Dead Man's Isle (Harlequin Crew #2)

by Caroline Peckham

  “As many as you want, I guess,” he said with a shrug.

  “Holy shit.” I strode forward, grabbing his face between my hands. “Are they still hiring, Ruben?” I asked in desperation.

  “Er, I think so?” he said, his lips squished together by my grip on his cheeks.

  “Then you can have the job, dude, but only if you get me one too and keep it a damn secret,” I whispered, my eyes whipping to the door and back.

  “You wanna…work there, boss?” He frowned, his lips still puckered out like a fish.

  “Yeah, but no one can know. Like you said, conflict of interest. Not for you ‘cause I don’t give a shit, but it would look bad on my business if I was seen working for the competition. I could wear a mask or something, right? I’ll be like Zorro, only instead of a sword, I’ll have a branch to whip people’s asses with. You won’t sell me out, will you Ruben?”

  He shook his head. “No, boss. I’d be living on the streets if it wasn’t for you.”

  I released his face, but clapped his cheek a few times. “Good boy. What time are you going up there?”

  “Eight,” he said.

  “Pick me up from the parking lot on the way.”

  “Don’t you need to like…have an interview?” he asked.

  “No, the Granvilles have been dying to get a piece of me for years. They’ll love having this over me.” I grimaced, but it was what it was. I needed the cash and I needed it without selling my cock. Johnny D was suspiciously quiet on the matter, in a fucking mood. He’d had to form a reluctant relationship with my right hand since Rogue, and he wasn’t best pleased with that considering he’d now had a taste of the Holy Grail of pussies. He only agreed to it at all so long as I was thinking about her - which I was constantly so at least that worked out.

  But despite the shit storm that was my life right now and my dick being pissed off with me, things were looking up. Because I’d just secured myself a job tickling feet and fulfilling all kinds of creepy fantasies. Hashtag winning.

  ***

  “You want a job?” Jolene asked with a smug smile on her full red lips as she sat across her desk from me in her powder pink office. Her long blonde hair had been straightened ruthlessly and her dress was a shocking neon yellow colour that offended my eyes.

  “Yeah,” I said, folding my arms. “But I’m not taking a contract. I’ll give you your cut, show up under a fake name and wear a mask. It’ll be part of my act here.”

  Jolene chuckled, inspecting her long, tiger print nails. “What kind of mask?”

  “I dunno, what mask do you want me to wear?” I demanded, but immediately regretted it as her smile widened.

  “Hmm, I’m sure I can find something suitable.”

  “I need to start tonight though,” I said, shifting in my seat.

  “Are you in some kind of financial trouble, Johnny James?” she asked in a mocking purr. She was loving this. Me coming to her for charity.

  “That’s none of your business,” I said simply, my jaw tightening.

  “Surely my nephew can help you out if you’re in trouble?” She pushed, arching a perfectly manicured brow.

  “He can’t know about this,” I said seriously. “None of the Harlequins can. It’s between you and me, alright? Or there’s no deal.”

  She considered that for a moment then nodded. “Alright, you can start now. I’ll need your shift schedule from Afterlife so I can work in hours for you later. How many do you want?”

  “As many as you have going spare,” I said, raising my chin.

  “Okay, sugar.” She smiled brightly. “Come with me.” She got to her feet, moving to the back wall behind her desk and pressing her hand to it.

  A secret door swung inward and I followed her through it in surprise, heading along a dark corridor. She pushed through another door where a stone stairway led us down under the massive house and we soon stepped out into a large storage room full of costumes, makeup and decorations for various themed parties.

  Jolene took a black crow mask from a box and held it out to me. “Is this to your tastes, Johnny James?” she asked and I shrugged, putting it on and eyeing myself in a broken mirror on the wall. It had a large shiny black beak and feathers that tickled my neck. It covered my whole face, so it was good enough. “We’ll call you Crow while you’re here then,” she decided then her gaze slid down my body. “We have a client coming in in twenty minutes who has a fondness for alien tentacles.”

