by Tara Rose
But then she remembered this wasn’t merely something new he wanted to try. This was his ultimate fantasy. The one it had taken him years to finally confess to her. And now that Nando had asked her to seriously consider it, and had told Graham he’d done so, she had to look it square in the eyes and make a decision, because that’s what she’d promised him she would do.
She knew he’d honor a request to delay the decision, and he’d agree to make it a soft or hard limit if she chose that route, but she didn’t want to do either. Graham was an attractive man and one of their best friends, but it wasn’t only that. She wanted to give this fantasy to Nando because she loved him so much, and there wasn’t much she wouldn’t do for him. And, she wanted to see if reality lived up to her own fantasies.
But Leta still had so much doubt, although she also recognized that had nothing to do with Nando or Graham. That ran deep, and Nando knew it. “And you’re sure he really wants this as well, Sir?”
The corners of Nando’s mouth turned up, and his eyes filled with amusement. “Seriously, pet? You haven’t seen the looks he’s been giving you? Now that he knows I’ve asked you to consider this, I half expect him to simply grab you and kiss you every time he’s in this house.”
She’d seen them. And she knew that Nando had nailed it. Leta swallowed hard as erotic images danced through her head. “When were you both thinking of doing this?” She could barely get the words out because her pulse was racing so fast she had trouble taking a breath.
“Does that mean your answer is ‘yes?’”
Leta stared into his eyes, searching for what, she didn’t know. The real reason she hadn’t jumped on this wasn’t something she’d confessed to him yet. But she knew she had to or this would never work. She’d never be able to truly relax and enjoy it. “I have one more concern, Sir.”
“What is it?”
She mentally steeled herself. “Will this change things between us? I mean, will it make you think less of me if I do this?”
Nando looked at her like she’d just asked him if mixing plaids with stripes would affect the state of the world. “Leta, I couldn’t love you more than I do right now. Nothing will change that. Nothing. Do you hear me? I lost you once. I’m not going to let that happen again. The answer is a resounding no. This is a fantasy, nothing more. Graham knows that, pet. He knows it might only be a one-time thing.”
She nodded, but while her mind processed what Sir had just told her, her heart also broke a bit for Graham. He had to be so incredibly lonely after all these years. What would the harm be? As long as all three of them knew up front what this was, and what it wasn’t, no one would get hurt. And Nando would still love her and want her.
Leta placed a hand on her collar, then looked him right in the eyes. “In that case, Sir, I would love to do this for you. I want to give you this fantasy. I will submit in play and in sex to you and Graham, at the same time, on a date of your choosing.”
As Nando pulled her close in a hug so tight it was almost difficult to breathe, Leta knew this fantasy would be the most erotic, decadent thing she’d ever done. She only hoped it didn’t also prove to be a huge mistake.
Chapter Two
Graham found it difficult to concentrate on work Monday morning. He’d spent all Sunday morning and most of the afternoon at Nando’s house. Once they’d cleared the driftwood, Leta made them lunch and the three sat on the deck, watching the waves and talking about the project that had Asa tied up in knots.
Graham was one half of the duo that ran the public relations department at Phoebe’s Playthings, and Asa had already summoned him and Jagger Durante into his office this morning to ask them what they’d found out over the weekend about the resort.
“Nothing,” said Jagger. “I even stopped by Kade’s and Elliot’s places on Saturday. They’re already planning on using one of the homes as an office for their club, and living in the other one. They’re not focused on what their neighbors are doing.”
Asa turned his dark eyes on Graham. “And what about you?”
“I was busy clearing driftwood off the beach with Nando.”
Asa hadn’t looked any happier to hear Kade’s and Elliot’s names mentioned than he had to learn that his PR executives hadn’t been able to find any dirt on Jesse and Wendy’s betrayal, as he called it. “I don’t want to be blindsided by this.”
“You won’t be,” said Jagger. “Jesse wants to see you squirm. You know that. He’ll leak anything and everything as the construction progresses.”
“I can see the progress for myself. What I want is to find a way to stop this. There has to be something we’ve overlooked.”
Graham shifted in his seat while he tamped down the urge to remind Asa that their job was to make Phoebe’s Playthings look good. Not to find dirt on a business that would never be competition. He remembered everything Leta and Nando had said, biting back a smile as he pictured Leta’s beautiful face. “You know, you might consider this as a positive.”
“What?”
“Tourist trade, Asa. More people on the island who have never been here before means more potential customers for us. Jesse and Wendy might even let you put a small shop inside the resort. I mean why not? Reciprocal business is a win for you both.”
Jagger shot him a look that left Graham feeling like a bug under a microscope. Asa’s face grew beet red, and then he rose, sighing loudly. “I need to return to work. I suggest you two do the same.”
When they were out of earshot and on the way back to their own department, Jagger stopped walking, then glanced around. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“No. Are you?”
“Christ on a sidecar. He’d float product out to sea on a barge before he’d let Jesse and Wendy sell it for him.”
