Page 37

The Other Shore

A

fterward, they let a short-lived but profound silence hover around them. Even the waves seemed to grow quieter, as if in awe of what had just transpired within their sightlines. Victoria’s eyes stayed shut as she reined in her breath. The rise and fall of her breasts slowly returned to a more normal pace. When she opened her mouth, she swallowed and spoke just two words.

“Thank you.”

They stayed as the only two spoken words for a while longer. Each of them sat within their own thoughts, either basking in what had just transpired, considering what it meant for the future, or maybe just relaxing on an idyllic beach. Liam ended up circulating between all three.

“Anyone need a drink?” Tess eventually said.

“Yes,” multiple voices answered in unison, in a way that suggested that she should dig into the cooler holding the alcoholic beverages.

At a leisurely pace, having nothing but time on the isolated beach they’d claimed for the day, the five of them went through their own unique steps of recuperating, processing, and accepting the forward leap they’d all just made. And then, after doing so, they refocused on the final hours of their final day in Fiji and so went about the rest of their afternoon on Yawini Beach.

During that time, Liam probably never went longer than ten minutes without kissing, caressing, or whispering his affection to one of the four women sharing the small island with him. Somehow, things felt both relaxed and supercharged, as if they were all comfortably riding a tidal wave, confident they’d dismount it before it crashed into the shore. Things had changed between them all. Again.

Liam loved it. He loved feeling free about lying on his side beside Tess, staring into her depthless eyes, then eventually kissing her, unbothered that there were others around. He loved sidling between Anna and Avril, thumbs in motion on their soft skin while the three of them chatted about the trip at large. And he absolutely loved it when Victoria nestled herself against him, her lips a whisper on his skin, her hand coaxing him back to hardness as it slowly descended across his stomach.

He didn’t go anywhere, and she didn’t try to make him depart. Like at the pool, her hand found his cock, stiff and ready. This time, Tess stayed out of it. She, Avril, and Anna watched Victoria claim one final birthday gift for herself. As she stroked his cock beneath his swimming trunks, as she helped him wriggle out of them, and as she made him cum like a geyser, leaving a mess on his stomach.

She let it stay there for a while, as if the white, sticky mess might be bait that would attract other aroused beauties. Or maybe as evidence of her skill, after a weekend of hearing so often about what he’d already done with the other women in their group. They each had quite a head start on her, as she well knew.

Whichever it was, she eventually took up the task of cleaning him up. Her tongue glided over his skin, but her eyes didn’t drop to her task. Watching the others, providing as lurid a sight as this beach might have ever known, Victoria Moreno cleaned up her mess.

“Cumming so damn much,” Avril said a while later—during a shared dip into the ocean. Tess had come too, and the three of them relaxed in what might be their final soak of the warm Fijian waters. “Your stamina is fucking crazy, today.”

“Or, instead of that, I’m just surrounded by four literal succubi,” Liam proposed.

“It can be both,” Tess said, floating on her back, tendrils of hair weaving about in the pristine waters. “You’re in possession of a godly amount of endurance, and we’re all trying to suck it of you out like we’ll wither and die if we don’t.”

“All things considered, I’d say it’s worth the risk to my life,” Liam said, grinning.

Tess rolled her eyes but smiled. “Yes, we’re aware. We’ve been aware for some time.”

“Because you pretty much let us take a bite whenever we want,” Avril chimed in. She waved her hand back toward the beach. “Case in point.”

“First off, you three came in and started that escalation. You could have stayed away a little longer.”

Avril snorted, using her arm to push a wave in his direction. “Don’t act like you were disappointed when we did. You or Victoria, I’ll call either of you a liar.”

Liam bounced himself above the rise of water, smiling. “I didn’t say that. Nor has she.”

“Nor will she,” Tess said. “Nor will any of us, I suspect.”

“Nope, we’re all way, way too horny for each other for that,” Avril agreed.

They stayed in the water for a decent length, eventually returning once Tess located something to the southwest. A boat. The same one that had brought them here hours ago.

“Who’s it here for?” Anna asked as the three of them came ashore.

“Just me and lover boy,” Avril said, grabbing a towel and beginning to dry herself off. She peered toward the sun, which was dipping toward the horizon, though twilight remained a good hour away. “I guess it is about that time.” She tossed another towel toward Liam. “We need to go get ready for our romantic dinner.”

