Lara and the City of Angels (3 page)

“Yes, I know. I am so excited. I have a guest starring role that will bring me to Louisiana for a couple of weeks. I can’t wait to play the evil Queen of Georgia who comes to Baton Rouge to wreak havoc.”

Lara pulled Elin closer to her to maintain privacy between them. “How is Thomas taking all of this? I mean…the whole you leaving for a while?”

Elin shrugged her shoulders. “He’s leaving for Europe tomorrow to promote his latest film,
Vertigo
, so we are used to not seeing each other for periods at a time. I will meet him in Germany though. It’s always best to keep the home fires burning if you know what I mean. God forbid us women allow the relationship to grow stale, boring or predictable.

“Little Thomas is gonna accompany his dad and Johanna is staying with her grandmother. Can you believe it? Seven years old and she told me flat out no. She does not want to accompany me and how dare I think anything different. Children can be quite funny.”

Lara tried to smile but felt like such a fake she finally dropped it. “I will see you tonight then. Take care and have a wonderful day, my dear.”

“You two, sweetheart.”

The two women exchanged air kisses before they walked their separate ways.

Lara couldn’t help but believe one major problem was the close proximity. She needed to be away from Sean for a while. Perhaps afterwards, she would have a better feel for where their marriage was going and whether it was time to file for a divorce.

***

N
ina Wilhelm-Zorzek, also known as film star persona Christina Williams, greeted Lara and Sean warmly.

“You’re one of the last to arrive but there is nothing wrong with being fashionably late. How are you two doing?”

“Great,” Sean enthused before he looked past her. “Where are your children?”

“Amber and Adriaan are with my parents in Beverly Hills. Why? Do you honestly think we would leave them here? No, tonight is for us adults only, thank God.”

Lara and Sean walked into the mansion Nina shared with her husband, rock star Shane Zorzek, and she wondered how the couple managed to look so youthful without surrendering to plastic surgery. Nina was still gorgeous though she was in her mid-thirties and Shane was well over the fortieth mark but he was as slim and in shape as he’d always been.

The blonde bombshell and her dark knight as Lara had christened the couple.

Several other couples were present, including Elin and Thomas; superstar couple Rick Riordon and Bijoux Hughes-Riordon; Introspect executive Dominic Stenfeldt and his wife, Brenda.

The public would have had a shit fit and all the actors present would ruin their careers if it was ever found out what they got up to at these parties.

When Sean had first introduced her to the swinger lifestyle, she was quite frightened and imagined a bunch of nasty, old strangers she wouldn’t fuck if she was high, drunk or both.

Fortunately, when she found out it was a bunch of high profile couples this shocked her more than she realized it would. She’d heard the rumors, after all she grew up in the lap of luxury and knew it happened. Her parents were still active swingers and had their own group. She and her sisters were sent away to boarding school once they became of age where they might ask questions about what their parents did with their close-knit group of friends.

Lara couldn’t deny she enjoyed the lifestyle. She had the opportunity to sleep with other men—and women when the urge overtook her—in a safe environment. It wasn’t an orgy situation where everyone was naked in front of one another and going at it like dogs. Everything was very sophisticated and civilized.

Nina and Shane liked to play the game where everyone put their name in a hat and the name that came up when one reached in was their partner for the night. The only time someone could choose another partner was if they had previously slept with the person and wanted someone different or if they were related to one another (which were the case with Brenda and Rick as they were half-siblings as well as Nina and Bijoux as they were also half-siblings).

Of course, couples who were married could also choose to sleep together but what would be the point of that?

Lara had an issue with the whole situation when she realized her husband got just as much of a kick out of choosing a man’s name as he did a woman. His bisexuality didn’t bother her but his dishonesty did. Most men in the industry were bisexual although there were some who were gay and chose to hide their sexuality behind a wife, commonly known as a “beard”. She wasn’t a beard and didn’t feel like one but more often than not she felt taken for granted by her husband and that royally pissed her off.

All the men were artists so they had absolutely no problem with choosing one another and they seemed to take it a lot better than the women until everyone became familiar with another and it no longer bothered them anymore.

Nina and Brenda had had previous lesbian relationships or experiences so they were the least bothered by the situation while Lara and Elin had been the most reluctant about it. Funny, Elin had absolutely no problem allowing her husband to fudge pack but she was a bit weary of sleeping with another woman.

Her first time had cured her of that as she had chosen Bijoux and apparently the two women had a great time and there went her inhibitions.

Lara still needed a few lines of cocaine before she could sleep with a woman and she had never warmed to the aspect. She loved everything about men and although sleeping with a woman could be pleasurable, it wasn’t her favorite activity.

That night, she was one of the first to choose out of the hat and she pulled out Shane’s name.

“Lucky me—I managed to snag the host!” she exclaimed to everyone.

“I would definitely agree with that assessment,” Nina replied with a smile.

It had been a while since they’d slept together but she adored fucking him as he was a very good lover and much more sensitive than Sean could ever be.

