Follow the Queen: A Menage, Sexy and Short Romance) Read online

  Follow the Queen

  By Lola Wilder

  Copyright 2014 by Lola Wilder. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review…blah, blah, blah. In short, don’t be a jerk face.

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  Kate had been waiting for her husband David at Zingerman’s Deli, their favorite lunch spot for almost an hour. She checked her phone to make sure he hadn’t texted her but when she realized there were no messages; she shook her head and tossed aside her napkin.

  She was surprised when he had actually accepted her invitation to lunch, but now she wished she hadn’t even bothered. It was bad enough she had to make a date to see him, and now the fact that he was obviously standing her up made her feel even worse.

  Just as she pushed back her chair and moved to leave, she saw him come barreling through the crowd, nearly knocking over a waiter, who was forced to side-step David’s rudeness to avoid spilling an entire tray of food on the patio.

  Kate settled back in her chair, almost breathing a sigh of relief, but when she saw the look on his face, her stomach tightened.

  “I thought you might not be coming,” she said softly, watching as he shoved aside the plate in front of him.

  “I said I would meet you, didn’t I?”

  Kate swallowed hard, trying not to notice the people at the next table studying them. “I know it’s just…never mind. You’re here now, that’s all that matters.”

  She clenched her lips together, watching him snatch up the menu and quickly scan the options. While other couples in the trendy restaurant laughed and chatted with one another, it only made the divide between them more obvious. What was perhaps the most uncomfortable for her was that no matter how awkward things got between them, Kate still felt desire for him. Even now, she couldn’t mistake the faint scent of his cologne wafting across the table, and it stirred something deep within. When he licked his lips before taking a drink of the ice cold water, she wanted to be the one to reach across the table and wipe the droplets of water away. She longed for his deep blue eyes to look at her with as much attention as he was now giving the menu. But when he looked up at her, and his expression didn’t change, she realized just how unimportant she was to him these days, and that made her stomach sink.

  She smiled over at the couple sitting at the next table in some sort of attempt to reassure them that she and David weren’t really having an argument. She glanced back to David to find him staring at her. For a brief moment she held a glimmer of hope and her pulse quickened that maybe he sensed her desire, but when she noticed how his jaw twitched with tension, she knew that desire was the last emotion that he felt for her right now, and that realistically she should prepare herself for some sort of confrontation instead.

  Sensing her defensiveness but wanting to state the obvious, David distractedly took another sip of water and plunked the glass back down on the table. “I still think this is a bad idea. We shouldn’t be throwing our money away on frivolities like lunch at an over-priced restaurant.”

  Since when did Zingerman’s stop being our place and start being just some over-priced deli? Kate thought. Not wanting to start a fight, Kate nodded and gave him another polite smile. “I know,” she said, speaking quietly in the hopes that it would clue David into the fact that people were watching them. “I just thought it would be nice to get out of the office for a while. You’ve been working so many late nights…”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t have much of a choice, now do I?” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a bunch of envelopes which he held up to show her.

  “What’s that?”

  “A notice from the bank. We’re late on our mortgage payment. Again.” he tossed it down, clenching his fist on the table. “I…I just don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

  Kate frowned, but didn’t respond. It was bad enough they had been arguing so much at home, but the last thing she wanted was to get into another shouting match out in public. She could read his mood clearly and his twitching temple meant he was on the verge of blowing his stack.

  “David…” Kate said, low and soft.

  When he didn’t respond, she reached across the table for his hand and felt him flinch when she put her hand on his. He shot her a look of disgust, like anything he ever felt for her was gone. She pulled her hand away and tried to ignore the tears welling up in her eyes and threatening to spill down her cheeks. She remembered when just looking at one another would send sparks between them. In those first years of marriage, they would get a small booth at the back of the deli specifically so they could snuggle and feed one another food between kisses. But those days were long gone now, that was evident from the cold look in David’s eyes when he looked back at her. She wondered if even liked her, let alone if he was still in love with her. She was starting to feel more like some problem that needed to be tolerated, rather than the woman he supposedly loved, the woman he once wanted over everything else.

  Kate drew her hand back sharply. She hated feeling this way and hated even more that she apparently was the reason her husband was so miserable. Maybe it really was over. Maybe she was just holding onto something they had lost a long time ago. That thought made her stomach sink and a wave of nausea washed over her.

  She used the cloth napkin to dab at her eyes, trying not to meet his gaze for fear that one look at the disgust in his eyes would make her burst into tears in the middle of the restaurant. But she couldn’t help herself. She stole a glance at him and for the first time in a long time, she saw that his expression had softened slightly, although she wasn’t sure whether it was love or pity.

  Just when she thought she saw him start to move, to lean in and take her hand, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He paused for a moment but like usual, David was a slave to his job, and when he plucked his phone out of his jacket to answer it, Kate knew the tiny moment of reconciliation between them had passed and she had no idea how long it would take, if ever, for them to get it back.

