by Kira Blakely
I felt this enormous sense of relief. It was almost as if an embodied spirit had been trapped inside me and now rose out and above me and then poof! It was gone. I drew in a deep breath and started looking around. I’d clung to the notion that people were watching and judging my entire life. I wanted to be a little naughty, to be get into trouble just a tiny bit. It could be fun. I’d always been held back by the notion that someone wouldn’t approve and there would be hell to pay. I was literally a tight ass!
Armed with my newfound enlightenment, I began to plot how I would exploit this new sense of freedom. My eyes fell on Brayden. Who better to try it out on?
That’s when karma entered the picture. My phone dinged with a reminder. Oh, my god. It was Brayden’s birthday! How could I have forgotten? Well, technically, I hadn’t, since I’d had the presence of mind at some point to add it to my calendar, thank God and Apple Computer.
I tapped out Meghan’s phone number. She picked up right away. “Harper! Wow! I heard you got the big storm!” Her voice was animated, and she was very excited with life at that moment.
“Boy, did we. I’m sitting here right now watching Brayden supervise his army to get it all cleaned up. Thank god the power is back on.”
“I’m not coming home just yet, you know,” she reminded me. “Uncle Brayden wants us to stay away until everything is fixed. But that’s okay, because Missy lives next door and her friends, Deb and Mousy—don’t you just love that name? Well, anyway, they’re all hanging out next door, and I’m invited tonight to watch old horror movies with them. I know it’s just an excuse to try on makeup and talk about boys, but what the heck, right?”
I could hear the joy in her voice. “I’m really excited for you, Meghan, but listen. Did you remember that today is Brayden’s birthday?”
There was a pause at the other end. “Oh, shoot! With the excitement of the storm and all, no, I forgot all about it. What am I going to do?”
“Hey, don’t sweat it. I’ve got it covered. Just do me a favor and DO NOT, and I repeat, DO NOT text or call him. I want him to think we’ve all forgotten about it. Tell Mrs. Sims the same thing. You can pick up a gift on your way home whenever you come back, but for now, I’ve got this one. Okay?”
“More than okay, Harper. Somehow I think he’s going to like your gift better than anything I could bring home anyway.”
“Meghan!”
“What?” she feigned innocence. “I’m just saying…”
“Enough of that. Okay, now remember, mum is the word.”
“Got it. Have fun, Harper.”
I got up and headed to the guest cottage. I spied the young woman who had been hanging around my place and waggled my finger. It worked, she responded immediately. I was sort of getting into this finger-wagging thing.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Joy. How can I help?”
“Well, Joy, follow me.”
"Yes, ma’am,” she responded and followed me inside the cottage.
“Joy, this might seem like an odd question, but are you wearing other clothes under that jumpsuit?”
“Well, yes, my normal street clothes.”
“Here. I need your jumpsuit.”
“Ma’am?”
“Oh, don’t worry. You won’t get into trouble. I just need to use it for part of a costume and there’s no stores here as you can see.”
“Oh, there are more in the boat, ma’am. We carry extra in case we get spills or dirty, you see.”
I held out a crisp one-hundred-dollar bill. “Will you get me one?”
She grinned and took the bill from my fingertips. “No problem. I’ll be right back.” She stopped and pulled a plastic garbage bag from beneath my sink and left. A few minutes later, she was back and pulled the jumpsuit out of the bag, handing it to me. “Shall I hang this in your closet?”
Just like I’d thought – they were like flies.
Chapter 16
Brayden
Cleaning up took all day, and I was as tired as if I’d done the physical work myself. At least things were back to normal and Meghan and Mrs. Sims could return whenever they were ready.
I looked around for Harper, but couldn’t spot her. I was filthy and sweaty, so I headed off to my room to shower. I knew Harper hadn’t gotten much sleep either and figured she’d gone to take a nap at the cottage. I felt the urge to follow her there, but resisted. I stunk like a skunk, and I imagined she wouldn’t be terribly happy with being disturbed regardless.
