by Anya Summers
He released her and spied tears in her beautiful eyes, but they were happy tears. He noted the small round bulge of her abdomen in her pretty floral sundress. “Motherhood looks beautiful on you.”
Then he turned to Declan, who had scooted out the other end of the booth and was patiently waiting for Zoey to finish her exuberant greeting. Declan held his hand out to shake and Jared surprised them both by giving him a hug instead and releasing him, saying, “It’s great to see you, D.”
And he meant it. He hadn’t realized until that moment how much he had missed his best friend.
“You too, Jared. The manor isn’t the same without you.”
That was something at least, his departure had been felt. There were days where Jared had wondered.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”
Declan and Zoey exchanged a look before Declan replied, “We were in Los Angeles, meeting the newest little member of the family.”
“Ah, little miss Lily Ford. And how is the wee lass?” Jared asked.
Zoey, bubbling over with joy, beamed and said, “You should see her. She looks so much like Lia. Tobias positively dotes on them. At three months, she’s already grown since her arrival on May fifteenth. She’s up to nine pounds already.”
Zoey rubbed a hand over her baby bump with a sweet smile on her lips. Motherhood would suit her. She was made for it.
Declan interjected, “Anyhow, since we were already traveling, I thought it best to stop in on our way back home. Especially since we won’t be doing much travelling here in the near future.”
“Great, well if you are finished with your breakfast, I’d love to give you a tour of the place. One of the bellhops would have already delivered your luggage to your private villa so we don’t need to worry about that. Shall we?” Jared asked.
“If I could make a quick visit to the ladies’ room, pregnancy is hell on your bladder,” Zoey said.
“Certainly, lass, it’s through that archway to the left.” He pointed her in the right direction.
He and Declan sat at the booth while they waited for Zoey.
“Are you okay?” Declan asked.
“Yes, I am.”
“You sure about that? You’ve been avoiding us for nearly six months. That doesn’t say all right to me.”
“Don’t go all Dom psychoanalysis on me. I appreciate the concern, really I do, but I’m okay. I’m not going to say that it has been easy at times, but we’re good. I’m glad you guys came.”
“J, I’m sorry. If for one minute I had thought you would fall for her too, and that we would end up hurting you, I never would have asked you to join in. I didn’t intend to hurt you.”
Some of the broken pieces that remained began to re-forge themselves at Declan’s words.
“I know. And I didn’t mean to ignore you and Zoey. I just needed time, man. But we’re good, so there’s no need to say any more. You look happy, D, happier than I’ve ever seen you before, and I wish you both the utmost joy. It gives me peace seeing the both of you.”
“You’ve changed. You are more settled than I ever recall you being, more content with life.”
Jared shrugged. “What can I say, island life suits me.”
Zoey returned to the table and they departed the restaurant. Jared took them to the club, the pool, to the golf course, and talked about some of the items he wanted to add. They visited the marina, where he mentioned he wanted to include day cruises and deep sea finishing excursions, all while maintaining the lifestyle.
They drove around the island on the path, where he described each of the stations and villas. Every villa had a different BDSM theme in its bedroom and dungeon area, and they were all retrofit throughout for restraining a petulant sub.
Jared took them to his house, so that they could admire the view, and then again to the opposite side of the island where the employee housing was located. Because Declan was interested, they toured the solar panel grid and greenhouse, where Jared hoped to be able to grow a self-sustaining garden for fruits and vegetables to help supplement some of the cost of importing everything.
Jared was in the middle of explaining that they had already had one crop yield beyond their expectations. “Tyler plans to visit again to ensure the greenhouse is running properly but in the meantime, it seems to be going well.”
Declan’s cell phone rang and he withdrew the smartphone from his pants pocket. “I need to take this call, be right back.” He turned, answering the call as he did so, in Chinese, and left them alone in the greenhouse.
