Dead Man's Isle (Harlequin Crew #2)

by Caroline Peckham

  I caught her chin, bringing her mouth to mine as her eyes become hooded with sleepiness again and I smirked against her full lips, taking a hungry kiss from them. Her tongue tangled with mine and I held her hard against my chest, her heart pounding furiously in time with my own.

  My mind was struggling to catch up to the fact that I really had Rogue Easton right here in my arms. She was everything I’d ever wanted. The only thing I’d ever wanted. And nothing and no one was going to ruin this moment.

  “What. The. Fuck?!” Mia shrieked and Rogue’s head snapped around, breaking our kiss.

  “Shit,” I growled as I looked over Rogue’s shoulder, finding Mia standing there in a tight blue dress with her hands on her hips and her face pinched in absolute rage.

  Rogue climbed off of my lap and I threw the sheet over her as I searched for my boxers, but I couldn’t spot them anywhere. Mia’s eyes fell to my thoroughly spent dick and the period blood coating it which told her exactly where it had just been.

  “You fucked her? Like, in the vag fucked her?” she screamed. “You won’t fuck me anywhere but my ass, but you’ll fuck this ho on her freaking period?!”

  “Don’t call her that,” I snapped.

  Where are my fucking boxers?

  “Oh my god is that a tampon on my salt rock crystal!?” Mia screamed, pointing to the stupid rock beside the bed and solving the mystery of the missing tampon. It was like starring in an Agatha Christie novel.

  I looked around in frustration as Rogue got out of bed, snagging my shirt from the floor and pulling it on with a tight look on her face.

  “I’ll give you guys some space.” She headed to the door, but I caught her arm as panic flared inside me at the thought of her leaving. But then my gaze flicked to Mia and I hated my fucking life, but I had to calm her down. If I sent her away now, she was never going to come back.

  “Stay,” I commanded Rogue, trying to meet her eye but she wouldn’t look at me.

  No. Why now? Why couldn’t I just get one single day with her without it being ruined?

  I released a noise of fury then let her go and took hold of Mia’s arm instead, dragging her out of the room, shutting the door behind me and snarling my frustration. Rogue was a flight risk at the best of times but right now she was a Boeing 747 ready for take-off to fucking anywhere. And I couldn’t let her get away. Not again.

  “Put some fucking clothes on!” Mia shrieked at me, yanking her arm out of my grip as we made it out of my suite and I locked the door, turning her back on me.

  I stalked down the hall, shoving through the door into a storage closet and grabbing some sweatpants from a pile. I tugged them on, carving my fingers through my hair. I had to keep it together, act like I gave shit about Mia’s feelings and somehow smooth this over. She liked bringing other women to bed sometimes, she’d even suggested it with Rogue, so maybe I could swing this some kind of way to make her think this was for her benefit. Fuck if I knew how though.

  “She’s Fox Harlequin’s girl, baby,” I said, landing on the first thing I could come up with and she frowned at me.

  “And what?” she snapped. “Now you’re sharing a pussy with your enemy?”

  “No.” I stepped toward her as she folded her arms and glared at me. “I made a vow to ruin her for Fox. The girl’s obsessed with me. I told Fox I’d fuck her in every way I wanted and destroy her for him, that’s all.”

  “That’s it?” She pursed her lips. “Then how come you don’t fuck my pussy?”

  “Because your ass is so fucking perfect and pussy does nothing for me.” I moved into her personal space, reaching around to squeeze it and I could see my plan was working as a small smile tried to pull at her lips.

  “Better than the rainbow chick’s vag?”

  “So much better,” I lied. Rogue’s pussy was the best thing I’d ever felt. End of discussion. But that was not knowledge for Mia’s ears. “I’m just breaking Fox’s girl’s heart, Mia. She’s already half way in love with me, a couple more nights in my bed and she’ll be so far gone I’ll be able to hear her heart crack in two when I dump her cheap ass back outside Fox’s door.” Those words tasted vile on my tongue, but I needed to keep Mia on side, so I spat them out anyway.

  She bit her lip then a giggle escaped her as she pressed a hand to her arm. “You’re a bad man.”