  Oh goody.

  She moved to a rack of costumes and plucked out a gimp suit with bright green tentacles stitched onto it and I sighed internally. Fuck my life.

  “Nothing sexual,” I reiterated and she laughed.

  “This is sexual to them, but you won’t have to touch them with anything other than the tentacles, okay?”

  “Okay,” I gritted out.

  “You’d better get changed then.” She tossed the gimp suit at me, chuckling to herself as she walked to the door. “Oh and you can use the back entrance when you arrive for your shifts if you like? The fire exit lets you in here and I’ll leave out the costumes you’ll need for each client.” She paused, waiting for something and I stared blankly back at her.

  “What?” I grunted.

  “A thank you would be nice.”

  I sighed. I guessed she was doing me a solid. “Thank you, Jolene.”

  “You’re welcome.” She smirked and slipped out the door as I gazed at the black gimp suit in my hand, thinking of Rogue. If this was what it took to make money and keep my dick clean, then so be it.

  I stripped out of my clothes and pulled on the tight leather suit which clung to every inch of my skin. The tentacles dangled around me and the addition of the crow mask made me look fucking psychotic. I went to that detached place inside me, checking out mentally so I could pull this off without a hitch. Then I headed out the door and found Jolene waiting for me, biting her lip on a grin as she took in the outfit.

  “Perfect,” she announced with a light laugh. “Come on then, he’s arrived early.”

  “Lucky me,” I muttered as I followed her along a stone corridor and through a door into a glitzy stairway lit with pink lighting. We headed into a corridor full of doors and she guided me along it, my gazing hooking on Ruben at the far end of it waiting outside a room. He wore a furry wolf suit with a transparent window over his crotch that revealed his bare cock. Nice.

  He gave me a smile and a nod that was more fitting for soldiers going into war and I might have found it kinda funny if this wasn’t my actual life.

  Jolene rapped her knuckles on a door to my right and a male voice answered. “Come in, my alien pudding.”

  “Showtime.” Jolene winked at me. “You keep thirty percent of the client’s pay and all of your tips, Crow. I hope you find what you want in there.” She wiggled her eyebrows teasingly then I pressed my shoulders back and entered the room.

  A shirtless man with a large gut and hairy chest waited inside, laid out on a white table under the deep pink lights.

  “Oh my, what a mask,” he gasped. “And what big tentacles you have.” He grinned widely. “What’s your name?”

  “Crow,” I answered in a low voice.

  “Well don’t just stand there, Crow, tickle me silly,” he urged, wetting his lips.

  I thought of Rogue, filled my head to the brim with her and moved forward to do as the guy asked, using little rods on the tentacles to control them. The man started giggling like a child as I tickled him and I made sure to do a damn good job too. I needed those damn tips.

  “What shall I call you, sir?” I asked.

  “Just talk in your alien language to me,” he panted as he got hard and started touching himself.

  “Gleeb glop ga-loopa,” I said in what was a perfect freaking alien voice thank you very much.

  “Oh my! Tickle my nipples, Crow,” he demanded and I did, tickling those jiggly teets good as his hand worked inside his boxers and he had the time of his life.

  I whipped
my tentacle across his crotch and he extracted his hand with a gasp and a shiver. I wasn’t going to let him come too quickly. If there was one thing I knew about earning good tips with clients like this, it was all about prolonging their release.

  “Glabba jabba do-wol,” I snapped sternly and his throat bobbed excitedly.

  “I’ve been a bad, bad space cadet,” he said breathily. “Imprison me on your ship and teach me the manners of your species.”

  I whipped him across his thighs and he cried out in pleasure.

  Well, it looks like I’m officially going to alien spaceman hell. But I’m still as loyal as a dog to Rogue. So it’s totally worth it.

  T he roar of the speedboat's engine had electricity thrumming through my veins as I stood beside Maverick while we cut across the waves and tore towards Sunset Cove.

  "You sure you wanna do it this way, beautiful?" he called to me over the noise while I held my arm out to feel the spray of the water against my skin.