In fact, Lara realized all the males in the room were a better fuck than her husband. He had barely touched her since the birth of their daughter except for early morning blow job requests. As the “Swinger’s Club” got together twice per month, she regularly got laid but that wasn’t the point. Why wasn’t her husband attracted to her and why didn’t he
want
to touch her?

Lara tried to put the thought aside as Nina passed her a mirror with several lines of cocaine. She snorted a couple lines and passed it on to Bijoux. Her heart thundered in her chest but not from the cocaine. Sean picked a name out of the hat and stared at the piece of paper lustfully.
It had to be a guy
, Lara deduced angrily and tried to steady her frayed nerves.

Between the Cristal champagne and the finest Colombian white powder, she wasn’t feeling any pain other than the sheer pang of jealousy.

“Stop being such a fucking tease and tell us who you got, Sean!” Bijoux exclaimed.

He smiled at the beautiful actress who was the youngest woman in the room at the ripe age of thirty-one. Her dishwater blonde hair was dyed auburn for the Blake Burton film she would shooting with Sean as his female co-star and her gorgeous gold-brown eyes twinkled in a naughty fashion. She and Rick had only one son, Kieran, a gorgeous little boy she’d given birth to almost eight years ago. It would be their only child together though Rick also had a son, Julian, with superstar Zelda Stenfeldt-Goldsmith; Bijoux had undergone a tubal ligation shortly after Kieran’s birth.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Sean flirted with her in a much too familiar fashion.

“It better not be Rick,” she warned in a joking manner.

“Actually, it’s you.” He turned the card over and it revealed her name in fancy calligraphy.

Lara’s heart sank.

Sean treated her like a possession simply because he could get away with it. He didn’t sleep with her because it was a control factor and he was no longer sexually attracted to her. She was merely a means to an end and a wealthy trophy wife he had no intention of letting go anytime soon.

She stood and walked up the stairs to the designated room she would share with Shane that night. She didn’t want anyone to see the tears as they fell from her eyes. Sure, her expensive waterproof mascara would hold up under scrutiny but she wondered why her husband couldn’t ever express that kind of happiness or joy for her.

All the men desired Bijoux—this was true—but Sean’s reaction went beyond the usual.

Shane walked in several minutes later and sat next to Lara on the bed. He slipped an arm around her shoulders but it was more friendly than sexual. “Are you okay?”

Lara looked towards him and smiled. He had the most gorgeous blue eyes and they were full of untold sympathy for her. “I’m fine. I guess I am just a bit…I don’t know…well, I leave for Louisiana tomorrow and I’m not sure what’s going on with me as far as my emotions are concerned.”

“I’m not talking about tonight. I’ve been observing you for a while—I know you participate in these parties but your heart never seems to be in them. You’re not doing this because Sean wants you to, are you? We are all adults here and we should never be beholden to anyone. I would never make Nina do this if she didn’t want to—”

“Shane, I am fine. This is something I want to do and it has nothing to do with Sean. He couldn’t make me do anything—I am my own person and I make my own decisions, believe me.”

“I didn’t just fall off the banana boat, Lara. We formed this group because we wanted to be free to explore other lovers but with the full knowledge of our spouses. This is supposed to strengthen your marriage, not weaken it. We are all under the assumption that two people aren’t meant to be together forever sexually yet we are dedicated emotionally to our spouses.”

“I understand that and believe me our marriage is fine.”

“You were very upset about Sean and if you don’t want to do anything tonight but talk, that’s fine.”

“Nonsense!” Lara stood and peeled her lavender slip dress down to reveal bare breasts and thigh highs. She never wore panties or a bra to these occasions as it seemed like a waste of time.

Shane grabbed her arms and sat her down on the bed in a gentle manner. “I’m serious, Lara. What’s going on? I would like to think we are friends. This isn’t just about sex you know—it’s also about forming a connection and an emotional bond with another without harming our predominant relationships.”

“Does this…what we do…are you still sexually attracted to Nina?”

“Of course I find my wife attractive. It is even more of turn on knowing other men and women find her attractive too. We still have a very active sex life but we also realize we like to sleep with other people. This is a safe environment to do it in without feeling like we are ‘cheating’,” he explained.

“But aren’t we still cheating on our spouses? Does it really matter if we do it here in this house or if I just sleep with a man I find attractive?”

“There’s a difference, sweetheart. Sean knows you are here with me just like you know he’s with Bijoux. There isn’t any deceit involved with what we do. If you slept with some random guy then you have broken your vows as you haven’t been honest with him and that would hurt him more than you know. He loves you very much, Lara. This, I do know for certain.”

She found it ridiculous to cry while wearing only a pair of thigh highs therefore she avoided it. Instead, she reached over and kissed his lips. He responded and her hands snaked through his dark hair with wild abandon as their tongues met one another’s.

Perhaps this is what she needed—guilt free sex with a man who would eat her out and fuck her six ways to Sunday until she came and came again. Her thoughts of her husband quickly faded as Shane’s fingers began to work their magic on her clit and she surrendered to the feeling of sex on cocaine.

***