by Ann Denton
“You just did the goddamned splits kicking off your panties and now you want to rinse off?” he stands and walks toward me. “Get dressed or I’m gonna drag out outside like this and—”
“Okay! Okay!” I hold up a hand. “I was teasing.” I really kind of thought that this dare thing was just his way of leading into fucking. Clearly not.
I swallow my disappointment.
Alec stomps over to my drawers and pulls them open, fishing around until he finds a black bikini. He throws it at me. Then he keeps up the search in my closet, yanking dresses out only to examine and reject them.
I come up behind him. “What are you looking for?”
He pulls out a dress that’s a white maxi dress with a floral print. It’s got a slit right up the middle to my thighs. He shoves the dress at me, eyes raking down my still-nude form. “Wear this one.”
I don’t even have time to ask why before Alec’s out the bedroom door. I scramble into the swimsuit, the dress, and a pair of strappy sandals.
Alec’s already waiting by my front door with my phone and keycard in his hands. “Come on.” He strides out the door the second he sees me.
“Wait,” I run forward, latch the front door and chase after him down the path. When I catch up, I tug on his arm, but that’s about as useless as a chocolate teapot. Alec’s stacked with muscle and I’m … me. But I wrap both arms around his forearm and tug, so at least I have his attention. “You owe me a truth!”
Alec stops walking. He takes a deep breath and turns to me. He puts his hands on my shoulders and stares into my eyes. “I know. I’m just trying to figure out which piece to tell you.”
“Piece? There are pieces? What the hell, that wasn’t the deal! You are supposed to answer my question!”
He nods. “Okay. Ask.”
“Why the hell did you run away on the plane?” I can’t help the tiny bit of hurt that creeps into my voice as I ask it. But I definitely don’t let it show on my face.
Alec bites his lip. His hands slide down my shoulders and caress my upper arms. “Because for the last five years, the only place I’ve been able to have sex is in a sex club.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“What the fuck?” I have to chase after Alec.
The bomb he just dropped has left me with a concussion. My mind’s shaken. When I finally reach Alec, I start peppering him with questions. “What kind of club? Why? When? What kind of things do you do there?”
He shakes his head. “I said I’d answer your question. I did.”
“That’s not a fucking answer!” I yell just as Heather and Anthony appear on an adjoining path.
Heather’s eyes go wide. “Did you get her to yell at you? You’re on fire today—first the obstacle course, now this.” She holds her hand up for a high five.
Alec reaches out to give her hand a smack, but I grab his hand and yank down. “You are not high fiving someone over pissing me off.”
He just stares down at me, non-plussed. “Yes I am.”
He extracts his hand and high fives Heather right in front of me. I grind my teeth together. I want to strangle Alec right now. And not in the sexy way he might be used to at his club. I want to murderize him.
“Y’all have fun on your boat trip,” I tell Heather and Anthony. I turn to walk back to my villa.
Alec grabs my arm and pulls me into his side.
For the first time in her entire life, Heather shows some tact, or maybe some pity for me. She and Anthony head down to the pier, where a white boat bobs in the water, leaving Alec and I alone.
Alec bends so his eyes are closer to mine and it’s harder for me to avoid his gaze. “I dare you to get on this boat with me,” he whispers.
I narrow my eyes. “Not falling for that again.”
He shrugs, “Another dare means you get another truth.”
My fingers literally flex with the itch to kill him. If I thought I could scratch him to death I would. But the itch to know what the hell he’s doing at a sex club is even stronger. I don’t know if it’s the gossip gene that’s embedded on all female chromosomes, or if it’s the fact that I secretly hope he’s got an unquenchable thirst for pussy. More realistically, he’s probably into gags and whips and that kind of shit. I wish I had my phone so I could look it up, but he’s tucked it into his pockets.
I glance back and forth between Alec’s eyes. “No half-truths this time. I want more than a sentence.”
He nods.
I shake my head. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” But I turn and walk toward that boat.
