Something Forbidden (2 page)

I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. Why would any man put his wife in this situation? I thought about returning to the guy and picking his brain some more, but at that moment, his wife stood up with the stranger and excused herself from the restaurant. The stranger summoned me over.

“I need to close my tab.” A crazy wide grin stretched across his face.

“Sure thing. One sec.”

I glanced at the blonde’s husband, but he was already packing up his things. He’d paid in cash so he had nothing to settle. He met my eyes, a touch of embarrassment in his smile, and left. Five minutes later, his wife left with the stranger.

I’d seen a lot of strange things in my years running bars. I’d seen men fight over women. I’d seen women fight over men. I’d seen the beginnings of more one-night stands than I could count. I’d even seen a man come into a bar, find his wife flirting with a stranger, and accuse her of being a whore. But I’d never seen anything like I did that night at Starlight.

It did something to me. Changed me. Awoke something. Whatever it was, it made me feel ashamed. I wanted to bury it in the darkest recesses of my mind and forget all about it. Which is what I did…for a while, anyway.

By the time it resurfaced, six months later at Nadia and John’s wedding, the roots were deeper than I could ever have imagined.

Chapter
1

“Nadia and John are getting married.” Katie walked into the house holding up an invitation, the rest of our mail tucked under her arm. “That crazy plan of getting them together actually worked.”

“You mean the plan where you eliminate the competition?” I asked.

“It’s funny because it’s true.”

Mya and I were on the floor of the living room, building a farm out of a Duplo set we’d given her for her fourth birthday party last week.

“Who’s Nadia Engine, Daddy?” our daughter asked.

Katie and I laughed.

“The little train who could not,” I said. When Mya looked confused, I ruffled her hair and stood up. “She’s a friend of Mommy and Daddy’s, and she’s going to get married to another friend of ours.”

Actually, Nadia was more a friend of mine—by friend, I mean employee. She and I had been working together for close to five years now. She’d just come out of college and quickly showed a knack for running a bar. I put her in charge of Callahan 2 when I opened it three years back, and it was now my most profitable—although Nadia would say that opening a
trite Irish pub in a yuppie neighborhood
was the reason for success.

She’d also made no secret of her crush on me, and while having an attractive young Indian-American lusting after me was good for the ego, it wasn’t great for a healthy marriage—especially with a wife coming off her first pregnancy.

It had been Katie’s idea to introduce Nadia to her coworker, John, at the opening of Callahan 2. My wife hadn’t hidden her rationale, either—
maybe if we get her to fall in love, she’ll stop trying to sleep with you.
Three years later, here we were, receiving their wedding invitation.

We continued our conversation later that night. I was in bed. Katie emerged from the bathroom, face scrubbed, teeth brushed, and contacts out. Even completely dressed down as she was, wearing nothing more glamorous than a loose pair of PJ pants and a racer backed tank top, she looked incredible. How could she ever think I’d ever gamble all that for a fleeting affair with a younger coworker?

“You know, when you first set up John and Nadia, I thought it was a crazy idea,” I said.

“Why? Because Nadia is a slut and John is such a nice guy?” Only part of her jibe was sarcastic. Sure, Nadia got around, but she’d call herself
liberated
.

“No. It’s just that they’re so different. Nadia is outgoing and…well, and a little crazy, sure. And John is so quiet. I always thought that Nadia would eat him alive.”

“Opposites attract, right?” Katie asked. She opened her closet and began sifting through dresses.

“Is that what happened to us?” I asked.

Katie paused to look over her shoulder. “You mean the laid back restaurateur and the corporate accountant thing? Nah, that sounds about right.” Then she went back to the closet.

“What are you doing?”

“Picking out a dress to wear, dear husband. Nadia may be the center of attention, but I want your eyes on one place only.”

I slid out of bed and moved up behind her. I could feel her body heat against me through the thin layers of our pajamas. I kissed her neck. She smelled like her face wash, clean and familiar. Reaching around her, I dug into the corner of her closet and pulled out a dress that I’d only ever seen her wear in the bedroom.

“How about this one?”

“Ha. Of course you’d suggest that one,” she said.

“What? You still have the body to wear it.”

She’d supposedly purchased the dress as a Halloween costume way back in college, when she’d dressed up as a Playboy bunny. Like I said, I’ve never seen her wear it in public, and had my doubts that she ever had, but she’d put it on a few times here in the bedroom before deciding against it. The pale pink satin, fringed in faux white fur, was very tight and very short. Looped off the hanger were the bowtie and bunny ears that completed the ensemble.

“In your dreams, Max.”

“Exactly, they’ve been in my dreams forever. Let’s make it a reality.”

The thought of everyone staring at her in something so revealing sent a jolt right down between my legs. Unbidden, the blonde from Starlight meandered into my thoughts. She’d commanded the whole room and her husband loved it. Thinking about Katie in the same situation—

“Mmm, feels like someone really does like the idea,” Katie said. She shifted her butt against my rising erection.

“If you didn’t wear the ears, it would almost pass for a real dress.”

She fingered the white cotton tail sewn onto the ass. “I think this may work against its authenticity as a dress.”

“Details, details.”

We laughed.

I took hold of her tank top and pulled it up over her head. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and her full breasts fell free.

Turning in my arms, she reached up between us and touched my face, the action drawing her tits together and pushing them up. God, she was just as beautiful as she’d been when I first met her, fifteen years ago. She was still in high school then, a teenager that a guy of twenty-one shouldn’t have been lusting after, but I couldn’t help it. Her red, wavy hair was a little shorter and a little darker now, and her hips and butt had filled out a few inches since having Mya, but the curves looked good on her toned body.

It had been a little too long since we’d had sex. What could I say? Eight years of marriage had taken its toll...

