by Anise Storm
“It can’t be good if you are having so much to drink, Calista. What happened, sweetie?”
Cali turned toward Natalie and couldn’t hide the tears welling up in her eyes even if she tried. She opened her mouth and was about to speak, but all that came out was a broken sob.
“I…I met two men there and had sex with them.”
“What? With both?”
Her best friend clapped her hands together at Cali’s declaration. She could tell by the excitement in Emily’s voice that she wouldn’t be satisfied until every sordid detail was revealed.
“I met one of them at the bar, but I didn’t know he was a...” Cali leaned toward them and whispered, “Dominant.”
Natalie and Emily gave each other a high five, and Cali knew they would be excited about that prospect. Her blond friend folded her legs underneath her while the pretty brunette was practically levitating at the news.
“So, tell us more,” Natalie urged.
“More? I had sex with them a few times and that was it. What else is there to tell?”
“Calista Grant! You know good and well there was more to it than that. So what did they do? Did they tie you up? Spank you?” Emily had become very animated, which was almost comical.
“Did you take them both at once, Cali?” Natalie seemed just as excited, and Cali groaned at them.
“Sheesh! The two of you should go work for the Boston Globe. If you both calm the fuck down, then I’ll tell you everything.”
The two women got comfortable, obviously expecting some very juicy details. As painful as reliving some of the most pleasurable moments of the trip would be, Cali hoped it might be cathartic as well. She would tell them about the men, what had happened, and why she missed them terribly. Her friends wouldn’t judge her and might possibly have advice on how to move on without them.
“It started on the first night when I was out on my patio. I sensed someone there and looked up to see this man just looking at me. He was the most gorgeous guy I’d ever seen, and the way he looked at me, it was almost as if he were staring right through me. While it made me nervous, it also excited me. Nothing else happened, though. I eventually got up and went into my room. I thought about him all that night. And the next evening, I decided I didn’t want to spend all my time alone. I went to one of the bars, refuted the advance from one idiot, and was about to give up all hope of finding anyone to interest me.”
“So what happened next?” Natalie asked. The two girls were nearly on the edge of the seats.
“He walked in,” Cali replied.
“The man from the balcony?” one of the girls asked.
“No!” Cali said. “Someone I’d later discover was his best friend.”
“Ooh, the plot thickens,” Emily squealed. “Go on, Cali.”
“His name was Xavier and he was just as sexy as his friend. Tall, dark, and handsome with the most mesmerizing set of hazel eyes I’d ever seen. He was very seductive, and I had no hope of resisting him. When he’d asked me to follow him to his room, I thought it would just be with him. And it was, for a few minutes, at least. Suddenly, another set of hands touched me. It was the blond guy from the balcony. I was shocked and on the verge of leaving right then and there. Xavier had such a way with words, but Zane, his friend, did too. I never stood a chance when they both set out to seduce me. Before I even knew what I’d agreed to, I was naked beneath them. I’ve had sex before but never like that. I didn’t even know it was possible to have multiple orgasms.”
Both women giggled. Cali shot them a look but continued.
“I spent the night with them and when I woke up in the morning, they had me tied to the bed. They told me they were Dominants and thought I was a submissive. One thing led to another, and before long, I agreed to let them fulfill my deepest and darkest fantasies. We spent my entire vacation together, all the while they started to use different toys on me. They’d told me it was in preparation.”
“Preparation? For what?”
“To be able to take them both at the same time.” Cali turned away from their inquiring gazes and blushed. This fell into the ‘too much information’ category, but she knew Natalie and Emily would never be happy with the watered-down version.
“Xavier had a private plane, and he and Zane took me to Puerto Rico for my birthday and New Year’s Eve. I felt like Cinderella in the fancy gown and expensive jewels. On the way back to Virgin Gorda, they both took me at the same time.” Now, she was truly mortified. Hopefully this would be enough to satisfy their curiosities.
“On the plane?” Natalie asked. When Cali nodded, she giggled. “Way to go. I haven’t even done that yet.”
“And…?” Emily said, rolling her hands in a gesture for Cali to continue.
She should’ve known they’d want more details. “The next night, they’d set the room up with all of these different things.”
“What kind of things?” Emily asked while refilling their wine glasses.
“The type of furniture one would expect to find in a sex dungeon. They’d blindfolded then cuffed me to the table. Before all was said and done, they’d spanked me with floggers, tied me up with rope, and even poured hot wax on me. I don’t even know how to explain what all of that felt like. It was indescribable. Even now I tingle just thinking about that night.”
Both women flashed her sympathetic looks while waiting on her to continue.
“Things were going great until the second to last night when I’d woken up and seen them outside. I knew I shouldn’t have eavesdropped, but in hindsight, I’m glad I did.”
“Why?” Natalie asked. “What happened?”
“Xavier and Zane were talking about these two other women. The bastards had girlfriends yet fucked me for the better part of two weeks.”
“What creeps! I hope you gave them a piece of your mind, Cal,” Emily said.