Alec’s friend, Luther, is a nice guy. He’s a nerdy, skinny scientist type who’s super talkative and super tanned from basically living on his boat and studying these ostracod creatures, which I learn are little and have shells.
“Wait, but how do they puke?” I ask.
“Puke? Who the hell said anything about puking?” Heather turns from her spot on a side bench where she was watching the sunset with Tony.
I bite my lip. She pulls off her sunglasses and her eyes narrow. Then she stands and walks over to me. “I’ve had a shit day. There’d better not be puking.”
Luther cuts in with an awkward throat clear. “It’s actually a separate gland that secretes what are commonly called blue tears. It’s not vomit.”
“Tears?” Heather crosses her arms and stares at me. “What the fuck kinda date are you sending me on?”
I glance over at Alec, who just wears a shit-eating grin. The asshole is absolutely zero help.
“This was arranged the day you put Danny on the plane,” I tell her.
She steps into my space, “But, I was right about him, wasn’t I?”
“Ladies, ladies,” Luther foolishly tries to interject himself between us. “A lot of people claim the mating of the ostracods is one of the most magical experiences of their lives.”
“Watching clams puke?” Heather snarls.
Alec and Tony laugh at her choice of words until she turns to glare at them.
Luther says, “Please everyone, just sit down. We’re here.” He cuts the boat engine. Then he goes to one of the benches and lifts, pulling out snorkeling gear. “Here we go. If you could all put these on.”
“Oh, hell no. I’m not swimming in puke,” Heather crosses her arms.
I turn and stomp over to Alec, glaring down at him and whispering, “You didn’t say anything about swimming.”
He looks and me and just raises his brows. “I dare you.”
Fucker’s gotta lotta nerve. “I’m already on the boat. You already owe me a truth.”
“I owe you a truth when you get off the boat.”
I punch him. Right in his delicious fucking pec. And it does nothing but make my hand crumple like tinfoil. “Ow!” I sink to the bench seat, cradling my poor hand.
“You okay?” Alec asks.
“You could at least pretend that hurt,” I snap.
“Why?”
Luther stares around at all of us, a little frustrated. “You know, professional divers and enthusiasts pay big money to see this. This really is a once in a lifetime thing.”
Only Alec stands and puts on flippers and a snorkel mask. And the asshole doesn’t even look like an idiot doing it. Why does he have to look sexy doing everything? Fuck him and his dark hair and defined chin and his poster-boy body. He walks back over to me and leans down, pulling aside the snorkel’s mouthpiece. “Last chance for the dare.”
“Why would you tell me this was worse than a donkey sex show?” I grumble.
“I didn’t. I just suggested it as an alternative.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to take you.”
Fuck. That makes my insides go all kinds of mushy. They’ve been doing that a lot lately. I stare at Alec’s eyes, which bore into mine despite the goofy headgear.
I bite my lip. Godammit. No guy’s ever wanted to take me to some once-in-a-lifetime puking event before. And I’ll be damned if it doesn’t sound kind of sweet. I
scrub my face with my hands. “Dammit all. Fine.”
I shake my head. I can’t believe I’m doing this. But as I grab Alec’s hand and he helps me up, a little thrill runs through me. Particularly when he helps me out of my dress in front of everyone. He reached down and grabs my skirt at the top of the slit near my thighs. The backs of his hands rub gently over my thighs as he bunches the material up and moves his hands around to my back. He squeezes my ass where everyone can’t see. I have to work very hard not to react. Because normal Alec is sexy. Seductive Alec is the hottest layer of hell. It’s complete and utter torture not to be able to just jump his bones right here and now.
He slowly drags the dress up my back and over my head. Then he throws it aside.
It accidentally hits Luther in the stomach, which I think reminds the scientist he shouldn’t be watching. Luther tosses the dress aside like it’s a snake about to bite and turns to dig in the snorkeling chest for gear for me, taking the opportunity to adjust himself.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I say.
