by Anise Storm
“What the fuck are you talking about, Zane?” he spat out.
“You didn’t want to be bothered with her earlier, so you fucking sent her off by herself. Don’t even pretend you didn’t.”
“I did plan to take her out, but there was a damn emergency at Taste,” Xavier tried to explain, but Zane wanted to hear no part of his explanation. “What was I supposed to do? Let the entire resort flood so I could go sit on the beach with her?”
Zane knew he had a point, but right now logic had no place in his tormented thoughts. He’d been so leery to be around a woman in a solo capacity since that boating accident last summer that he might’ve lost the best thing to happen to him because of his own fucking demons. “We need to find out which shuttle she took and where to. I have a picture of her on my phone, so we’ll ask them all. Let’s go.”
Xavier nodded, and the two men grabbed their cellular phones and headed to the front lobby. Thank fuck his friend had dedicated shuttle drivers that worked exclusively for the Paradise Resort. If they could get a lead as to which dive shop she was dropped off at, then they’d be one step closer to finding her.
Once in the lobby, there were four drivers taking shelter from the storm, and the two men pulled up a picture of Calista and showed it to each of them. The fourth driver, Bob, recognized her right away.
“I dropped her off at Wave Chaser Ltd.” The man was positive that shop was the one, so Zane and Xavier headed for the parking lot where the Alfa Romeo was parked.
Zane didn’t know his way around Virgin Gorda as well as Xavier did, so he allowed his friend to drive, all the while hoping she’d be all right. Surely there were safety precautions in place for storms like this. He hadn’t even told her how he felt about her, and now he might never get the chance.
“I intended to claim her as my own, X,” Zane stated as they headed toward the dive shop. “I never planned to let Calista go when her vacation was over.”
“Neither had I.” Xavier’s words had Zane growing silent. He’d been right all along. And that settled things right then and there. Once they got Calista back, they would never let her out of their sight again.
Still, Zane wanted to know when his friend had come to that conclusion. “That’s why you didn’t want to be alone with her, isn’t it?”
“Fuckin’ hell,” came the cursed response. “For twenty-five fucking years I’ve never allowed anyone inside my heart. You remember what I told you about my father. I’d never let anyone break me down the way Raquel did him.”
“I’ve met your father, X,” Zane offered, “and you’re nothing like him.”
“And the most ironic thing is that in the beginning I only seduced her for you.” Silence fell in the car and Zane had suspected as much, so it wasn’t a newsflash of any kind. “And in the process, she did the same for me. Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, what?” Zane replied.
“When did you know?”
Zane knew that one day he’d have to answer that question and he looked out the window at the tropical countryside streaking past them. “To be honest, the night I saw her on the balcony. Something told me to look in that direction and ever since, I haven’t been able to keep my eyes off her.”
He was a Dominant, for fuck’s sake, and they didn’t just walk around falling in love with strangers. But he had. Having always balked at the notion of ‘love at first sight,’ he now knew it really was possible. And as quickly as she captivated him, she could destroy him just as easily.
Shifting in his seat, relief flowed through him when he saw the sign for the dive shop just ahead of them. Xavier swerved into the parking lot and as soon as the car was put into park, Zane jumped out and headed straight inside the building.
“Can I help you with something?” the woman behind the counter asked.
Trying to keep a top on his temper, Zane forced himself to remain calm. “Are there any boats out there in the water still?”
“Actually, there are two of them,” she answered and before he could say anything else, she continued. “There was an engine failure with one, so another of our fleet went out to Dog Island to retrieve the divers.”
“Engine failure,” Xavier said from the doorway. Thank fuck he was here. Zane could never deny that his friend had a much more level head where things like this were concerned. Deferring to the other man, he walked over to the large window, trying to see anything out there in the water. “How long ago was that?”
Zane turned, interested in hearing the answer for himself. He’d made a vow to never go back out on another boat again after what had happened with Elena but was seconds away from breaking that promise. He’d hijack one of their boats in a heartbeat and scour the entire sea if he had to in order to find his girl. He’d just found Calista and had no intentions of ever letting her go.
“They’re about twenty minutes out and the rescue boat left around a half hour ago. I’d say they should be pulling up to the dock in the next ten to fifteen minutes. Why don’t the two of you have a seat,’” the woman replied.
Zane was about to do that when he noticed a wall of photographs. One in particular stuck out to him. Crossing the width of the room in seconds, he snatched up the three pictures lying side by side of Calista in the water. God, she was fucking beautiful. He traced her face with his thumb, never taking his eyes off hers. They were shining with wonderment and joy. It finally dawned on him that her innocence was the light he needed to brighten his darkened world.
By this time, Xavier had seen what he was looking at and joined him. Zane watched the myriad of emotions cross the man’s face. His friend was as fucked up in the head as he was. Smirking, he dropped his voice low enough so only he’d hear him. “She’ll probably tell us both to fuck off and we’d deserve it.”
“You’re probably right, but it doesn’t mean we have to, Z,” Xavier said and then stopped when they heard voices.
