Beyond Ruin (12 page)

James met her stare and replied without hesitation, "Only once."

"Twice," Audra interrupted. "If you count the very first auction."

No one said another word about it as they finished eating, and Natalie merely listened in on the remainder of the dinner conversation knowing full well that the tour itself would come next. There were very few parts of the house she had actually seen before, and she was more than a little curious to discover the behind-the-scenes details of the famous sex club. When a group of Concierges cleared their plates from the table Natalie felt her legs quake with anticipation. She felt like Dorothy standing on the other side of the curtain from the great and powerful Oz.

Natalie and Joe followed James and Audra as they led them on a tour through the house before coming to a familiar hallway on the first floor just outside a nondescript door leading into a windowless room.

"This is where the Candidates line up and are brought in before the Gentlemen for the very first time," James explained as they walked through the room. The single chandelier suspended above their heads provided a wash of illumination on the room. Natalie remembered it being a lot darker. Or maybe that was just her nerves and the blindfold? There was a line of twelve chairs opposite the staging area, empty and waiting.

'Gentleman we have a fine assortment to offer you this evening,'
an old but familiar voice echoed in her memories.

"We call this the viewing session," Audra intervened. "Natalie, would you mind?"

Natalie's nose and cheeks prickled. She needn't ask the meaning of the request, but cast a side-long glance at Audra before standing in the very spot that once belonged to her. Joe followed James' lead as he took a seat in the twelfth chair, and Audra produced two tablets from some unseen place in the room.

"This is our proprietary auction system," she explained. "During the viewing session each Gentleman can make requests of the Candidates. For example..." she turned and looked at Natalie. "Candidate Number Four, please turn around."

Natalie drew in a small breath as she looked between the three sets of eyes staring back at her, James' own blue-green eyes dark and hooded. She swallowed and turned until her back was to them, thankful they couldn't see or hear how fast her heart was beating in her chest.

"Candidate Number Four, please put your arms up above your head."

Natalie glanced down at the hem of her dress before expelling an expletive through a breath of laughter. She knew all too well what Audra was doing. If it was a show she wanted, Natalie would give her one. Fueled by the warmth pooling in her center Natalie brought her arms up above her head, feeling the hemline of her dress climb with them, skimming over the bare skin of her thighs. There was nothing but silence and breath coming from behind her.

A full minute passed before Audra spoke again. "The requests are limited to just the viewing. Once those have all been made the first round of bidding begins."

"What happens once a winning bid has been made?" Joe asked.

Natalie lowered her arms and turned around, finding all three sets of eyes still on her. If they wanted her to play the part of Candidate again, she would go all out.

"The Gentleman collects his prize," she answered. Her gaze shifted from Joe to James, who was watching her with his own personal brand of intensity, as though he were reliving their first moments together just the same as she was. She cut across the room until she was standing in front of both men. "James, would you mind?"

He obliged. He set the tablet down on his seat as he stood and, with one hand on the small of Natalie's back, led them both out of the room, down the hallway, and into the grand foyer. She had to part her lips just to breathe in enough oxygen without anyone noticing. Audra and Joe followed several feet behind. Natalie could just make out what sounded like Audra explaining about the different rooms and the rules about paying each Candidate by noon the next day.

"Since we're putting on a show we might as well give them something to watch, right?" Natalie whispered low enough for only James to hear.

Several muscles in his jaw spasmed as James stabbed the call button on the elevator.

"How are the rooms assigned to each bidder?" Joe asked as he and Audra caught up to Natalie and James at the elevator.

"They aren't," Audra answered. "Only the highest bidder gets his choice of room, and that choice is typically the penthouse. The others go wherever they like."

Natalie could feel Joe's eyes digging a hole into her back where James' hand was still resting. Or maybe the digging was James.

"What's the highest bid anyone has ever made?"

Natalie gritted her teeth and bit the insides of her mouth to keep from saying anything.

"That's between us and our accountant," Audra replied just as the elevator doors opened, beckoning the four of them inside.