“I wanted to but ended up getting sick. I used that as an excuse to go back to my own room. From there, I moved up my flight times and left the resort.” There, now she had it all out in the open. Reliving it still hurt but maybe she’d eventually be able to channel it into something positive.
“Have they not even contacted you since?” Emily had remained quiet for the last few minutes until now. The incredulous expression on her face captured her current thoughts.
The thought of hearing their voices again made her tear up even more. Cali missed them so much but refused to dwell on that.
“No, and I don’t expect them to either. It just hurts.”
The two women enveloped her in a group hug, allowing her to cry until she couldn’t shed another tear.
“What are their full names? They’re going on my ass-kicking list for sure,” Natalie said.
Cali forced herself to smile. Leave it to her feisty blond bestie to try to defend her honor. She loved her friends so much. “Xavier Rivera and Zane Rhodes.”
Emily nearly choked on her wine as Cali said their names. Quickly recovering, she played it off nicely before exchanging a look with Natalie. She had no idea what the two were up to. To her relief, they chose to change the subject, wanting to see pictures.
Cali remembered that she not only had photos but a few gifts for them too. Excusing herself, she went to her room and when she returned, she caught the women in the middle of a hushed conversation. This time it was her turn to look at them suspiciously. When they didn’t let on what they were discussing, Cali sighed and plopped down between them. She’d already transferred the trip photos to her iPad and began scrolling through them, looking on wistfully as a few pictures of Xavier and Zane, while they were at the Baths, came into sight.
Chapter 36
HER FRIENDS HAD FINALLY left, and Cali found herself alone once again. It was a familiar state, and had been her entire life. She did have to admit that talking about Zane and Xavier did lift her spirits a little. There’d been no judgment from her friends about what she’d done, and in fact, she wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to talk her into goin
g on another vacation and doing the same type of thing.
Cringing at the thought, she shook her head and brought the wine glasses into the kitchen to clean. As she rinsed them out, she looked at the view from outside of the small kitchen window. The streets, cars, and anything else outside were covered in a blanket of white. Gone were the picturesque palm trees and Caribbean shoreline. And looking at the snow steadily falling from the sky, the warm, humid temperatures in Virgin Gorda seemed like a dream.
Cali placed the glasses into the dishwasher when she heard a knock on her door. One of her friends was always forgetting something whenever they came over. Naturally assuming it was either Natalie or Emily, she flung her front door open and froze. Her pulse thundered in her chest and her hands started to shake. It wasn’t either of her girls on the other side, but two other familiar people instead.
“How did you find me?” she asked Xavier and Zane.
They both smirked at her, and she remembered the dark-haired Dominant owned the resort, so he had access to all of her information.
“Hello to you too, belleza,” the bastard said.
Cali’s eyes narrowed and she was tempted to slam the door in their faces. The longer she stood there, the better that idea sounded. Without even responding to them, she attempted to do just that when Zane caught the door. Her irritation was no match for his strength and she groaned. “What the hell do you two want?”
They arched their brows, but she didn’t care. Placing her hands on her hips, she glared at them. If either expected her to drop to her knees then they were mistaken.
“We need to talk to you, angel,” Zane said in that low tone. She could easily remember how it would tickle her flesh when he’d kiss his way up her neck.
Cali pushed that thought in the back recesses of her mind. She needed to get rid of them before she embarrassed herself completely. Now, she almost wished one of her friends would come back. “I don’t think we have anything to talk about.”
The two Dominants had evidently grown tired of talking to her from the hallway. Xavier moved her aside and both entered her apartment. They walked straight past her and into the living room. Her place was already small to begin with, but with the two of them standing in the center of the room, it seemed much smaller. Or maybe it only appeared that way to her because the walls closed in around her.
Forcing her mouth to open, she looked pointedly at the two of them. “I take it you found my note?”
“We did, Calista,” Xavier replied and then moved closer to her, causing her to take a few steps back. “What we don’t understand besides your leaving, is what we deceived you about?”
“We never lied to you, angel,” Zane added.
She looked incredulously at them. Were they fucking kidding? “Yes, you did.”
They both stood there, waiting for her to elaborate, and she licked her bottom lip nervously. Maybe she’d try a different tactic.
“Does Elena and Raquel know you’re here?”
Cali heard two sharp intakes of breath and watched the color drain from their faces. They’d now know she knew the truth and could slink back to wherever the fuck they’d come from.
“So, you left because of them?” Zane asked. What initially appeared to be shock turned to relief when she nodded in response. “Elena Marchand is dead, angel.”
This time, it was Cali who gasped loudly. She covered her mouth and then took another few steps backward. What did they do to the poor woman? And when? A dozen different lectures about not talking to strangers came rushing back to her. She’d half listened to them while growing up and now wished she had. If she had used her own common sense, she wouldn’t have spoken to or slept with either one of them.
Suddenly fearful, her hands started to shake again. Cali eyed her cell phone on the table beside her and quickly picked it up. Before she used it, she needed to know how. “What do you mean she’s dead?”
