Shipwreck Bay Page 4

  I stared at him. My God. My baby had fallen for a hustler.

  “Say something.” His voice came out a whisper.

  What could I say? I felt bad for him. He’d really thought Steve had fallen for him.

  I took a moment to think of something that wouldn’t devastate him but would make my point clear. “Marek, I think on some level you knew.”

  He looked incredulous. “Why do you say that?”

  “You tried to break it off. You knew he had a screw loose.”

  “Yeah. Several actually.” He seemed to sag a little. “Yeah. That’s true. Jesus. My dad said I shouldn’t tell you. That I’d ruin everything.”

  I already knew this and thought a lot less of my father-in-law for giving him such crappy advice.

  “I feel so totally stupid,” Marek said. “I’m such a fucking idiot.”

  “Yeah. You are.” I grinned at him. “Can we go and explore the island a bit now?”

  Chapter Three

  I think he would have been happier exploring my body with his tongue, but I wanted to get some sun. It had been raining the last two weeks in San Francisco so the weather here was a blessing.

  Perhaps sensing our personal storm had passed, the bouzouki player struck up an actual song. I recognized it. Never On Sunday.

  Good thing this was a Saturday.

  We threw on tennis shoes, picked up our breakfast tray and took it back to our landlady who was busy crocheting doilies on her terrace.

  Kiria Marazeries smiled at us. I could tell she was pleased that we’d eaten everything.

  We gave her a wave and Marek blew her a kiss. She giggled like a teenage girl, her body rocking with mirth. Her thick black stockings had been rolled above the knee, revealing acres of crêpey skin. I averted my gaze.

  Marek took my hand as we clambered down over rocks. A baby goat bleated at us. I thought he was stranded at first, then realized he belonged to the young man sitting on a rock near him, throwing him bits of lettuce.

  “Kalimera,” the man said. We returned the greeting.

  We walked all the way down until we hit the entrance to a riding stable. We’d both always loved animals and they were one of our shared passions. A couple of small dogs ran around our legs, craving attention. We knelt to pet them. The uneasiness in my husband’s eyes made me so sad. He was worried and watchful. I didn’t know how to erase it all.

  It would just take time.

  “Kalimera,” a female voice said.

  We looked up, once again returning the greeting. The small brown dog beside me flopped over onto his back for a tummy rub. I complied. Unlike Athens, which had a staggering thirty-three thousand homeless dogs thanks to the tough economy, the ones on this island seemed well and truly loved.

  “You want to go for a ride?” Marek asked me. We hadn’t ridden for a long time, but I loved the idea. The lady saddled up two horses, for which Marek paid forty euros, about fifty US dollars, and she mounted her own horse, the dogs running beside us.

  They made me miss Avalon, but I had a hunch he was getting all the bacon and grilled chicken he wanted from my mom.

  Marek and I rode in companionable silence as we passed some wonderful old houses that had been built into the rock walls hundreds of years ago. He’d made a name for himself using recycled products for his houses. Even denim was used for carpeting and wall insulation. I could see him taking in every detail with an appreciative eye.

  We made our way down to the sand.

  “We can’t go this way because the turtles are hatching,” our guide said.

  “No problem,” I responded in Greek.

  “I love when you talk in Greek,” Marek said. “It’s such a turn-on.”

  I laughed. Probably the first real laugh I’d experienced in two weeks.

  We turned, the horses apparently knowing the way, and we began to enter single file through a narrow space between some large, looming rocks. I held my breath when I saw the white sandy beach ahead of us and the stunning dunes surrounding us. We might have been in the desert.

  “Wow,” Marek breathed.

  “Unbelievable,” I said. The ocean glinted in the distance. As we approached, I saw we were the only ones on it.

  The beach was ours.

  “Kalamaka Beach,” our guide announced.

  It was tranquil and beautiful. The dogs were hilarious. They scampered past us and ran like crazy until they were far ahead of us, then flopped down on the sand. Then when we got close, they’d run to the shoreline, bark at the waves, then run back to us again.