  "It's gonna be pretty obvious that you and I aren't enemies if you drop me off safe and sound at their front door, Rick," I replied and he nodded, turning the boat south so that I had to look back over my shoulder to keep my gaze locked on Sinners' Playground.

  It was a beautiful day, the sun baking down on me and my skin tingling from the kiss of its rays. I was wearing one of Rick's tanks again and I had to admit that I’d been getting used to the free and breezy fit of his clothes, but my tits could definitely do with a bra day or two before they decided to start making friends with my knees.

  We sped down the coast until we weren't too far out from an empty patch of shore a few miles outside of the town and Maverick cut the engine.

  He turned to face me, looking down at me from behind his mirrored aviator sunglasses and my heart began to pound as I looked back up at him.

  "You got my number memorised, baby girl?" he asked me, his hands finding my hips as he drew me to him and I was filled with this intense sense of foreboding.

  I didn't know when I’d see him again after this. I couldn't exactly go for a visit and if he set foot in Harlequin territory then he was as good as dead. But we'd agreed to try and figure out a way once I was able to slip away. Who knew how long that might take though, especially with how possessive Fox could be.

  I repeated his number back to him and he nodded, yanking me closer so that he could claim a kiss from my needy lips. It was closing in on sunset already and the plan had been for me to head over here mid morning, but then we'd realised that not seeing each other meant not fucking each other and one thing had led to another...and another, and, well, here we were five hours later.

  I drew him close and he groaned as he tugged the hem of my shirt up, pushing his fingers inside the boxers I'd borrowed from him in place of my own underwear. But trailing through Sunset Cove with my cooch uncovered probably wasn't the best idea, so this shirt and boxers combo which could almost pass for a dress was what I'd landed on.

  "Rick," I protested as his fingers worked their way between my thighs and he moved his mouth down my jaw.

  "Are you going to let them touch you like this too?" he asked me in a rough voice just as he sank two fingers into me and I gasped, gripping his arms in an attempt to push him back, but he gripped my ass in his free hand and held me in place. My period was over so I was tampon free - not that that would have stopped him but it made this easier logistically. And I was all about the logistics. "Are you going to fuck them before you fuck them over?"

  "Why are you asking me that?" I demanded as he pumped his fingers again, his thumb finding my clit and pressing down hard.

  "Why are you getting even wetter at the thought of it?" he asked right back, his teeth nipping my earlobe and making me hiss.

  "I'm not," I protested, trying to push him back again but as his fingers sank in deeper and as his thumb circled my clit like a fucking pro, a moan escaped me too.

  "Don't lie to me, beautiful. I've had years to think about this. To wonder what the answer was to the question we all asked ourselves a thousand times - which one of us would you pick?"

  "I never wanted to pick," I growled but my pussy clamped his fingers tightly and I was pulling him closer instead of pushing him back now. Damn him.

  "I know. That's what I realised. The innocent girl we used to know might never have picked because you loved us all so sweetly. But this version of you, this jaded, damaged, fucking beautiful version knows how to claim all the best things in life. And that got me thinking about you coming all over JJ's cock-"

  I tried to say something to that, but he drove his fingers in harder and all that escaped me was a wanton moan as my fingernails bit into his arm and my wet pussy begged for more.

  "-and it made me think about you not picking in a whole different way. Because now I'm thinking you might just be a greedy girl. And no, you won't pick one of us. You'll just pick us all."

  "Maverick," I panted as his thumb circled harder, his fingers plunged deeper and his teeth sank into my neck hard enough for me to know he'd marked me with them.

  "So when you give in to that desire, baby girl, and you let one of them sink their filthy, Harlequin cock into this greedy, greedy cunt of yours. I want you to remember who owns it. I want you to remember that it's mine and when you're coming for them, you're still coming for me. And I'll be back to claim what I own in blood one day very soon."