They disembarked on the second floor from the top, into a room with just three doors directly in front of them. James led Natalie straight to the door in the middle. The space inside was almost too dark to see the deep blue walls and ash wood floors. Before she knew what was happening Natalie was being whisked through a second door which latched shut behind them. Lights dimmed to life in their presence, casting a glow on the enormous bed that dominated the room. Natalie recognized it immediately and looked for the glass wall she knew was a partition between rooms. Audra and Joe must have still been on the other side. All she saw, however, was a wall covered in thick curtains like at an old fashion movie theater. She searched the wall looking for some kind of control panel or mechanical device.

"I'm sorry, she shouldn't have put you on the spot like that."

"
Are
you sorry?" She found what she was looking for embedded on the far left of the wall by the entrance. She pushed a single flat button and the curtains began to part. "How else are you meant to demonstrate what goes on between a Gentleman and a Candidate if you have no Candidate on display?"

Joe and Audra were unveiled on the other side of the wall talking amongst themselves. When they noticed the curtains being pulled back they turned their attention to the bed, then on Natalie and James. She saw Joe's mouth moving, asking some new question no doubt, but there was no sound to be heard. Audra's mouth responded to whatever it was he said, never once taking her eyes off of Natalie.

"Well then," Natalie whispered to herself and to James. "The four of us
are
in a sex club together. Why bother with modesty anymore?" She turned from the glass wall and walked half the distance to the bed before stopping. "What was it you told me to do that night, James?"
Oh yes, of course
. She remembered it now. "Unzip my dress?"

Her hands didn't make it as far as the zipper on the back of her dress before James captured them in his own. His breath was hot against her ear and cheek, heating her skin to a sensitive state. He wrapped one arm around her waist and with the other lowered her hands back down in front of her, the weight of his body pushing up against her from behind.

"Don't," he commanded.

Natalie closed her eyes and relished the unexpected sensation of his hands on her, the heat they generated against her skin.

"Why not?" she breathed.

"Look at their faces," he whispered in her ear. "See how much they want you?" Natalie opened her eyes and turned her head towards the glass, to Audra and Joe standing on the other side, watching them intently. "Every thing that matters to me in life I share with them. My daughter. My business. My wealth. Even you."

James pushed her hip until she was turning in his arms, and stopped her once she faced him completely, their bodies still pressed closely against each other. He held her still with his hands on her waist.

"I don't want to share you with them any more than I have to."

"Oh, James," Natalie sighed. She put her hands on his face and pushed back the honey colored locks of hair that had fallen out of place and tumbled down to his forehead. "I'm not anyone's
to
share. Not yours, not theirs.
I
choose who I give myself to."

She dropped her hands from his face and stalked to the control panel on the wall, stabbing a second button with her index finger before returning to the middle of the room to face the glass partition.

"Is this what you want?" This time she knew Audra and Joe could hear her from the other side. She reached around to the back of her dress and pulled the zipper down from neck to shoulders before shimmying the heavily beaded garment off her body. It fell into a thick pool of glittering mess at her feet. She felt a surge of power standing before her three lovers in nothing but the scant bra and panties that barely provided any semblance of coverage over her most intimate parts.

"Joe you wanted to know how much the highest bid was? What did this man-" she pointed her finger across the room to James, "bid to win me for the night?"

"Natalie-" James called from her side. She ignored him.

"One hundred twelve thousand five hundred dollars after this place took its cut." There was silence from both sides of the glass partition. "We started there," she pointed this time behind them, "on that couch while another couple fucked on this bed." Her face burned with the fire that had suddenly lit from inside her. She couldn't stop now even if she wanted to. "And then we went upstairs and made love again. And again. And again."

"Natalie!"

"All night and morning long we had sex in that penthouse suite!" She had to raise her voice to be heard over James' protests. "But what neither of you knows is that none of that happened until
after
he gave me my payment envelope. So you can parade me around as Candidate Four here or inside of your fantasies all you want, but know this: You don't share me. You don't own me. You don't get to have me.
I
pick
you
. All his money paid for was a glass of champagne and a little bit of a strip show, which I've now given to all of you for free."

Natalie quickly slipped the beaded dress back on and over her body, not bothering to secure it all the way at her neck. She was breathing heavily, drunk on the power of telling her three lovers off for putting her in an objectifying position. The smile that came to her face felt better in that moment anything else could.

