by Cara Adams
She shook her head. “Answering their calls while they’re in the bathroom, mostly.”
Asher and Declan both laughed. Colter frowned.
“Seriously, I do answer calls when all the lines are busy. I also take the difficult calls that are beyond the scope of the staff to answer. And I spend far too much time in meetings trying to explain to management that if there are twenty staff and one hundred calls there will inevitably be someone on hold, and I have no way of telling if that person is important or not.”
“That’s easy. You need to add to the on-hold instructions. ‘Press nine if your call is very important. Press eight if it is moderately important. Press seven if you are very important. Press…’”
Mackenzie laughed at Declan. He seemed to have a sense of humor that she could relate to.
The meal the men had prepared was absolutely delicious, every bit as delicious as the men themselves. By the time the meal was over Kenz knew she liked them all as people, not just as the guides who’d be looking after her this week.
“When you’re not teaching guests to paddle a kayak, what do you do?” she asked them, suddenly wondering what their everyday lives were like.
* * * *
Colter Lang stared at Mackenzie. He hadn’t expected her to ask that question. He couldn’t decide what she was really like. She seemed fun and smart, yet she made it quite clear she wasn’t interested in hiking, or rock climbing, or anything physical. He wasn’t sure how they could teach her about BDSM and entertain her for a week just sitting on their asses. And now she was asking questions that were going to be difficult to answer without giving away the island’s secrets.
He and his brothers, like most residents of the island, were panther shape-shifters. Their ancestors had purchased the island so the pack could run free and be themselves without the human world knowing about them. Here they could shape-shift whenever they wanted to without needing to worry about being seen.
Sure, there were various precautions in place to preserve their privacy, but their chief protection was their distance from the mainland and the fact that the very few tourists here were never allowed anywhere unaccompanied.
That was part of the entire Caves of Correction methodology. There were only ever two or three people here at a time, and each one was isolated in a cottage on the island under the care of a family of shape-shifters. This week was the first time they’d had four women at once, and that was only because the four came as a package deal. They’d wanted to be together.
Colter and his brothers hoped like hell that this woman would prove to be their mate. Panthers mated for life, and sharing a mate was essential, given how few female shape-shifters were born. Of course, Mackenzie was a human, but interspecies matings were permitted.
That made it more difficult for him, though, because he couldn’t tell her they were shape-shifters. That secret would only be revealed when he and his brothers were completely certain she was the one woman they would mate.
But answering her question was even trickier than that because all the publicity for the BDSM resort emphasized that telecommunications were poor because of their distance from the mainland. That was not true. They were poor over the island because they were deliberately blocked to protect the panthers.
The only place where telecommunications were freely available was in the big house, where the Alpha lived and the offices were. Here, the panthers came to work, and most of their work was online, maintaining and upgrading websites, teaching and marking online courses, and doing similar tasks. And right now, if he said that, it made a lie out of the fact she couldn’t have cell phone reception in case she uploaded a picture or updated her Facebook status that might give away one of their secrets.
“Most of the people on the island are involved in the Caves of Correction resort in one way or another. The cottage you’re staying in has just been renovated. We’ve been working on that recently,” he said. That was true and answered her question, although it wasn’t a complete answer.
“Awesome. Thank you. It’s a lovely cottage and so comfortable.”
Before she could think of any more difficult questions to ask them, he stood up. “It’s time to continue circumnavigating the island. There’s still a lot of it you haven’t seen yet.”
Actually, he had no intention of showing her some of it, such as the main beach by the big house. That was a private panther-only zone. But he was sure he could distract her from that fact as he took her back to the place where they’d collected her, which was the closest piece of coastline to her cottage.
Because the cottages had originally all been built over the caves, of which there were many on the island, they tended to be dotted here and there, instead of gathered together in one place. Her cottage, which had only just been finished in time for her arrival, hadn’t been lived in for many years. It had been the home of a couple of very elderly panthers who hadn’t been able to keep maintaining it properly. But they hadn’t wanted to move to the mainland, so some of the middle-aged women had more or less adopted them, bringing them home-cooked meals and keeping the cottage clean until they’d passed on.
The outside was okay, but it’d needed all new kitchen and bathroom fittings and a complete repainting, as well as new furnishings.
Turning it into a client cottage had saved them the cost of redoing the kitchen because one wasn’t needed. They’d simply torn the old one out and incorporated that space into a much larger bathroom, with room for a tub as well as a stand-alone shower. However, the refit had taken quite a while, and he and his brothers, knowing they would be guides to one of the women coming to the island, had worked damn hard to ensure it was ready on time.
Colter watched Mackenzie. He was pleased that her paddling was smooth and that she kept in time with his strokes, although she wasn’t nearly as strong as him, but she’d picked up the basic idea quickly, especially for someone one who objected to physical activity.
He wondered if she really disliked it, or if it was more that she preferred doing other things instead. It certainly wasn’t that she was clumsy and uncoordinated. She was quite graceful with her smooth, steady movements.