“What’s your plan for us?” Victoria asked, calmly slipping back into her bikini. “We stay here, and then you two return, or we just catch a later ride back to the resort?”

“The first one,” Avril said. “We can regroup for one final moment under the stars—one last deep breath of Fiji before we head home.”

No one took any issue with that plan, and so, as she so often did, Avril Knight got her way. They’d brought along enough food for the three who would be left behind to survive, and with barely a cloud in sight, there was hardly a good reason to depart the idyllic island earlier than needed.

Once the boat swung in and picked the departing pair up, Liam tossed a wave to the shrinking forms of the other three women. Receiving a couple back, he settled in for the short trip back to the resort.

From there, he separated from the fourth and final woman he adored, though only for a little while. Avril promised she wouldn’t need too long to get ready, so he could swing over to pick her up in about thirty minutes. Returning to his bure, still unaware of which beach Avril had selected for his final dinner in Fiji, Liam took a quick shower—the only one he’d taken in days that didn’t include a voluptuous professor.

Afterward, he found his singular nice outfit, which led him to consider upping that number before his promised date nights with Victoria and Anna. Throwing it on, he then played catch-up on packing his things. That was the one downside—if it could be called that—of fucking a gorgeous woman for hours on end, deep into the night. You slept in, woke up late, and couldn’t get in any morning packing before being dragged to a private beach.

He didn’t have too much to pack, anyway, so he burned through the bulk of it in about ten minutes. That packing included removing the glass container full of colorful fortune cookies from the bathroom closet, where it’d been less hidden than he’d intended. Looking over the many remaining fortunes, Avril’s new rules echoing in his ears, he considered breaking his own rule by grabbing a red or blue one, then trying to “sell” it to Avril during dinner.

Ultimately, however, he placed the jar of fortunes with his suitcase. He could go another four or five hours without becoming a salesman. After all, he’d have a pretty captive audience on the plane ride home. He could hawk his wares then.

Even if he had grabbed a fortune cookie, as he soon found out, he lacked the person to sell it to. Avril wasn’t in her bure. There weren’t many places to hide in or around it, so Liam confirmed her absence within a minute or two.

So much for her waiting on me, he thought, knowing where he should go next.

Yet, she also wasn’t to be found waiting by the boat. In fact, he wasn’t just missing a scheming redhead. There was no boat, no crew, no nothing.

Did I somehow walk to the wrong place?

But no, he could very plainly see the markings left in the sand by the body of a boat. This was where they’d embarked and disembarked numerous times over the week. Yes, it’d finally started getting dark, but he hadn’t gone blind in the past thirty minutes.

Liam nearly went looking for an employee to help him figure out what was going on. However, just as his eyes began veering toward the resort, he spotted something out in the water.

It was the boat, and it was coming right toward him. Squinting, he spotted only a single figure—the driver—aboard it.

What are you up to, Avril? Liam wondered.

“Hi, did I miss the time or something?” Liam asked once the boat was back where it should have been when he arrived a few minutes ago.

“No,” the man assured him. “When your partner arrived a little while ago, she seemed glad you hadn’t yet arrived. She asked to be taken to your beach right away. She’s waiting for you there.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess that sounds like her.”

The man nodded, smiling, and waited for Liam to come aboard. At least Liam knew the beach must be nearby, as he hadn’t been that slow in getting ready.

Close was right. Actually, it was the wrong word altogether. Because thirty minutes ago, when he’d been sitting on Yawini Island, he’d been within eyesight of the beach that Avril had selected for their dinner.

Liam facepalmed as he was led on the exact same trip he’d taken at the beginning of his day, minus a few hundred extra feet. As the boat curved in and came ashore on the other side of the sandbar—currently visible but decently submerged—that connected Yawini Island to the much larger Yasawa Island, Liam dragged his hand down his face.

Avril, of course, was all smiles as he disembarked. Surrounded by lit tiki torches, sitting at a round, tableclothed table covered in food and drink, and as beautiful as she was maddening, she waved him over.

“You’re such a menace,” he said, gaze passing toward the other beach, where he could see Anna, Tess, and Victoria. They were far enough away, especially with the dwindling light, that he could only see their general forms. But that was enough for both parties—and enough for him to wonder what they thought of their benefactor’s greatest and final plot.

