The Honeymoon: The Bidden Series, #7

By Crystal Cierlak

"Despite the splendor of her accommodations, Natalie found herself wondering where she was going to end up on the other side of the trip, and with whom."

Take a trip with THE HONEYMOON, a short story follow-up to the shocking twist ending of UNBIDDEN LOVE (Bidden #5). Join Natalie Harlow as she is whisked away to a secret location, by a secret admirer, and get a sneak peek into what's in store for your favorite Bidden characters when the series picks up with CONTESTED HEART (Bidden #6), the final book in the Bidden Series.

Reading it before reading through book 5 will be very spoilery to your health!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Bidden Series!

Candidate Four, Sinful Reunion, Secret Desires, The First Candidate, Beyond Ruin, Unbidden Love, The Honeymoon, The Other Woman, Forbidden Halloween, Fading Dusk, Contested Heart, Palm Springs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crystal Cierlak
• Release date: Dec 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393321774

Book preview

Crystal Cierlak

COPYRIGHT

THE HONEYMOON and THE BIDDEN SERIES are works of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this story are either fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2016 Crystal Cierlak

Cover design by Crystal Cierlak

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any format, digital or otherwise, without the expressed permission of the author.

DEDICATION

For my loving husband Jeffrey, who looked on in kindness when, on our own honeymoon, I met Ariel at California Adventure, and fangirled like a seven-year-old.

Natalie Harlow descended the stairs into her living-room-slash-home-office, dressed and ready to start yet another work day, when she noticed her best friend-slash-roommate-slash-co-worker, Quinn, behaving suspiciously. The quickly-hangs-up-her-phone-and-pretends-she-wasn’t-doing-anything kind of suspicious behavior. None of the other employees - already hard at work and focused intently on their computer screens – seemed to notice.

Good morning, Red, Quinn trumpeted with unusual brightness for a weekday morning. On principal, Quinn was never fully awake and functioning until she’d had at least two cups of coffee, usually well into the morning. It was barely eight.

Good morning, Quinn, Natalie replied just as brightly, an exaggerated smile plastered on her face. Busy day today.

It is indeed, Quinn nodded emphatically. Natalie could feel her friend’s eyes following her as she made her way into the kitchen for her first cup of coffee and a banana. Sleep well?

Natalie chuckled to herself, unseen by Quinn. As a matter of fact I did. The bottle of wine we shared helped. In fact, it had helped so much Natalie barely remembered drifting off to sleep, only that she and Quinn had enjoyed a delicious, Postmates-delivered dinner and a bottle of moscato so sweet it doubled as dessert. Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t even remember trudging upstairs to put herself to bed. Though she had a blurry haze of a memory of someone rooting around in her bedroom in the middle of the night.

Yeah you really seemed to like it. I’ll be sure to tell the friend who recommended it to me.

Freshly poured coffee in hand, Natalie turned to look at Quinn, wondering what exactly she was up to. Because she was definitely up to something. Not that Natalie was complaining. Quinn was the best friend you could ever wish for, and had been Natalie’s saving grace since returning from a very dramatic excursion to Las Vegas less than two weeks ago. The trip to Sin City had started as a fun weekend getaway with her girlfriend, Audra Robertson, and ended with a wedding – not her own. The girlfriend to the ex-boyfriend, James Fitzgerald. Who happened to be business partners. And former in-laws. And both in love with her.

Quinn’s eyes had nearly popped out of their sockets when Natalie divulged the sordid details to her over another shared bottle of wine the day she returned. They’d nearly emptied the bottle before Natalie confessed that while in Vegas she and James had slept together. Of course that was before the wedding. A wedding that Natalie suggested and arranged.

It was all a business arrangement. While James had been on personal leave to help care for his ex-wife, who had recently given birth to their son, Colin, he left his position at work to his father, who had taken the opportunity to attempt a takeover of the entire billion-dollar Fitson Entertainment Group, with the help of said ex-wife. In order to protect the company James and Audra had spent the better part of ten years building together from the ground up, Natalie suggested they marry and combine what was left of their shares to regain majority control of Fitson.

It was four days before Natalie confessed to Audra that she and James had slept together the night