Tessa nodded. “I also thought I was going to design some of the public spaces?”
Samantha shook her head. “We’re going to leave the main building alone for now. The plan is to build a coliseum with an arcade to replace the shopping available in there and turn the main building into a dining hall, offices, and staff housing. No frills on the staff housing, and we’ll need all single units.”
That housing would be provided at no charge to the staff.
“Except the executive suites,” Tessa said. “I’m told they should be luxurious.”
As Samantha planned to build a home on the other side of the island, places for the owners to stay on this side wasn’t on her priority list. She shrugged. “Guest accommodations first. People who pay to stay are the priority.”
“Great,” Tessa said. She tapped a canvas bag that Peaches was holding. “I have some preliminary designs ready if you want to see them.”
Samantha jerked her thumb at the tables on the promenade. “Let’s grab a seat, and I’ll take a look.”
At the table, Peaches pulled out a chair for Tessa, and once she was seated, he handed her the bag. “Can I get you ladies anything to drink?”
“Coffee,” Tessa said. “And I’m a little hungry.”
A grin played around Peaches’s mouth. “Fruit or breads?”
“Bread.” Tessa tugged at his shirt, and he bent down to receive her kiss. “And get something for yourself, too. You need to keep up your strength.”
“Yes, Mistress.” He glanced at Samantha, a brow lifted. “Anything for you?”
“Coffee sounds good,” Samantha said. “I skipped breakfast, so whatever you can grab is fine.”
Peaches kissed Tessa again and left the two of them alone.
Samantha nodded after him. “Where did you guys meet, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Not at all.” Tessa watched his retreating figure fondly. “He was part of the construction crew—an assistant engineer—working on a hotel I designed three years ago. It was love at first sight. The moment he dropped to his knees, I knew we were destined to be together. Of course, he’ll say he was already on the floor because he was installing in-floor heating, but I like my version better.”
Samantha knit her brows together. “He left his job to travel with you?”
Tessa shrugged. “He lives to serve me. Plus now he’s my assistant. It’s easier to keep an eye on a construction crew if you have an insider whispering in your ear about what’s being done correctly, and who is doing shoddy work. Peaches knows my standards are high, and he helps maintain them.”
That sounded reassuring, a business pitch wrapped in a relationship blanket. Sam had to ask one more question. “What’s his real name?”
“Nick Pietsch. I know about ten different men named Nick, including my father, so I called him Pietsch, and that evolved into Peaches. If you prefer, you can call him Nick. He’ll answer.”
A snort came from behind them. Peaches set down three mugs of coffee and a platter of food.
Tessa looked up, one brow arched. “You have something to say?”
“Your breakfast, Mistress.” He inclined his head toward Samantha. “Sammy.”
Tessa narrowed her eyes. “Thanks for the food, Peaches.” After three seconds of silence, she sighed. “Oh, all right. I call him Peaches because his balls are huge. My man is well hung. When we were first together, I remarked that his sack was like a ripe peach. He likes that story better.”
Peaches beamed and planted a kiss on Tessa’s cheek. “Thank you, Mistress. I brought fruit, breads, and pastries. Eat, Mistress.” He handed her a large pill and a bottle of water.
She swallowed it with a large gulp of water, and then she sipped her coffee. Her mouth pulled down in dismay. “Decaf?”
Peaches shrugged and took a seat opposite them. “You know what the doctor said.”
“She said ‘cut back.’ She said ‘moderate amounts.’ She didn’t tell me I had to go with decaf.” Tessa set her drink back on the table.
Samantha tasted hers, wondering if he’d also gone the healthy route with her.
“I got regular for you, Sammy.” Peaches winked.
“Thank you, Nick.”
They were both subs. No need to use a name that implied differently.
“I’m pregnant,” Tessa said. “Two weeks. We just found out yesterday.”
Samantha smiled. “Congratulations.” She couldn’t imagine having kids with Alexei and Stefano. Well, she could. They’d be pretty little girls or cute boys with blue eyes and probably dark, curly hair. Another pang hit her heart, a shock of electricity that didn’t feel at all pleasant.
