by Debbie Behan
Woody came and sat next to her, looking up at what she was studying.
‘Do you miss her?’ Cassie asked, turning her head towards him.
‘A little, but she’s no good for me.’
‘You know why I asked that, don’t you?’
‘You want to forget where you left a piece of your heart too?’ Woody said, understanding where she was coming from.
Cassie nodded. ‘I find it strange that evil can walk both sides—be rotten to the core but also be almost perfect. We that love them can see both sides and yet choose to ignore the evil, preferring to only acknowledge the perfection. They have such an advantage on us. They see us as a challenge, using our kind hearts to get what they want. It’s hard to get over their perfect side, isn’t it?’
‘You have it down pat, Cass. We’re players for their amusement and if we dare end it, the rejection drives them insane. They have calculated our every move, not putting a foot wrong. It kills them to think we have worked them out. I’ve not heard the last of my Ella, or you of your father. They view it as a game, one that they lost and will continue to play until they win us back or become bored with it.’
‘Tell me, Woodsta, how are we to say no when we see them next in all their perfection, smiling at us like butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths?’
‘We replace them with a real friend, one who understands because they’re going through the same thing.’
‘I’m not alone in this, am I?’
‘Not while we have each other.’
They formed a pact that night that they would drop what they were doing if the other needed them. Cassie was happy she had found a friend like Woody.
After dinner, they sat around until late, talking. They told Cassie that if she rested one more night to make sure she was over the tattoo, they would go somewhere fun the next day if there was no call-out when the horses were checked in the morning. A movie played, although she only watched half of it. She was too excited and tried to guess where they would take her the next day. Being locked up most of her life had made her want to experience anything that was going.
* * * *
In the morning she slipped down next to Kayden on the floor and his arms automatically wrapped around her, pulling the cover over them. He kissed her, losing grip on reality as he remembered her tattoo. If the others weren’t in the room he would have made good his threat to her for looking so sexy now with a tat. Damn the men, using this as a team thing and talking me into staying an extra night. He wanted to get up and kick them all awake for being sneaky mongrels and stopping him from having fun. Bastards!
He moved from her sexy comfort and stretched, sitting up. ‘Feel like coming with me to check the horses?’ he whispered with cunning on his mind.
She nodded and he stood, taking her hand and quickly pulling her to her feet. Stepping over sleeping bodies, they worked their way out the room. Woody was the only one who stirred. Kayden told him when the others woke to get ready and pick them up from his house. He had other plans in the meantime and left, grinning happily.
A couple of hours later, they were back in the Hummer and heading off on a new adventure. The day was just starting to warm up as they set off and it was only then that Kayden told her they were going to spend the night on an island where the beach was to die for. Cassie was excited as she had never seen a beach before, never mind swum in salt water. They tried to tell her how bad it tasted and she laughed, not believing them, thinking they were just having a bit of fun with her as they usually did when she didn’t have the experience to know better.
They went through a little town called Onslow to get to Beadon Point, where she had her first real look at the sea. It was tinged green in the shallow areas, changing to shades of light blue that blended into indigo blue as it got deeper. Looking at the horizon, the colours seemed to join up with the sky, only broken by a few wispy clouds. From the boat ramp they went a further twenty-two kilometres offshore to the Mackerel Islands, which are comprised of ten islands. They stopped at Thevenard Island: a lovely holiday destination with chalets that ran along the beachfront. These, as she found out, were where they would be staying.
Jason and Conor threw their gear into a couple of the chalets and they quickly changed and met down by the shore. The guys were taking Cassie on her very first snorkelling experience and couldn’t wait to see her reaction to salt water in her mouth. The beach felt soft under her feet and the sensation of it squishing between her toes she found quite unsettling. Kayden thought her reaction to it was funny and cracked up laughing.
The rotten sod. She looked up the beach to where there were girls running out of their cabin and into the water. Her mind went into overdrive. This was her chance to get a little alone time with her man. To even out the odds a little she decided to plan a way they could be together, even if she was being a wee bit sneaky with it. But when up against five scheming team members, I am learning to beat them at their own game.
‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ she said, heading towards the girls.
When she made it to them, given the challenge she had walking on sand for the first time, she started chatting to them, asking their names, where they were from and if they wanted to join her and her friends for a bit of snorkelling.
‘What! Those hunks? You’re telling us none of them have a girlfriend?’ They seemed gob-smacked and excited. The younger one, Sonia, stayed calm, being the spokesperson for the others.
Cassie pointed out Kayden. ‘All except that one,’ she warned them. ‘He’s all mine.’
As Cassie thought, they were here for a good time as well and were more than happy to join her group for a bit of fun. They followed her as she headed back down the beach to join the menfolk.
She had a cheeky grin as she came back with the girls, telling the boys they wanted to join them. The guys just smirked at Cassie, knowing exactly what she was up to. They would deal with her later but for now none of them were going to knock back five beautiful beach bunnies. They happily paired off with the women to show them the ropes, seeing they had never snorkelled before either.
Kayden nudged Cassie as they waded out into the water. ‘Very sneaky, Cassie. I just hope you don’t intend to fob me off to one of them as well.’
