The Dare Collection May 2019

by JC Harroway

  Kenzie couldn’t remember the last time she had traveled somewhere purely for pleasure. Her trip down to Florida had really been for business. So maybe a weekend in paradise would do her good. She thought about putting all of her day-to-day obligations aside, and how nice that would be. She imagined the two of them on a beach together, relaxing in the sand and walking hand-in-hand along the shore, the warm water lapping at their bare feet. She even thought about what it would be like to have sex on the beach, lying in the sand with the waves crashing around them. Okay, maybe that would be a little too sandy, but she was sure Antonio’s place would be more than adequate for some R & R.

  Kenzie had never cared much about whether the people she dated had money or not, but she had to admit, this whole being whisked away to an island thing was not too bad. She turned and looked at Antonio. He was still looking out the window at the emerging scenery and had a look of boyish excitement in his eyes.

  “So ready,” she said, with a smile.

  * * *

  When they reached the entrance of Antonio’s residence on the island, the sun was beginning to set. It was a gorgeous bungalow, directly on the beach, and the master bedroom opened out onto a swimming pool, which was illuminated by little gold lights.

  “It’s paradise,” Kenzie said, sitting down on the canopy bed and looking out past the pool to the ocean. She thought she saw lights flickering and wondered if it was a passing ship.

  “You hungry?” Antonio asked.

  “Yes,” she said, “but is there anything open around here?” She didn’t remember passing any restaurants or stores on the short drive over.

  “I know a good place,” he said, taking her by the hand and leading her out toward the pool.

  “Wait! I don’t have shoes on!” she protested.

  “You don’t need them at this place,” he said, pulling her away from the room and out into the star-filled night.

  They walked past the swimming pool and directly onto the beach. The sand was soft and cool and felt wonderful between her toes. Directly in front of them there was a table set up, surrounded by lit tiki torches. Antonio led her to her seat and pulled out her chair for her.

  “You arranged all this for me?” she asked.

  “Yes. For us,” he said, lifting an already-filled champagne flute up. Kenzie picked hers up. “Here’s to escaping together.”

  “And to finding a bit of serenity,” she added, clinking her glass to his.

  For the next hour, a professional waitstaff served them a four-course meal filled with local fruit, fish and warm bread. When a serving of chocolate lava cake was placed in front of her Kenzie had to protest.

  “I don’t think I can eat another thing. Seriously, this was the most amazing meal,” she said.

  “It’s amazing to be here with you. It’s so easy to be around you,” Antonio said with a bit too much sincerity for Kenzie’s taste. For a second, she had the nervous suspicion that he was expressing real feelings for her. She wasn’t sure what to do with that, if there was room for her to receive real love again. Hell yes. She could do that. Friendship, sure. But her capacity for love had been closed off since the day of the accident and she wasn’t sure it could ever return.

  “This house, did you build it just for you?” she asked.

  Antonio winced slightly, and she knew she’d hit a nerve.

  “No,” he said plainly. “This place was a project of love—with someone who was in my life for a long time. I hope that doesn’t make you uncomfortable.”

  “Who was she?” Kenzie asked.

  Antonio’s eyes went to a faraway place, like he was remembering. “Her name was Clarissa. She was beautiful. Funny. A great businessperson. You reminded me of her when we first met,” he confessed.

  “So, what happened? Why didn’t you stay together?”

  “Our lives went in different directions...she wanted children.”

  “And you don’t?” Kenzie knew it was a weighty question. It was one that she got sometimes too, from friends, nosy relatives, even the odd stranger. Her answer had always been, “When the time is right.” But with Cole gone, suddenly that response had little meaning.

  “I don’t know,” Antonio said, folding his hands in front of him and looking down. “Or maybe sometimes it takes someone being gone to make you realize what you want, but then it’s too late.”

  Kenzie understood that feeling all too well. She reached out and placed her hands over Antonio’s.