She forced her smile to return. “Let’s see your ideas. I should warn you that I have a vision already, so there will probably be a lot of changes to make.”
“No problem,” Tessa said as she booted up her laptop. “I have a design program that makes changes very simple.”
They dove into the work and the morning passed quickly. Peaches kept them hydrated and fed, and he voiced an occasional opinion when it came to something he felt wasn’t possible from an engineering standpoint.
Sabrina stopped by at noon to sit in on the session. She took notes and brainstormed slogans. After they ate, she yawned and stretched. “Come on, Sam. I have a surprise for you.”
The only surprise Samantha wanted was a phone call from Alexei and Stefano. There was a time when not a day had gone by without some kind of communication happening several times. Now it had become acceptable to send a text every now and again.
But Sabrina looked so pleased with herself, and Samantha didn’t have the heart to rain on her sister-in-law’s parade. “What’s the surprise?”
Sabrina laughed. “If I tell you, then it’s not a surprise. You’re dressed fine, but go grab your purse. We’re leaving the island.”
She didn’t think Sabrina was devious enough to trick her into going home, so she went along with her. They exchanged pleasantries with Tessa, who assured them she had enough to keep her busy all day, and thanked Peaches for waiting on them.
He tipped his head and grinned. “I live to make Mistress happy.”
Samantha didn’t address Peaches’s comment until they were on the private boat Sabrina had hired to take them to a nearby island.
“Sabrina, do you live to make Jonas happy?”
Sabrina stared thoughtfully into the distance. “I’ve never thought about it in quite those terms, but yeah, I do. It’s like, when he’s happy, it’s all I need.”
Making Alexei and Stefano smile had kept her fueled for four years, but it was no longer enough, and that made her sad. “Is it really? What about the other stuff? I mean, you quit your job. You gave up a great career.”
“I don’t look at it that way. I did at first, but several months away from the office have changed my perspective. I’m busier than I’ve ever been, but my focus has shifted. I’m spending my days with my kids, and I’m taking care of the man I love. It’s a different kind of fulfilling. Organic. More authentic. Intrinsic.” She nodded. “Yeah, that’s the word. The happiness comes from inside me, and the happier I make him, the happier it makes me.”
That wasn’t quite what Samantha had wanted to know. “I know. I get all that. Even now, I’m thinking about Lex and Stef, and I’m wondering if they ate enough for dinner, or if the meeting went bad and they need cheering up. But what about the other things, Sabrina? What happens when they’re not a big enough part of your life for serving them to be enough?”
Sabrina closed her hand around Samantha’s. “It’s not all giving and serving with me and Jonas. These five days apart is probably the longest time we’ve gone without seeing one another since he tried to divorce me. Sammy, he spends a lot of time making sure that I’m happy and fulfilled. We talk all the time, about everything. You don’t quite have that with Lex and Stef. They adore you, but they’ve been neglecting you. It’s okay to want more. It’s okay to demand more. You can’t go through
life settling for less than your dreams.”
Samantha rested her head against the cushioned seat. “How about half of a dream? Or a part-time dream? Maybe if I give up trying to ask for something neither of them can give me, then what they’re giving me can become my dream.”
Sabrina shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way. Believe me, I tried. Luckily, I came to that realization before I married the wrong man. If Stefano and Alexei can’t step up, then you need to figure out what you want to do with your life. You’re a beautiful woman, inside and out, Sam. You have a lot to offer, and you can’t settle for someone or a couple of someones who can’t appreciate and cherish you the way you deserve.”
“Damn,” Sam said. “I need to have you inside my head when they get here. If they show up here tomorrow, it’s going to be impossible to refuse them anything they want.”
“It’s okay, you know. Those Morozov boys are very bright. I’m sure your message got through.”
Samantha hoped so. Being away from them like this was worse than pining for them at home. Though she’d kept busy, a piece of her heart wouldn’t stop hurting.
