24 - ANYSSA/CAMILA
24
ANYSSA/CAMILA
ANYSSA’S THIRTY-BEFORE-THIRTY LIST
“I ’m tired,” I complain, wiping the sweat from my brow as we approach a set of steep stairs.
“Not much longer. It’s just down these stairs,” Nazár says. “Hold tightly to the railing, and be careful.”
We’ve been hiking all morning, and he said it would end at a place of beauty that he wanted me to see. I see rocks all around but hear water somewhere, like a rushing river.
Halfway down the stairs, I see it.
“Come on. We can walk around this path so you can get a better view,” Nazár says, reaching for my hand.
I take his hand and step off the steps onto a concrete platform protected by a tall, wooden railing.
“Why does it feel like we’re in a large bowl hidden away from the world by magnificent trees?” I ask as I inhale the fresh scent of the rushing water falling over the edge of the natural rock formations.
“Because you are,” he says, shoving his hands into his front pockets.
“This place is beautiful,” I say as we approach the water.
He smiles and winks at me. “It’s called Wild River Falls. Worth the hike?” he shouts.
I nod. This place is still on the resort but deep at the back of his private property. I haven’t seen any “No Trespassing” signs yet, and many other people are here.
“I’m surprised you let people visit.”
“How could I not?”
“Take a picture of me under the waterfall,” I shout, remembering item number twenty on my Thirty-Before-Thirty List.
He pulls his phone from his shorts pocket and gestures for me to get into place. I walk behind Wild River Falls and pose for him to take a picture of me. He takes several just as some other people wander along.
Surprising me, he stops one of the men and asks, “Would you please take a picture of us?”
“Sure,” the guy replies as Nazár hands him his phone.
I’m speechless, to be honest. I know he has a strict no-picture-taking policy, but I wonder if that just means on the resort. As I look around, I surmise it must be because other people also take pictures.
The man hands Nazár’s phone back to him. Nazár shows me the pictures to ensure I like them.
“Beautiful,” I say.
I purchased a prepaid cell phone for this trip as part of my cover. That’s the number that I give Nazár to text me. When they come through, I immediately text them to my real number as we walk away from the waterfall.
He holds my hand, and I bask in the tenderness of that gesture. There are so many parts to this multifaceted man. While I don’t want to hurt Camila, I owe Nazár the truth.
We’re getting too close, and I cannot continue to hide it, even if it means breaking my promise to Camila.
“Nazár,” I say.
“Yes, baby.”
“We need to talk when we get back. There’s something that I want to share with you.”
Nazár smiles, but his eyebrows dip in a frown.
“Sure,” he replies, dragging a finger across my lips.
The rest of the day is spent touring the grounds I haven’t seen in the last two weeks.
“I’m tired. I feel like I’ve been working hard all day rather than being on vacation,” I say as we return to his property.
“I can do something to make you feel better,” he flirts, kissing my lips.
“Nazár!” Leona calls to him as we step out of the car.
He turns toward her. “Yes, Leona?”
“You completely forgot about your one o’clock meeting. Your guest has arrived, and I’ve been trying to reach you for over an hour,” she says.
Glancing at his watch, Nazár frowns. “Damn, I’d forgotten all about that.”
Turning to me, he says, “How about you nap, and I’ll have something ready for you to eat when you wake up?”
“How about I grab a sandwich now, shower, and then nap in that order?”
“I’ll get Nigel to whip you up something real quick. Shower and then eat.”
“Okay,” I say, resting my hands against his chest as he pulls me into his embrace. We share a slow, heated kiss before we pull apart.
“Keep tasting like that, and you won’t get any sleep,” he warns.
I bite my bottom lip, giggle, and turn toward the guest cottage. I glance over my shoulder once to see him and Leona moving up the walk with purposeful, long strides, their heads bowed together, discussing something.
I can’t help but wonder what that’s all about and who the meeting is with.
When I’m locked safely inside, I pull my actual phone from a locked bag and check my messages. I have two missed calls from Camila, one from Kayla, one from my mom, and one from Logan.
“I hope her dad is okay,” I mutter, deciding to call Camila first.
The phone rings four times, and Camila answers just when I think it’s going to voicemail.
“Hey,” she says, sounding sleepy.
“Hey, yourself. Did I wake you?” I ask, glancing at the clock.
“I’m fine,” she mumbles.
It’s one thirty in the afternoon here, and when I do the quick calculations, I realize it’s midnight there.
“I’m sorry. I forgot about the eleven-hour time difference. Call me when you get up.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ve been waiting for your call. Fell asleep waiting for it, actually.”