  We wove back up to the town, clip-clopping along the streets. I felt as if we’d stepped back in time and really sensed the weeks of tension falling away from me.

  All too soon, our hour-long ride was over and we returned to the stables.

  The dogs jumped all over us and we gave them each one last hug. Some new arrivals walked in and the pups instantly transferred their affections.

  “Shameless hussies,” Marek said. Instantly, his face twisted in grief. I knew he was thinking of himself. Everything we said lately seemed to cycle back to what he’d done.

  I took his hand. “Is it upsetting you terribly that we didn’t go on the cruise today?”

  He smiled then. “A bit. I had plans.”

  “Do you want to call the captain?”

  He flashed me a guilty look. “He’s back in the harbor, near our house, waiting for us.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “Sweetie, I booked him for the day.”

  “Well then, let’s go.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Sure I’m sure.”

  We walked back toward our house. “Stay here,” he offered as we reached the rickety bridge Kiria Marazeries’ oldest son had built.

  “Why?”

  “We might be staying overnight. I’ll toss a few things in a bag.”

  I didn’t want to stay on the boat overnight, but I didn’t say so.

  “Okay.” I stayed as he requested and observed the activity on the once inconvenient stretch of sand the island’s endangered colony of loggerhead turtles had chosen to incubate their eggs. Kiria Marazeries had told us the night before that her son had built the bridge so people could observe the turtles without harming them.

  I watched the tiny shell-backed babies for so long I didn’t even notice Marek had returned until he reached for my hand. I shaded my eyes against the sun with the other, hardly able to believe the magnificent yacht waiting for us as we turned the corner into the harbor.

  “You said a boat.” I laughed.

  “A big boat.” Marek grinned. The captain, a handsome Greek man dressed in white shorts and a blue T-shirt, helped us aboard and showed us to our surprisingly huge cabin below deck. Marek threw our overnight bag onto the bed then we raced up to the deck, accepting glasses of champagne.

  Marek was so anxious to appease me, he told me he hadn’t even brought that ever-present phone of his.

  “You left it in our room?” I couldn’t believe it. When was the last time we’d gone for so much as a short drive without it? “What if we need it in an emergency?”

  “We won’t need it. The captain has a radio and he has weapons. It’s only two days. What can happen in two days, baby?”

  A lot, I wanted to say. I’d seen all the TV reports of the new pirates and people disappearing at sea, their empty vessels found awash in blood—or sea-jacked with strange crews on board.

  I tried to tamp down my need to find problems. I’d never been like this. Never. Not until Steve Lewis turned my world upside down.

  “There won’t be any emergencies. You’ll see.” Marek kissed me and, with his arm around me, we sailed out of our little horseshoe-shaped harbor and the captain smiled at us. He was very attractive, in a swarthy, Greek way. I couldn’t help my gaze traveling to his crotch. He looked like he was packing a pretty big sex pistol. I never openly stared at other men, especially when I was with Marek, but since his little…admission, I often let m
y mind and eyes wander.

  One night, I had even told him we wouldn’t be even until I had an affair. Maybe that, coupled with Thakis’ ham-fisted humor, had made him ask me about who I’d bonk if I had a free pass.

  We sailed straight out into the vast expanse of deep blue, the island’s lush green landscape whispering goodbye.

  “Feel that sirocco wind, baby?”

  Marek’s mouth grazed my temple. I wanted nothing more than to be in the moment, enjoying the vivid wildflowers, the sight of huge, black mountains and bright green valleys plunging into view.

  “There’s Kithera.” Marek pointed to the island on the right.

  Snuggling into him, I luxuriated in the familiar contours of his body.

  He was looking out into the sea. “Look, baby, quick. Over there.” He pointed to a pair of sharks taking a wave, actually surfing, and even the captain now watched those kings of the sea.

  I’d never seen sharks like them, their color steel-blue and white.

  “They’re mako sharks.” The captain’s white teeth gleamed in the sun.

