Chapter 34
Juniper
Corfu, Kaminaki Beach
The road here from Corfu Town is steep and winding but worth it, and Kaminaki looks stunning from above—a sweeping bay that’s big enough to be magnificent and isolated enough to feel like a home.
We find our apartment and unload our bags and belongings.
On our way down the hill, we stroll lazily through the streets in the village above the bay. Everything here seems best done lazily.
Only a dozen or so swimmers are here, and the beach could be Australian if not for the lack of sand.
Going from spring in Australia to autumn in Greece would barely be a shock, except this is my first time overseas and outside of Australia.
I’ve flown into Greece. I’m on Corfu. The sun above is hitting an entirely different part of the planet, and I am lucky to be alive.
Every day I’ve been telling myself this.
More than lucky, because I have Aaron and Tomás with me.
Having stripped off my small dress, I adjust my red-and-white bikini so my boobs are unlikely to fall out, then I follow my men over the pebbled beach.
The sea is crystal clear and blue. As it ebbs and flows against the shore, rocks show through the ripples.
I stand still to watch my feet being relentlessly bathed by the warm water.
The rhythmic sound is hypnotizing. The ocean is breathing, I decide.
If I stay here long enough, anything and everything will be washed away into the depths.
I close my eyes and inhale, exhale.
“Come in!”
Tomás waves from where he stands, already chest deep. His dark hair is wet and slicked against his head, though the thickness of it makes parts stick up. I spy a pale flicker of Aaron under the surface, swimming like an otter…or a shark. Shark is more him.
I smile and wave back then start to tiptoe in, my arms waving crazily as my feet totter and slip over the water-worn rocks. “Bugger this,” I hiss as my right foot is wrenched.
I swing my arms and launch into a shallow dive and slide in.
There’s a couple of feet of water here. Something flits across before me, perhaps a small fish.
I duck my head and submerge, gliding along with nothing but the tinkling gurgle of bubbles rushing by my ears in this cocooning sea to remind me of the world above.
I’ve always admired the courage of those who dive deep and beyond the capacity of humans unless we don scuba gear or train our lungs to superhuman feats. I scoop the water backward and kick toward where Aaron is near the bottom and skimming the rocks.
A hand touches my back and runs over my bikini bottom, so I roll onto my back and glimpse the blurry imagery of a lurking Tomás. I flip and go lower to view his legs then surface, splashing water and hugging his lovely hard body.
He wraps his arms around me. “I caught a mermaid.”
I laugh and drag in a couple of breaths. “This is beautiful!”
Beside us, Aaron erupts from below. Water streams off him, and he swipes away hair from his face before pulling me from Tomás and to his side. “Race you to the boat?”
I eye the small speedboat he’s pointing at, anchored twenty yards out to sea. “If I beat both of you, what do I win?”
“A spanking?” he suggests.
“Your collar,” Tomás adds more soberly.
“Ooh. Deal. I forgot to tell you both I used to win all the hundred m—”
Aaron shoves me backward, and I drop into the water, flailing.
They’ve both turned and are swimming toward the boat, their arms churning the water.
“Cheaters!” I launch after them and even with my best effort, they get there first. They’re bobbing beside the boat, laughing and high fiving.
I swim the last distance sedately, then do a duck dive to grab the sides of Aaron’s swimmers and yank them down his legs. He stops me before I can pull them off him.
Though I’m hauled to the surface, I flee in the direction of the shore. I’m chortling too hard to get into a good rhythm and have to stop twice. We arrive in the shallow waters of the beach together and loll there, sucking in air, recovering from the sprints.
“Did she earn anything, Tomás?”
“Fucked if I know.” Tomás has stretched out on his back as if asleep, with his head half submerged and his eyes mostly shut. He’s letting himself be lifted and lowered by the small waves.
“Tomás has reached expert level Aussie slang.” I copy him and let the sea cradle me. “Mmm. This is good.” I could definitely park an air bed here and do some snoring, if I weren’t likely to drown.
Aaron lies down on my other side. “Does fucked if I know qualify as Aussie slang?”
“No idea,” Tomás murmurs. “Since we cheated, I think she won her collar.”
“True.”
Silence wanders in and makes itself comfortable. I listen to the quiet movements of the sea and the muffled voices of other swimmers, lift my fingers and watch the water shed from them in streams and dribbles. “This was the most brilliant idea of yours, Aaron, coming here.”
“I agree.” He sighs. “I win you sitting on me and riding me before we go out to eat then.”