From across the boat Heather calls, “I can’t believe it either.” She looks up at Alec. “You must have a magic wand in your shorts. Because Katie is not the adventurer.”
“Hey!” I protest.
She shrugs. “It’s true.”
Alec laughs as he empties our key cards and phones from his suit pockets and sets them on the bench. “I plan to help her with that.”
My heart beats faster. Is that a sex club reference? Is that what he’s talking about? Is he planning on taking me to a sex club? Whips and chains and weird costumes and women crawling on the floor in collars run through my head. Then furries, for some reason.
Alec can sense my rising panic, because he takes my hand in his and says, “Hey, it’s time.” He helps me slide on the flippers and adjusts my mask so it’s nice and tight. Unlike him, I don’t look good. I look like an awkward duckling stumbling around.
Everything gets better as we get down in the water, which is just chilly enough to perk me up, but not make me shiver.
Luther points to an area off to our left and says, “There.”
Where he points, a magical blue glow seems to ride the waves.
When Heather looks over the side of the boat, she gasps. “Changed my mind. Totally swimming in puke.”
We tread water while she and Tony toss on flippers and join us. And then we all follow Luther through the water.
We swim through the ocean in the darkness, with only starlight and a distant moon lighting the way. Everything is black and cold and quiet, and the world feels distant. It’s an otherworldly experience itself. But it turns completely magical when we get close to the mating ostracods. It looks like an entire galaxy has fallen into the ocean. The waves bubble with tiny, blue glowing stars. The glow extends down and out as far as the eye can see.
Luther’s voice breaks the silence. “If you dip your head under and use your snorkel, you can watch the males release the bioluminescent mucus.”
Heather says, “So, it’s not puke, it’s snot?”
Alec says, “Luther, shut up.” Then he takes my hand, helps me adjust my snorkel, and we swim together through the most beautiful, fairytale-worthy snot I’ve ever seen.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I’m exhausted by the time we climb back onto Luther’s boat. I let Alec help me out of my flippers and yank off my mask.
Luther gives us all towels and we dry off. Then I toss on my dress and grab my keys and phone.
We head back to civilization. All of us are silent, replaying in awe what we just experienced. It really was amazing. I reach for Alec’s hand and give it a little squeeze to thank him.
When we get close to our own island, I yawn. I’m ready to turn in. I check my phone out of habit, to see if I’ve got signal. I see a billion missed calls from my mother and I see at text from my sister.
WTF? Has Heather seen this? Olivia follows her text with a link to a website.
“Lotto Winner Creates Sex Fantasy Island” the article’s title proclaims. A big photo of Heather and the guys follows.
Fuck! My hand claps over my mouth inadvertently. Alec leans down to see what’s the matter. I open the article. It takes forever to load. I tap my foot impatiently.
Heather asks, “Is everything okay?”
I stop worrying my lip and say, “Just trying to read something my sister sent.”
Heather looks at me oddly.
Finally, the damn article loads. And I gasp. I don’t even read the first sentence of the article. Because the byline says, by Anthony Drake.
Blinding rage overtakes me and roots me to my spot.
Alec is up and across the boat before I even take a breath. He grabs Drake by the shoulders and yanks him up. “Motherfucker!”
“What the hell—” Heather yells, standing.
I find my legs. I stand and hold the phone out in front of me. “He wrote an article and published it. About your harem.”
Heather turns to Anthony Drake. She pries Alec’s hands off the man’s shoulders. “Is that true?” Her voice is a very deadly calm.
Drake looks wildly around at all of us. Luther hunches farther over the steering wheel, like the drama is too much to handle.
“I told them to write about the guy you cut off in line. The one who was buying thousands of tickets—”
Heather hits him with a right hook. Hard. His face snaps to the side.
She turns to Alec, “Can you throw him overboard?”
Alec nods and scoops Tony up like he’s a sack of potatoes.
“Wait! No! Stop!” Tony’s protests are cut off as Alec tosses him into the black waves. He surfaces spluttering. “You can’t do this!”