  “The baddest,” I agreed with a smirk and she leaned up to rake her tongue up my neck. “Can I help break her?” she whispered excitedly.

  “She’s not into chicks,” I said as her hand slid down my chest towards my cock and I caught it in my grip, bringing it to my mouth and kissing her knuckles to cover for stopping her.

  “Boo.” She pushed her lips out.

  “I’m gonna need a little more time with her, but when I’m done I’ll come right back to my favourite girl.” I twisted my fingers in her hair and pulled tight enough to make her gasp. “And you’re gonna remind me what I’ve been missing, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” she said breathily. “I’ll suck your cock so good, Rick.”

  “I’ll think about that next time I’m inside the little unicorn,” I said darkly, though I absolutely wouldn’t do any such fucking thing.

  She chuckled wickedly. “Do you have to go back to her just yet?”

  I considered palming her off, but I couldn’t risk her getting pissy at me again. “No, let the unicorn wait. I wanna eat breakfast with my girl.” I slid my arm around her, drawing her down the hall and fighting the urge to look back as my heart yanked me in the opposite direction to the way I was going. But I needed to do some damage control, so I sent one of my men down the hall to guard the room before leading Mia into the stairwell.

  I couldn’t help but smirk quietly to myself as I walked. Mia had swallowed my lie way too easily and now I even had her cheering me on to fuck Rogue senseless. I was one serious asshole of a guy, and I didn’t give a single flying fuck about that.

  I had the world’s angriest fucking shower as I scrubbed the blood and Maverick's fucking cum and every filthy deed we'd gotten up to off of my flesh. But of course when I stepped out of the shower and caught a glimpse of myself in the floor length mirror I found bruises, hickies, teeth marks and plenty of other evidence of what he'd been doing to me still staining my skin.

  I huffed irritably, found a tampon and inserted it so angrily that a squeak of pain escaped me. Fucking vagina javelin. Who the fuck invented that shit? Might as well stick a cactus up my cooch and be done with it.

  I dried off quickly, dumping the towel on the wet floor like a brat and stomped out into Maverick's bedroom where I stole a pair of bright blue basketball shorts and a red tank top to wear from his drawer. Then I tossed the rest of his shit out on the floor and stuck the empty tampon canister into the box of revolver bullets which he kept in his nightstand.

  The gun hadn’t reappeared since I’d caught him playing Russian roulette and I was hopeful that meant I’d succeeded in delivering it to the sea. Not that he’d confirm anything about that fun hobby with me when I’d tried to force him to tell me about it. I just had to chalk it up to his damage and wait for him to be ready to share, but even the idea of him risking his life like that left a foul taste in my mouth.

  I spied an elastic band and tied my rainbow hair in a knot on the top of my head. When I turned to look at myself in the mirror I was pleased to see I looked like utter shit which was a nice reflection of how I felt.

  I was hungry. And mad. And like a tiny bit hormonal thanks to Aunt Flow visiting and me being ditched like a used condom before I'd even managed to come down from my orgasm high.

  I started rummaging through drawers and cupboards, but it quickly became painfully clear that there was no food in this place so I strode over to the door and banged my fist against it instead.

  "What?" a gruff voice came from whatever watchdog Maverick had chosen to leave guarding me.

  "I'm hungry. I want to go look for some food. Let me out," I called back.

  "No ca
n do. Boss said you gotta stay in there."

  "Oh, so he can fuck me on my period, but he can't provide me with chocolate when his monster cock makes my cramps worse?" I yelled back. I mean, they weren’t really any worse but that didn’t make me want chocolate any less, so I didn’t give a shit.

  The watchdog spluttered something unintelligible but didn't open the door. Fine. Fuck him.

  I looked around with narrowed eyes, my gaze falling on the balcony door which was cracked open. Guess I'm taking the back door then.

  I stripped Maverick's somewhat ruined – alright, violently bloodstained - sheets from his bed, accidentally knocking a potted plant flying with my ass as I worked so that the vase smashed and spilled soil all over the floor. Woops.

  I hip-bumped the balcony door open and looked down at the five floor drop to the pool, spotting a drain pipe off to the right of the balcony below this one.