  He was a manly man and if I didn’t know any better I would have sworn he was checking me out.

  “They’re dolphin-eating sharks. So there must be some dolphins around.”

  “Don’t tell my husband that. He loves dolphins.” Marek reached for the champagne bottle.

  Husband. We’d signed up for a domestic partnership agreement a year after we met and my mom had been badgering us for a big-scale party to celebrate our legal wedding. She’d planned every last detail of our big cliff house bash with Marek, right down to the flowers, the wedding favors, even the sequence of dance numbers. She was probably back home fretting about us now.

  I wished I’d brought my cellphone and wanted to scream at Marek for leaving his back in our little house. I began to smile, wondering if my father had managed to keep her from calling every five minutes to check on us.

  Marek gave me a refill and we watched the sharks zip away as we made a wide turn.

  “Next stop, Shipwreck Bay, baby.”

  Shipwreck Bay. I’d read about its history as the place where, just over thirty years ago, the Panagiotis, a pirate ship, ran aground. Its remains still buried in the sand. I was curious to see the wreckage as we curved into the brilliant blue bay, but another boat was already there in the water.

  A black flag rose from the mast. A black flag with a skull and crossbones.

  “What the…” My disbelief turned to instant terror when our engine stopped. There was shouting and then a gun went off. Three men in masks came aboard our yacht, and I screamed like a nine-year-old girl. Hurling Marek to the deck, I covered his body with mine, feeling something hard in the back zippered pocket of his shorts.

  He had brought his phone after all! I took it out, thanking God and Marek.

  “And you said we wouldn’t need it,” I shouted at my husband. My teeth chattered, and my fingers shook. “What’s the Greek equivalent of nine-one-one?”

  Marek snatched the phone out of my hands. “Give me that.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Honey…” Marek was shaking his head. “We’re not in trouble. Look at these guys.”

  I stared at the three men all standing in front of us. “Yeah, men with guns. Are you crazy? We’re in trouble here. Unless you’re packing an Uzi you didn’t tell me about.”

  “Look again, baby.”

  Two massive black guys. One of them was grinning at me. Oh…oh— Oh my God. It was Jason, our personal trainer. What was he doing here? Beside him was, I realized now, his lover, Renford. And the lead pirate, who was removing all his clothing, was none other than… Juan Juarez.

  How the hell had Marek found him? How had he managed to get them all here so fast?

  * * * *

  “What’s going on?” I eyed Marek then the ten-inch cock Juan sported between his well-toned thighs. He ran his hand up and down it lightly, as if making sure it was as magnificent as he had to know it was. And now he was advancing toward me.

  “These are all your fantasy lovers, baby.”

  Marek gave me a smug smile. “Juan took one look at your photo and said you are so hot, he just had to fuck you, and Jason and Renford… Well, let’s just say, I know you’re not the only one with fantasies around here. Here are your secret dream men, baby. You get all three.”

  I couldn’t believe it. “You…you want me to fuck other men?”

  “I want you to have a free pass to fuck your fantasy lovers.”

  “No… I can’t do it.” I gasped. I’m going crazy. He wants me to screw around on him?

  “You are so sexy,” Marek whispered.

  “I don’t feel sexy.” I looked at him helplessly. “Please don’t make me do this.” It didn’t matter what Marek said, there had to be something unattractive…unlovable about me that made him launch a full-blown affair with another man.

  Kneeling in front of me, Marek took my bewildered face in his hands.

  “Dragan.”

  Tears trickled down my chin. He closed his eyes for a moment.

  “I don’t know how else to show you how much I love you. It’s not that I want you to fuck other men. I want you for the rest of my life and I know that…what happened will always be right there between us. I need you to know how beautiful you are. You’re the most wonderful man I’ve ever met. The sexiest, the most handsome and the kindest…what happened was all me. It was never about you.”