Graham glanced around as well, but no one was in the corridors. “It’s a feud that has no place inside these walls. He hates Jesse because he married a native, which is insane considering all three of his wives and most of his ex-girlfriends were from the mainland.”
Jagger frowned. “I’m sure there’s more to his reasons for hating Jesse than that.”
“Well whatever it is, he needs to get over it. The resort is going up and there isn’t anything he can do to stop it. If he’d use logic instead of his rage to think, even a small shop inside a resort would mean a shitload of business for this place.”
“I know that.”
“Well a little backup in there might have been nice, then.”
Jagger held up his hands. “All right. Don’t jump down my throat. You caught me off guard, that’s all. I’ll do some checking around. Maybe if he sees it in black and white he’ll listen.”
“Ask Arizona and Dallas to do a marketing study. He’ll listen to his own son, especially if presented with a report that shows how much more cash he can make by burying the hatchet with his cousin.”
“Good idea. I’m on it.”
Graham shut the door to his office, made sure his Outlook said he was still in a meeting, and then leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk. Was it Friday yet? Just a few more days and then he’d be topping Leta in play, alongside Nando. Would they really let him have sex with her, too? Nando had said she was all for it, but Graham knew that Leta worshipped the ground his best friend walked on. She’d do just about anything he asked her to do. What if she’d only agreed to this to serve Nando, and not because she really wanted it?
He took his feet off the desk and stood in front of the window, overlooking the paradise below. Why had no one thought of building a resort on this rock decades ago? It was beautiful here. And the history of his and Nando’s families made it all the more enticing. They should take advantage of that to lure people here, not keep them away.
Most of his family members would rather forget the curse existed, but not Graham. He’d always found it fascinating. That in part was due to the diary his father had given him. His paternal grandmother, Shona Durante, one of Iago’s daughters, had begun writing i
t when she was a teen. No one was certain where or when the curse began, but it was definitely real, and Shona had written down everything she’d ever learned about it.
When Iago and his second cousin, Agapito, came to this island in the late 1940s, brothers William and Robert Raleigh were already here, and had already begun buying the island from the natives. The hypocrisy of their illegal activities, mostly from rum running, wasn’t lost on Graham. The original families had settled here as escaped convicts. They were hiding out. But the Raleigh brothers were more ruthless and had more money.
Once the Durante cousins arrived, things went downhill fast. The four renamed the island Sybaris Cove, and basically used the native families as servants. The legend was that someone summoned a demon to cast a curse on the four, but no one seemed to know who or when. Some even said it was merely a convenient story concocted to explain the bizarre deaths of the original four.
But Graham believed in it. His grandmother’s stories told him it was true. All four men died when they tried to leave the island, but the curse didn’t only apply to them. It applied to all their male descendants. It was supposed to teach the original four the error of their ways and would reverse once they learned to live useful, productive lives. But that never happened.
Instead, the four became greedier as they aged, and when they did try to leave the island and thus prove the curse didn’t exist, they all died. Agapito drowned when he fell overboard, Iago was bitten by a shark and returned to the island, but he died from his wounds. William died while trying to sail to the coast in a storm that came up without warning, and Robert died from a jellyfish sting while trying to swim back to the island from his boat when a freak storm came up and he panicked.
A few Raleigh and Durante men after them tried to defy the curse and leave, and each one of them died before reaching the mainland. Now, none of the current generation was willing to risk it. But Graham wanted to know more. He longed to understand it better because if they could find its origins, they might be able to break it. Surely the families had redeemed themselves by now.
Asa was an asshole but nothing he did now was illegal. A bit self-serving, to be sure, but not outright criminal. And as for Tim, he was a CEO in name only. Practically no one respected him, and most of the department heads went to Asa when there was a real problem that needed his or Tim’s attention. Maybe when Arizona and Dallas took over the company they’d be able to reverse the curse?
Graham’s cell phone rang, interrupting his musings. The caller ID showed it to be from his aunt Cyndee, so he answered it, relieved to know it was nothing important. His grandfather, Curtis Raleigh, had a birthday party coming up at the end of the month. He didn’t want one, as he didn’t feel turning ninety-three was anything worth celebrating, but his daughters were insisting.
As soon as Graham was able to end the call with his aunt, he returned to standing in front of the window. No family event would be complete without his aunts and uncle Connor rehashing the death of Bailey and Teddy. He might be able to fake an illness and get out of attending the birthday party, but knowing Aunt Cyndee, all she’d do is postpone the event. He would never understand their need to remind him he’d once had a wife and son. As if he could forget that.
He didn’t want to think about Bailey and Teddy right now, and hadn’t intended to. Instead, he’d intended to prepare himself mentally for Friday. But the phone call from his aunt brought back that fateful day in living color, and there was no escaping it.
Lightning strikes weren’t unusual on the island. When thunderstorms rolled over the Gulf, they were barreling by the time they reached this rock. Approximately one hundred miles off the coast of Louisiana, the island was prone to rough weather during most of the year.
Two and a half years had passed since their deaths. Two years, six months, and seventeen days, to be exact. And if Graham had a nickel for every time he’d asked himself why they had taken shelter inside that particular home instead of simply driving home, he could shuck his trust fund and retire from his job, and still have enough money to comfortably live on.