I eyeroll and only splash him a little.
When we return to our sun-blessed apartment on the hillside, I get to ride them both on the bed, while an orgasm slowly builds.
I’m passed from one to the other, from one cock to the next and made to mount them and ride them.
I’m kissed and caressed with my breath hitching and my pussy repeatedly explored, and it is the bestest ever punctuation to our afternoon.
Before we go to the restaurant, we take a walk along a levelled gravel path that threads above the shoreline to the north.
My white chiffon dress brushes my calves, and the late sunlight dapples us and the surroundings.
It’s warm enough that Aaron and Tomás have removed their shirts.
Beyond the clifflike drop-off to our right the sea keeps pace with us.
We find a quiet alcove of trees just off the track where someone has built a low stone seat. A breeze rustles through the foliage and scatters dry leaves along the path.
They’ve been seeking somewhere to gift me the collar, and I’m nervous, weirdly, perhaps because this seems a bit like a marriage.
“Here is good. We should look less naked.” Aaron raises an eyebrow and gets a nod from Tomás. They pull on their shirts.
I step up and fasten the last few buttons. “There.” The feel of the fabric says expensive fashion, despite being simple and short-sleeved.
Stepping back, I look down my dress, smoothing the skirt in my hand, unsure it is right for the occasion. “Am I—”
“You are beautiful, poquito,” Tomás says. “We will collar you now. You should kneel.” He points at where Aaron has laid a white cloth on the ground.
After I kneel and settle in place, from his small black backpack, Aaron takes a wrapped box. When he opens it, I gasp and my mouth falls open.
It’s gold and lusciously so. The collar gleams in the low sunlight, with rounded links that are a thick buttery gold. “I could eat that,” I whisper. “It’s gorgeous.”
He smiles. “Shhh. Tomás and I will both do this, hold it and fasten it on you.”
“This is your daytime collar. For outsiders. Your other one is red and spiky.” Tomás grins. “A bit like you.”
“Juniper Skye,” Aaron begins. “Do you wish to be ours, forever, to be owned and played with—”
“Fucked and toyed with.”
Aaron sighs. “Not what we rehearsed.” He gets elbowed and continues. “Loved forever and protected. Ours, until death do us part.”
I nibble my lip for a second—hard not to when your heart is beating like a herd of elephants is rampaging through. “I do.” It comes out low but also squeaky at the end. “Can I add something too?”
“Yes,” they both say.
“And I will love you forever, also, and protect you…” They don’t protest that part, and that’s a first. “And trust each other and ummm, until death do us part.”
We should probably have fine print, but this will do.
“That’s good,” Aaron approves. Phew.
“Trust and love.” Tomás nods and places a hand on the collar where it hangs from Aaron’s hand. “Lower your head.”
I do so and wait. The gold necklace feels cool and weighty as they place it around my neck.
It’s small enough that it won’t fall off if I trip or something.
The clasp closes with a click, then they arrange it so what seemed the clasp is to the front.
Something else sits there. They tilt up my chin and bestow me with a kiss each.
When they allow me to look, I stay on my knees and examine the clasp. “Is this…” I squint. It’s a small figure but not the one they showed me at the gravesite. It is smaller but the same, an inch high, created in gold like the collar. “A gremlin?”
“Yes.” Tomás kneels beside me and turns it over. “It’s also a lock, so you can’t remove this without the key, which we have. And…” He taps an inscription on the back.
I cannot read it upside down and slanted like it is. “Fucktoy? I bet it’s that.”
“It says poquito.” He turns it around to sit properly.
“You can swim with this one, just don’t tell anyone it is gold and vintage Cartier.”
“It is?” I have no idea what this is worth in money, and I really don’t care.
“But you wrote poquito. That’s sweet. Thank you both.
” I tug on Aaron’s hand until he, too, kneels and we end up in a group hug, with me snuggled in between their heavy arms. “It’s perfect.
” I lean into them both. “So very perfect. I might be crying.” I sniff.
“I wanted psycho,” Aaron says. “but he insisted.”
“It’s okay, poquito. I’m crying a little too.” Tomás squeezes us both. “At his bad taste.”
I quieten him by rising on my knees and kissing him on the mouth. Then I do the same to Aaron. “It seems one of my duties will be refereeing your fights.”
“You’ve made us both very happy,” Aaron whispers. “I promise to not arm wrestle him until after we eat. There.”
“Very, very happy,” Tomás agrees.
Our hug lasts a long time. Sometimes, just breathing and touching and being together is all you need.