  “It isn’t easy, is it?” She smiled at him, tilting her head to the side and perhaps seeing him in a different light.

  It was completely dark out now, save for the few flickering lights that surrounded their table and as an ocean breeze rippled through the table linens, Kenzie felt an involuntary shiver run up her spine.

  Antonio walked around to her side of the table and in one easy swoop, he scooped her up into his arms. With her arms around his neck and his warm hands on her body, she let him carry her all the way to the giant bed in the middle of their room.

  But when he laid her down on top of the sheets, she got the weird feeling that something between them had shifted. Oh no, she thought to herself. All the signs were there—him opening up about his past relationships, the romantic dinner on the beach, just the way he was now looking at her—if she wasn’t mistaken, he was trying to do “lovemaking.”

  And wasn’t it extra intense that she was probably lying in the bed that his former girlfriend had probably picked out? That they had made love on hundreds, no maybe thousands of times?

  Kenzie popped up suddenly, breaking the cosmic connection Antonio was no doubt trying to induce with his gaze.

  “Excuse me, I need to use the bathroom.”

  “Is everything alright?” Antonio called after her.

  “Just fine!” she yelled, shutting the door behind her and sitting down on the toilet. She looked ahead of her and found that the view from where she was sitting was a perfect-picture window of the ocean. Damn, even Antonio’s toilets were romantic.

  Kenzie scolded herself for hiding out in the bathroom, for trying to escape from confronting feelings. All she needed to do was to be herself. That was enough—it had to be.

  “Sorry about that,” she said, reentering the bedroom where Antonio was now splayed out on the bed fully nude. It was a vision that would normally elicit a sigh from her lips and a sudden slickness on the ones further down. But tonight, things felt so much more loaded. She was starting to get the feeling that it was a big step for Antonio to have brought her here. Antonio looked at her expectantly. She wasn’t sure how to begin, so she decided just to level with him.

  “Can I be honest with you?” Kenzie asked, sitting down tentatively on the edge of the bed. Admittedly, it was an awkward question to ask a man whose entire package was on display. “I’m a little weirded out by how fast this is moving.”

  Antonio seemed unfussed by her confession.

  “Okay,” he said.

  “I just think,” Kenzie could hear the tone of her voice getting higher, “I think that we are two very different people.” In her mind, it wasn’t a blow-off. In fact, she hadn’t felt the desire to at least try and be truly present with someone, to truly be open, since Cole. But she was feeling that with Antonio. She just wasn’t sure if she was ready for what Antonio wanted. He had built this house with someone he loved—she could hardly imagine being able to take that step with someone at this point in her life.

  “I like that about us, that we’re different,” he said. “The same is boring. Different, it makes a spark.”

  “I agree. But we have to be realistic. After this week, we may not see each other again and...”

  “Kenzie.” Antonio stopped her by placing a finger over her lips, which felt like they had been running a mile a minute. She tended to go on and on when she was nervous. “Are you saying you don’t w
ant to make love with me?”

  “See, that’s it! Exactly.” She hadn’t wanted to say it, but Antonio had put it in a nutshell. “I think the two of us, we’re more the hot, fast and dirty kind of couple.”

  “Fuck buddies.”

  “Yes!” Kenzie said, throwing up her hands. So he did understand.

  “Well, what if I want more?”

  The question was so straightforward, but Kenzie wasn’t sure how to answer it. It hung in the air as she sat there in silence, letting the enormity of what he was suggesting sink in. Did Antonio really want to be with her?

  “What if I told you that I could do more than just make you come? That I could make you feel an incredible...connection. If you let me.” Antonio leaned over and took Kenzie’s hand. He ran his finger down the middle of her palm. She wondered if he could see something there that she couldn’t—a real future.

  His words were so alluring, his body so hot, it was hard to not just fall back onto the bed and agree to everything he was suggesting, to let him devour her. But a voice inside her told her to proceed with caution.