"You're welcome."

By Thursday the office was in total chaos. Applicants were in and out of the condo in droves, filing in to be interviewed for various positions. Twice Natalie's phone died in the middle of conversation. There wasn't a quiet moment to be had apart from the few minutes it took to go to the bathroom every couple hours, and even then she was still on her phone, answering emails and responding to text messages.

Joe had tried in earnest to apologize to Natalie when they returned home from The Golden Palm, and again the next day and that morning, but as far as Natalie was concerned it was over and done with. She said what she needed to say and that was that. Besides, she liked him too much to let one incident alter their entire relationship. They had a brand new business to run, and that business was exploding into something larger than they ever could have hoped for.

By noon Natalie was running on pure adrenaline and vast amounts of caffeine. Shane waved her down from across the room as she filled up her coffee cup for the nth time in a 36-hour period. He held up his cell phone in the air and then pointed at her for the briefest of seconds before he was back on the line with whomever he was speaking to. Natalie picked up her phone from its place on the kitchen counter and swiped through the screen until she found his message.

'Shane: Downstairs called. Delivery coming up!'

She could barely hear the doorbell ringing over the sound of the office chaos. After snaking her way through the waiting interviewees that had piled up by the kitchen and foyer Natalie threw open the door and did a double take.
Alice and Frankie?!

"Hi Natalie!" Frankie greeted her with an enormous grin.

"Mister Fitzgerald sent us. We're here to help," Alice explained.

Natalie barely had a chance to respond when the two diametrically different ladies barged past her into the office/condo.

"We brought lunch!" Frankie announced sweetly, holding up a bag in each hand. Alice had another four bags in her hands.

Natalie was still trying to catch up. "James sent you here to help out with lunch?"

"To help with anything," Alice said as she set hers and Frankie's bags down on the kitchen island. "I called earlier this morning to follow-up on a few items for your offices at Fitson, and some young man named Shane...?" it was more a question than a confirmation. Natalie nodded and the woman continued. "He seemed like he was rather inundated with something. I asked around and found out you were going through interviews and hirings today and he sent us over to help out."

"Kiddo!" Joe screeched excitedly scaring Natalie half to death.

"Hi Joe!"

"What are you doing here?" he asked before kissing the top of her head.

"We're here to help!"

"Fantastic! See that group of eager looking young people right there?" He pointed in the direction of several of the waiting interviewees.

"Yes?"

"Those are all recent college grads applying to be personal assistants to me, Natalie and Quinn. Talk to them. The ones you like best can stay. Send the others home."

"Really?" she asked, her brown eyes positively radiant with excitement.

"Really. And if anyone gives you trouble just kick them out. Got it?"

"Got it!" She leaped rather than jumped off her barstool in the direction of her task.

Joe turned to Alice next and offered her what Natalie knew was his most charming smile. "Good afternoon, Alice. How are you?"

Alice consulted Joe with the blank face stare of a women who gave zero shits about anyone. "I'm doing well, Mister Gallo."

Natalie bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing. Alice was notorious for not liking anyone, which made the fact that she liked
her
all the more fascinating. Joe returned to whatever he was doing before, leaving the two women alone in the kitchen.

"I can't tell you how much I appreciate you coming over, Alice. I don't know how James is managing to function without you today but I'm grateful for his loss."

"It's my pleasure, Natalie. You just tell me what you need done and I'll make sure it's done properly. But first, sit down and have some lunch. I can practically see you getting skinnier with each sip of that coffee."

She knew better than to argue, so Natalie hauled herself on top of a barstool and prepared herself a plate of food while Alice busied herself with bringing food to Joe, Shane, Quinn and Lorelai. They'd brought takeout from her favorite restaurant, and plenty of it. By the time she got the first bit of pink taco in her mouth she was feeling much more relaxed. She managed to scarf down one and a half tacos before Frankie came back her way, dragging behind her one of the recent college grads.

"I found you an assistant!" Frankie announced proudly. "This is Amelia. You'll like her. Take a seat," she instructed the girl, who couldn't have been but a couple years younger than Natalie.