This was part of what Jared had been dreading. Being alone with Zoey. As much as he had healed, there was an awkward silence between them without Declan to run interference. It had never been that way between them before, and Jared knew he was partially to blame for the hole he had bulldozed into their lives with his departure.
Zoey glanced at him with warmth and emotion swimming in her vibrant gaze and said, “You look good. This place fits you, you know. More than the manor ever did.”
“It does. I like it here very much. Although I do miss Mrs. Stewart’s scones and clotted cream, but everything is a tradeoff, lass.”
A cloud shrouded her features and her bottom lip trembled as tears filled her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Jared. Please forgive me.”
“What for? You’ve nothing to be sorry about,” he replied, a bit taken aback.
She clasped his hands and held them tight as she said, “For not seeing how much I was hurting you. I never intended to. It’s taken me a while to understand why you had to leave. I was so angry and hurt at first. But then I stopped feeling sorry for myself and took at good hard look at how I hurt you. When I arrived at the manor last year, Declan opened this whole new world for me where everything was so new, titillating my senses, and such a whirlwind that I didn’t see what was happening right before my eyes. This whole new lifestyle had opened for me and I feasted on it, trying to fill up all the empty holes in my life. It blinded me for a time so that I didn’t see your feelings or even fully consider them until it was too late. I do love you. I hope you forgive me one day for being so oblivious and ignorant.”
The pieces of his soul he thought he’d lost the day he left the manor melded back into place. Moisture filled Jared’s eyes and he said, “All’s forgiven, lass. I love you, too.”
The fact that he could finally say the words and they no longer hurt as he pulled her into a tight hug made him know that leaving had been the right course for his life. The sexual punch he normally felt when Zoey was nearby, didn’t register. There was a part of him that would always want her. He was a man and she was a beautiful woman, but there was another woman who consumed him body and soul.
A loud, tinkling crash reverberated in the greenhouse. Zoey jumped in his arms and Jared shot his gaze toward the sound of breaking glass. Naomi stood near the door, with silent tears pouring down her bonnie face and the tray of refreshments they had requested be delivered in a smashed heap on the ground.
Naomi bolted without a backward glance, disappearing on the trail as she sped away from them. Jared’s heart clenched because he knew how this had to look to her and needed to fix it before she left him again, maybe this time for good. Just as he was about to race after her, a hand on his arm stalled his forward progression.
“Explain,” Zoey said with a raised brow.
He had already lost sight of Naomi. Didn’t it just figure that he had finally begun to get his life back in order, only to have it upended? Would he be able to fix it? Had he realized too late what Naomi meant to his world, and would now lose her before he ever had the chance to tell her?
Jared turned back to Zoey, glancing at her lovely visage, feeling heartened by her concern.
And so he did. He explained his relationship with Naomi, desperate for a way to make sense of all that had happened and find a way to fix it.
Declan found them sitting on a bench, near a patch of orchids.
Chapter 14
Naomi spen
t her night tossing and turning, re-running everything she knew about Jared. She called herself a hundred times a fool for even giving him another chance. Gullible party of one.
He loved Zoey and it was obvious she loved him. Granted, she didn’t know where that left Zoey’s husband, but as for Naomi, she didn’t do entanglements like this. She just had to make a decision on whether she could stay on the island. Every time she thought about seeing Jared holding Zoey, her heart clenched in agony. How could she stay when she would be treated to visuals like that? She couldn’t.
But—and it was a ginormous but—if she left, it meant she would be forced to find other employment. She needed the money this place paid her to stay one step ahead of her ex. And therein lay her conundrum, the one that had kept her tossing and turning until she had given up the pretense of sleep. She did yoga, she meditated, anything to try and help her sleep and yet. Nothing. Nada.
So she cleaned her room, she showered, she made breakfast. But she couldn’t seem to make a damn decision. She had to choose between safety, being in a location where Jon could never find her, all while being subjected to having her heart ripped from her chest on a daily basis, or she could leave, search for a new hiding spot and position but one that didn't pay as well or was so well-protected.