  I quickly tied the sheet to the railing then hopped up and over it, ignoring the swoop in my gut as I began shimmying down to the lower level. Maverick needed a reminder that I wasn't some toy to be kept in a cupboard and played with when he got bored. I was a creature of the sea and I wouldn't be kept locked up in a goldfish tank. Let alone put up with him going for a dip with a dogfish while my back was turned. Or maybe she was more of a shark with a clam for a vagina. Yeah, that sounded about right. Stupid, clammy vag bitch. If he was still with her, he shouldn't have been with me. He could keep his wandering sea cucumber to himself from now on. Gah.

  My feet met with the tiles which lined the balcony beneath Maverick’s, and I grinned to myself as I spotted a bottle of ketchup which had been left on the little table there. I quickly wrote a message with it across the tiles for the douche of the hour to find when he followed me.

  Go back to your clam vag.

  Nice. Although as I looked at it, I realised the ketchup was running in the heat of the sun and it was pretty illegible already. Dammit. I quickly drew a huge cock with an arrow pointing to it and the word 'you' which was easier to interpret then moved to tackle the drainpipe.

  Breaking and entering wasn't my usual bag, but I had mastered the art of escaping a long damn time ago and the drainpipe was a lifelong friend of mine by now. The trick was checking that it was secured to the wall nice and tight - I learned that one the hard way when one I'd been scaling gave way and I fell six foot into a rose bush. I swear I'd still been pulling thorns out of my ass a week later and I wasn't going to make that mistake twice.

  So after giving the drain pipe a good shake to check it was bolted down well, I hopped over the railing and quickly shimmied down.

  A few of Maverick's little gangbanger boys looked my way as I strode out to the poolside bar and moved around behind it, but I ignored their grumpy asses and just went about my business, letting them decide for themselves whether or not they should be interrupting me.

  I ducked behind the sadly unmanned bar - I guess bartenders don’t get many shifts in gang compounds - then began to rummage. Jackpot! There was a fridge behind the bar and I found a box inside with some cheese salad sandwiches in it and the name 'Dave' written in sharpie on the top of it. Who knew gangsters brought packed lunches? But even better than that was the jumbo bar of chocolate sitting in the clear box alongside his sandwiches. Mine. Sorry not sorry, Dave.

  I tucked the bar of chocolate into my pocket and my sandwiches into the other one which made Maverick's shorts slide halfway down my ass with the weight of it, then turned to look at my choices of beverage. A bottle of Malibu whispered my name on the breeze and I snatched it, striding back out into the sun again as more gang members looked my way.

  "What are you doing out here?" one of them called and I levelled him with a dark look before striding over to stand before him. He was kinda huge, built like a fucking bull and covered in even more tattoos than Maverick. I probably should have been terrified of him and all that, but honestly, I’d been running with dudes like this for so long that I knew the drill. They were just sheep in the flock and the only one I really had to watch out for was the wolf who controlled them. And seeing as Maverick had made the mistake of making it clear he had no plans to kill me, I found myself utterly at ease amongst his band of scary cronies.

  "Rick told me to come relax in the pool. He also told me that none of you assholes would bother me and that I should tell him if you did. So, are you bothering me, Rupert?"

  "That's not my-"

  "I need some sunglasses." I reached up and took his from his face before placing them on mine and flashing him a smile. "Be a lamb and hold that rubber ring in place for me, yeah?" I pointed at the black ring which was floating in the pool beside us and he frowned. "Chop, chop, Rupert, if I have to tell Rick you fucked up my morning he will have your balls for it and we both know that's true."

  "My name is Dave," he ground out, dropping to one knee to hold the ring for me while a few of the other gangsters exchanged glances. Ooooh, this dude was gonna hate me so hard when he realised I was not only bullshitting him but that I had stolen his fancy lunchbox. Sorry Rupert.

  I dropped my ass into the hole in the rubber ring, sucking in a breath at the feeling of the cool water soaking into the ass of my stolen shorts before relaxing back into it and kicking off the edge of the pool.

  "Crank up the music, Rupert. I don't wanna be able to hear myself think while I'm relaxing. And make sure you choose some decent songs or I'll be pissed."