“Yeah, I did see that I had a couple of missed calls from you. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. When are you coming back to the States?”
“I should be back next Friday,” I say as sorrow at leaving Nazár pours through me.
How could I already be missing a man that I barely know? Yet, there hasn’t been a day gone by that we haven’t spent together since I moved into his guest cottage.
“Think you can make it happen before then?”
“Umm . . . What’s going on?”
“I have something that I need to share with you. Something important, but . . . I can’t talk about it over the phone,” she says, yawning.
“Is it related to Belle Baie?”
“No. Nothing like that.”
I can’t imagine what else she would have to tell me if it isn’t related to the resort.
“Let me finish this trip, and I promise I’ll see about getting my return flight changed to Sonoma instead of Atlanta.”
“Okay.”
“Camila, is everything okay?”
I hear her inhaling deeply, and then she says, “Yes, Anyssa. Everything is just fine.”
“And your dad? How did his other surgery go?”
“It was touch and go for a while, but he made it through.”
I can hear what she isn’t saying, and I don’t want to press her for details because it could make her emotional.
“Glad to hear that. I just returned from a hike and was about to shower and nap.”
“Okay. Enjoy.”
“Thanks. You go back to sleep and get some rest yourself.”
“M’kay,” she mutters sleepily.
After ending the call, I undress, shower, and find a sandwich and chips waiting for me in the dining area.
I finish my food and then head to my room for a nap.
I wake up and turn over in bed. Stretching, I’m surprised to find Nazár standing in the doorway watching me.
“Hey, is everything okay?” I ask, sitting up, disturbed by the scowl on his face.
Nazár runs his fingers through his long, dark hair, pulling it back from his forehead before he stands up straight.
“Business.”
“Meeting didn’t go so well?”
“It was fine. It’s other things.”
Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I pat the space beside me. “Come here.”
He takes long strides into the room and sits beside me. My fingers loop through his curls, and I straighten them individually before they loop into a swirl once more. I massage his scalp with my fingers and straddle him.
“What’s wrong, Dominio?” I ask, calling him his dominant name to ease the tension and get him in the mood for play.
Pressing his forehead against mine, he bites my bottom lip and runs his fingers up my tank top, scratching my back. His kiss is rough and forceful, nipping and biting my tongue and lip. I feel the blood rise to the surface of the bruised and perhaps broken skin.
Nazár rips my tank from my body, leaving nothing but the little cotton shorts that I have on me. Lowering his head, he bites a nipple with his teeth, gnawing at it, and I cup my hands against the back of his head, pulling him closer.
“Oh, Dominio,” I moan as desire swirls in my belly and nestles into a pool in my pussy.
Still biting and tugging on my nipple, his hand slips inside my shorts, and he roughly forces several fingers inside me, shoving and scissoring, pumping rough and hard. There is nothing gentle about his ministrations today, and I can’t help but wonder what happened. What has put him on edge?
“Hey, are you okay?” I ask, turning his head to look at me.
He nods and then turns his gaze from me and looks between my legs instead.
I lift just a little and give him more room inside of me, and his fingers pump as my desire throbs and swells. My arms wrap around him as I bask in the pain of the second nipple that he’s biting. My hips jerk forward hungrily, accepting the pleasure he brings.
It won’t be long before I release; I guess he senses it too. Nazár flips me onto my back and shoves my shorts aside. I see the desire in his eyes when he confirms that I’m wearing no panties per his instructions. I haven’t worn any since we’ve been together.
With my legs pulled into the air and my ankles fisted in one of his hands, he uses his other hand to slap my pussy several times before he forces three fingers and then four inside again. He scissors them furiously, pulling them out and shoving them in again.
I want him, and there’s no way that I’ll be satisfied until he’s inside of me, but it’s not me, but him who’s in control. I watch greedily as he pulls his hand from inside me, shoves his running shorts down, and fists his dick.
It’s angry, looking much like its owner. The same purple veins throbbing in his forehead now throb in his dick. It’s swollen and bruised red like the coloring on his face, which is slick with sweat, and he hasn’t even begun.
Roughly, Nazár pushes himself inside of me. Though I feel like I’m tearing down there, the feeling is so good, making me want more of him. It makes me wish that this would never have to end and that it could always be this way.
Hot. Rough. Deep.
There’s no lovemaking, no sex, and no kink. This is pure fucking with no apologies.
His anger betrays itself in the swivel of his hips, the thrust of his pelvis, the ramming of his dick tearing at my inner walls. It’s evident in his tight grip on my ankles that I know will be bruised because they’re already sore.