Colter and his brothers had planned their little tour very carefully, not taking her too close to the main beach and using a little diversion up and down a few inlets to cut through a segment of the island to backtrack on themselves, he hoped more or less invisibly, and dogleg around an area ending up back at the place they’d begun having avoided one corner of the island.
She made no comment, but she’d put her paddle back in the kayak and was watching the scenery. He hoped she wasn’t too tired. They still had to walk back to her cottage yet. It wasn’t far, but it was uphill.
They guided her up the cliff and to her cottage. As before, they didn’t go by the most direct route, circling around slightly to change direction.
Colter unlocked the door for her. “Your supper will be delivered at seven tonight, and your breakfast at seven tomorrow morning. We’ll be back tomorrow at eight to take you out again.
“First, thank you very much for a wonderful day. I really enjoyed seeing the island, and the beach, and the cookout, and everything. But second, I thought you said you’d teach me about BDSM tonight?”
Fuck! She was smarter than he’d thought. She’d remembered his throwaway line. “It is not for the sub to question any of the Masters. That will happen in good time, when the Masters are ready and not beforehand.”
“So you aren’t going to tell me that schedule? Okay, supper at seven, breakfast at seven, be ready at eight. Do I need swimwear again tomorrow or not?”
“Jeans and walking shoes,” he said, watching her face. Just as he’d expected she crinkled her cute little nose.
“If you expect me to walk miles and miles, Declan had better bring his wheelbarrow,” she said, stepping past him and into her cottage.
He checked the door was locked behind her, and he and his brothers headed back to the beach. “We need to finish pl
anning her first scene. She’s definitely ready for it.”
“So where will we take her first? To the lake?” Asher asked.
That had been their original plan. Colter thought it would still work. “Yes, I’ll write it on the whiteboard in the office, unless someone else has already booked it for tomorrow.
They paddled around to the main beach, and Declan and Asher put away the kayaks, which were community property, while Colter went into the office and checked the whiteboard. The panthers had a map of the island drawn on a whiteboard, and everyone was free to put their name on any area they wanted to use privately. There was a small beach commonly known as “the client beach” that the locals left for the use of the guests. Most of the panthers preferred the main beach anyway, which was much larger and where the community tended to congregate out front of the big house.
The lake had been booked for lunchtime today, but no one had requested it yet for tomorrow, so Colter signed up for it. The only problem was it was quite a longish walk, he supposed, for someone not used to walking on narrow trails and up hills. They ought not go anywhere else as well or she might be too tired, and they really might need the wheelbarrow.
Well, he could work with that. She seemed to like talking, and there was plenty he’d like to know about her, so they’d talk and rest until she was able to make the trek back. And tomorrow night they would take her into the dungeon and start to teach her about punishment.
He hadn’t wanted to do that too soon. He wanted her thinking about the possibilities, though, which was why he’d mentioned it. However, they only had a week, so tomorrow they really did need to start teaching her some of the delights of punishment.
He wondered how she’d feel about having her glasses taken away from her. Would it terrify her or heighten her anticipation of what was to come? Maybe tomorrow they should take them away from her in fun and see how she reacted. Just because the actual BDSM wasn’t starting yet didn’t mean he couldn’t do some research on her.
* * * *
When their mother’s arthritis gradually worsened, restricting her movements, Declan had taken over cooking the meals. He liked to eat, and cooking was a natural extension of that.
Their cottage was one of the larger ones from the outside. That is, it might not have had as much space inside as some other houses, but it had more than one room aboveground. There was a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a study on the first floor. Underground, the first level down contained four bedrooms and another bathroom. The bedrooms were odd shapes and sizes because most of them had been caves originally as well. The basement was a single large cave, which was their dungeon, their hurricane shelter, and a storeroom all in one.
The number of rooms on the first floor had meant his mom could turn the study into her bedroom, and stay at home longer than might have been the case otherwise, because one of the first joints to prove troublesome was her right knee, making going downstairs painful for her.
Eventually she and their dad had to move into the big house, where they had a couple of rooms on the first floor, and she got around, although slowly, using a walker with wheels and a seat. Their dad still worked on the fishing boat as he’d always done. But living in the big house meant his mom no longer had to do chores, which caused her pain, and she wasn’t lonely when their dad was busy because there was always someone for her to sit with or talk to.
A side benefit was that he and his brothers had the house to themselves and turned their thoughts to finding a mate. Asher was twenty-eight, Declan himself was thirty, and Colter was thirty-one, so it was time for them to settle down.
Declan wondered if Mackenzie would be their woman. It was a bit of a problem that she didn’t like hiking, or rock climbing, or swimming, or kayaking. The weather on the island was comparatively mild, and they lived an outdoor lifestyle for most of the year.
She seemed to be easy to get along with though, and that was important. He couldn’t imagine tying himself to a grumpy witch of a woman, or a bully, or a nag, and the long day out with her teaching her new things had proven that she was definitely none of those things.