  Once she realized his call was work related she tuned it out and focused on watching all the people in the cafe and after a few minutes, she shifted her attention to checking Pinterest on her phone. After pinning a few pictures on coconut oil and makeup tips, she realized that they had become “that couple” in a restaurant. The couple that they always swore they’d never be: too distracted by life and too bored with each other to even bother having manners and giving the other person the slightest amount of attention or respect and instead turned their attention to their cell phones. This realization bothered her so deeply that she decided to take a stand and turned off her phone. My marriage might be falling apart, but dammit, I refuse to be that couple, she thought to herself. About the same time, David abruptly ended his phone call, pushed his chair back and stood up.

  “Look, I have to get back.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Kate tried to put on a polite smile but she knew he could see right through her.

  He stood there awkwardly for a moment, obviously torn between whatever crisis had come up at work and their crisis that had been going at home for months.

  “Look, Katie…” he said quietly.

  She looked up at him. The longer this rift had continued to grow between them, the more formal he would be with her and that he’d just now called her Katie for the first time in months gave her a glimmer of hope.

  She
tried to manage a weak smile, but when his phone vibrated again, David cursed under his breath, leaning over to give her an obligatory kiss on the top of her head before turning to leave. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  Watching her husband storm off, Kate could see some of the other women in the restaurant watching after him. They looked at him the way Kate did, their eyes scanning the way his crisp suit accented his muscles, and how his blue shirt only made his eyes that much more dazzling. She couldn’t stomach the thought of him being with another woman, but the way things were going, that might become a reality much sooner than the two of them working out their problems.

  Kate nursed her drink a while before taking out her wallet, prepared to pay for the drinks she had ordered. She supposed that this lunch date was just wishful thinking. The reality was that sitting down to share something as frivolous as lunch had become too much of an inconvenience. That was the sad thing. If they couldn’t manage lunch, how did they expect to save their marriage?

  The door swung open and the cool air tickled the backs of her legs and neck. She felt a cool hand on her upper arm as a gruff voice spoke behind her, “Why don’t you let me take care of that?”

  Kate’s heart fluttered at the voice. She didn’t need to turn to know who it was but she did so anyway. Standing over and grinning down at her was Jake Stone, a guy she’d dated seriously in college until she realized that she needed a guy with more than just great abs and a killer smile. Jake was a decent enough guy, it was just that she wanted to get married and odds are he’d be a confirmed bachelor for life. She’d met David shortly after she realized that her relationship with Jake wasn’t ever going to go to the next level. David was everything Jake wasn’t: where Jake was a take charge kind of guy, David allowed her to share in the balance of power. David was dark and handsome, his features rugged and masculine whereas Jake was more all American with blonde hair, blue eyes and a very endearing boyish charm about him. It was hard for Kate to end things with Jake. The sex was amazing and they’d always had a lot of fun together—she had just wanted more. And this was the “more” that you wanted? she asked herself, thinking of her marriage that was now on life support. Maybe Jake was onto something by staying single. She found herself envious of his situation as well as sad for her own.

  She tried to hide the mixture of emotions from him - the sadness and regret of how things had gotten with David; the surprise and relief at seeing Jake just when she needed someone. She could tell by the cocky smirk plastered across his face that he could still read her every thought.

  “You don’t have to do that, Jake,” Kate said, taking a quick look over to the street to see David standing on the curb waving his arm furiously in the air simultaneously clutching his briefcase and trying to hail a cab.

  “Oh, it’s my pleasure, as long as you agree to sit and have a drink with me in return.”

  Without waiting for her response, Jake slid into the seat next to her, his leg intentionally brushing against hers, the friction of it pushing her skirt up her thigh slightly.

  “You haven’t changed a bit,” he said.

  Kate looked up to find him eying her legs as she reached to smooth the fabric down. She felt her cheeks flush at the attention. She was sure everyone in the restaurant could tell that she was now sitting with another man, one she probably shouldn’t be sitting with— one that wasn’t her husband and one who, much to her chagrin still had a way of making her pulse race.

  Oh please, no one knows anything; Kate told herself, trying to calm her heartbeat with slow, easy breaths, which was so much easier said than done.

  Jake didn’t simply look at her or even watch her. It was like his gaze enveloped her, hungrily taking her in and wrapping her in his warm embrace with just a glance. Kate hadn’t been looked at in that way for what felt like an eternity, and she knew if she wasn’t careful, she would get lost in that gaze all over again.

  As if sensing exactly what she was thinking, Jake’s smirk spread into a grin before he looked away and motioned for the waiter. Always the one to take charge, he ordered another round of drinks before turning back to Kate, and like an addict, she tried to hide how she felt, even if his blue eyes studying her still made her toes curl. She could feel the heat rise in her body as he let his gaze travel across her face. The warmth spread across her breasts, exactly where Jake’s attention was focused, resting there for a moment to watch the rise and fall of each breath before sliding his gaze ever so slowly back up to her face again.

