Dick’s brows rose a fraction. I already guessed he thought I was just Connor’s piece of ass. His barely-disguised surprise proved it. Just because I had blond hair and big boobs didn’t make me a bimbo.
Dick squeezed my hand in greeting. I swallowed a wave of revulsion as his clammy flesh met mine. “Enchanted.” He leaned over me, and I almost gagged at the heavy cologne he wore. “Why don’t you ditch this loser and join the winning team?”
El Toro snickered and said something in Spanish beneath his breath. Connor stiffened beside me, and I knew I needed to diffuse this bomb before the Zoreto representatives had an advance showing of the pending bloodshed. “What team would that be?” I let a hint of my natural Southern accent sugar my voice.
Dick puffed up. His polo stretched over his muscular chest. I knew his type. He was a wanna-be. He wanted to be a fighter, but couldn’t cut it. Too slow. Too bulky. His muscles were all show. If he got in a ring with a man like Connor it would be all over in seconds. “Why, ours.”
“Is that so?” I cut Toro with a glance. “All I see is a has-been and a poser. When was the last time Toro fought, anyway? When he was getting his ass beat by Connor so he drove his forearm against Connor’s windpipe and then heel kicked him in the knee? And instead of you know, being respectful, he then caught that same knee in a cinch and twisted? You mean that ‘winner’? All I see is a sore loser who couldn’t hack it in the ring so he went to cheap tricks. Just because they are still technically legal, doesn’t make it right.”
A few of the Zoreto reps behind me barely covered their laughter. Connor visibly relaxed beside me. Dick’s eyes bugged out, and he had to lash a restraining arm against Toro.
I turned my gaze to him. “Were you going to hit me? A big burly fighter coming after a girl? What, you can’t handle the truth spoken aloud?”
Connor stood up with a clang of dishes and hauled me up. “Well now, I think it’s time for us to head out.” He nodded to the reps who were gazing after us with no small amount of shock writ on their face.
I sailed past Dick and Toro with Connor’s palm burning against my back.
We stopped in the lobby outside of the restaurant. Connor’s ginger brows arched towards his hairline.
I blushed. “Oh, my God I can’t believe i did that.” Wasn’t Connor the hot head? What had possessed me to get into a pissing match with Dick and Toro? And in front of the Zoreto agents?
Connor dropped his head back and laughed. “Damn. Hot damn. I knew you were feisty, but that shit was pure fucking gold.”
“I’m going to lose my job if that gets out.” I cringed.
Connor slung his burly arm around my shoulder. “No. You gave them exactly what they wanted when they set up that overlapped meeting. You gave them a show, though I think they were surprised it was you slinging words instead of me. Shit, you could give me a run for my money with that trash talking mouth of yours.”
“It was so unprofessional of me,” I muttered. Instinctively, I reached for my cellphone to call a Lyft to pick us up, but then realized my phone had exactly zero service out here.
And there were definitely not any ridesharing programs.
“How do you think that went, other than Dick and Toro popping up?” Connor asked me. Why was I surprised whenever he asked me a normal question?
I paced in front of Connor, revealing the agitation which circled through me. My heels licked subtly on the tile. “It’s not a done deal by any means. It’s shitty of them to be courting Toro at the same time as meeting us. But, I understand where they are coming from. This is a business, and they want a winner as their spokesperson. They’re keeping their options open.”
“Agreed,” he said as he ran his palms down his shirt. “I didn’t think you followed the sport that closely to know what happened between Toro and I.”
I followed his hands down, and remembered the water I’d wanted to lick off him earlier. I shook my head. “I didn’t, well, don’t. Once Mr. Fabre hired me, I figured I needed to do my due diligence when it came to you. I looked you up, but the articles I found said that you lost the fight against Toro five years ago, then disappeared for six months. When you re-appeared, you were a new man and a totally different fighter, though no one knew where you’d been hiding. To this day, no one can pin down the roots of your fighting style. You started winning and ESPN even dubbed your return “The Reincarnation” because you won every single fight after that. You played it up and got that phoenix tattoo.”