My bedroom, just like all my resort rooms, had been restored to perfection. The bed was crisply made, its white sheets tucked and folded back exactly the way I liked them. I looked forward to having a short nap myself and dropped my clothes where I was standing before turning on the shower. The water felt great and I turned the temp up hot and let it pelt down on my shoulders. After the shower, I filled the whirlpool tub and let the jets massage my back and upper arms. I wanted to be really relaxed for my evening with Harper.
I toweled dry and walked naked into the bedroom. I stopped short. Evidently one of the crews had left a worker behind because she was dusting my furniture. Her back was to me so I had a chance to back up quickly into the bathroom and grab a towel to put around my waist. I re-entered the bedroom and she was still there, bent low and wiping the top of the cold air returns. She was wearing the blue outfit that identified the crew, including the cap that protected her hair. She turned slightly and I could see she was wearing earbuds, which I assumed were connected to a phone or other music player in her pocket.
“Hello?” I tried to get her attention. I didn’t want to touch her first because I knew it would startle her and make her jump. “Hello,” I tried again, but she was swinging her hips to the music and apparently didn’t hear me. I stood there, assuming she would eventually turn and see me. Instead, she went into dance moves with her hips thrust backward toward me. Her ass was wonderful. It filled out the uniform and left little to the imagination. I wondered, with some guilt, how long Harper would be asleep. I wasn’t the least bit interested in the woman, but any man who doesn’t respond to swinging hips has something out of whack.
I leaned against the bathroom doorway and watched her dance; a mesmerizing combination of swaying hips and ballerina gestures with her long arms. They arched gracefully over her cap, the fingers beckoning to either side. Slowly, her shoulders rotated with her arms. They sped up and shook in an alluring way and then she dipped low from side to side, her long arms swinging even more widely. To my surprise, as one shoulder dipped, her uniform slid off her shoulder and I realized she had unbuttoned the entire front of it – as if she intended to step out of it. The other shoulder dipped and that part of the uniform slid, too. I was desperate to get her attention now as this had clearly gotten out of hand. I had no interest and I wasn’t even sure if she knew I was watching. If Harper caught me, everything I’d worked for to be with her would be lost.
The woman in the uniform was increasing her tempo and each dip caused the uniform to drop lower until she was literally standing naked before me, her legs spread wide as she touched each foot in turn. Now her hands went low, between her crotch, and her fingers beckoned to me from between.
“Hey, now, miss! You there!” I was desperate to get her attention and now I was fairly sure she knew what she was doing. She had obviously planned to put me in a compromising situation with Harper and then would blackmail me. There were probably cameras on me that very minute.
Suddenly, the woman stepped free from the uniform, pulled off her cap and spun about to face me. As the long ash-blonde ringlets cascaded over her shoulders, I almost collapsed with relief. It was Harper.
She pulled the earbuds from the music player that hung about her neck, and I heard the strains of Bolero fill the room. She didn’t crack a smile, but danced toward me, running her hands down her thighs and then up over her full breasts, cupping them with her hands to offer them to me.
I wasted no time but sprang forward and
picked her up, laying her on the bed and spreading those beautiful legs. The magnetic music provided an accompaniment to the lashing I gave her with my tongue. Harper’s hips fought my pursuit, as hard as she tried to continue the sinuous movement the music inspired.
I was ready to explode again but this time it would not be wasted. I positioned myself so that she saw me coming into her at eye level. They grew wide as she must have suddenly realized she had taken on more than she’d anticipated. In time to the music, I penetrated her only an inch and then pulled back. I bent and kiss the sweet flesh on either side of her clit and then entered her again, but incrementally further. I hoped I could hold up to this pace without losing it; her moist warmth and vaginal muscles were gripping me tightly.