‘You even look at one of them and you are toast, buddy,’ she chuckled. ‘If any of them even get within cooee of you, sweet-cheeks, you know I have powers and I will use them,’ she added as her hazel eyes turned green.
Kayden grabbed her, amused by her jealousy. ‘I believe you would at that, my little feisty one.’
Never having swum under water before, the women all had to be shown. A couple of the girls acted ditzy playing the helpless damsels for extra attention. Damned if it wasn’t working! Cassie watched as the men pandered to their every whim. They were actually enjoying themselves immensely.
Cassie stuck her head underwater to wet her face and hair before putting on her mask and came up spluttering and disgusted. ‘Yuk! That tastes like over-salted water. What the hell’s this crappy taste?’ She spat and couldn’t stop laughing. The waves started throwing her about and felt irritated and cranky with the pounding they gave her. ‘You can have this! I’m getting out.’
Everyone was cracking up laughing at her so much that they could hardly hold their own footing. She stomped back up the beach with Kayden on her tail. Snatching her up in his arms, he carried her back. ‘You ain’t going anywhere, missy. We want to laugh at you so get back in the water so we can have some fun.’
Once she became desensitised to the motion of the waves and the unusual feeling of looking under the water with goggles on, she had a blast. In the meantime, the guys got to have a good laugh before taking off ahead of her with one of the women in tow. Kayden nearly drowned, he laughed so hard.
‘You wait, you bastards. I’ll get you back. Just wait and see,’ she warned through tears of hysteria
.
All the pretty coral and the colours of the fish were extraordinary. Cassie had only ever seen them in books and was fascinated by how defined the colours were. There’s no way to appreciate it fully until you see it with your own eyes. She was amazed.
Kayden kept trying to get Cassie away from the group but the guys were on the ball and kept following him, just to annoy him. Cassie didn’t notice what was going on around her as she was too interested in snorkelling. She found some little crabs under a rock and over further she spotted a group of fish that looked like they were wearing evening dresses, their fins were so delicate and long.
Finally dragging her out, Kayden took the opportunity, while the men were playing a game of beach volleyball against the girls, to disappear with her for a few hours. It was late afternoon when they finally came out of their chalet. The beachfront was empty so they strolled along the edge of the water while waiting for dinner. They passed a table set up ready for the nightly meal and a chef who had just started to cook on the BBQ. It smelt delicious. They thought a short walk would keep them amused while they waited and were surprised to come across Jason.
‘He’s with Sonia McMasters,’ Cassie whispered. ‘He normally goes for the tall attractive women. She’s hardly his type at all. I’m shocked.’
They’d been kissing and Sonia seemed a bit embarrassed that they had been sprung. She was so shy compared to her brazen friends. Jason had once told Cassie what type of woman he preferred yet this young girl was no rough diamond, so it had Cassie stumped as to what he saw in her. She was quite a plain-Jane, even if she was quite sweet.
Hand in hand they walked back together, the aroma of the food wafting up the beach making the four of them look forward to a nice meal. When they arrived at the table, the others started to surface from their chalets as well with their choice of woman on their arms, all except for Woody. He walked out with two of them, making Cassie smile, knowing he would need at least two to replace his evil Ella.
They’d all been drinking, except Jason. Cassie was sure he’d not even had a drop and wondered what Sonia had that the others didn’t. Eyeing her again for a minute, she couldn’t see it. Shaking her head, she grinned. Sun must have got to him and mucked with his senses.
The meal was superb and later they sat on the beach drinking shots of tequila, watching the stairway to the moon. Kayden explained it only happened at a certain time of the year when there’s a full moon. ‘As it rises over the water at low tide, it creates the effect of stairs, giving the illusion that they reach as high as the moon.’ Cassie thought it was awesome.
Afterwards, he pulled Cassie up and took her for a private stroll. Out of sight, they decided to have a private skinny-dip together. They left their clothes on the beach, swimming out and frolicking in the night with the waves lapping and rolling around them.
‘I’ve really enjoyed today, gorgeous. Thanks for making me feel so special,’ he said, kissing her. Cassie melted in his arms. Being naked and kissed in water, she felt so sexy and wished they had more time. She doubted she would forget today for a very long time. All the new experiences and the laughs they had still made her smile or squirm with the remembered joy.
As they returned and rounded the cape, they spotted the rest of the team sitting on the beach on their own. She felt for the surprise that she kept for them in her pocket.
‘What happened?’ Kayden asked once they reached them.
‘Did the girls get sick of you dorks all at once?’ Cassie joked.
‘No, they’re fine. We’ve just had enough and told them we needed time with our sister,’ Jason said, sounding a little flat.
‘Yeah, there’s only so much girl stuff we can put up with,’ Conor said. ‘They were getting on my nerves.’
‘You can say that again,’ Ethan grumbled. ‘Just one more stupid question and I would have exploded.’
Cassie started to laugh although she stopped when they all looked deadly serious. ‘Sorry, but you guys are unreal. Five women, all available and you’re sick of them already. Jeez, the poor girls have literally thrown themselves at you all day. I don’t get it.’