  “I’m not ready,” she said plainly. “But... I can tell you that during the time we spend together, I’m all yours. I’m here. I’m not thinking about anyone else, and there’s no place I’d rather be.” She squeezed his hand, hoping to drive home the point.

  “Okay,” Antonio said, considering her response. “So, you’ll continue to let me fuck you...?”

  “Oh yes,” she answered quickly, sliding in next to him on the bed. Now he was speaking her language.

  “But—” Antonio held her back momentarily “—consider this,” he said, sitting up. “If you lose our bet, about the distillery, I not only get to keep your share, I get you—all of you,” he said, giving her a knowing look.

  Kenzie laughed but paused before answering. It seemed like a given that she was going to pull off the mixer and have the distillery all to herself by the end of the evening on Tuesday. The chances of her having to allow Antonio to make sweet, emotional, gaze-into-each-other’s-eyes love to her seemed nil.

  “Sure,” she said confidently. “But if you lose...” She wracked her brain for the most humiliating thing she could think of. “I get you, tied to a bed, with permission to do exactly what I want to you.”

  “I’d let you do that to me right now.” Antonio laughed, pulling her on top of him.

  “Fair point,” she acknowledged, allowing him to inch the zipper of her dress down far enough so that he could remove it. “But for now...” she said, sitting up on him and allowing her dress to fall off her shoulders, exposing her naked breasts. “Will you fuck me? Can you do that for me?” Her eyes were wide, her pupils dilated, and she was starting to feel that now-familiar wetness starting down below. This was the feeling she had come to associate with Antonio. Why ruin it by getting all serious? Maybe things were perfect just the way they were—light and fun.

  Antonio answered her plea without so much as a word, flipping her onto her stomach and pulling her dress the rest of the way off. Her undies were the next to go. They were the only thing keeping her from leaking her love juices onto the expensive sheets. With her body undressed, Antonio kissed his way from the nape of her neck all the way down her spine until he reached her buttocks, where he lingered, kissing both of her ass cheeks lovingly before circling his tongue around the entrance of her forbidden opening.

  Kenzie sighed with pleasure. No man had ever done this to her before. It was so erotic and instantly caused her to arch her pussy up toward him. She felt so open, so ready. She needed him inside her. Gripping the bars of the headboard, Kenzie inched her way up the bed and, getting on all fours, steadied herself for Antonio’s big entrance.

  He didn’t disappoint. After a few more well-placed kisses and caresses on her seat he plunged the full length of himself into her waiting, well-lubricated pussy, causing her to yelp out in surprise, before she relaxed back into the feeling of being fucked by this skillful man.

  Just as she felt he was close to coming, she released one of her hands from the headboard, and reached back far enough so that she could grab his balls. It was enough to start him moaning in ecstasy and a second later, she felt the warmth of his come coating the outside of the area he had just been inside.

  Antonio and Kenzie both lay back on the pillows, spent from the effort. This time, she couldn’t wait for him to work his magic. Her clit was primed and ready and the feeling of his semen on her fingers as she worked them side-to-side across her most sensitive spot made her whole body arch up in orgasm. Having learned what she was capable of under Antonio’s expert guidance, she decided not to stop once the tingly feeling subsided. Instead of pulling back she swiped more of his come from her lips and worked it, faster now, into that reliable little bud of nerves. Soon she was coming again, her pussy trembling with good feelings that shot from her feet all the way up to the roots of the hair on her head.

  “You’re beautiful to watch,” Antonio commented when she finally lay back to relax next to him.