  Kate shifted nervously in her chair, checking again to see where David was, but he was already gone by the time she looked. She couldn’t help but feel a slight pang of disappointment. She almost wished he had turned around to see her and this strange man sitting together, a man actually paying attention to her for a change instead of staring at his cell phone through the entire meal. Maybe it would knock some sense into him, and remind him of what he had, but it didn’t matter anyway. He was gone.

  Jake slid his hand across the table and patted Kate’s arm, letting his hand linger there for a moment.

  “So how have you been doing Kitty-Kat?” he said, squeezing her arm.

  She flushed at the sound of his voice. It felt almost…wrong somehow that he should call her by the nickname he’d given to her back when they were still together. It may seem sweet to an outsider but Kate remembered just how Jake had come up with the nickname in the first place, and it wasn’t as innocent as it sounded. In fact, if she remembered correctly (and who was she kidding, she knew exactly how it had all happened), they were engaged in some seriously indecent acts when he’d told her how she seemed to purr when he touched her.

  Girl you must be starved for attention, she thought, taking a sip of her drink the moment the waiter set it down. “Oh, you know. Busy with the house, busy at work, you know how it is. And you?”

  “Oh, the same. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get out and have a little fun now and then,” he said winking at her.

  He leaned in a little closer, pressing so hard against Kate that she was sure he could hear her racing heartbeat.

  “Speaking of fun,” he said, “I’m having a little party tomorrow night.”

  “Oh?” Kate tried not to encourage him, but it seemed like every word she uttered, Jake took it as an opportunity to flirt. Kate didn’t know what irritated her more - the fact that he was trying to charm her when he knew she was married, or that she was letting him.

  “You remember my parties, don’t you Kitty-Kat?” David reached across and trailed his fingertips up and down Kate’s hand. For a split second she felt a pulse of electricity across the back of her neck but quickly ignored it, drawing her hand back like she’d touched a hot burner on a stove.

  “Actually, those parties are exactly the type of thing I’d like to forget.”

  “Oh? Why’s that? No time for fun now that you’re married?”

  Instead of looking away from David this time, she squinted her eyes, studying the look of amusement and the laugh he was trying to stifle. Had he been sitting on the other side of the restaurant all along, watching her and David and their awkward conversation? She wouldn’t put it past him. He loved to get the upper hand so he could use it to his advantage, and it wouldn’t be surprised if he’d somehow found out she was going to be here and sought her out just to see how she was doing. It was like he knew exactly when things in her life were in upheaval so he could try to swoop in and take advantage. But Kate wasn’t going to let him…or at least that was what she tried to convince herself, even as she allowed him to sit so close to her, so close she could almost…

  “Some of us have mortgages and bills to pay,” she blurted out “and lives to live that don’t involve getting wasted every weekend.”

  “Oh come on, now. When did you get so serious anyway, huh? I remember a girl who used to like to have fun; let her hair down; get a little wild.”

  “Yeah…well, that was a long time ago.”

  “No. it wasn’t.” His voice was
low now, and she hated hearing it. The deepness simmered, and it reminded her of thick caramel, warm and inviting, a richness she longed to drink in. “Kitty-Kat.”

  His voice yanked her out of her daydream.

  “No. I…I can’t.” Kate suddenly jumped up, grabbing her purse and darting away from the table. She ignored the stares of the other patrons as she bolted around the side of the restaurant into the alley behind the establishment.

  Leaning against the wall, Kate tilted her head back and closed her eyes. Hot tears stung her eyes, but she wiped them away with the back of her hand. Why did he get to her that way? After everything, she thought she was stronger than that, but it was obvious she was wrong. Maybe it was just her trouble with David that made her latch onto any morsel of attention, even if it did come from the guy whom she hadn’t thought about in years.

  But those eyes…that voice…his touch.

  Kate took a deep breath and opened her eyes, but when she saw Jake come racing around the corner, her breath caught in her throat. He had followed her around the back of the restaurant, and without saying a word, he came toward her, his eyes locked with hers.

  Unable to move, and barely able to catch her breath, Kate didn’t protest when he walked up and planted one hand on the wall behind her, effectively blocking her from moving. There was no avoiding him now. The deep musk of his cologne was like an elixir, making every inch of her skin tingle.

  “Let me go. This…this was a mistake.”

  But he didn’t move. He moved in closer to her. “I saw you.”

  She scowled at him. “Saw me? Saw me…where? What do you mean?”

  “I saw you standing in line at the register at Zingerman’s. I only came in because I saw you there and I couldn’t just keep walking without talking to you. I miss you Kitty-Kat. I miss us, and the way you looked up at me the moment you heard my voice, I can tell you feel the same. You can try to run away from me but there’s no hiding it. I saw the look on your face. Those old feelings are still there. I can see it, Kitty-Kat.”