  Maverick turned his head and kissed me hard, his hand moving faster as he drove his fingers inside me and punished my clit for this imagined betrayal and the moment I was coming and moaning for him, he bit down on my lip hard enough to draw blood.

  I jerked my head back, cursing at him as my pussy squeezed hard around his fingers and trapped them deep inside me while it took and fucking took from him. He moved his free hand from my ass and snatched a fistful of my hair, yanking it back so that I was looking up at my own reflection in his mirrored glasses. My lips were parted and bloody, my pupils wide and my chest heaving. I was destroyed for him, ruined, owned and he fucking knew it.

  "Say it, beautiful," he growled, anger lacing his tone like he had already decided the truth of what would happen next.

  "You own it," I panted, knowing that was what he wanted to hear and feeling the truth of it while his fingers remained so deep inside me.

  He smirked at me, clearly satisfied by that as he let me go and drew his fingers back out of me, sucking my taste from them and watching me from behind those fucking glasses.

  "If you're so sure I'll be fucking the rest of the boys, does that mean you'll be fucking Mia again the moment I'm gone?" I demanded, straightening out my borrowed clothes and trying to regain some control of this goddamn situation.

  "No," he replied simply and I was surprised by how relieved I felt at that. "I have to get back to Dead Man's Isle first, don't I, baby girl?"

  I took a swing at him and he barked a humourless laugh as he dodged it before grabbing me and whirling me around to look at the sandy beach which I was going to have to swim to. It wasn't that far and the tide was low which meant I would probably be able to wade back for more than half of it.

  "None of that shit matters, beautiful," Maverick said in rough voice as he held me against his chest and lowered his mouth to my ear. His stubble grazed my skin as he spoke and my heart raced for him even though I still wanted to dick kick him. "Eyes on the prize. This right here is no man's land we're entering. Both of us will do whatever we have to to come out the other side of it victorious. You do what you have to do to tear them apart from the inside out and find those fucking keys. And if for any reason you can't manage that then I'll do whatever I have to to get into that crypt using Mia. That's the focus here, right?"

  I looked at the Ferris wheel in the distance and my heart twisted with pain as I thought about them abandoning me on that fucking ferry. A part of me felt all kinds of shitty about what I was planning, but all I had to do was focus on what they'd done to me and I was certain I could follow through with it. So that meant Rick was
right, didn't it? Getting into the crypt was all that mattered. And I had to concentrate on that.

  "We could just run away," I breathed, wondering why I was even saying it out loud because I already knew his answer.

  "It's too late for that, beautiful," Rick growled but there was a strange amount of sadness to his tone which told me he almost wished he could say yes to me instead. "Don't you feel it? The pull of this place calling to you? We were born and bred for Sunset Cove. We'll live and die here one way or another. There is no turning back from this, our paths are all set. So we just have to look this fate in the eye and deal with it. There's no changing our minds now."

  I nodded sadly, knowing he was right. I'd been running for ten long years and no matter how much I'd always denied it, a part of me had always known I'd end up back here. This really was our unfinished business and one way or another me and my boys were going to have to deal with it.

  I turned and looked up at him, a bitter, angry creature rising between us which neither of us could vanquish. But this was it, I was leaving and with the life he led, I wasn't going to just turn my back and refuse to offer him a goodbye.

  I reached out to grip the back of his neck then tiptoed up, taking those fucking sunglasses from his face and tossing them aside so that he was forced to look me in the eye.

  "You'd better believe I own your dick if you own my pussy, Maverick Stone," I growled. "And if I have to cut a bitch for getting close to it before I come back to claim it, then I am more than willing to do that. And I might take a fucking ball from you too."

  A dark smile tugged at his mouth which didn't offer me any promises and I shoved his chest angrily before pressing a rough and brutal kiss to his lips.

  “Take this,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the pink phone Fox had gotten me which I hadn’t seen since the night Maverick stole me from the cops. “It’s dead but you can charge it once you get back. It’s no use to me anyway.” I nodded, tucking it into the side of the boxers I was wearing and feeling glad once again that the badger had forked out for the waterproof model.