Connor flashed me a wide grin, one that showcased his gold tooth. Heat crackled to life inside of me. What was it about him that made me so tingly? He was not handsome, not classically. What had he looked like when he was younger, before fighting rearranged his face?
“Very good. Looks like you’ve done your research on me.”
I shrugged. “Apparently, I didn’t do enough.”
“My past...doesn’t matter. I don’t think about the past. Only the present.”
Sensing I was prodding a little too hard, I changed the subject. “I want to see the island.” I turned to him and instinctively grabbed onto his bicep. Damn, I forgot how hard he was. My hand had a mind of its own as it stroked down his arm. “Will you show me around?”
Connor stiffened. “I don’t know. There’s not much to see, really.”
“Liar,” I said. I accidentally got a little too close to him, and my breasts grazed his arm, and I felt him flinch. He was attracted to me, I knew that from our very first meeting. Was it just because I was female, or was there more?
Lord, I couldn’t think about that. I didn’t need or want Connor lusting after me. I let go.
He smirked at me. “So, is that how it’s going to be here? I’m going to be Crystal’s personal tour guide?”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh please. It’s the first day and I’m asking you to show me around, and you obviously know this place well. Don’t be such a drama king.”
He tilted his head and shook it slightly. “I just don’t know if you can handle the mana of the Island.”
“The mana. You keep saying that word and I don’t even know what it means.”
“The mana is the magical force that allowed the native to move statues weighing fourteen tons from one side of the island to the other. It’s magical mind power.”
I stifled a sigh. I’d thought Connor was charming for a second. Now he was being his usual assface self. “It can move fourteen ton statues with magic? Cut it out. You know that’s not true. Just show me the island.”
“You don’t believe in the magic of the mind?”
“No,” I replied firmly, and crossed my arms. I had a good reason for that, too. But I wasn’t about to share it with him. “And you’re starting to freak me out because I feel like you really believe there is magic on this island. And there isn’t! We live in, you know, the world of logic.”
“Looks like I’m going to have to show you my mana. I just hope you can handle it.”
I swallowed.
It wasn’t Connor’s mana I was worried about handling.
7- Connor
I couldn’t be gallivanting around taking cabs everywhere during the sixty days I was here, so I brought Crystal to the Island’s one and only motorcycle shop. I could have just gotten a rental, but I wanted something with a little extra horsepower.
If Crystal wanted me to show her around the island--fine. I’d give the tour of the fucking century.
And I’d do it with the wind in our faces, with those voluptuous tits of hers pressed up against me. Fuck, the way she’d inadvertently grazed me with her breasts had caught me off guard back in front of the hotel. I had to use her “One Mississippi” trick just to keep from getting a raging hard on.
There was also the way she’d trash talked Toro and Dick. Maybe it was my Irish nature coming out, but there was nothing I loved more than a woman talking shit. It was a damn turn on. Crystal had known me for a week, and she already knew just how to press my buttons.
“You did you
r research on me before you came, clearly. Did you do any research on the island?”
“I did a little,” she replied with her hands on her hips. “Unfortunately, I spent the last week of work trying to wrap up all my projects since I would be, you know, out fucking here for sixty days.”
“Geez, woman. You don’t sound even a hint of bitter.”
“Oh, don’t I? I can increase the bitch factor for you if you want.”
Damn, I agreed to play tour guide, and instead of thanking me, she was riding my ass.
I fucking loved it. She was so hot, I wasn’t surprised that she projected an outward bitch shield to protect herself from the guys that no doubt threw themselves at her.
After a few minutes of browsing, I came across a motorcycle that caught my eye. “This one,” I said, pointing to it. It was a lighter weight Harley, but not one that I’d seen before, black with red trim.
“A custom Harley Davidson made for off-roading. You’ve got a fine eye, Sir.”