Zane saw her pick up the phone and growled, but he didn’t get angry. After heaving out a sigh, he raked his hands through his hair, never taking his eyes off her. “Elena Marchand died four months ago in a boating accident off the coast of Spain.”
She blinked at his explanation and wondered why he never thought to tell her this while they were in Virgin Gorda. Well, technically they’d told her they wanted to talk to her the following morning, but she’d left beforehand. Her mind was racing with a million different thoughts, but she focused less on them as she remembered the night they’d picked her up from the dive shop. She needed to know more. “What kind of accident? And what would it have to do with me?”
This time, Zane moved closer and before she could anticipate his next move, the Dominant had pulled her into his arms, using his hand to tip her chin up. She had no choice in this position but to look at him. She wanted to glare but saw the moisture building in the blue depths.
“There had been reports of an impending storm, but I ignored all the warnings. I asked a submissive to join me out on the boat. I thought I was invincible, and that Elena Marchand would be, by association. We’d gone out on the water and the weather turned so swiftly. It wasn’t something we could outrun, because I would have if possible.” Zane stopped to compose himself, and Cali knew where he was headed with this tale.
It sure as hell explained the reason he wouldn’t let her out of his sight after the night he’d picked her up at the dive shop, to the night they’d walked her back to her room. Her own eyes welled up with tears, but she stayed silent, needing to hear the rest of the story.
“I told her to sit down while I attempted to lower the sails. She grabbed onto the railing and tried to move toward the bench. The wind whipped so hard around us, and the rain fell in sheets, making the entire surface of the boat slippery.” He stopped again, swallowing hard before finishing. “It all happened so quickly. She fell, hit her head, and went overboard. I wasn’t even thinking about myself at that time. I jumped in the water, desperate to find her. I called her name…threatened to punish her when I found her…but there was nothing. I stayed in the water, even though the choppy waves kept trying to pull me under.”
“D-did you ever find her?” she asked, needing to know.
Zane squeezed his eyes shut for a few seconds and when he reopened them a single tear fell onto her upturned face. “Yes, angel. She’d drowned.”
A choked sob fell from her lips and she turned her head away from him. Cali could only imagine what hearing about her being stranded in the ocean on a boat during a storm did to him. Inadvertently, she’d made him relive his worst nightmare.
“And afterward,” Xavier said, finally speaking, “Zane went on a path of self-destruction that I’d only witnessed once before in my life.”
Cali turned toward the other man. It might have explained who Elena was, but it still didn’t account for the other woman. “W-what about Raquel?”
Xavier stood there silently, and Cali waited for a response. Zane finally released her from his hold and looked at his friend.
“You need to tell her, X.”
The man scowled, and apprehension curled inside of her gut. Something told her whoever this woman was her end was possibly as tragic. In a way, she didn’t think she could handle whatever truth Zane was urging him to spill, but on the other hand, Cali had to know. “Please, tell me.”
“Raquel Rivera was my mother, and she is as dead to me as Elena Marchand is to everyone else.” Xavier paused there, watching her the entire time.
“She died?” Cali asked, slightly confused.
“She might be alive and breathing, but it doesn’t mean that she’s not dead to me.”
Cali still didn’t understand. She walked over to Xavier when he’d turned away from her. There was such pain in his eyes as well, and she needed to know so she could understand him better. Placing her hand on his arm, she tried not to take offense when he jerked away. “What did she do to you?”
Finally, he turned around and cupped her face between his hands. “When I was seven, she walk
ed out on me and my father and never looked back.”
Cali’s eyes widened. “What kind of mother would walk away from her son?”
“One who only cared about herself. She wanted to be free of all responsibilities and left me alone to help my father pick up the fucking pieces of his life.”
She hadn’t even realized she had spoken out loud until he’d answered her.
“But who was there to pick up the pieces of yours?” Cali had to ask and saw the shrug of his shoulders.
“My father took it worse than I did. For years he’d lost himself in a bottle of alcohol. A once powerful man was reduced to a broken shell of one. I watched him drink away half of our fortune and swore to myself that I’d never allow another woman into my heart,” he told her, and she could hear the sincerity in his voice.
Her heart broke for these two strong men, who’d dealt with so much loss in their lives. Cali had never had anyone to lose, until them. The pain when she left the island, and then later the region, was the kind she’d never wish on anyone. There was one thing she still didn’t understand, which was what Raquel had to do with her.
Xavier must have read her thoughts because he lowered his head, and when his lips hovered just over hers, he whispered, “I love you, belleza.”
Chapter 37
SHE HELD BACK A sob as he closed the distance between them. His lips moved over hers, tentatively at first, and then more urgently as he pulled her even closer. Cali still had so many things to say but allowed him to maintain this control after sensing how much he needed it. She weaved her hands around his neck, melding herself against him. She’d fantasized about being in his arms again and was afraid to awaken, for fear that she’d dreamed him up.
Eventually, he pulled away, and then brought his thumb to her quivering bottom lip. “After Elena died, I saw someone else I cared about headed down the same road as my father. I couldn’t stand to watch Zane make the same mistakes as Juan, so I invited him to my resort for the holidays.”