It was the damn story of her life. She always had to settle between two bad choices. There was no silver lining, no happy possibility to come out of either situation. Naomi, for as long as she could remember, had only wanted to live her life. Not a flashy, living large existence, a peaceful one, filled with love and family, a decent roof over her head and a good job. But life never seemed to want to comply. She’d been dragged through the mud so many times, she was exhausted. Was she destined to have a life that was not her own? Forever being shown glimpses of her heart’s desire only to never achieve it?
She spent the day cleaning the villas and avoiding the main hotel, avoiding Jared. She kept an eye out, not wanting to run into him for any reason. She wasn't ready for a confrontation with him. Not when she didn’t know yet what it was she wanted. Until she made a firm decision and chose the option that would best suit, she didn’t want to see him. Which, on an island, was harder than one might think.
She saved Zoey’s villa for last, hoping, praying to whatever god would listen that the couple would not be present. Tentatively, she rode the elevator up into the villa. The door dinged open and she breathed a sigh of relief as she rolled her cart into the kitchen.
“Hello, room service,” she called, her voice echoing in the space. This one was more partitioned and elegant than many of the others. There were actual walls separating each room. When no one responded, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief. No one was here. The villa was empty.
Calmer, knowing she didn’t have to face the woman Jared loved, Naomi inserted her earbuds from her iPhone and started cleaning. She began in the kitchen, which was typically one of the messiest places, putting dishes in the dishwasher, wiping down the counters, scrubbing the sink. Then she moved on to vacuuming the living room, using the multi-surface vacuum on all the floors. Next, she’d tackle the bathroom. That was the one part of her job she never liked. People were disgusting in the bathroom and rarely cleaned up after themselves.
A hand on her shoulder sent her jumping a foot off the ground. She swiveled, clutching her chest, screaming, “Aaah!”
Whereupon Naomi came face to face with Zoey—aka the woman she should despise on principle alone. Her heart beat a staccato rhythm at lightning speeds, thudding against her chest. Her ex used to sneak up on her with surprise attacks. She hated being startled like this. She yanked her earbuds out. The fading strains of a pop song was still filtering through them.
“I’m so sorry. It’s Naomi, right? I didn’t mean to startle you,” Zoey said, giving her a bit of a sheepish smile.
“It’s fine. I was lost in my own little world and didn’t realize you were here. I can come back later. I didn’t mean to disturb you,” Naomi said, internally cursing her rotten damn luck. She couldn’t seem to catch a break. It was like fate was shoving Zoey in her face to make sure she got the hint.
Naomi shut off the vacuum and was about to disconnect it from the outlet.
“Declan’s not here. He went to the main hotel for a meeting with Jared and the rest of the club members via a conference call,” Zoey informed her, heading over to the fridge and pulling out a bottle of water. “Why don’t you have a seat? I’d love the company.”
“We aren’t allowed to socialize while we’re on the clock,” Naomi replied. She didn’t want to talk to Zoey. She wanted to escape this situation at the earliest opportunity.
“I insist. I’ll make sure Jared knows I requested it and he won’t penalize you for it. He’ll do it if I ask him not to.”
Naomi could just bet he would. The woman was married to his friend but it seemed she could crook her finger and Jared would come running. Typical. Naomi stifled the rage-filled scream lodged in her chest.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She clenched her hands around the vacuum handle.
“Please. I really would like to explain what you saw in the greenhouse yesterday,” Zoey pleaded.
Naomi could see what it was Jared loved about her. There was an earnestness to her direct gaze that made her know she wasn’t being lied to. Whatever this woman had to say, it would be the truth.
Naomi didn’t want to hear how much they loved each other, not when she had begun considering Jared hers. She had even started building this fantasy up in her mind that if she agreed to become his sub, he’d want to keep her. Dreams were for people like Zoey. The rest of the world had to deal with reality.