Over and over, I penetrated her until finally I was completely inside her. I grasped her ankles and rose from my knees to a full standing position, my feet widely planted. She was so petite, she weighed practically nothing and I pulled her upward until she was practically on her head and I was drilling her from above. She gasped with the sensation and I wondered briefly what it must feel like for her. I slowed and she shook her head, her wild curls plastered against her damp face as she begged me not to stop.
The end of the song was near and I dropped again to my knees and pulled her toward me so that she straddled me. I pushed, deep, and leaned forward to suck her nipples. She cried out in passion and began bucking against me. I knew I’d driven her to that peak every woman craves. I allowed myself to explode within her and as the final strains of the music ended, we fell side by side to the mattress, exhausted.
As the thick serum of passion drained away, Harper rolled toward me. “You…” she cautioned me.
“I knew it was you from the first,” I lied and prayed that she’d never find out otherwise. She seemed satisfied, and I knew that I would have never engaged if it had been another woman. That told me one thing, clearly. I would never want any woman other than the one I held in my arms.
Never again.
“Happy birthday,” she whispered.
Chapter 17
Harper
I was still reeling from the daring dance I’d given Brayden. That was so unlike me, but it felt wonderful to do something out of character and rather risqué. I was beginning to get the hang of living life on the spur of the moment without planning it to death. It felt great.
I was watching from the pool as Captain Bob came in, Meghan and Mrs. Sims aboard. Meghan ran the entire difference and hugged me. Mrs. Sims was a bit more dignified and smiled, asking what I’d like for lunch as she passed by. I told her the refrigerator had been restocked and she should make whatever suited her whim. She seemed to love that suggestion.
Meghan was chattering like chimes in a windstorm, and I could see she was exhausted. I remembered what my sleepovers had been like. “Why don’t you go grab a nap?” I suggested and she didn’t offer the least bit of resistance to my suggestion.
“I’m up for that,” she said and trotted indoors.
My cell rang. “Hi, there, sleepyhead. You were still passed out when I left this morning,” Brayden teased me.
“So? Aren’t I permitted a life of leisure?”
“Is that what you call it?” he laughed. “Well, no one gets off entirely. In fact, that’s why I’m calling. I hope you bought a long dress in all the shopping you did a few days ago. We’ve been invited to a pre-performance reception with Mario Marcianelli, the famous tenor. I pretended to know opera but I think I flunked the test and now I’m looking for you to motor over with Captain Bob this afternoon and make me look better. Can you?”
“Sure! What time, and what do I wear?”
“Cocktails are at five o’clock and while I’d love you to come nude, I’d spend all night fighting off my competition. Why don’t you just choose something long and pretty? If you need anything, come early and shop and you can dress here.”
I shook my head, thinking. “No, I’m fine. Meghan and I were very thorough in spending your money the other day.”
I heard him chuckle. “I know… the bills have started coming in.”
“Is that a complaint I hear?” I asked in a threatening tone.
“No, no, not in the least. I would have spent ten times that on you if I’d been along. Okay, see you this afternoon.” There was a pause, and I realized it was the sort of pause that couples would fill with ‘I love you’ but we hadn’t gotten that far yet. I wasn’t entirely sure just how far one had to get to say those words, but it was clear to me that Brayden wasn’t there yet.
Then the moment passed. “Bye,” I said.
“Bye.”
* * *
I decided to take my clothes and dress at Utopia. Captain Bob, as accomplished as he was, could not shield me from the wind on the trip over. I arrived quietly and checked into a comped room, laying out my gown on the bed and heading to the shower. At just before five o’clock, I called Brayden’s phone and told him to meet me in the lobby.
“I’m already in the ballroom with our guest of honor. Sweetheart, would you mind terribly meeting me here? I’ll be standing with the guest of honor, and there’s no way you can miss him.”
“Sure, no problem.”
I found the ballroom and walked toward the front of the room. Brayden was standing next to a portly man, his arm on the man’s shoulder as they both laughed. He looked up and saw me and if there was one moment in my lifetime I could preserve forever in my memory, it would have been then. His mouth fell open, his expression turned to wonder and he dropped his hand from the man’s arm and walked toward me. I smiled.