And of course, Avril had also set things up so that he’d face the north while they ate, in sight of them at all times.

“It’s pretty funny, I think,” Avril said, beaming at him.

She was beautiful enough in her dress that he couldn’t help but forgive her for her final theatrics.

Her outfit wasn’t quite on the level of formality that he’d seen from the others on New Year’s Eve. However, she’d also been in a hurry to beat him here, and the two-piece dress she’d selected for tonight suited the speed she’d been after.

It was a dress of deepest blue, eager to show off as much skin as it hid. The top exposed plenty of cleavage, and it left a good eight inches of Avril’s midriff exposed. Kept up by only a pair of thin straps, Avril had thrown a choker of thin gold around her neck. She’d also put up her hair. Not just in a simple ponytail this time. She let a few strands intentionally escape from it, and they framed her heart-shaped face—and the stunning smile at the center of it.

Liam didn’t go toward his seat right away. Instead, he angled toward the sitting beauty, wanting to see more than just her upper half. Turning in her seat, Avril let him admire a long leg, which a high slit in the bottom part of the dress showed off. There was more gold there, a single narrow length crossing over her skin, disappearing beneath what parts of her leg her dress did cover, glittering on her upper thigh.

“You’re welcome to kiss whichever part of me catches your fancy,” Avril said, eyes gleaming far brighter than the stars beginning to emerge above them.

Liam traced his fingers over the golden chain on her thigh, meeting its owner’s bright emerald eyes. “You leave me behind and expect to be kissed for it?”

Without even a moment’s hesitation, Avril said, “Yes, I do. Problem?”

Liam snorted and delivered his mouth to hers. His hand pressed down on her thigh, feeling the link of gold between his palm and her skin, and she lifted one of hers to his cheek. A long kiss followed, rejuvenating and as thrilling as the first of them had been.

“So, am I forgiven?” Avril whispered as their lips parted.

“Partially. We’ll see how good dinner is.”

Avril grinned and beckoned toward his seat. The main courses remained hidden beneath steel cloches. At the same time, he and Avril revealed their final meal of the vacation.

Steam smashed right into Liam’s face, along with a decadent array of heady spices. Dipping his head back from the influx of flavor, he peered through the curtain of steam.

“A lobster each?” he asked, tilting an eyebrow upward.

Avril nodded and waved a hand toward the other items on the table. “We’ve got Rourou soup as an entrée, and pineapple and mint sorbet as a dessert. The chef talked me into all three. Figured I’d let an expert pick our final meal. We can leave a bad review if they’ve picked wrong.”

Liam snorted. “Some sort of divine judgement would fall on my head if I rated this trip as anything other than five stars. Anyone, man or god, would think I’m the greediest man alive if I didn’t.”

“Oh, but you are the greediest man alive,” Avril said, smiling coyly. “One isn’t enough, nor two, nor even three.”

“I could say the same thing about you,” Liam said, glancing past her, watching the silhouettes moving in the growing darkness.

“You could, and I won’t deny it,” Avril said, hoisting a bubbly drink into the air. “To the greediest man and woman in the world.”

Rolling his eyes, he still lifted his drink. “To the greediest of us, then.”

After toasting to their nearly boundless desires, they solved one of them with the delectable array of food and drink that sat before them. As he ate, he wondered how Tess and the others had reacted to seeing the table and torches set up right across the water from them. They must have figured it out immediately.

At least the trip back won’t take long, Liam thought.

Throughout the meal, the evening deepened. The sun drooped one final time over their week-long stay in Fiji. Beams of pure gold cast themselves out along the horizon, glinting off the gold at Avril’s neck. They mixed with a handful of clouds in the area, painting them proud orange at their depths and morose purple at their ends. The ocean shimmered in the fading light, ripple upon ripple of melding color sweeping into the shore not twenty feet away from Liam and Avril.

Without any warning, Avril stood. Liam moved his eyes back to her, watching as she circled the table.

He knew what she was up to even before she waved with her hand. Lifting his chair legs off the ground, he moved it, and himself, back about a foot from the table. Smiling, Avril used the extra room to situate herself on his lap, shoulder leaning into his chest, one arm wrapped around his neck.

“Not a bad way to end it,” Avril said, staring ahead.

