Page 10

Hills upon Hills

U

pon waking up the next morning, Liam didn’t wish Victoria a happy birthday. She didn’t seem surprised, though she asked if he wanted to do so a little before he finished playing with her breasts. They’d hit the shower after that, where he’d also play with her breasts.

“No, because it’s not today,” Liam said.

“When is it, then?”

“I don’t know that yet.”

Finished orgasming from his skillful touch, she returned to a calm expression. “But you know it’s not today?”

“I know it’s not today,” he confirmed.

“Interesting. I wonder if you’ll find out what other days it isn’t. ”

He grinned from ear to ear. “That’s the idea.”

Not so long later, five sets of feet stood on the long trail of grass that functioned as the resort’s runway. Five sets of eyes, most shaded by sunglasses, watched a seaplane as it descended from the fair blue sky, buzzing louder and louder as it drew nearer. It was the same one that had delivered them to the resort a few days ago, operating across the island chains west of Viti Levu. Today, it would carry them south.

Knowing what their day would consist of, Liam and the others had packed in the carbs at breakfast. According to Avril, the trails they’d be hitting weren’t anything too arduous, but they’d still spend much of their day beneath the sun. Hydrating plentifully at that same breakfast, each of them had dressed for a day spent trudging along uneven ground. Sunglasses, a few hats, and a few of them—the wiser ones—had backpacks carrying additional bottles of water, some suitable snacks, and sunscreen.

The seaplane came down, spinning rotor slowly coming to a stop. This time around, a transfer took place. A few people got off the plane, eager to begin their vacation at one of the most romantic islands in the world. Meanwhile, once they and their luggage were clear, Liam and the others climbed back aboard, preparing to depart for much of the day. They didn’t plan to stay at one of the resorts on the Mamanuca Islands, so they’d be back. But probably not until the sun had begun to set.

Tess and Anna looked in high spirits as they climbed into the seaplane. Liam suspected the former was excited for the actual hike as much as the sights they’d provide, while he suspected the latter was more interested in the pauses at the peaks of these hills they’d be cresting. However, Anna’s good mood was short-lived, as it had been when he realized what a day of sightseeing on these islands would entail. Island hopping, and a lot of it. Fortunately, much of it would involve boat rides, but they’d still have to fly back here later tonight.

She seemed to remember all this as she buckled herself up, and an anxious expression disturbed her mouth, tugging both corners downward. Prepared for that, Liam offered her his hand. She gratefully accepted it.

They spent about ten minutes in the air before they started to come down. The first trail they’d be hitting was up and down Mt. Vomo, which sat on the island of the same name. Vomo Island was situated farther east than most of the islands in the Mamanuca group, only about ten miles off the coast of Viti Levu. In fact, they’d flown almost right over it on their way to the Yasawas a few days ago.

They came down in the water, as the island didn’t have a runway of its own, just a helicopter pad at its single resort. From what he’d seen overhead, the island probably wasn’t even a mile long. Shaped like a triangular piece of paper you might use to play flick football, lush forests and Mt. Vomo itself dominated the island's central and southern parts. The northern partition stayed verdant and beautiful, but he could also see pathways and buildings aplenty.

Picked up from their seaplane by a small speedboat, they headed toward a small dock jutting out from this portion of the small island. While they headed toward it, Tess spearheaded the final discussion on which of the various trails they would walk.

There were a few options to pick from, ranging in difficulty and length. The hardest path, though the quickest to the actual summit of Mt. Vomo, was only about half a mile in length. It was attached to the resort, so they had the option of jumping right to it. However, it involved numerous switchbacks and a more challenging uphill journey than if they took one of the lengthier but smoother trails down to the southern tip of the island, to a manmade overlook famous for its sights known as the Yoga Deck, then doubled back a bit, where they could merge into an easier trail to reach Mt. Vomo from the south.

“We don’t need to start our day puffing,” Avril said, eyeing Tess, who was the strongest force behind wanting to hit the more difficult trail. “There’ll be other steep hills to tire everyone but you out, you crazy workout junkie. Let’s save those until later in the day, at least.”