Maybe tomorrow they could talk to her some more and find out what other things she enjoyed doing. Getting to know a woman was devilishly hard. They couldn’t say they were panthers, which meant there was no way of knowing if their species would be a deal breaker.
The contracts the women filled in to come to the Caves of Correction did give them some hints, though. Guests had to check boxes with their dislikes and fears, and she hadn’t listed animals as a fear. Even snakes and spiders, she’d said she didn’t like them but that she wasn’t afraid of them, so hopefully panthers wouldn’t upset her.
Declan concentrated on the meal he was preparing, but his mind was filled with images of Kenz. Her brown hair was shiny, soft, and shoulder-length, and her eyes were a light brown, not really hazel but nowhere near as dark as his.
Her body was rounded but not fat, so even if she didn’t like exercise she wasn’t tubby and flabby from it. Maybe she did yoga or something. Dancing, that was a girl thing. Perhaps she liked to dance.
Declan spent a moment imagining the lights in the living room turned down low, the furniture stacked against the walls, and Kenz in his arms as they twirled around the floor. She’d be wearing some soft, slinky outfit that left most of her back bare and exposed the tops of her breasts. He’d be in a white button-down shirt and his dress pants.
He sighed as he stirred the Bolognese sauce. Oh yes. That was a good picture. That would so be good to see.
“That smells good,” Asher said, coming across to the counter and collecting bread, butter, forks, and plates.
“Fast and easy to cook and we all like it. What we need to find out is Kenz’s favorite foods.”
“Weren’t they on the contract?”
“No, just allergies. And before you ask, no she doesn’t have any.” Colter picked up the bubbling coffeepot and took it over to the table. Asher put out mugs and Declan strained the pasta, tipped the sauce into a large bowl, and carried them both across to the table.
“How do you two both know when dinner is ready and arrive just in time?” he teased.
Neither of them answered him. It was an age-old joke. They were brothers and lived together in a small community. They knew pretty much everything there was to know about each other.
Actually, Declan was glad they understood each other. They teased each other and their personalities rubbed against each other’s at times, but underneath the complaints they all knew their brothers would never deliberately hurt them, and, if there was trouble, they’d all always have each other’s backs.
“Right. Now let’s plan tomorrow,” Colter said.
Yes, that was his big brother taking over again. Declan sighed and piled more sauce over his pasta. If he had to listen to Colter, he’d do it on a full stomach.
* * * *
Asher was worried Kenz would refuse to walk up the hill to the lake. They’d deliberately taken a slightly roundabout way to get there, but not as complicated as Colter had wished for. Both Asher and Declan were too worried she’d refuse to walk any farther. In fact, Declan had suggested bringing the wheelbarrow, but Colter had vetoed that idea. Asher wasn’t sure. Their teasing might have made her refuse to give in. On the other hand, she might have decided to ride instead of even trying to walk.
Fortunately she made it up the hill quite easily, although she sat on the grass facing the lake as soon as they arrived.
“I like it here. It’s serene and pretty,” she said, smiling at them.
“I’m sure you’d like life on the island. It’s a lot more peaceful and laid-back than on the mainland,” Asher said, smiling right back at her. She was so pretty. Even after walking up the hill, she looked beautiful. Her face was a little pink from the heat of the walk, but he didn’t think she was sunburned at all. He couldn’t help but wonder if her face would be pink as they fucked her. Would all her skin color when she orgasmed?
Asher was happy to answer that question. “The little kids are homeschooled all together. Their parents share the teaching. Then the older kids stay on the mainland for high school. The boat takes them over on Monday mornings and brings them back when school lets out on Fridays.”
“That’s good. I guess it means you’d always have friends.”
“Didn’t you have friends at school?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I think I said yesterday my father’s mom was just a teenager when he was born, so he was really keen for me to go to a good school and get a decent education. I sat the exam for entry to a selective entry school and got in, but I hated all the posturing about how intelligent everyone was. At my old school everyone worried about wearing the right clothes. At my new school everyone had to wear the right clothes and get As on their tests. I graduated to please him, but I hated it.”
Asher wanted to dig a little deeper, to learn more about her. “But was it the kids or the school you hated? The clothes assessment or the academic assessment?”
She frowned but kept facing the lake. “Neither. It was the people. The parents were so impressed with how smart their kids were, that the kids thought they were amazing as well. But the work wasn’t all that hard. I mean it wasn’t as easy as some middle school classes, where basically as long as I turned up I passed the class, but anyone who tried would pass. It wasn’t necessary to be Einstein.”
Declan said something, but Asher was still thinking about Kenz’s answer. He wondered if she was actually a whole lot smarter than she gave herself credit for. A few of the island kids had sat for selective entry schools as well, and he knew they were intelligent kids. It wasn’t all that easy to get in, although Eliot Wade had won a place. He was likely the smartest kid on the island back then. Asher was the same age as him, but Eliot was two school grades ahead of him by the time he’d gone off to high school. Later Eliot had completed an agriculture degree in three years instead of four online.