“I can’t believe that’s you,” he whispered in my ear, folding my arm beneath his. “You are absolutely stunning.”
I blushed with pleasure. I was wearing a full-length strapless gown of a pale mandarin color that was slit from the high hip downward. I knew I filled out the bodice nicely and the back dipped all the way to the base of my spine. Meghan had chosen it and immediately brought it to me. “You have to try this one,” she’d told me. “It suits your coloring perfectly.” Apparently, she was right. I’d allowed my hair to air dry, which automatically made it nothing but ringlets. The bulk of it, I had piled on top and fastened with a silver barrette, leaving a cascade to fall over my shoulder and end in the cleavage of my breasts. I was wearing silver, designer spike heels and for the first time, my head topped Brayden’s shoulder.
But it was Brayden’s reaction that made me feel like a precious princess. He introduced me to the tenor, who seemed impressed as well as he asked that I sit with him. His eyes never left my cleavage. Brayden noticed this, as well, and he politely insisted that Mr. Marcianelli keep his seats for the mayor and the head of the opera company with his wife. He appeared disappointed, but I felt a sense of relief.
Brayden escorted me to a nearby table and seated me. He took the chair next to mine, and we had just settled in when a familiar voice came over my shoulder.
“Well, look who’s here,” Collin drawled and I saw the muscle in Brayden’s cheek begin to twitch. I looked up and Stephanie was standing with him, dressed in a black pantsuit that would have been better suited to a funeral. She was wearing entirely too much makeup and next to Collin, in his black suit with satin lapels, they could have blended well in Las Vegas.
Stephanie bent and hugged me, her perfume overpowering. I covered my cough and nodded.
I looked to Brayden for some sort of cue as to how to behave. I knew he was in a bad position, as Collin could make a real ass of himself if he didn’t get his way.
“I didn’t realize you were invited,” Brayden began.
“Well, that may be true but hey, where there’s a party, there’s Collin, right?” He was already swaying on his feet from alcohol.
Brayden cleared his throat. “Well, you may as well have a seat.” He motioned to the open seats.
“Why, thank you, brother. Don’t mind if I do.” Collin pulled out a chair and sat down, leaving Stephanie standing alone. Brayden l
eapt to his feet and held the chair for her. I was completely embarrassed. I reached over and patted her hand.
Collin seemed to have discovered me for the first time. His eyes trained on my bosom and he didn’t flinch when Brayden coughed. I was utterly miserable. Collin had us both in an untenable position. We couldn’t be ourselves, but had to cover for his garish behavior. I was being forced to be polite when what I wanted was to tell him to go to hell. I had no choice.
Stephanie, who I know was feeling rejected, smiled at Brayden and tried to strike up a conversation about the old days when we’d been in school together. She and Brayden were the same age and had a few classes together. Brayden was polite, but cool. His attention was on his brother, trying to run interference for anything embarrassing Collin could pull.
The speeches were done, and we’d begun dinner when Collin raised his glass and screamed, “Waitress! Another round for my friends here, would you? And put it on my brother’s tab.”
Brayden stood. “C’mon, Collin, let’s have a chat outdoors.”
Collin shook his head. “I’m not going anywhere, bro. You invited us to sit down and now we’re going to eat and drink… and have a nice little chat. I can’t help but notice you’ve both been gone for a couple of days. Where have you been?”
“That’s not what we’re here to discuss,” Brayden said, trying to guide the conversation to safer territories.
“I hear there was quite a blow a little further to sea,” Collin continued. “Lots of damage. I saw the staff from here packing and hurrying out to the dock. What would cause you to send your staff somewhere when you were missing as well?”
“Enough, Collin.” Brayden was getting angry. I tried to flag his attention, but he was ignoring me. Collin, on the other hand, was not. Stephanie was miserable.