“We’ll have to take the harder path either way,” Tess said. “It’s just a matter of whether we want to go up or down it.”

“I vote for down it,” Avril immediately said.

The woman who’d taken a cock up her ass last night fought for her route a little longer, though she eventually realized he didn’t have the votes needed to have her way. This early in the morning, it seemed most of them wanted to ease their way into a day of activity, not dive straight into it.

At least she doesn’t seem to be that sore, Liam thought, watching Tess as she climbed onto the dock once their little boat carried them to it. There were several others, including a couple that looked capable of traversing out to sea. However, Avril had found out that a larger ferry would swing by at around 9:15, and the group had voted to use that if they could.

For now, they had some walking to get to. At the resort, Avril flashed her phone, which showed the island passes she’d booked well in advance of the trip. It was one more thing she’d seen to; she didn’t want them to have any reason to slow down and deal with any issues. The resort welcomed them, spoke a little about the trails to those with questions, and then let them be on their way.

The five of them headed southward, taking a paved path until it became dirt. Walking along it, they came to the fork that split into the two trails they’d discussed on the boat. One bent southeastward, leading to a sharper incline straight up Mt. Vomo, which really wasn’t that intimidating. It couldn’t have been more than a few hundred feet at its summit. However, the trail laid out on its western flank zigzagged a good dozen times from what Liam could see.

“We’ll get to it,” Avril said, grabbing Tess by the wrist with both hands and pulling her toward the far gentler walking trail before the older woman could try and pitch her route a second time.

This one sloped far more gently, more of a walking path than a true hiking trail. It carried them down the island's western edge, and they could see their elevated destination pretty much from the beginning. After only about ten minutes of walking, listening to the waves coming in on the beach a hundred feet off their right, they reached it.

The Yoga Deck consisted of a pair of yoga mats on a wooden platform at the southern end—the final hill before a sharp decline to shrubbery and sand below—of Vomo Island. Its simplicity was in the name, though the beauty of the sight beyond it measured up to what the others had been hoping for.

A world of gleaming blue, distant island peaks, and traveling clouds welcomed them to the deck. It all stretched for miles, and the five hiking bodies stopped to absorb the sights. The ocean surrounded them on three sides, shimmering and weaving. Far on the horizon, ruffling its smooth edge, Liam counted more than a dozen glimpses of other islands, a few of which they might even visit today. None were close enough for him to see more than their highest points, as Vomo Island didn’t like having its neighbors get too close to it.

It was suitably breathtaking, worthy of the visit. And as Avril pointed out, with the potential to make Anna’s mother envious.

“Let me snap a few pictures,” she said, already tugging her phone out of one of her backpack’s pockets. “Let’s see if Evelyn can fight back.”

Anna eyed her best friend, who’d texted her mom more on this trip than even she had. Mostly, for the purpose she’d just stated. Avril and Evelyn, the latter of whom was currently vacationing in Bora, Bora, had been competing over who could show off the better sights throughout their respective trips. All in good-hearted fun, as Evelyn was the sole parent of Annabelle Royce to like her. Of course, Liam could say the same thing about himself. One parent enjoyed him, even liked him, and the other couldn’t stand his mere existence.

“Oh, she’s so jealous,” Avril said, grinning at whatever response Evelyn had sent back.

The rest of them ignored Avril as she sparred with Anna’s mother, electing to breathe in the clean air and share their opinions of the sights they took in. Even though she’d been overruled earlier, Tess’s spirits appeared undampened. Smiling beside him, especially when he found her hand for a few seconds, she pointed out a few disruptions in the water. There were islands nearer to Vomo Island than those distant ones, but none were tall enough to have made it above the ocean’s surface. They lingered beneath the water, destined never to know what it felt like to have a tourist come by to take pictures while standing on them.

“Imagine strip poker up here,” Avril said, bumping into him a little later.

He eyed her. “It’s a little windy.”

The amused redhead chortled and glanced down. “Worried it’ll flop about?”