"Hi Amelia, I'm Natalie." She shook the girl's hand and was pleasantly surprised to find that she had quite the firm handshake. She liked that in a woman. "Thank you, Frankie!" she called out as the little girl went back into the pool of candidates again.

"She's quite tenacious for someone so young. Is she your daughter?" Amelia asked, looking as amused and smitten with Frankie as everyone else was. Natalie's heart warmed considerably.

"My business partner's daughter," Natalie smiled. "And our unofficial mascot. So, Amelia, tell me about yourself."

It took less than five minutes to realize that Frankie was right: Amelia would be perfect as her assistant. Recently graduated with a Bachelor's degree in communication. She was articulate, intelligent, and a slice on the naive side, but Natalie liked her almost instantly. If she reminded her of anyone, it was herself.

"There may be quite a bit of travel involved. Are you okay with that?"

"Absolutely!"

"Is fifteen an hour with benefits fine?"

"It's perfect!"

"When can you start?"

"Right now," Amelia answered without hesitation.

Natalie smiled and felt at least one weight lifting from her shoulders. "Fantastic. Grab a plate of food if you're hungry and then go find Shane in the living room. He'll have you fill out some paperwork and catch you up on everything. I'll come find you in a few minutes and we'll go from there." She paused just long enough to savor the look of thrilled excitement on Amelia's face. Yes, she definitely reminded her of herself. "Welcome to Gallo Harlow."

With the help of Alice and Frankie they were able to hire two of the three needed assistants and a handful of interns. By the end of the business day Natalie was ready to make Alice an offer for the position of office manager. The woman, however, was loyal to James Fitzgerald, and Natalie couldn't hold it against her.

"Do you mind if I take Frankie home? I have to run some errands anyway and I'd like to thank James in person for lending you both to us for the day."

"Not at all," Alice smiled. "I'll see you later, Natalie. Goodbye Miss Frankie."

"Goodbye Miss Alice!" Frankie called out as the woman left.

Traffic was surprisingly light for a Thursday night, or perhaps it was Frankie's youthful company that made the time pass by like it was nothing. She continued talking a mile a minute as they valet parked at The Jacqueline and made their way through the lobby to the elevator. To Natalie's great surprise several familiar faces greeted her as though no time had passed at all since she last worked for Fitson. She'd have to get used to it again, she supposed. When they reached the top floor the door to the penthouse suite was already open and waiting for them.

"Dad!" Frankie called out as she burst through the door.

"Just a second." James put his hand over his phone and smiled. "Hey Buddy! Give me a few minutes and I'll be off the phone, okay?" When he glanced up and saw Natalie he did a double-take of his own.

"Come on! I'll show you my room!" Frankie grabbed Natalie by the hand and practically dragged her through the penthouse suite to her room. "Dad just got me a handheld digital microscope. It's got a high magnification image sensor so you can see things in precise detail!"

"Wow!"

"I know! Come here. I use my computer to take pictures of everything. Check this out." She navigated to a folder on her computer and double-clicked on an image file until it was blown-up to fullscreen. "Can you guess what it is?"

"Hmm. This looks like a strand of hair."

"It's actually a fiber of carpet from the living room," she laughed. "But I can see how you would mistake one for the other."

"That's a nice gift your father bought for you. I'm sure you'll put it to good use somehow."

Frankie turned in her computer chair and looked up at Natalie thoughtfully. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you can!" She quickly looked around for something to sit on and finally settled on a child-size ottoman, dragging it close to Frankie's chair and sitting down expectantly. "What's up?"

The little girl's nose crinkled as she asked, "Do you think I'll be a good big sister?"

"Oh, without a doubt!" Natalie answered. "Your little brother is going to be the luckiest kid in the world to have you for a sister."

"Do you think he will look like me?"

Natalie's heart swelled at such a simple question. It didn't help that the girl's brown eyes were as big as saucers. She definitely favored Joe's coloring with her dark eyes and hair, but there were moments she looked exactly like her mother, or even Audra.

"I think he will. He may only be your half brother but you'll share the same mother and that's a pretty strong genetic bond."

"That's true. We'll share mitochondrial DNA," Frankie said thoughtfully. "Would your baby have looked like me?"