  Dave scowled at me but moved away to set some songs playing over the speaker system that surrounded the pool. I grinned as Sweet Melody by Little Mix came on and I kicked my feet in the water in some vague semblance of dancing. Nice choice, Rupert.

  I drifted away from the edge and pulled the sandwiches from my pocket, eating them quickly before the water sogged them up. Then I hooked out my jumbo bar of chocolate and started in on the real feast, alternating between devouring squares of it and sinking mouthfuls of Malibu until I had a nice buzz going and my cramps were easing off. That just left me with the delicious tenderness my body experienced post fucking Maverick which I was equally pleased with and pissed about.

  I wondered if he was off fucking her now. Was he trying out another pussy now he'd gotten what he wanted by claiming mine? Did I even have any right to be pissed over the idea of that? He wasn't mine. Not anymore. Probably never had been. And he hadn't made me any promises of monogamy. Hell, I didn't even want him to. Did I?

  I ignored the sharp tug of jealousy in my gut and the urge to cut a bitch, trying not to picture them together. Okay, so maybe I was full of shit but I was gonna have to own that because my pissed off vibe wasn’t dulling.

  I used my hand to set the rubber ring spinning in a lazy circle and watched the sky as it turned above me, giving me a view of the hotel half the time then nothing but blue sky and fluffy white clouds the other half. Around and around until the chocolate was all gone and the wrapper was floating away from me, the rum was half gone too and I was somewhat drunkenly singing along to Daisy by Ashnikko which was seriously in line with my current mood. I was in some form of blotting-out-my-problems heaven. Or at least I was until my view suddenly included one seriously pissed off looking gang leader as he glared at me from his position standing at the edge of the pool.

  "Get out, Rogue," Maverick growled as I met his gaze through my stolen sunglasses.

  "Why don't you get in, Rick?" I suggested, kicking some water at him and making his scowl deepen.

  "We need to talk."

  "Fuck your words. I just wanna lay here in the sun and drink until I drown. Is that so much to ask?" I raised the bottle of Malibu to my lips and smirked at him over it as I took a nice big gulp.

  "All of you, fuck off. Now," Maverick barked and I leaned up to get a look as his men all scampered. Rupert tossed me a glare as he hurried away with his empty lunchbox in hand and I snorted a laugh as I kicked some more water at Rick.

  "Are you coming in then?" I called provocatively.

  "If I have to, you'll regret it
."

  "Add it to the fucking list," I muttered. "I regret damn near every decision I've ever made, so what's one more?"

  The look Maverick gave me promised me death by his hand. Or at least a severe spanking and my heart leapt as my pussy clenched and my brain shouted abort mission but was drowned out by the booze induced giggles of my libido. Well damn. I was done for.

  I watched as he yanked his shirt off and tossed it aside before diving into the water and disappearing beneath the surface.

  Several seconds passed and I couldn't help but hum the Jaws theme tune as I pushed myself up a little to try and spot where he was going to surface. I was shark chow for sure, but the way my heart was racing said I wasn't entirely opposed to being eaten by him.

  I screamed as he appeared beneath me, throwing my rubber ring into the air and dunking me in the water. I sank to the bottom like a stone, losing my bottle of Malibu and my new sunglasses with a pang of regret.

  I used my arms to keep myself down there, looking around through the cloud of rainbow hair which surrounded me for any sign of his next attack.

  A hand suddenly locked around my wrist and I was yanked towards the surface, my head breaching it as I was dragged to the edge of the pool where it was just deep enough for me to touch my toes to the bottom.

  Rick shoved me against the tiled wall of the pool and I pushed my hair back out of my face as he caged me in there with water running over his inked up arms and bulging chest muscles. I was going to lick him. Not yet though. But soon.

  "Spit it out, Rogue. You never could hold your tongue anyway so just give it to me," he demanded and I raised my chin as I glared at him.

  "Why is she still here? I thought you sent her away."

  "She came back," he replied unhelpfully.

  "So what does that make me? Your bit on the side? The other woman? Something to pass the time while she was gone?"

  "If you wanted to be my girlfriend maybe you should have asked," he replied darkly.