“Worried your bra will go sailing off to who knows where,” Liam fired back. “And then won’t you look foolish?”

“I could never look foolish while topless,” Avril said with a wink. “Haven’t you figured that out?”

“I suppose I have,” Liam said, gazing at her curvaceous figure. Like the others, she’d known what to expect today. Uphill, uneven paths, plenty of sun, and a man who loved seeing her skin when it was displayed. That might have been what had prompted Avril to tie her shirt together in a knot, exposing her midriff to his wandering eye.

“Not sure I believe you, what with you asking such silly questions. You might need another reminder or two, I’m thinking. So the lesson sinks in.”

“Are you going to give me one right now?” Liam asked.

“Topless yoga?” Avril said, an emerald gleam in her eyes. “I’m considering it.”

“I’ll snap some good pictures of you, if you do,” Liam said, knowing Avril had already passed the point of consideration.

The egg hatched quickly, as it always did when Avril concocted a maverick idea. Grinning at him, she slipped off her backpack. Next, she undid the knot in her shirt. And finally, acting as if they were alone on the high overlook, she slid it right off her voluptuous body.

“Avril, what are you doing?” Victoria asked, the first to notice. The other two were a little farther away, examining the ocean at the edge of the wooden platform.

“Liam wants a topless picture of me,” Avril said, not even a glimmer of a blush on her fair features. “He asked and everything. Tell her, Liam.”

Tossed into the searing pan with a cavalier push, Liam met the piercing blue eyes that sought confirmation from him. He didn’t cower or back down. Instead, he shrugged lightly.

“Sometimes, a guy just wants to see a topless woman. I’d have asked you, but I doubt your chessboard is in your backpack.”

Victoria rolled her eyes at the reference. Nor did she mention that he’d had plenty of time with a topless woman—her—just two hours ago. Instead, she waved a hand toward Avril. “Well, then go on. Fulfill his desire.”

Liam and Avril shared a look, and he knew she’d grill him on his mention of a chessboard sooner rather than later. However, the present situation was far too interesting for them to lose focus.

Wearing only a sports bra—sensibly, today was a day of sports bras—Avril stretched her arms over her head, also stretching out the performative aspect of things. No one here would have expected otherwise.

Eventually, Avril freed her breasts. Laying her shirt and bra on her backpack, she hefted her breasts, one in each hand. She grinned at both her audience members.

“Naked yoga’s a thing, right?”

Neither he nor Victoria answered, though probably for different reasons. Liam was enjoying the sight of Avril’s gorgeous breasts, already finding himself wanting to do a little more than just snap a few pictures. Victoria probably just didn’t want to give Avril more ammunition to use.

“Avril!” Anna cried out from nearby. She and Tess had finally noticed what was happening on the other side of the wooden deck. “What are you doing?! What if someone sees?!”

“Kind of the idea,” Avril said, grinning at her best friend.

“I’m talking about someone not in our group!” the raven-haired heiress huffed.

“I checked; there’s nobody around.”

Liar, Liam thought.

Anna still gave their surroundings an anxious look. They were at the final high point at the southern tip of the island, and there wasn’t any cover, manmade or natural, around. So, if there had been anyone within eyeshot, they very easily could have seen a topless redhead flouting her phenomenal body at the Yoga Deck. But there wasn’t, so Anna’s distress receded to a more manageable amount of irritation.

“You just can’t help but want to show yourself off, can you?” Anna said.

“I was asked to do this,” Avril said, sniffing as if affronted. “Liam wants a few pictures to make the trip more memorable.”

Liam bit a second and third bullet as Anna and Tess both looked his way. “That’s how it is,” he admitted, resisting an urge to sigh.

“You can all have your turns, don’t worry,” Avril said, grinning broadly. “Maybe we can do a group lineup. We’ve never done anything like that before. Oh! We could do something like this at every destination. Really make some memories.”

“We are not going topless at every hilltop or overlook we visit today,” Tess said.

“It doesn’t have to be the same thing at each one,” Avril said. “Some can be sexy, like this one. Some can be romantic, or silly, or quirky. Whatever feels right. We can even vote each time. Let democracy reign and all that.”