‘You just hit the nail on the head, Cass, thrown themselves at us. Where’s the chase or the thrill?’ Conor grouched.
Cassie could see they all needed cheering up although she had no idea why. Spoilt ratbags. They should be kissing my feet. They should be so grateful. She grinned to herself. They were so going to cop it, the unappreciative sods. She went behind Woody and Jason, who sat together and knelt down, putting her arms around them. They let out a sigh and relaxed with her touch. Even though she knew it was a Cloud Rider’s bond she was amazed how much power she had over them and it excited her just as much as it did them.
As they depended on each other, they now also depended on her. Only, being a female, it was shaking them up a bit. Maybe it was a protective thing that a man naturally feels towards a woman. Whatever it was, she felt it in them, mixed with the need to be with her too. She grinned mischievously to herself. She had a game and now seemed the perfect time to play it. She knew it would rattle them further but the ungrateful sods deserved it. Afterwards, she was sure they’d be glad to hand her back to Kayden to get some peace for a while.
‘Well I guess we better cheer you all up then. I have a new game that starts off boring, but you’ll love the ending. Do you want to play it?’
‘Go for it, Cass,’ Woody said and she felt his mood lift already in anticipation of what she was going to get up to.
She made them all sit together. They only had their swimmers on and no tops so this was going to be easy-peasy to play, she decided.
‘Now, we’re going to start off with a guessing game and it may sound dumb at first so have patience.’ She started with Woody first and wrote on his back with her finger. He had to guess what the word was.
‘Jam boy,’ he said. ‘What does that mean?’
She pushed him from behind, smiling. ‘You have strawberry hair and are so very sweet.’
Woody smiled and sighed. ‘Jason, check my back. Did she scribble on it?’
He looked. ‘Nope, you’re good.’
‘I know she’s up to no good,’ he said. ‘But I’ll play her dumb frigging game.’
She went to Conor, slipped out the texta from her pocket, wrote ‘Bad Boy’ and he guessed it. On Jason, she wrote ‘Evil Boy’ and on Ethan, ‘Wicked Boy’. Then back to Woody, she wrote ‘Devil Boy’ and stood back, admiring her work. She ran off down the beach laughing.
They all looked at each other’s backs and when they finished laughing at each other’s names, they took off after her. ‘You are so dead, cloud girl!’ they called after her, hitting each other for being so dumb and letting her do it, while laughing and running after her. Kayden watched her pull the texta out and tried to warn her and then just shook his head and grinned, knowing she was really going to cop it this time.
Woody reached her first and had her under his arm, dragging her back. ‘Take it off and we might go lenient on you.’
‘I can’t, I haven’t bought the remover with me. Wait until the girlies see you tomorrow. I doubt if they will be falling all over devil boy now.’ She kept giggling.
‘You little ratbag, I can’t think of anything bad enough to punish you with just yet but give me a minute,’ he was saying as he brought her back to the others. ‘What have you guys decided?’ he asked. ‘She reckons she can’t take it off. She didn’t bring anything to get the stuff off.’
‘Cassie,’ Jason said. ‘That was a dirty trick. At least we did it where you couldn’t see it.’
‘Well, you said the girls were annoying you. I’ve just put repellent on you. I was trying to help, evil boy.’ She kept cracking up laughing. ‘The chicky-babes are going to love this: a story about dumb-shits who let their sister scribble all over them. It will be laughed about for years.’ She kept making fun of them.
‘I say we drown her first, then feed her to the beach bugs and bury her under the sand,’ Woody was saying with revenge in his tone.
‘I say we draw all over her so she looks just as bad,’ Jason said.
Cassie realised she was really in for it and tried to wiggle and get loose from Woody’s grip.
‘I vote we stop her from going anywhere near Kayden so she can’t have any fun with the opposite sex either,’ Ethan said wickedly.
‘And I think she should be made to give us all a back massage after we get this scribble off,’ Conor said, smiling like his was the best punishment.
‘It’s decided then,’ Woody said and lay her wiggling on the ground. ‘The punishment is what we all said.’ He grinned roguishly. ‘Well, maybe not drown her but all else stays.’
Woody, Jason and Conor held her down so Ethan could grab the texta out of her pocket and begin drawing on her.
‘Cassie,’ Ethan said playfully. ‘The more you wiggle, the worse the writing will look. Keep still.’ He was laughing as the other three stopped her from moving.
When they’d finished her front, they rolled her over and did her back. She grabbed a handful of sand and when they stood her up, she dropped it down Woody’s pants.
‘Little shytzer,’ he said laughing. ‘She just threw sand down my bloody pants. You’re in so much trouble now, girl.’
He picked her up and they all went into the water after them. She had only used a water marker and it came off as they mucked around in the water. Kayden tried to rescue her at one stage but they all attacked him and he gave up and let the games continue.
Woody was the first to realise that the texta was coming off and smiled, shaking his head. ‘You are so not getting away with it because it’s coming off. You’re still going to pay for making us freak out,’ he grumbled and threw her up in the air, over to Jason.