  “So are you,” she said, allowing herself the almost-tender act of burrowing her face into his chest and breathing in the scent of his manly perspiration.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ANTONIO WAS AWAKE EARLY. He sat on the edge of the bed and stretched, half hoping the movement would rouse Kenzie from her slumber. No such luck. Maybe it was the ocean air, or all of their extra-curricular activities from the previous night, but she was out cold. He took a moment to just take in the sight of her—her long, curly hair splayed out all wild on the pillow, her perfect peachy skin and lips that were rose-colored, even when she had on no makeup. She was beautiful, there was no denying it. He tried to put his finger on why she had such a strong effect on him. It wasn’t just her looks, though that was a big part of the attraction. It had something to do with the way she conducted herself. She was a sharp businessperson, no doubt, but could also be reckless and unrestrained when the moment called for it. Maybe he just enjoyed being around her and that was enough.

  Antonio found a pair of sneakers he kept stashed in the master bedroom closet and sat down on the bed again—hard. This time it worked.

  “Mmm, what time is it?” Kenzie grumbled, her eyes still closed. She stretched out an arm and her hand landed on Antonio’s thigh. “Come back to bed,” she moaned dreamily.

  Antonio would have loved nothing more than to while away the morning in bed with her, but he had nervous energy that he needed to put somewhere. For the past few years, running had been his hobby. It was the perfect activity for nearly every situation. He ran when he needed to amp up for a meeting, or wind down for the weekend. It helped him stave off feelings of loneliness, and horniness, which had both become something of an issue especially during those first few months of being single again.

  He wasn’t proud of the many conquests in the days following Clarissa leaving him. At first it was fun. He knew he could walk into any club in Miami and leave within the hour with the best-looking woman there. Rumor had it that sleeping with him had become a sort of status symbol for some women. He knew he wasn’t a celebrity, but he was certainly well-known as a successful bachelor under forty and it was true, he had his looks. But after a while the rotating cast of characters in and out of his bedroom all started to feel eerily similar. One morning, after waking up next to two women whose names he realized he didn’t know—and never even asked—he vowed to stop playing around and put the focus back on his family’s business.

  It worked. Navedo Enterprises was now more successful than ever. There had even been offers to purchase the company by a very major brand, but Antonio wanted to keep things close to home. And when he stopped sleeping with random strangers, he found that his outlook was actually a little brighter, too. It amazed his friends to see him turn down women left and right. He would actually go into clubs and women would be sending him drinks. He’d always decline, politely of cou
rse, and tried his best to abstain from those encounters that were a lot like sugary sodas—tasty in the moment, but ultimately empty of anything truly fulfilling.

  And now that there was someone else, someone who he could actually imagine really being with, he felt like he needed to run a marathon to cope with his feelings. Did Kenzie feel the same or was she rejecting him? Maybe he was just a boy toy for a week’s vacation, a distraction from her real life in New York...

  As he headed out the door, he caught a glimpse of his phone. The allure of its glow was almost too difficult to resist at times. He knew that he needed a technology break, especially when he was here in paradise, but the thought of missing out on business, of not being available when he was needed made it difficult. So instead of just heading out for his run, he decided to stop momentarily to check email. There was one from the office, Elena updating him with the particulars on demolishing Baracoa, just one of the options he was exploring for when Kenzie inevitably realized that it was impossible to revive the old still. That was another thing runs were good for—making important business decisions. Leaving his phone on the nightstand, he softly clicked the door shut behind him and headed out to the familiar trail that never failed to calm his mind.

  Antonio started up the path behind his house at a steady jog, not wanting to expend all of his energy too early. He looked around at the grounds and marveled at the beauty. What was the point of having such a beautiful place like this, he thought, if there was no one he could share it with? As he rounded the corner, passing a few small houses on a side road belonging to local neighbors he had become friendly with over the years, he found that he was starting to sweat. His breath was usually not this short so early in a run, but his legs had kinks in them and his gait seemed off. He jogged up the road to where he knew there was a water fountain and stopped to catch his breath. Standing there panting, it suddenly occurred to him: He never took “no” for an answer in business, so why should he accept the same from Kenzie? Enough with these silly games, he decided. It was a stark realization but one he could not deny: he was in love with her, and he had to make her his.