Looks were shared around the coverless area. Ultimately, no one dissented.

Liam got to spend the next fifteen minutes loading his phone with pictures of four incredibly stunning women, all of whom eventually followed in Avril’s wake. Giddy from the experience, which he counted as another noteworthy step toward his ultimate dream involving his four lovers, Liam created an entire album’s worth of sexy pictures at the Yoga Deck.

Singles, pairings, and full group photos, he obtained them all. From far back, from up close, and a few selfies that let him get up close and personal with the topless women he eternally desired. This event was hardly going to stem that fast-flowing font.

In a slightly humorous way, the woman who’d put the most stipulations on him getting pictures of her helped him the most. Victoria definitely seemed to know the best way to take a good photo, even ones like these. She offered him advice on angles and distances, where to focus his phone’s lens, and more.

God, I’ve got to get amazing at chess, Liam thought, desperately wanting the whole treasure trove of Victoria’s past vacations, not just the few doubloons he’d so far received.

The pièce de résistance was obviously the lineup pictures he got to take at the end. With four of the most stunning women alive standing side by side, Liam forgot to snap a picture for a few seconds. He just stared, in awe of everything that had led up to this point. It required Tess to clear his throat before he snapped out of his stupor and immortalized what this trip had become.

A paradise with his lovers.

Once that impromptu but phenomenal experience was through, they grabbed some pictures that could be shared with Evelyn and others. Avril, grinning, waved for Liam and Anna to couple up on the deck.

“You know she’ll want a picture or two like this. Hand on the other’s hip, stare longingly into one another’s eyes, you know the drill!”

Tentatively, Liam and Anna let Avril guide them in this final set of picture-taking. For now. There were a lot of places they still intended to visit before the day was up.

They spent a little longer at the Yoga Deck before deciding it was time to get back into motion. In order to obtain pictures at other places, they needed to travel to them, and this island was but the first of several. So, with everyone decent again, they retraced their steps for a few minutes, then merged onto their next trail. This one was hardly a trail at all, hastily leading them to their next choice: an upward climbing trail that headed north or one that continued to the east, which would bring them down to the eastern beach.

“Up we go,” Avril said, pointing toward the peak of Mt. Vomo.

The trek wasn’t all that difficult. The approach from the south offered a far gentler slope than if they’d come from the north, and they spent about five minutes hoofing it before they reached the summit of Mt. Vomo. Standing with the shrubs, they could see across the entirety of the resort, which covered the northern third of the island.

Like before, sightseeing followed, with the island’s highest point offering a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the ocean and distant islands. Relaxing under the shade of a gazebo at the top for a few minutes, more pictures ensued. None that involved any clothes coming off, however, as Tess had spotted a trio coming up toward them from the resort.

They passed them on the way down, and the two men in the group weren’t as subtle about hiding their gawking as the single woman—probably their sister, based on how similar they all looked—would have liked. Before they were out of earshot, Liam and the others heard her dressing them down for their ogling.

That wasn’t so unusual—the staring, not the berating. Like the four women had long ago, Liam had grown accustomed to the attention their group gathered whenever they encountered others in a public space. So far, it’d never progressed past some attention. So long as that remained the case, Liam had decided not to scowl or let himself descend into a bad mood. All four of them seemed fine with ignoring things. If it didn’t bother them, he shouldn’t let it put a damper on his day, either. He was here to spend time with them, not to fret and grind his teeth over some people they’d never come across again.

Even though it was shorter than the one they’d just taken, the sharper path back down to the resort took a few minutes longer. Walking carefully, no one wanting to ruin the entire day with a sprained ankle or a scuffed knee, they descended toward the buildings and palm trees below.

“Are we going for brunch or lunch today?” Avril asked as they completed the final switchback of the trail. The rest was smooth enough, and they soon set foot on more even ground.

That discussion carried them into the resort, where they decided they weren’t too hungry just yet. Checking the time, it was only a little past nine, and they could even see the ferry approaching from the south. That sealed it. They didn’t want to miss the ferry, which wouldn’t be back for hours, so they voted to eat lunch after hitting the trails on the next island.