Bailey had been one of the top realtors on the island. The home in question was a dump, and should probably have been condemned. It was on the western side of the island where practically no one lived, but Bailey had called it charming, and was determined to sell it to someone who wanted to fix it up. Someone who wanted to live away from the bustling downtown area and the ever-present shadow of Phoebe’s Playthings.
Graham knew she had planned to look over the house that day, and he knew she had their two-year-old son with her. She took him everywhere, preferring to do so rather than pawn him off on a sitter. Bailey had been a dedicated mother and a devoted wife. No man could have asked for a better family.
He’d known something was wrong before the call came from the police that day. He felt it. The storm was vicious, and they heard sirens from inside the building shortly after the first peals of thunder and lightning strikes. But he never expected a call telling him there had been a fire from one of those lightning strikes, or that his wife and son had been trapped inside the burning house, and were now dead.
Graham sighed out loud and sat down at his desk. He opened the bottom drawer and took out a bottle of The Belvenie. He didn’t drink during the day. Not usually, anyway. But this wasn’t any ordinary day. He kept a supply of plastic cups in the same drawer for such occasions. After filling it with his best guess at one shot, he closed the drawer and leaned back in his chair, letting the smooth vanilla and fruity flavors soothe his raw nerves.
It wasn’t only the memories of Bailey and Teddy dying in that fire that had him on edge today. It was what he planned to do Friday night after work. He hadn’t had sex with a woman since Bailey’s death. He hadn’t gone out on a date since then. Nando knew that. A few other family members knew that. But that wasn’t something Graham was ready to stand up and tell the world.
Had Nando told Leta? Probably. And that was all right. She should know something like that if she was going to give her body and submission to a man. They’d been friends all their lives. She and Nando had been an item in high school, and then she and Graham had dated for a while, but Bailey had set her sights on Graham, and things never really took off with Leta.
Leta and Nando had gotten back together, until Leta left the island for her education, and to figure out what she wanted in life. What she wanted turned out to be Nando, and by the time she’d returned to Sybaris Cove, Graham and Bailey were married, and Nando was only too happy to welcome Leta into his home with open arms.
But Graham had never forgotten her. Never. Their relationship had never held the same depth and passion that hers and Nando’s had, but he often wondered if that had more to do with Bailey being in the picture than anything. Not that he regretted his marriage. Not even close. He’d loved Bailey, and he’d been thrilled to be a father to their son.
And he’d effectively tamped down any feelings he’d once had for Leta. Until now. Until two weeks ago when Nando had first broached the subject of the secret fantasy.
Graham hadn’t been able to get the images out of his mind, and with good reason. Leta was beautiful. No man would say otherwise. Her lush, curvy body might be a bit thick for society’s standards, but Graham thought it was perfect. All that dark, curly hair would look perfect spread out on a pillow, and her dark eyes were constantly full of light and fun. She was a special person. Graham had always thought so. He’d never seen Nando so happy as the day Leta finally came back to the island to stay for good.
And now they both wanted to add a bit of spice to their already perfect relationship. And Graham was the only man they’d consider doing so with. Nando had said so, and he had no reason to doubt his friend’s word.
But where would that leave him when the fun and games were over? He knew it was meant to be a fantasy only. He understood that and he’d agreed to it. But he was only human. He’d had a thing for Leta most of his life. Surely that was no secret to either of the
m. Could he really do this? Could he top her in play, make love to her, and then walk away?
That’s what Nando and Leta would expect. But right now, staring out the window at the endless paradise he called home, Graham wasn’t sure he could kiss Leta, touch her, and finally make love to her without wanting more. He wasn’t sure he could flog her and paddle her, then listen to her soft moans and cries of pleasure, without wanting to hear them again.
What the hell had he gotten himself into here?
Chapter Three
Nando took off Friday afternoon because he’d found it impossible to work most of the week, and he hadn’t accomplished anything productive since Tuesday. To say he was excited about their plans that evening was a gross understatement. Every day this past week he’d asked Leta if she was sure about going through with the fantasy, and each day she’d knelt at his feet and told him she couldn’t wait.
He finally dared to walk over to Graham’s office on Wednesday afternoon to ask him in person if he was still okay with it, and they’d ended up talking about everything, from Bailey and Teddy’s deaths two and a half years earlier, to the crush they’d both had on Leta since hitting puberty.
The plan was to have Graham come over after dinner. He and Leta had discussed various scenarios, and she told him she’d feel more relaxed about it if they didn’t have to eat first and pretend to make small talk all through the meal. She wanted to be in the dungeon and ready when Graham arrived.
Nando had the dungeon designed as part of the home even before Leta had returned to the island and he’d asked her to move in with him and become his sub. He’s always known this was what he wanted. A full-time lover and submissive. The only reason he’d stopped asking her to marry him was because she told him she already felt married to him, even without the official piece of paper. Nando was fine with that. They didn’t need the state of Louisiana to give their seal of approval to what they had together.