As soon as the double doors opened, Zane almost fell to his knees to thank the heavens above. He watched others as they walked in before finally laying eyes on Calista. “Angel,” he breathed and watched her lips turn up into a smile.
He met her halfway before wrapping his arms around her.
“How did you know where to find me?” she asked.
“The driver told us where he’d taken you, belleza. Are you ready to go?”
“I am, but can I go ahead and buy my pictures?” Cali looked at the wall, and Zane motioned for Xavier to grab them.
“Xavier will purchase them while we wait in the car.” Zane looked down at her drenched clothing. “You’re going to catch a cold.”
He led her outside and once she was seated in the backseat of the car, he turned the heat on so she could start to warm up. A few minutes later, Xavier exited the dive shop with a gift bag in hand. As he slid into the driver’s side, he handed them to her, then started the car. Calista began to tell them about the dive and what had happened afterward while both men remained silent. When he looked over at his friend, he could tell that he was thinking about the same thing as him.
Chapter 32
THEY’D BROUGHT HER BACK to the villa and while she soaked in a warm bubble bath, Xavier and Zane had arranged for room service to be brought to them. She’d never left their room that night, and once out of the tub, had never left their bed. Cali didn’t think it was possible for them to be even more attentive than they usually were toward her, but soon learned that it was. Something had changed between the three of them and she chalked it up to them realizing their time had almost come to an end.
She shivered as she thought about Rapture being stuck out in the water during a storm. There’d been a real possibility that her time not only in Virgin Gorda, but in her life, could’ve come to an end as well. Thankfully everything had turned out to be fine. She’d simply put that ordeal behind her while focusing on the best part of the excursion, which was the scuba diving itself. She couldn’t wait to get home and tell Emily and Natalie all about it.
; In addition to that excursion, the men took her out on a few more the following day. She’d gotten to see various wildlife on the island, up close and personal, in their own habitat. They’d followed it up with an afternoon of shopping and now she was lying in their bed, fully sated from an explosive round of lovemaking. Sex. Crinkling up her nose, that inner voice of hers corrected her once more. No matter how much she wished things could be different, Cali was a realist. There was nothing but the physical between the three of them, and in a few more days, there’d be nothing left.
“Why do you keep doing this to yourself?” she whispered. Realizing she’d spoken out loud, Cali covered her mouth with her hand.
The men were outside on the patio, so hopefully neither had heard her. Cali glanced over at the bedside clock and realized the two Dominants had been out there for quite some time. As her curiosity got the best of her, she scrambled out of bed and wrapped the sheet around her. She walked toward the door, not intending to eavesdrop, but simply to see for herself that everything was okay.
As she got closer to the door, their voices became clearer and she stopped for a few seconds to listen. She knew it was wrong but stood there anyway, straining to hear anything she could.
“You need to tell her about Elena, Zane,” Xavier said in a vehement voice. “Calista deserves to know.”
“You’re right,” came the hushed response. “And you need to tell her about Raquel too.”
“Agreed,” Xavier had answered. “We should’ve told her about them last night.”
Having heard all that she needed to hear, Cali backed slowly away from the cracked door. Elena? Raquel? They had to be their girlfriends.
“Oh my God!” Cali forced herself to choke back a sob. “Assholes!” She kept turning the events of the past two weeks over and over in her mind. While she’d been busy falling in love, they’d been using her. She felt ill. In fact, she barely made it to the bathroom before leaning over the toilet, violently throwing up the contents of her dinner from earlier that night. She’d been such a fool.
The commotion she made was loud enough to grab their attention because Xavier and Zane appeared at the doorway.
“Are you okay, angel?”
“Belleza?
The concern in their voices sounded so sincere. Damn, they were good. Cali turned and grabbed a hand towel so she could wipe her mouth. She could barely even stand to look at them now but forced herself to do so. This would be the last damn time she’d ever intended to lay eyes on them again.
The two men were staring at her, and she knew they were waiting for an answer.
“I feel really sick. Dinner didn’t agree with me at all.”
Zane was the first to step toward her. “Maybe we should call someone to look at you, angel.”
“No,” she said abruptly, realizing right away how panicked her voice sounded. Taking a deep breath, she smiled weakly at him. “I don’t think it’s anything serious, but I should go back to my room and sleep off whatever it is.”
Xavier exchanged a silent look with his friend and then moved close enough to her to tip up her chin. “We need to talk to you about something, belleza, but as you’re obviously not well, we’ll talk at breakfast in the morning. You still have another full day here on the island, yes?”
Cali nodded mutely, fully intending to move that flight time up immediately. Whatever lies they had to feed her could go untold. She’d heard enough.
“We’ll talk in the morning, Sirs,” she said softly. “I’m so sorry I’ve ruined this night. I have no idea what I could’ve eaten that made me so sick. I should be better after a good night’s rest.”
“I hate leaving you, especially knowing you’re not well, angel. While I still think you should stay here with us tonight, I won’t force you to do so. We’ll eat breakfast at ten, little sub. Make sure you’re there on time. We have a lot to discuss and hopefully you’ll reconsider things after we talk.”