After it delivered a few passengers to the island, Liam and the others piled onto the ferry’s lower deck with a few other groups. More stares for the women, more envy aimed at Liam. He noticed a fair bit of the latter, especially as Avril tossed herself into his side, snuggling up close and personal to him by the railing he leaned against.

The leisurely cruise kicked off a handful of minutes later, with the ferry churning water as it resumed a loop it’d taken countless times before today. The passengers spent their time watching the crystalline water and enjoying the time off their feet. Speaking through some speakers around the ferry, the captain, a jovial Fijian with a sharp sense of timing when it came to his jokes, talked about the ocean, what swam beneath, and some of the islands the ferry would be swinging by. Some of the latter were too small for their ship to go close to, so smaller boats would come out to get them if they wanted to visit.

The first of those was Beachcomber Island, which Liam and the others saw after about twenty minutes at sea. It was practically the stereotypical image of an island a cartoon character would get stranded on. It was barely five hundred feet across, completely flat, with a circular beach hemming in the resort and palm trees sprouting from its middle. There certainly weren’t any hiking trails to find there.

They passed it without anyone departing from the ferry.

Heading eastward for only a few minutes, they reached the barely larger sibling to Beachcomber Island. Nakelo Treasure Island was slightly more oblong than its predecessor, allowing it to claim the title of big brother. Other than that, they were almost identical, though the captain explained that this island was pretty famous for the snorkeling that could be done among the surrounding soft coral.

This time, they did stop, as one couple did have a reservation at the island’s resort. Stopping a few hundred feet out, the captain contacted the resort, and soon one of its speedboats was on its way to pick up the departing pair. A few minutes later, the ferry was back in motion.

From there, it bent in a clockwise loop. They passed a couple more islands, much the same as the previous two, offering similar amenities and activities. Another group got off at one of these, and another came aboard. That seemed to be the way of things. The ferry was in near constant motion throughout the day, one of a few, in fact. It’d drop a group off here, pick one up there, and continue to loop the islands for the better part of the day. It must have made a thousand loops like this every year.

“Look, Anna,” Liam said, grabbing her attention. She followed the direction of his point, and her eyes lit up.

Underneath the turquoise water, so pristine that they could see down to the sandy floor, a group of sea turtles glided beside the ferry. Six in all, moving together. They called over Victoria, who confirmed these were the more commonly viewed green sea turtles. The honor guard of sea turtles stayed with the boat for a handful of minutes, seeming unbothered by it. Indeed, now that they were paying more attention to the water, they saw a vast variety of sea creatures that came within a stone’s throw of the large ferry. They were accustomed to it, and some even seemed to enjoy swimming in its long shadow.

After passing one more isolated island, the tiniest of the lot, the ferry headed westward. They hit one more tiny island before finally heading to the largest island in the Mamanuca chain. Malolo Island had a couple of trails worth hiking, so Liam and his group made plans to disembark at its dock.

The ferry looped around the island's northern edge, eventually coming into dock in a westward-facing cove. Tess was going to get her wish, as the trail offered here, leading up to one Jona’s Lookout, had a steep path to reach it.

It also cut through dense forest, and with some wooden paths in sections as they climbed upward, it was reminiscent of the guided tour they’d received back on their first day at the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. At the top, they rested their feet and took in the sights, gazing at the vivid view surrounding them.

“The other noteworthy tour on the island,” Anna said, looking through a brochure they’d obtained at the resort they’d landed at, “is a guided one. It leads up to a World War II fort on a hilltop.”

“Sounds like something you’d want to visit,” Tess said.

Anna nodded.

“Get a little bit of history, then we break for lunch?” Avril said. “I assume there’s a resort near this one, Anna?”

“There is,” the younger woman confirmed.

“Works for me,” Tess said. No one disagreed. In fact, by the time the guided tour ended, several stomachs had begun to rumble.

All according to Avril Knight’s plan, of course.