The inevitability of this confrontation settled over Naomi. It was time she stopped running from everything and started facing her inner demons, starting with Zoey.
“I have a fifteen minute break I can take,” she said, sliding onto one of the barstools.
“That’s perfect.” Zoey extracted a second bottle of water and placed it in front of Naomi.
She took it gratefully. “Thank you.”
“I can make you some coffee, if you like. Although I hope you don’t want it because just the smell makes me cry. I miss coffee. As thrilled as I am about this little one,” Zoey stroked a hand over her tiny bulge, “not being able to drink coffee is akin to torture.”
“Water’s fine.”
“You’re a better woman than I am. I don’t know if I could abstain for someone else. Anyhow, I need you to understand that while I love Jared, I’m not in love with him. He’s not only my husband’s best friend but became one of mine.”
Naomi was confused and said, “But you two slept together.”
Zoey gave her a penetrating stare. “Yes, we did. On multiple occasions. My husband was always present. Jared would join him in topping me—in the club, mostly.”
Naomi couldn’t have been more shocked if Zoey had started shaving her head. She’d had sex with two men? Jared had joined in their lovemaking and turned it into a threesome? “Oh,” was all she could seem to muster. She tried to imagine more than one man at a time, more than just Jared with his tantalizing, carnal appetite and ability to give her multiple orgasms in a single night.
And she couldn’t. Jared overpowered her senses. She had never been one for sowing wild oats. Naomi preferred monogamy and commitment.
“I realize how that must sound. Before I met Declan, I never dreamed of having sex with two men at the same time. I also never thought that I liked to be dominated in the bedroom, but I do. It was Declan who initiated the dual topping, as he was inducting me into the BDSM world. Jared’s a part of that, a part of my journey into discovering who I am at my most basic level, and he was there as I fell in love with my husband. And I do love Jared, but as my friend, and I always will. There’s nothing going on between Jared and me, that I can promise you,” Zoey said.
It wasn’t how Jared saw things between himself and Zoey. The man might play it close to the ches
t when he was in his best friend’s company but Naomi had witnessed it. A knife through her chest would have been easier to take.
Naomi shook her head and said, “It doesn’t matter. He loves you.”
“Yes, and I love him, but our affection for each other is more of friendship than romantic love,” Zoey explained, with what Naomi was positive she thought was encouragement.
“Jared’s isn’t. He mentioned your name right after he was intimate with me.” And that was Naomi’s reality—as harsh as it was, but there was nothing for it. The man she was falling for loved another woman. And she did care about him, Naomi thought as she swallowed the lump in her throat, maybe even loved him.
When Naomi was about to withdraw, sliding off the stool, needing to escape the certainty of her convictions, Zoey placed a hand over hers, her gaze filled with compassion. “Give him a chance. I know you are new to the BDSM world but Jared’s the best man I know next to my husband. He does care for you. In fact, I’ve never seen him so tangled up over anyone. Truly loving someone is never easy, you sacrifice parts of your freedom, but you gain so much more in return. If you can’t stomach the whole BDSM thing, that’s one issue, but I don’t think that is the case, otherwise you would have left the island by now. Jared is an honorable man, and if you are willing to be brave enough to place your trust, and maybe even your heart in his care, I promise you, you won’t regret it.”
There was the crux of the issue. Naomi didn’t trust people, she hadn’t done so in so long, she didn’t know if she had it in her to even try.
Wanting to mollify Zoey and give herself space from this conversation, she said, “I’ll think about it.”
Then she put her earbuds back in and went back to work on Zoey’s villa. Zoey didn’t interrupt her again and had disappeared by the time Naomi had finished vacuuming and cleaning the rest of the place.
Could she trust Jared?
Chapter 15
Two days. The woman had managed to evade him for two whole days. They were on an island that was barely six square miles, for pity’s sake. Jared knew she was avoiding him. Why else would she ignore his summons?