Cali doubted that. She didn’t need to hear how she was just another notch in their bedpost while she’d given them her heart along with her submission. They’d fooled her twice, and she intended to make damn sure that she didn’t give them a chance to make it a third time.
“I’ll be there,” she said, not even giving a damn as the lie slipped so easily off her tongue this time.
“Very good, belleza. We’ll walk you back to your room.”
She nodded then quickly got dressed. As promised, they walked her to her room and once inside, she slid down the length of the door, finally allowing her tears to win out. She sobbed brokenly for everything that had happened since she’d arrived here. Yes, they’d given her almost every fantasy she had dreamed up except the one that really mattered. Once again, happily ever after wasn’t in the cards for her.
She’d allowed herself to cry over her own foolishness, knowing she was the one to blame for her own unhappiness. Eventually, she scrambled onto her feet and grabbed her laptop. She needed to get off this island, immediately. It only took her a few minutes to change the departure dates on her return flights to Boston and to call a cab to pick her up from the resort. She had limited amount of time to pack, so she threw everything into her suitcases and zipped them up.
She had one final thing to do, which was to find a hotel room close to the ferry that would take her to Tortola in the morning. Thankfully, with the holidays over, there were plenty of vacancies and she could find something that was within walking distance of the ferry. She wasn’t looking forward to the layover on the other British Virgin Island but knew once she hit St. Thomas, her next stop would be home.
“That’s if they don’t catch you trying to leave,” she said to herself. At first she dismissed that possibility and then decided to go to the lobby just to be on the safe side. Gathering her luggage, she took one last look at paradise, then slipped quietly out of her room.
She’d just made it to the front of the resort when the cab pulled up out front of the building. She wheeled her suitcases to the vehicle and then slid into the backseat. Soon, they were on the road, and she felt a sense of relief that she’d gotten away. Knowing she’d one-upped the Dominants didn’t ease the pain deep in her chest, though, because despite their intentions toward her, she’d fallen head over heels in love with both men. They’d seduced her, used her, and the fact that she still felt like crying over them made her the biggest fool on the planet.
Get it together, Calista. She’d been nothing more than a sex toy. Even knowing that didn’t stop the memories of her letting them have their way with her, doing any and every perverse act they’d wanted. Zane and Xavier had played the roles of caring Dominants, and she was their dutiful submissive; one that was too blind to realize they were simply using her to pass time until they could get back home to their girlfriends.
“Such an idiot,” she remarked, this time aloud. The man driving looked back at her and arched his brow.
Cali turned her head, embarrassed. She was so over men at this point, even though it didn’t make her feel like any less of a naïve dimwit who was easily seduced. She’d attempted to find solace in the knowledge that she wasn’t the first and wouldn’t be the last to do so. She was just glad that she hadn’t poured her heart out and revealed her true feelings like she’d been so tempted to do since New Year’s Eve.
Cali turned over every encounter and conversation in her head until the cab pulled up in front of the hotel. After paying him for his services and retrieving her luggage, she walked into the hotel, glad this was the last time she’d ever need to be on this island. By the time she reached her room, she’d realized that agonizing over what had been wasn’t productive. She was headed home to be around people who genuinely cared about her and just needed to keep reminding herself of that.
Chapter 33
CALI WAS ABSOLUTELY EXHAUSTED by the time she’d made it back to her apartment. In no mood to unpack her things, she’d dropped the suitcases as soon as she’d stepped past the front door and headed straight toward the small
wine fridge in her kitchen. She grabbed a bottle of her favorite red, knowing that she not only felt like shit, but looked like it too. At this point, she’d decided that adding intoxicated to jet-lagged and heartbroken wouldn’t make that big of a difference. Opting to bypass a glass, she took the bottle and a corkscrew straight to the sofa, uncorked the wine, and swallowed the liquid until she hiccupped.
“Why’d you do this to me?” she voiced the question aloud, knowing she’d never get an answer. She unwittingly began to wonder what Xavier and Zane were doing. How did they feel? Were they angry? Did they even care she was gone? Each time their faces crossed her mind, Cali forced herself to take another swig of wine.
“Bastards! I fucking hate you both!” The lie continued to get easier the more times she repeated it and before long, half the bottle was gone, but she continued to curse and drink. A true lightweight when it came to alcohol consumption, it didn’t take her that long to eventually pass out.
A few hours later, Cali awoke to half of her body hanging precariously off the couch. Her head ached, but it was nothing compared to the throbbing pain in her heart. Get over it.
Life would go on for her as it had for countless others who found themselves in this same position. After berating herself one last time, she finally collected her suitcases from the door, rolling them down the hallway and separating the clothing into piles in front of the laundry closet. There was no time like the present to get back to some semblance of normalcy. As the washer filled, she headed back to her room with the remaining luggage, intending to unpack it while that first load completed. Most of the shoes she’d packed were flip-flops, which she threw into the netted bag hanging off a hook in her closet. Her sandals, heels, and tennis shoes made it back in their respective boxes, stacked neatly in her closet. In no time, she had one bag emptied and went to take care of her toiletries.