  Marek nodded at somebody behind me who started removing my clothes. I fought off the strange hands at first. I couldn’t believe he wanted group sex right here on deck in broad daylight. He’d scared me with this sea piracy crap and now…somebody was maneuvering me into a doggy-style position. I was naked on my hands and knees and I felt a warm wet mouth surrounding my cock as Marek’s big baby blues settled on me.

  “Dragan, you are about to experience all your fantasies, baby. Right here on Shipwreck Bay. This is for all the marbles. If this doesn’t make us even, I don’t know what will. If you don’t want to stay married to me…to spend the rest of your life with me after this night is over, then I’ve taken a huge risk. I will have gambled and lost everything.”

  His voice shook. He stopped speaking as if he were letting those words sink in for both of us before adding, “But it’s…what I have to do. What I need to do.”

  The mouth on my cock was pulling and sucking, the tongue encircling my head in such a tantalizing way it was hard to focus. I was cheating on my man. While he was talking to me!

  “I want you to have a day of sheer fantasy. Every single sexy dream we’ve acted out in the bedroom, all the ones you’ve told me about and we haven’t…” He looked away from me and back again as if it was difficult for him to say these things. “It’s all yours. Have fun. Explore all your secret fetishes. But only for today. In the morning, you’re mine again. If that’s what you want too.”

  “Let me get this straight.” I panted. “I’m taking on three guys? And what will you be doing?”

  He grinned. “I’ll be watching.”

  “Watching?” The mouth on my cock let go and I let out a cry of protest. I was aware of the men all moving around me. “You’re not joining in?”

  “No. Not yet.” His mouth barely touched mine and he moved away, up to the captain’s chair, watching as somebody held a jug over my back.

  I felt hot liquid pouring from the nape of my neck down to my tailbone and two then three pair of hands massaging me. I gasped from the searing heat of pineapple-scented oil and all those fingers on my skin. “What about the captain?”

  Marek laughed. “I knew you’d like him. “How about it, Nikos?”

  Nikos was kicking off his shoes and throwing his shirt to the floor before the question was even finished. He stripped to a tiny pair of red underpants that were springing a leak—of the cock variety.

  The tiny swatch of stretch fabric could not contain the enormous tool itching to be released. Talk about peek-a-boo.
The engorged head was poking out the side of those underpants. My gaze reluctantly went back to Marek.

  “He’s all yours, fellas.” Marek leaned back in the chair.

  Aware of the strong, masculine scent of the captain, the next thing I knew every pair of hands was working on me, but nobody went near my cock or my balls. My body instinctively responded to the firm strokes.

  Marek got out of the chair. He began to pace. “Damn, baby, this is harder than I thought.”

  It was hard for me too. No other man had touched me in eight years.

  He frowned as somebody’s warm palm pawed at my ass then a long, wet tongue went straight to my asshole.

  “Oh, fuck…” I turned around. It was Juan, the porn star. So many times Marek and I had watched the way he lavished tongue-to-ass resuscitation on other guys in movies. This was a guy who loved other men’s bodies and now he was loving mine! He took his tongue off me again, a wicked grin on his face.

  Juan leaned back on his well-toned haunches, his rigid cock sticking straight into the air. “Take him down to the cabin.”

  “No, stay up here on deck. I want to watch.” Marek was anxious.

  Juan held up his hand. “You can look, but not touch. He’s ours now.”

  The captain picked me up in his strong arms and carried me down to the cabin, where Renford and Jason tossed my overnight bag to the floor. They grinned as the captain put me on the bed and Juan lay beside me. He ran his fingers over my well-oiled body, his eyes smoky with desire. His mouth came down over mine.

  I gave in to the kisses I’d seen him give other lucky men in movies and he made me dizzy. He had a way of kissing you with his whole face that was so intoxicating, all other thoughts fled. Then another man’s lips clamped over my cock and another teased my right nipple. I cried out into Juan’s mouth, and he picked my head up off the pillow, held me to him, his tongue licking mine, teasing, tasting. I felt my cock entering a hot mouth all the way to the base. Another tongue at my left nipple.

  Oh, man. This was insane.

  Then Juan took his mouth away from me.