Heather looks down at him from the side of the boat. Her eyes glint like daggers. “You’re less than half a mile from the island. You can make it back. But then, you can find your own fucking way home.”
She turns away.
Luther clears his throat uncomfortably. “Do we at least want to um… give him a life jacket?”
“No!” Heather and Alec growl simultaneously.
They’re both furious. I am too, but I know they don’t mean it. They just can’t see past their anger. I toss a life jacket out into the water and flip Tony the bird.
Needless to say, we arrive back at the island in a fit of fury. Plans to call Danny’s brother the attorney and hack the website and sue the company have been made.
Heather calls all the guys to the pool area and lines them out. “Tony is a motherfucking asshole and if I find out one of you collaborated with him, I will end you! If I find out you are here for anything more than sex and a relationship, I will end you!”
The guys look appropriately cowed because a furious Heather is a sight to see.
“I’m warning you now, I’m hiring a damn hacker to look into all of you. And if I find out anything, you’re out!” she yells.
I gently touch her arm. “You might want to tell them what Tony did.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Once she tells her story, Heather’s enveloped in hugs. The guys pass her around, whispering words of affection and reassuring her that they wouldn’t betray her.
When she starts to cry in their arms, I take it as my cue to leave. This is their moment to take care of her and build her trust. And when Andrew, my favorite, takes her in his arms, I know she’s in good hands.
Alec walks me back to my villa. He stood beside me during the entire pool rampage. And he’s silent for about half the walk back. But, as we get away from the other villas and closer to mine, he clears his throat. “So, um, I still owe you that truth.”
My stomach tightens. I’d forgotten. With all the chaos and everything with Tony, I’d completely forgotten. I take a deep breath to steady my nerves and ask, “Okay. What kind of sex are you having in sex clubs that you can’t have elsewhere?”
Alec grabs my hand and turns to me. We stop walking and I study his face in the moonlight. He swallows ha
rd before he says, “I’m … an exhibitionist.”
Breath whooshes out of me like a whoopee cushion. I even make a squeaking sound. My hands fly to my face. “Oh.”
Alec swallows, “I know it’s a lot—”
I hit him. “I fucking thought you liked poop sex!”
“What?”
“You’re all going on … dramatic … drawing shit out …” I put a hand over my heart. “Motherfucker. Why’d you do that to me?”
Alec stares. “Wait. So … you’re ok with having sex in front of other people?”
“I don’t know! I’m just so damned relieved you don’t want to poop on me right now. I can’t think past that.”
Alec laughs and grabs my hand. He starts walking again, this time twice as fast as we were before. I have to nearly jog to keep up. “Hey, what’s the rush?”
Alec stops, suddenly, blocking the path. He leans down and kisses me. And fuck, it’s instant waterworks down south. His mouth is hard and hot, and his teeth grab my lip and bite it. When he retreats, I’m breathing hard.
Alec keeps his hold on my hand. He smiles softly and steps aside so we can keep walking. I stop short. There, standing by my door, are Kenneth and Danny.
Alec says, “Katie, I have another dare for you.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
I tremble as I follow him up the path to my villa. My eyes meet Danny’s. He gives me a smile and says, “Alec told that if I came over tonight, I’d learn a few things.”
I get as red as a pomegranate. I look over at Kenneth, trying to avoid Danny’s stifled laughter.
Kenneth doesn’t help. He holds up a grapefruit. “In case you’re feeling even more adventurous,” he winks.
“A grapefruit?” I’m puzzled how he could use a grapefruit on me.
He steps forward and places it in my hands. He leans into my ear and whispers, “It’s not for you, it’s for me.”
Alec grabs Kenneth’s shirt and yanks him back. “Let’s let her go one step at a time, okay? We don’t want to overwhelm her.”
My eyes flicker between the three of them. “Why the hell does it feel like the three of you have had some kind of pow-wow?”
