Weekend Escape Erotic Short)
Karina and Jack are coming home for their parents' anniversary gala after not seeing each other since Karina moved to college across the country. Karina is intent on not letting her step-brother know how he tortured her affection for him, while all Jack wants to know is if what he felt for his step-sister was real all along. After breaking the ice they are soon caught up in a truth-revealing session of Truth or Dare that leads them both to the ultimate dare - to cross a line they can never come back from.
The Wildlings is a Weekend E
scape Erotic Short. It is a standalone story with no cliffhanger.
4500+ words
Amara Hargrove (The Fourth of Briar Wood)
When three women cast a powerful spell in the woods of Santa Lucia, it has a strange effect on high-schooler Amara Hargrove. She's missing chunks of time, experiencing things both peculiar and frightening, and seeing her parents in a whole new light. With the help of an old friend, Amara discovers that her life, and perhaps her very existence, is not at all what she thought it was, and that something supernatural is coming to their small town whether they are ready or not.
Read each "episode" like you would watch an episode of your favorite TV show. While each part is a self-contained story, they also contribute to a more expansive narrative that is the world of The Fourth of Briar Wood.