“Hey,” Sabrina said, pulling her out of her sad musings. “Have you talked to your parents lately?”
“Yeah.” Samantha talked to her mother at least once a week. She didn’t talk to her father as often, but she’d spoken with him a couple days ago. “Why?”
Sabrina shook her head. “The last two times we’ve invited them to dinner, they’ve cancelled at the last minute. Your dad has been having stomach and back pain, and he’s been tired. Jonas is thinking it’s celiac disease. He bought them a gluten-free cookbook. I just wondered if you’d heard anything about him going in for testing?”
Samantha shook her head. Brandon Spencer was an active, healthy seventy-two-year-old man. He’d never been sick a day in his life, so she wasn’t overly concerned. “Jonas is probably right, but I’ll be sure to ask the next time I talk to them.”
The boat docked, and Sabrina hailed a taxi and gave the address. “It’s a spa. We’re getting facials, massages, manicures, and pedicures.”
Sabrina was a fan of being pampered, and Samantha couldn’t complain. Two hours later, she lay on a massage table in a room with Sabrina and ran her finger over her collar. It was such a part of her that she barely noticed it anymore. Clemmons, the massage therapist, worked a knot out of her lower back. She groaned, but it felt so freaking good.
“I know,” Sabrina said. “I’m thinking we have to open up a spa on the island. We can do a full-service thing, even offer pet grooming.” She giggled, but Sam knew she was serious.
Actually, it sounded like a great idea. “People into pet play would love it. We could have a spa and a groomer. The spa could be Sanctuary Spa, but the groomer could be The Pampered Pet. Oh—we could put a window divider so that the handlers can see their pets having their hair washed, getting a massage, having a manicure.” Sam was growing excited. “This is so cool. We’re going to have to look for someone to oversee it who is into the pet lifestyle.”
“I’d be a cat,” Sabrina said.
So caught up in the thrill of planning this new development, it took Sam a moment to process what Sabrina had said. “Do you guys do pet play?”
“No,” she said. “I don’t think Jonas is into it, but if he was, I wouldn’t mind being a cat. I figure it’s like being a bratty sub. I’d do what I want, when I want, how I wanted. I could stick my butt in his face and scratch at him when he tries to pet me. Then, when he’s busy with something else, I could curl up on his lap or rub my body all over him. And I could wear one of those headbands with the ears. It’d be fun.”
The picture Sabrina painted in Sam’s head made her laugh so hard her massage therapist had to stop and rearrange the sheet so that it still covered her lady parts.
“What would you be?” Sabrina grinned slyly. “If Lex or Stef came home one day and wanted to try out pet play, what pet would you want to be?”
“A pony,” Samantha said. “In real life, I think I’m already a dog, faithfully waiting at home for my Masters to return. A pony, it seems to me, needs lots of attention and training. She’s cared for and shown off. That’s what I’d want.”
“The tail is a butt plug,” Sabrina said. “Are you sure about that?”
Samantha snorted. Many harnesses had places for tails that didn’t have to be inserted anally, but she didn’t tell that to Sabrina. Instead she grinned at her sister-in-law. “Cats have tails, too.”
* * * *
Stefano called the next morning to let her know that something had come up, and they wouldn’t be able to make it down until the following week. Used to disappointment, Samantha shrugged at the news. He couldn’t see her, but there was no mistaking the apathy in her tone.
“Whatever,” she said. “I’ll see you when I see you.”
“Sammy, I know you’re angry.”
She was so far past angry that she couldn’t see it anymore. Angry was dust in a desert town, and she was surrounded by beach and sparkling blue water. “I’m not angry, Stef.”
“Hurt,” he amended. “Honey, please come to New York. I miss you so much.”
