Page 32

The Last Rule

L

ight and sound awoke Liam from the deepest sleep he could ever remember experiencing. Both came from the sliding doors attached to his and Victoria’s bedroom. Footsteps, too, helped bring him back to consciousness. Groggily, Liam opened his eyes and saw a sight that any man would happily wake up to.

Avril, smiling, stood above him.

“You’ve slept in long enough,” she said, addressing both bodies in the bed. “We have a full day ahead of us. Happy Birthday, Victoria.”

“Thank you… Avril,” Victoria said, yawning and stretching.

Liam reached over to his phone, which confirmed that they’d achieved their eight hours. It’d been a little after two when they’d finally headed to bed, equal parts exhausted and satisfied. There’d be no watching the sunrise on this final day in Fiji.

But the sunset…

Both still very much naked, Liam and Victoria rolled out of bed, and Avril reaped the benefits. Her eyes scraped across them both, and she made no move to depart. Victoria didn’t banish her, allowing the younger—though maybe not lustier—woman to ogle away.

Together, the two of them got ready for their day. That included one final time in which Liam could pick Victoria’s bikini for the day. And today was very much going to involve bikinis.

He selected the lone pink bikini in her suite of options. Slightly muted in its pinkness, as if some of the color had been strained out, it would still stand out remarkably well against her tanned skin. It was perhaps the most revealing one that she’d brought along. He confirmed that as she slipped it on, breasts straining, hips and butt tantalizingly displayed.

“Like what you see?” Victoria asked, pausing long enough for him to look her up and down.

“I always love what I see,” Liam said, pushing in long enough to kiss and caress the buxom professor. Avril watched that, too.

Once she’d thrown on a light shirt and shorts over her day’s swimwear, they were both ready to start their day. Naturally, Avril slid right into place as supervisor.

Bringing them along to meet up with Tess and Anna, Liam discovered that they were taking a veritable hoard of supplies to Yawini Beach. While they’d slept, Avril had organized piles of gear. These included towels and beach umbrellas, multiple coolers, presumably filled with drinks and their meals for the day, and a basket with all the beachgoing amenities a full day on an isolated beach might require.

“Happy Birthday, Victoria,” Tess said, sharing a hug with her closest friend. They were in the process of loading things onto the boat that would deliver them to Yawini Beach, so with a couple of the resort’s employees about, that was all that transpired.

Anna said and did the same thing a short while later. Helping to load the heavier containers onto the boat, Liam marveled at the ease and comfort the four women displayed around one another. No longer just friends and colleagues, even if there were likely some wrinkles that still needed to be worked out, everything between them seemed comfortable.

That boded well for Liam’s hopes about their time on Yawini Island.

At around eleven, their boat’s engine kicked them away from the resort’s shore. Next stop, an even more isolated paradise than the one they’d enjoyed for most of the week.

“What is the plan for our dinner?” Liam asked Avril during the brief trip.

“We’ll both get picked up and brought back so we can change into our nice clothes,” Avril said, holding her hair down as the wind whipped about her face. “That’ll be way, way later, though. For now, you can focus on other things.”

She grinned and winked, throwing her eyes meaningfully toward the other three women aboard the boat. During their time spent loading, he’d seen her and Victoria move away from the rest of them for a time. One more conversation about their wrinkles, perhaps.

A short time later, Yawini Island came into view. Their boat brought them in, beaching itself, and the crew helped get everything onto the beach. Once everything and everyone had disembarked, they were gone. For the rest of the day, it would just be the five of them.

They made “camp” on the southern beach, adjacent to a small cove that met the southern and eastern tips of the island. It offered a little more privacy, but also a little less sun, so they made it their neighbor, not their home base.

With hardly a cloud in the sky, the sun’s warmth covered every bead of sand and every drop of water. Stretching out their towels, burying their umbrellas, removing clothes, something went curiously missing. Tess refused his offer of sunscreen—she declined putting any on altogether, in fact. So, too, did the others.

“We can survive one afternoon without it,” Tess said. “This way, you can kiss us freely—anywhere—and not end up with a bad taste on your lips.”

Well, who would say no to that plan? Grinning, Liam and the others prepared to indulge in that heat for the next seven or eight hours. And more.

Once they were situated, Avril cleared her throat. Liam wasn’t alone in having expected her to do such a thing; they all expected that there was some unique twist to their day here. Yet, he doubted any of them had expected her to turn things over to Victoria.

“She is the birthday girl, after all,” Avril said. “So, it’s only fair that she gets to decide the rules and regulations the rest of us have to follow.”

Victoria eyed the younger woman, who made a show of moving away from her. Sitting cross-legged between him and Anna, she waited for the professor to say more.

“Right…” Victoria said. “Yes, on my birthday, I’ve been pestered into doing what Avril wants.” She glanced at the smiling redhead. “Something I’m familiar with already. So, I’ve come up with the following edict. If you are tapped on the shoulder by someone while on this island, you must stop what you’re doing and go to a new location with them. In addition, the person who does such a thing can only tap up to two shoulders, so they can’t bring everyone with them. That’s it, those are the rules.”

Before Liam even finished considering how to take advantage of this one rule, someone who’d already known about them struck.

“And here’s an example of those rules in action,” Avril said. After grabbing one of their extra towels, she tapped Liam on his right shoulder. Before he could do much more than blink, she got up, moved toward Victoria, and did the same thing to the voluptuous professor’s shoulder.

Victoria rolled her eyes but remained beside Avril. All eyes turned to Liam.

“Right,” he said, popping up from a seated position.

“We’ll be back soon,” Avril told Tess and Anna. “Just going to have a walk around the island.”

Neither believed her, but they wished the departing trio well all the same.

“Come along, you two,” Avril said, beckoning with a hand. She started wrapping westward, making tracks in the white sand.

Liam and Victoria shared a look. What else was there to do, then, but follow?