Liam ran his hand up the slit in her dress, tracing her thigh. Avril leaned into him, content, yet not looking for any type of escalation. She just wanted to be held for a little while. Liam could do that. He could see himself doing that for a very, very long time. Not just tonight, but in the weeks, months, and years to come.

This vacation was undoubtedly the best he’d ever had. Given all that had happened here, it might stay that way forever. Even if—or when, as he should probably start thinking—they visited another fantastical place, where he got to spend another perfect week with four perfect women, this first one would stay special.

And Liam couldn’t help but want to make it just a little better.

He knew what he was doing; he had experience in ruining his own plans. On a night just like this one, he had meant to admit his love to Tess. He’d sort of messed that up on the first day here, overcome by an urgent and compelling act of spontaneity.

Likewise, he’d been meaning to keep his plans to attend Bellmore a secret from Avril until the fall—or at least the late summer. Once again, he let his plans fade away before the sheer insistence of his instincts. This was the time, it whispered. He agreed.

“I could make it a little better, I think.”

Avril glanced toward him. “If the others think I’m riding you over here, they might get even more upset than I’m sure they already are.”

“Not that,” he said, shaking his head. “A secret. One I’ve been keeping from you for quite a while.”

Avril forgot about the stunning sunset. In a fashion that suited her completely, she dismissed it entirely. Shifting to get a better look at him, she splayed a hand against his chest.

“A secret? What kind?”

“One that Victoria and Anna both already know about,” he said, baiting the hook.

“What, are you going in reverse of your relationships?” Avril asked. “Because if that’s the case, I’ll remind you that I really should be the last to hear this secret.” She made a lurid motion with her hand, reminding him of how this had all started.

“That’s not how it is,” he said, catching her fist, holding it in his grasp. “Victoria found out first, then Anna. I needed Victoria’s advice. Anna… sort of found out accidentally.”

“You’ve got me listening, Liam,” Avril said, eyeing him dryly. “Consider me appropriately enthralled. Now, spill it before I headbutt you.”

He smiled. “First, promise you’ll keep the secret.”

“From Tess?”

He nodded.

Avril knocked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, mind likely awhirl with theories and ideas. “All right. I won’t say anything.”

Liam believed her. He also believed he’d see a returning expression that Avril so rarely showed. He drew in a breath, and it still felt right. He spilled his greatest secret.

“I’ve applied for a transfer to Bellmore.”

Avril didn’t appear shocked. So, he didn’t get the exact response he’d been expecting. Instead, with a single tilt of her head, those loose strands of auburn spilling down, she looked perplexed.

A moment later, that perplexity disappeared so quickly that it might never have even been there. A sly grin replaced it.

“You little bastard,” Avril said.

Interesting response, Liam thought, uncertain as to what his should be.

But Avril had more to say. That hand on his chest pulled back, and then a fist tapped him firmly on his sternum.

“I’m fucking graduating in a few weeks, you know that?”

“Well, two-ish months, no?”

“Oh, shut up.” Avril’s grin grew, teeth glinting in an almost dangerous sort of way. “And when was I, third in line, supposed to learn about this? Don’t pretend it was all part of the plan for tonight; I know you better than that.”

Liam shrugged. “Probably when I sent you a picture on campus during my first day there. Maybe with Victoria, Tess, and Anna in it.”

“You jackass.” Avril barked a laugh. “You’re such a jackass. You were going to let me spend the whole summer thinking we’d go back to that weekend only bullshit once August hit.”

“Hard to surprise you if I didn’t,” he noted. “Of all people, I think you’d appreciate that.”

Avril snorted and twisted her knuckles, digging them into his chest. “I should climb off your lap right now, then make you swim home.”

“I’d definitely miss summer break if that happened.”

“You still might,” Avril said. “You’ve got to survive the plane ride back—two of them, technically.”

“Well, I guess I’m hoping you’re motivated enough to ensure my safety and survival, now,” Liam said. “Now that you know my greatest secret.”

“Yeah, third to find out about it.”

“Well…”

Avril narrowed her eyes at him, so Liam elected not to mention how his parents and college roommate also knew about his plans. He wisely kept his mouth shut.

“Okay, finish eating,” Avril said, departing his lap.

“And then?” Liam said, knowing there must be more.

Emerald eyes flashed over a slender shoulder as Avril circled back to her side of the table. “We’re going to go back to the others, obviously.”