The feeling of that stab in her heart was particularly bittersweet knowing it came from an innocent and well-intentioned child.

"Um, well." She had to sniff back the fresh tears that were threatening to fall and give away her carefully controlled exterior. "I don't know. I think that between you and your soon-to-be brand new brother that my baby would have looked like family."

"Even though it wouldn't have been related to me by blood?"

"Well that's the thing, Frankie. Two people don't need to be related by blood in order to be a family."

"Like my dad?"

"Exactly like your dad. He's raised you since the day you were born and loves you more than any other person in the world. That much I know for sure."

"Could we be family?"

Natalie didn't know what to say. All she could think about was the second floor terrace at Villa Montecito and James' promise to ask her to marry him. If she said yes, if she were to marry him, they would be a family. Her, James, Frankie and Celine's son. Even if that never happened she'd still be in Frankie's life one way or another. She was after all in a business relationship with Joe, who was Frankie's biological father. She'd be having a child of her own in a few months if it weren't for...

"Hi, Daddy," Frankie smiled as she looked up and past Natalie's head. Natalie turned and found James casually leaning against the doorframe, a contemplative look on his face.

"Room service just brought up dinner for you, Buddy. Why don’t you go ahead and eat while I talk to Natalie? I saved that documentary about narwhals for you."

"The animals with the unicorn horn!" Frankie bounded out of the room quicker than Natalie could collect herself. She wiped away her tears as she stood and walked past James in the doorway. But it was in the direction of his bedroom she found herself walking in, and turned just in time to see James close and lock the door behind them.

"Natalie I'm so sorry if she said anything to upset you. You know how curious-" Before he could even finish Natalie had her hands on his face. It only took one look in his eyes for her to close her own and bring her lips to his mouth. She savored the feel of him against her lips for a full half minute before pulling back to look at him again. His lips were parted, breath coming out from between them in short bursts. He looked as surprised as she felt.

She leaned in and kissed him once more, softly and tentatively. When she tried to pull away again he kissed her back, his lips so soft and eager against her own it fueled the desire that lit into a roaring fire in her veins. When his lips parted between hers she slipped her tongue inside them and sought him out, holding her breath as he tasted her. His arms came around her and held her close enough to his body for her to feel his ribs.

Kissing James was like drinking a glass of water to parch a desert thirst. There could never be too much or enough of him, and she squeezed her arms around his neck to keep him there with her as much as to test that he was real and in her embrace. His hands roamed her body, searching for the hem of her shirt before sliding against her naked skin beneath the fabric. Her head rolled back and a moan escaped her lips as he caressed up and down her sides, his thumbs brushing up against the undercarriage of her breasts.

She was tired of fighting against herself; exhausted with the prospect of forcing her body and heart to believe in the bullshit her mind was forced to think. She loved James Fitzgerald, wanted him body and soul. What the hell was the point in denying truth and inevitability?

He lifted her with ease and she wrapped her legs around his torso, squeezing him tightly between her legs. In half a dozen steps she was falling backwards with him on top of her, the soft cushion of the bed breaking the fall beneath them. She watched him, breath panting as he crouched up between her legs and removed his shirt. Her mouth went dry at the sight of him: perfectly cut and smooth as though designed by God himself. Natalie reached her hand up to run her fingers through the tufts of lightly colored hair that peppered at his chest and again in a strip that started just beneath his belly button and continued down beneath the hem of his pants.

He was beautiful. Perfect to her in every way. And he wanted her.

He stretched out across her, hips to hips and chest to chest, and lavished with his lips and tongue across the line of her jaw, down her throat and along the way to her shoulder. With swift hands and his weight balanced on his thighs at her legs, he pushed at the cottony fabric of her blouse until it was up and over her head, discarded somewhere beyond the reach of her hands. Natalie moaned as he kissed between the ample mounds tucked into the constraints of her bra. He tugged at the center until the garment pulled down, freeing her wanting breasts into the cool evening light. Her fingers entwined in the honey colored locks of hair on his head as he feasted upon her, taking each into his mouth and swaddling his tongue across the flesh while kneading the other.