Two weeks ago, that invitation would have sent her heart soaring. Now she only heard that he was trying to placate her so that he could get his way. He might have been under the impression that his will was stronger than hers, and she needed to correct his assumption. Just because she’d never exercised her will didn’t mean it was nonexistent. They’d install her in an apartment in New York, and then they’d fly off to business meetings in London or Hong Kong. She’d once again find herself alone and stuck in a city where she knew nobody.
“I’m working,” she snapped. “This is a business trip. Do I ask you to cut short your business trips?”
He sighed, but it wasn’t the defeated kind. “Sammy, that kind of attitude is going to earn you a spanking.”
“That threat doesn’t hold up well over distances like these.” She meant physical distance, but as she said it, she realized it applied to the metaphorical one as well.
And that’s how Stef took it. Lex was the next person to speak. He must have taken the phone from Stefano. “Samantha, it’s not our intention to argue with you. We just want to talk this out, face-to-face.”
“Well,” she began, “you know where my face is.”
He chuckled, but it was laced with uncertainty. “I would think you’d be in a better mood after having spent a day at the spa.”
She let the line hang silently while she processed emotions. Sabrina had told her that Lex and Stef had wanted her to report on her, but she never thought Sabrina would do it, especially not after she’d said she wouldn’t. Before she let the demons of betrayal derail her friendship with her sister-in-law, she took a deep breath.
“Why would you assume I spent the day at a spa?” There wasn’t one on the island, and with as much research as they’d done into the place, she knew Lex was aware of that fact.
That nervous laugh was back. “I talked to Jonas last night. He said Sabrina had booked spa time, so I assumed you went with her.”
It was a reasonable assumption, but she didn’t like the roundabout way the checked up on her. “Lex, if you want to know something about me, then ask. My phone works, too. You don’t have to call my brother to find out what I’ve been doing. That’s a little immature, don’t you think?”
“Honey, come to New York. We can have you on a plane in two hours, and we can be together tonight. You say you’re not angry, but I can tell that you are. We need to talk.” His voice was tight. It wasn’t an order, but she could tell the effort it cost him to not make it one.
She had to be strong. A plea always worked on her more powerfully than an order. “If you want to talk, then we’re doing it on my terms. As I said, you know where to find me.”
Chapter Five
Alexei threw his suit over the back of a chair. Heather had warned them that the housekeeping staff had been reduced
to a minimum, so he thought twice about his callous treatment of his clothing and straightened it up.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous about a woman,” Stefano said.
Across the room, Lex’s brother also changed his clothes. The resort island demanded casual attire, and the suits would only remind Samantha of everything they’d done to make her unhappy.
“Me neither, but then again, I’ve never cared about a woman this much before.” He cared for and respected women, but he’d never put stock into their opinions about him. For that matter, he rarely cared what anybody thought about him.
“You have the ring?” Stefano chose an off-white cambric shirt, so Lex followed suit.
“Yep,” Lex said. The platinum circle had a simple, elegant design that housed diamond and sapphire stones. It had been custom made by a jeweler friend this past week. “I can’t believe we haven’t asked her before this.”
“She always said she wanted to marry both of us,” Stef reminded him. They had talked themselves out of making her choose between them. The relationship would continue with all three of them, but the law would only recognize two as a legal partnership. Samantha had always expressed displeasure with that.
They’d tossed a coin. Alexei would do the legal honors. He’d be the on-paper husband, but they’d both be wed to her. They’d lined up someone to officiate who believed that polyamorous relationships deserved recognition.
“I know, but we’re pushy on everything else in our lives. Why do we tiptoe around Samantha?”
“Cherishing her, loving her—it’s not tiptoeing.” Stefano frowned. “You’re getting anxious.”
“Maybe because I don’t think it’ll work. Asking her to marry us isn’t going to solve the problem.” Though he hoped it would take care of most of Samantha’s issues. They had to stem from insecurity. That was their fault. It was their responsibility to make sure she never felt that way again. Having a ring on her finger, a legal claim to them, would help calm her sense that she wasn’t the most important thing in their lives.
Two Masters for Samantha 2: In Their Hearts [Awakenings 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 5