“Maybe I should just go like this,” Katie said.

“Might be a little distracting,” I said. I hooked my thumbs in her pajama bottoms. She wasn’t wearing panties. “These pants clash with the rest of the outfit.”

I pushed them off, the loose band dropping away past her hips as the whole thing crumpled on the floor.

“My stylist,” Katie said, kissing me. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

I swept in, nuzzling her neck again as I kissed out the sweep of her shoulder. Palming a breast, I felt the heft of it before squeezing gently. They’d grown to a full C since Mya had been born and had only just begun to sag a little.

“I think you’d do just fine.” If I weren’t around, Katie would have no trouble finding another man to take my place. Not only was she beautiful, she was smart, successful, and driven. The thought of being replaced made my stomach tighten but inexplicably, so did my cock.

Katie’s hands closed around it. For a second, paranoia raged inside me like I had a secret that Katie had just discovered. Only I didn’t know what that secret was, and all Katie felt was my readiness.

“I love you, Max. I
need
you.”

“Show me.”

Her smile was all promise and wicked abandon. Rotating us, she sat back on the bed and reached for the waistband of my boxers. My erection sprang free. She grabbed it, feeding it into her wet mouth. My knees knocked as her tongue swirled me. Over the years, she’d gotten very good at oral sex. Within a minute, she was easing my length into the back of her throat. She looked up at me with those glimmering green eyes of hers as my balls brushed along her chin.

For an instant, my mind imagined those lips wrapped around the cock of another man. I banished it before it could take hold, but it was too late. My stomach fluttered.

Katie gagged a little as I jerked in her mouth. “I’m close,” I hissed as my face burning. Ashamed, jealous, embarrassed—I was too many things to describe. Too many to deal with. She was mine and
only mine
.

As if I had something to prove to myself, I pushed her luscious body back onto the bed and spread her legs. Her breasts still sat high with only a little separation, giving way to a flat stomach and a trimmed, auburn bush.

She yelped a little as I crawled between her opened thighs and buried myself into her moist sex without further foreplay. She was certainly as ready as I was.

“God, it’s been too long,” she said, groaning as she slowly adjusted to my penetration. The first time after an absence was always the toughest, and every time I felt her velvet grip around me, I wondered why we didn’t do it more often.

The answer, of course, was Mya. Or at least that was one of the excuses. She was asleep now, but it had been a point of contention in the past. By the time she was in bed, we were usually too exhausted to do anything but read for a few minutes and crash.

“Yes, yesss...” Katie cooed as I began to pick up the pace over her. She wrapped her long legs around my hips. I angled over her, drawing my heaving body against her breasts. Our mouths met in a sloppy kiss that neither of us could maintain.

“Come, honey.” Katie dug her heels into my lower back. “Now...now...”

I held back as long as I could, but my imagination kept pumping that image of Katie doing this with another man. The harder I fucked, the harder it became to restrain my release. I pumped a few more times before I felt my balls seize up. Cheek-to-cheek, a grunt escaped my throat as I released everything.

Katie was not far behind. She arched her spine and pressed her head into the mattress as she moaned. I thrust into her long as I could maintain an erection. At last, I collapsed on top of her, sweaty and exhausted—this time in the good way.

“Wow. That was hot,” Katie said. “What got into you?”

I kissed her cheek and pulled the sheet over us. “I was thinking about how good Nadia’s going to look in a wedding gown.”

Katie swatted my shoulder, but laughed. “You know what? I’m going to need to get a new dress for this wedding. Nothing I own will do.”

“You’d look good in a paper bag,” I said, the teasing gone. “You’re beautiful, Katie, and you’re all I’ll ever need.”

“There’s need, and there’s want.” She left the statement hang, then added: “And besides, I’m always looking for an excuse to buy a new dress.”

****

As it turned out, her dress wasn’t as scandalous as she’d teased, but it
was
new. Long and black with a cowl neck that showed a wider expanse of freckled skin than normal, it was also very sexy. She hesitated at the foot of the stairs, her toes pointed inward as I drank in her curves.

“Is it too much?” she asked, then immediately answered her own question. “I knew it was. I’m going to change.”

I caught a glimpse of her back as she turned retreat upstairs. The sleek material hugged her voluptuous body, thin and tight enough to suggest she was either wearing a thong, or wearing nothing at all.

“Wait, Katie,” I said before she could get away. “I don’t think it’s too much at all. It’s sophisticated, like you.”

She turned, regarding me over her shoulder. Her red hair was up in a high twist, so she didn’t need to turn much. “You sure?”

The dress had a slit up the back, too, her nylon-encased leg parting the black material. I wondered if she was wearing pantyhose or thigh-highs. Katie wasn’t one for fancy hosiery, but she’d been known to break out the sexy stuff on special occasions.

“I’m sure. And besides, we need to get going or we’re going to be late.”

Katie paused, weighing her options. She hated to be late. That she even considered changing now was a testament to her uncertainty. In that moment, I thought about all the other men watching her. I wouldn’t be the only one checking out her ass out and wondering if she wore anything underneath. That confusing tingle ran up my spine—the one that suggested arousal, even when it was so wrong.

“Okay, you’re right. But I’m going to grab a shawl,” she said. “Just in case it gets cold.”

“Want me to help you find it?” I offered with a lusty grin.

Katie shook her head with a laugh. “We’re going to be late—remember, horn dog?”

****

I’m sorry, but here’s a confession: wedding ceremonies bore me. I love the entrances and the exits, but everything in between is really for the two getting married—and maybe God, if you believe in that sort of thing. When I get bored, my mind tends to wander, and with Katie dressed the way she was and Nadia looking extra stunning all dolled up, it wandered into a pretty dirty place.