It’s demonstrated in how his lips are pulled back over his teeth in an angry snarl, the fire in his heated gaze, and the flaring of his broad nostrils.
The sweat dripping from his brow and chest are even angry, singeing me as each drip falls to my body.
Yet, what can I do but take it? After all, I want this as much as he does. Something about how he’s fucking me right now is tearing at my insides, bruising my heart. It’s like I know that he’s severing our connection, but why now?
I still have six days remaining, and we can enjoy our time. Yet, in his gaze, he’s already breaking away from me. Nazár’s already regarding me as a casual fuck, a random stranger that he could care less about. As if, after this, he’ll never see me again.
And then I know. I don’t know how I know, but I know that he’s found out about me. He’s punishing me most cruelly. There’s no connection. He’s just fucking me like some random woman.
A slap across the ass stings and is quickly followed up by several more, and I know I’ll be sore for days to come. He’s showing me no mercy, not even checking to ensure I’m okay because he’s beyond caring.
He’s in a mental space I’ve never experienced with him. Another slap to my ass, and he growls and picks up his pace as his dick slams inside me, knocking the wind from my lungs and every coherent thought from my mind.
I try to open my legs wider to brace for him, but I can’t break his grip on my ankles or part my legs to force him out or lock him in.
“Dominio!” I cry out.
That angers him more as his punishing thrusts become more brutal and aggressive. When he finally releases my ankles and legs from the air, it’s only to shove them apart and position himself between my thighs. I welcome him, wrapping my legs and arms around him, but he breaks the grip, placing a barrier between us by not quite lying on me but neither lifting up completely.
“Safe word?”
I shake my head no.
I can’t push him out. If this is the last time that we’ll be together, I want to remember what it feels like when he’s filling me up and what he smells like when he’s doused in sweat, arousal. . . and anger.
With his hand on my neck, Nazár gently applies pressure as he increases the intensity and pace of his movements. The faster he moves, the more pressure he applies until I cannot breathe.
My hands lift to pry his hands from my neck, but he doesn’t budge. I close my eyes, allowing harmony to take over as I enjoy the pain of a harsh fuck paired with breath play that excites me.
The lightheadedness and dizziness begin to take over, clouding my vision and thoughts. I float on the feeling and wait for him to let up. Panic takes over when he doesn’t release as he usually does after several seconds.
My eyes fly open, and I reach out to him, slapping his hand until he releases. My head spins as I choke and regain my breath. Nazár is on me again, covering my mouth with his and then kissing me.
I melt under his attention, wanting our bodies to meld together. Lifting my leg to wrap around him, I’m surprised when he slaps my thigh, pressing it away from him and onto the bed.
Through all this, he never loses his momentum or rhythm. The headboard slams into the wall, and I thought this bed frame was relatively stable. My hiccupping cries rival the sound of the slam, but I still don’t use my safe word even in all this.
My pussy is sore, and if that weren’t enough, Nazár pulls out of me and flips me onto my belly. Using his knee, he spreads my legs apart and grabs my arms, wrapping his large hand around my wrists.
“I want you up on your knees with your ass spread open, Princesa.”
Maybe we’re okay after all. At least, I hope so.
I do as he says, and he releases my hands momentarily. Long enough to spread my cheeks apart and guide himself inside of my asshole. He resumes the grip on my wrists, pulling me toward him and shoving me forward again as he fucks me anally like there’s no tomorrow.
My face presses into the pillow, and I bury my screams. The pain that soars through me as he thrashes inside my ass and the breath play is a heady combination. Despite his brutal punishment, I can’t help that I come.
Only it isn’t pleasing to Nazár because he pulls back and begins to spank my ass with his hand. Not once, not twice, not even three times, but repeatedly. His hits are harder than usual as he grunts, “I never gave you permission to come! You’re a disobedient little slut!” he growls, lifting my hips again and then entering me once more.
This time, he pumps a few times until he empties himself inside my ass. He slumps over me for a few seconds but quickly stands up, pulling up his shorts and underwear before sitting on the bed again.
I lay on the bed, on my back, watching him. He’s distanced himself from me with his shoulders hunched over as he stares at the floor.
Finally, Nazár pulls his fingers through his hair and sighs loudly.
“Hey,” I say, reaching out to touch his shoulder, but he pulls away.
The action is subtle, but I don’t miss it.
“Is there anything that I can do to make you feel better? It seems like something’s off between us,” I say.
“Yes, something’s very off, Anyssa,” he replies gruffly.