“You decided so quick,” Crystal commented. “Do you want to take it for a test ride or something?”
I gave the attendant my black card. “Just run the whole thing on this.”
“Are you sure? That’s over twenty thousand American--”
I cut him off with a motion of my hand. “Just run it.” The man walked off to the register.
Crystal stared at me, waiting for my reply. Her arms were at her sides and her head was tilted a little. Though I stared straight into her blue eyes, her swollen breasts were impossible to miss in my peripheral. I took a step into her so I was standing almost inches from her. She smelled like fresh tropical fruit and everything feminine. I revelled as I breathed her in, and put my finger on her chin, tipping her face up slightly. “Once I decide what I want, I don’t keep looking around.”
The shop attendant popped up and handed me back my card. “Went through. You’re all good.” He had a surprised look on his face, as if he hadn’t expected my card to work. “Enjoy your honeymoon.”
Crystal’s eyes went wide with panic. “Oh, it’s n--”
I cleared my throat and wrapped my arm around her. “Thank you so much, lad. We’re very excited to be here. Aren’t we baby?”
She gritted her teeth but didn’t say anything.
I grinned and ushered Crystal out of the place, keys in hand while the attendant brought the motorcycle around to the front. As soon as we were outside, she separated her body from mine.
“You really are an asshole, you know. I’m not going to be able to put up with you like this the whole time here.” She crossed her arms right underneath her tits, which I was quickly learning was a habit of hers when she got pissed. Fuck me, it was impossible not to look at those things. Plus, the way they bulged out, well, it made me want to get her riled up more often. I blinked and refocused.
“Oh? Tell me what you mean exactly. Can’t put up with this. With me.”
“Oh please, Connor. You’re not as dense as you look. I saw the way you worked the Zoreto reps back there. You played them like fiddles. You know what you’re doing even though you appear like a trash-talking thug.”
The attendant brought the motorcycle around and left it in front of us. He probably thought we were having our first marital spat, and he strategically left it in front of us without saying anything. The motorcycle gleamed in the sun, and Crystal walked toward it and skidded to a stop on those stupid fucking heels of hers. “No way am I going for a ride with you on that thing. I’d rather ride a bareback horse back to our place.”
I pushed my sunglasses on and watched her from behind the dark lenses. “You wanted to see the Island, this is the way to do it.”
“Are you crazy? Half of the roads aren’t even paved! Do you even know how to drive that thing? And I’m wearing a dress. A really expensive dress.”
I invaded her space, and her crisp, sultry scent teased my senses. “Come on, don’t get your feckin’ giblets in a twist.”
Crystal shook her head. “Was that even English?”
“You know what I’m saying.” I pivoted towards the motorcycle and swung on. I patted the seat behind me. “Hop on and I’ll show you a whole new world.”
Crystal pinched the bridge of her nose. “Disney now?”
“Don’t you feel a little like Princess Jasmine? But with those fun bags and that blonde hair, you make a piss poor Jasmine.”
“You’re so crude,” Crystal hissed as she climbed on behind me. Her knees branched around my hips. “Wait one second.” From her non-fun bag, that Kate Spade purse of hers, she pulled out a ridiculously oversized pair of Zelda Fitzgerald style sunglasses.
“Closer,” I commanded.
Crystal tensed, her manicured nails drove into my shoulders, but she obliged. She slid close until she gave me exactly what I wanted: those supersized tits pressed against my spine. Feck, if that didn’t give me a chub I’d have to check my neck for a pulse. I could practically feel her nipples pressing into my chest.
“I hate you right now,” she murmured in my ear as she pressed her body into my back on the motorcycle.
“Shh. I know you want to see the shiny shimmering pleasure.” I warbled off-key to her. Her silky, petulant voice turned my half-hard dick into a raging tentpole.
She sighed. “It’s shiny shimmering splendid. Did you not have the Disney sing-along tape as a kid?”
“Oh, is it splendid? I like pleasure so much more.”
I smiled as I revved the engine. This was going to be a fun ride.
For me, at least.
For the next half hour, we drove mostly in silence out of the main town of the island and though the back roads. For the first few minutes, Crystal’s body was tensed against mine, as if she was purposefully stiffening her body as not to give into me. Once we got to the rural parts of the road, she squeezed my sides harder.
I didn’t hate the feeling. I felt so free as we sped along the country roads of green. Hell, it almost reminded me a little of the verdant pastures I grew up roaming back in Ireland. Though no green would ever match the deep emerald green after a rainstorm in my homeland.
“What are those?” Crystal asked, pointing a hand out to the side of the road. “They look like huge rock statues. They’re everywhere.”
“Those huge rocks are the moai. They weigh up to 20 tons each.”
She was silent for a moment.
“How on earth did they move those?”
“The mana, Princess.”
“The what? Wait, did you just call me Princess again? We are not making that a thing.” She pinched my side, and I deliberately swayed the bike, making her squeal and clutch at me.
I laughed as I eased the Harley to a stop so we could look out at the grassy field to our left, which was littered with the huge statues. They were lined up perfectly, as if whatever power that moved them into place had laid a ruler out. In the late afternoon sun, their shadows grew long.
Without getting off the vehicle, I explained, “The mana that I told you about. The magical force. The ancients moved those rocks with the magical force of the mana.”
I glanced behind my back to gauge her facial expression. As I expected, she was pursing her lips. “The magic joke was funny once. You’ve got to stop it. It wasn’t funny the first time, and it’s still not funny.”
I ran a hand through my hair and lifted my sunglasses to get a better view of the things. “Oh, but I’m being quite serious, Princess. Scholars have tried to determine how they moved the statutes. They are all over the island, but the type of volcanic rock they used to carve them is only found on the west end.”
Her arms were still wrapped around my torso, and it wasn’t lost on me that she could have let go at any time since we were at a standstill. Instead, her grip tightened.
“Magic doesn’t exist. Stop freaking me out. Can we just go back already? I don’t like this.” There was a desperation in her voice as it broke. I hadn’t heard that before.
What secret was she hiding? H
er reaction struck me as wrong. Then, my mind shifted to how she would sound making those noises underneath mine.
Her soft, curvy body was soft in comparison to my rock-hard frame. When I was preparing for a fight I kept myself lean, and since I had just fought Woodley and was now preparing to fight Toro, I was under five percent body fat. I was a sinewy counterpoint to her feminine body, and already burned to lose myself in her buxom curves.
As she dug her chin into my shoulder, a strain of vulnerability seeped out. Maybe it was just that it was the first day here and she was getting adjusted. Long flights to the opposite hemisphere had the ability to mess with a person’s body chemistry. I sensed that I’d touched a deeper nerve with Crystal, though.
“One more stop and we’ll go back,” I said firmly, in a tone that left no room for debate. “Since you don’t believe in it, I’ve got to show you something.”
“Okay,” she breathed back silently to me, and I headed for the far west side of the island where there were almost no inhabitants left.
At least, I hoped to God Julio was still there.
I was going to need him to help me keep my own mana straight over these next sixty days.
When we pulled up to the only house on the west side of the island, though the thatch-roofed abode was closer to a shack than a true house, Crystal let out a laugh.
“This is the mana?” she asked, somewhat rhetorically.
“Don’t be talking like that here, Princess.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed deeply as I helped her off the motorcycle.
Julio’s tiny wooden cabin was almost the same as I’d left it five years ago. Tiny. Dilapidated. If not for the single giant tree next to it, would take a beating from the sun all day every day. The west side of the island had been filled with trees hundreds of years ago. Now there were under one hundred, despite efforts to replant.
Crystal looked like she was trying to stay balanced on a tightrope as she walked through the dirt in her heels. We paused on the rock patio. I lifted my hand to knock, but didn’t. “Let me do the talking while we’re here.”
Fantasy Island Page 6