I sit up on the bed with my heart hammering in my chest. Yet, it doesn’t feel how I hoped it would upon hearing him say it the first time. He spits it out in disgust as a condemnation of my sins.
“So, you know who I am.”
“Why did you lie to me, Anyssa?”
“I never meant to lie to you, Nazár. Not you as a person.”
“I thought what we shared was real and wasn’t scripted. Why would you do that to me?” he asks, turning to stare at me.
The pain in his eyes is evident as a thousand questions float in them.
I feel him blocking me out already and putting the walls in place. It’s the least that I deserve for being torn between my promise to Camila and my obligation to him.
“Honestly, Nazár, I never expected things to jump off between us. I came here as a favor to a friend of mine, the real Camila Martinez. My only desire was to find someone to love me along the way.”
“So, I was a game to you? Just another segment of your TV shows?”
“No! Never that! When I first saw you, hell,when we first met, I had no idea who you were! I only knew I was attracted to you and wanted to get to know you. I had no idea you were the owner of this resort. Not until the day that we toured the vineyards.”
“Why didn’t you tell me the truth then?”
“Because I’d already signed the NDA with Camila and was locked into that. It wasn’t something that I could break.”
“Yet, you could overlook the NDA you signed upon coming here?”
“No, I haven’t done anything like that. Your NDA said nothing about my identity or pretending to be someone else or anything. We honestly meant no harm. It was just a way to ensure that she didn’t lose out on all her money, destroy her friends’ reputation who referred her to you, and make sure that she could come again in the future.”
“She should have come herself.”
“She couldn’t. Her father was having emergency surgery, and she wasn’t sure if he would make it through, but she didn’t want to lose everything that she’d invested in this trip either. We thought it was a good plan and never meant to harm anyone. I swear, Nazár. I never meant any disrespect.”
“The photos! I should have known when I caught you taking those photos in the vineyard.”
“That was the only time that I did that. It was for my personal collection. Selfies of me on vacation. Nothing that I planned to share with anyone. I still haven’t shared them, Nazár. Look, I know this is all screwed up, but I never could have expected our connection. I didn’t foresee this coming.”
“But yet, you were here looking for love. What if it had been another man? Would you have screwed him over too?” he asks, standing and walking to the door.
“Nazár, I’m sorry. It’s screwed up, I will admit it. I had every intention of coming clean with you this afternoon. That’s what I was mentioning when we were at the waterfalls.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I was. What else would I have had to talk to you about?” I ask, walking to stand directly in front of him.
“I don’t know.”
“Please forgive me, Nazár. We can work through this. I’m the same woman you met and have spent these few weeks with. Just a different name, but everything else is the same.”
“How can it be when I don’t know you? Your career and interests aren’t real. How can I believe any of the rest of it was?”
“Just please give me a chance, Nazár,” I ask with tears clogging my throat.
Shaking his head, he rests his hands on my shoulders and stares into my eyes. “When I first learned about your lie, I tried taking a minute to get over it. I tried telling myself that it wasn’t as big of a deal as I was making it. You haven’t pried into anything about my wife. I willingly shared those things with you and you never asked or got too deep into it. That alone makes me want to believe you.”
“Because I didn’t care about that. I just wanted to get to know you , Nazár.”
“But I’m very particular about my guests. I hand select each one of them exclusively. You’ve been running around my property and my home with free rein. I’ve let you into my home, Anyssa, without a second thought. I caught you taking pictures of my estate, you lied about your identity, and I have no idea who you are.
“I don’t know what’s real and what’s not right now.”
“My feelings for you are real, Nazár. That’s something that you can believe,” I insist.
Nazár drops his hands from my shoulders and closes his eyes. When he opens them again, I see the steely resolve there.
“There’s a lot for me to think about, Anyssa, and I need the time and space to do it. Until I get clarity and the answers that I need, you must go.”
As much as it hurts, I understand his decision, and I have no reason to try to fight him on it. I’m wrong, and that’s the end of it.
“So, is this goodbye for now or goodbye for good?” I ask over the wobble in my voice.
He doesn’t meet my gaze. He simply says, “Get dressed. A car will be here to pick you up in thirty minutes.”
“Where will I go, Nazár?”
“Wherever you want to go. Anywhere but here.”
“Nazár, please don’t push me out completely,” I plead as tears pool in my eyes.
He leans down and presses a soft kiss to my lips. “Goodbye, Princesa.”
“I’m so sorry, Nazár,” I apologize as the tears spill.
Sadness fills his eyes. “Leona will be here to help you pack.”
He turns and heads out of the room. I grab a T-shirt and pull it on as I rush into the living room behind him. Leona is waiting on the porch when Nazár pulls the door open.
“Ms. Kelley,” Leona says gently with a sympathetic smile as Nazár jogs down the steps to a waiting car.
I watch Nazár climb into the chauffeured car.
“Nazár!” I call, running down the steps after him.
He looks at me with sorrow-filled eyes one final time before he closes the door, and the car pulls away.
I turn my tear-stained face to Leona, and she pulls me into her arms. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
She turns me around, helps me inside the house, and closes the door.
“What happened?” I whisper, dropping down onto the couch.
“There have been some leaks online about the resort. Pictures. Details. Things that are forbidden.”
“And he thinks that I—”
“Yes, he does. Not at first. We weren’t certain who leaked the details, but it wasn’t until a couple of things happened that he knew.”
“What things?”
My head throbs, and I’m suddenly exhausted as if I hadn’t just napped.
“The business meeting that he forgot about earlier was with an investigator friend of his. Before Nazár invited you to stay at the cottage, he asked his friend, Izad, to look deeper into you. He wanted to make sure that you weren’t a reporter nosing your way into his life.”
“He had me investigated ?”
“Yes, but Izad had just returned from vacation and had an impressive backlog of requests. So he told Nazár he would get to it as soon as possible. A couple of days ago, Nikolaus Galanis, one of the resort guests, bumped into Nazár. He mentioned that he was glad you were no longer at the resort because it made him uncomfortable, fearing that he might see himself on your show.
“Nazár was uncertain what the man meant. The man mentioned your YouTube channel, your show on the Travel Channel, and your travel magazine affiliations. Understandably, Nazár was confused, but he still gave you the benefit of the doubt even after seeing those things himself.”
“Because he didn’t expect Camila Martinez to have travel magazine affiliations, let alone host a Travel Channel show.”
“Precisely. So, he had me call his investigator friend. Izad called first thing this morning, wanting to meet with Nazár in person. Izad presented a full report that appeared to show everything was on the up and up until he gave the pictures of Camila Martinez to Nazár, who said that wasn’t you.
“His friend assured him those were pictures of Camila Martinez, and Nazár showed him pictures of the two of you at the waterfall this morning. I’m not sure how he pulled the information so fast, but he gave Nazár a comprehensive report on who you are during that meeting.”
“Oh my God. I can see how this all looks far worse than it actually is with those leaked photos. I’ve wanted to tell him the truth.”
“Perhaps you should have long before now.”
Pressing my fingertips against my temples, I massage them and ask the question bugging me.
“Well, if he knows who I am, it’s easy to prove that I wasn’t the one who posted any information about the resort. He can look up all my social media accounts, my YouTube channel, my travel articles, and see that I haven’t written anything about it.”
“We looked for any videos posted while you were here. We found a video on YouTube of you in the shower at the hotel. A questionable photo of your assets with a lioness peering through a paw.”
I pull my hand over my face as I recall the day I took that video, never thinking anyone would figure it out.
“Why didn’t he just come to me and ask? That’s the only thing that I posted.”
“Yet, your NDA says nothing should be posted. He also mentioned that he found you taking pictures in the vineyard. You do understand the impossible position you placed him in. This time of the year is naturally hard for Nazár.”
“Why?”
“The fifth anniversary of his wife’s passing is coming up. People are curious, looking for reasons to spark the rumors again. Unfortunately, my dear, you have given them the fuel to light that fire.”
Sickness washes over me on his behalf. He’d never mentioned that.
She remains quiet, and I finally say, “Maybe I’ll just wait for him to cool off, and then I can completely explain everything when he returns.”
Leona shakes her head. “You don’t know Nazár Rivas as well as you think. He’s a very stubborn man.”
“But maybe—”
Shaking her head again, she says, “No. He’s going to the airport to catch an early flight to Switzerland. He was supposed to leave in a few days, but he pushed up the time. His bags were already packed and loaded into the car before he came here to see you.”
“What’s in Switzerland?”
“A business arrangement and a friend.”
Just how she says “a friend” shatters my heart.
“Come on. Errol will be here to pick you up soon.”
“I haven’t made arrangements to fly home yet,” I mutter.
“Nazár has arranged for you to stay at the Four Seasons Resort Mauritius at Anahita. He will cover the costs of your stay for one week. The balance of what has been paid for this resort will be returned to you.”
Anxiety creeps through me when I think about how I’ve ruined this for Camila. Not to mention that she probably will never speak to me again. I talked to her several hours ago, and all seemed well.
How the hell am I going to break this to her?
My mind is muddled as I pack my bags.