Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Rae
Any signs of trouble in paradise between Zach and Kincaid were gone by breakfast. The two were sitting next to each other, Kincaid’s arm around Zach, while Zach toyed with his boyfriend’s fingertips, looking like they didn’t have a care in the world.
She was probably the only one who knew it was a front, and she was going to keep it that way.
At least this morning, she’d managed to sit all the way down the table away from Brian. She was wedged between Avery and Iris and on the same side of the table as him, so she couldn’t see him at all. Which was a relief.
Taunting him last night—if he had been watching—had been fun, but she hadn’t thought ahead to the morning. Without knowing whether or not he’d seen her, she wasn’t sure how to act around him. Though, if he had seen her, he was definitely acting like he hadn’t.
If he had seen her and was acting like it was nothing, that ticked her off.
Maybe he hadn’t seen her at all, and he wasn’t acting.
Her head was a freaking mess, and it was all her fault.
I shouldn’t have done it.
Sometimes, she acted before she thought things all the way through, especially when she was tired. Granted, she never did anything too crazy, but she couldn’t help but wish she’d thought about what this morning would be like before she’d gotten herself all laid out and naked on the couch.
Though, if she just knew whether he’d seen her, she wouldn’t be so bothered by it. But since she didn’t know, she just had to act completely normal, as if he definitely hadn’t seen her.
Dammit.
She wanted to know. She hated that she couldn’t tell. She’d hate even more if he had seen her and knew that pretending he hadn’t was driving her crazy.
Stop thinking about it!
She was making herself crazy.
It was sheer relief when breakfast was over and the groups separated.
“I am so looking forward to today,” Avery said, sliding her arm through Rae’s as they headed down the path to the spa.
While they could have taken a golf cart, they’d all felt like walking, and the morning wasn’t nearly as hot and humid as the afternoon had been.
“I never get to do stuff like this.” She was practically bouncing as she walked, which helped Rae refocus her attention on her friends.
“You need to tell your boss to give you better hours,” Rae teased. Avery’s fiancé was also technically her boss. Since they both worked at a restaurant, he was also kind of limited in the hours he could give her.
It made it hard for Avery to make it to a lot of the group stuff since she was often working in the evenings, though they did their best to schedule things for her nights off.
Well, her nights off when Nick didn’t also have off, since when they both had off, they spent their evening at one of the kink clubs they all belonged to.
“Yeah, my boss sucks. You should definitely tell him I said that, too.” Avery giggled, her eyes sparkling, and Rae couldn’t help but laugh. Avery wasn’t exactly ‘brat’ material, but she was apparently angling for a funishment—a fun punishment—now that she was on vacation.
“I’ll let Olivia know.”
“She is not my boss!” Avery squealed at the mention of the Dominatrix who managed Marquis. Technically, she wasn’t really in charge of the kitchen, but it was still fun to tease Avery.
“Who’s not your boss?” Domi came up on Rae’s other side, while Iris joined Avery’s other side.
“I’m trying to get a spanking from Nick, and Rae is over here threatening me with Olivia.” Avery shook her head mournfully, giving Rae big doe eyes. She was very good at looking sweet and innocent. “And here I thought we were friends.”
“Hey, I was just trying to give you what you need,” Rae teased back. “You said to tell your boss.”
“I also said ‘him,’ not ‘her’!”
“Semantics.” Rae giggled as Avery elbowed her in the side.
They were all laughing as they got to the end of the path to the spa building.
A few hours later, Rae felt like a whole new woman.
She’d been rubbed, oiled, and buffed to within an inch of her life, and she was both sleepy and invigorated.
All the stress from the morning—the desire to know whether Brian had been watching last night—had disappeared under the firm fingers of her masseuse.
It really didn’t matter.
She wasn’t going to spend her whole week focusing on him.
She was going to keep an eye on Kincaid and Zach, and she was going to find a vacation fling—possibly—and everything was going to be wonderful. Even if she couldn’t find a fling, she’d find a couple of one-night or one-scene partners.
“I need food. And a cocktail. A fruity frozen one.” Iris grinned as they sat down for lunch on a patio overlooking the ocean. The day was definitely heating up, but they all had wanted to sit where they could hear the waves.
“Frozen and fruity sounds like a good idea,” Rae agreed.
They all ended up ordering different ones and trying each other’s.
The mango was her favorite. Talk devolved to weddings, of course, but Rae was feeling so good after the spa, she couldn’t feel left out, even though she was the only one not planning one.
She’d be perfectly fine being a bridesmaid at all of them.
And at least with Law and Iris, Brian wouldn’t be a groomsman, so she’d get a break there.
Law had his own set of close friends. The groups had been spending some time together, but for Law and Iris’ wedding, Law’s friends, Connor and Q, were going to be his groomsmen, and his friend Asad was his best man.
Sadly, there were no potential hookups for her there, either. Asad and Q both had girlfriends, and Connor, well, he wasn’t a Daddy Dom exactly… He seemed like he was into kink, yet he hadn’t really found his place in it yet. At any rate, there was no spark between the two of them.
She sighed, her gaze scanning across the beachfront. There were plenty of people out there, some of them in bathing suits, some of them nude, but she didn’t see the guys.
“What are you looking at?” Domi asked, leaning over as if to try to see what might have caught Rae’s eye.
“A hookup,” she said, giving her friend a half-hearted grin. “Sorry, I’ll pay closer attention… what are we talking about now? Flowers?”
“No, no, let’s talk about getting you a hookup,” Iris said, twisting in her seat to survey the possibilities out on the beach. “We’ve got plenty of time for wedding talk. You’ve only got a few nights to find a hookup.”
“She’ll probably have better luck in the Dungeon this evening,” Avery pointed out, though she also turned to look around. “There were plenty of single Doms walking around last night.”
“Yeah, but it’s fun to check out the eye candy now.
” Rae’s gaze slipped over to the small group of men walking up to the tiki bar that was just off to the side of the patio.
They all had a similar look to them—white, blond, in their thirties.
They looked like they could be brothers.
“What about the one in the pink shorts?”
None of her friends were discreet as they all looked over at the four men, but fortunately, the men didn’t notice. Or if they did, they didn’t react. Maybe they were used to being ogled. They were all pretty good-looking.
“He looks douche-y,” Domi said, wrinkling her nose.
“Douche-y doesn’t matter to me right now unless it’s coming out of me.” Rae sighed.
Silence fell around the table, and she blinked as she realized what she had just said. The frozen fruity drinks were hitting her harder than she’d thought… but it was still true.
She cleared her throat and pointed to herself.
“Drunk.”
Iris pointed at herself.
“Horrified.”
They all cracked up.
“Shh, shh, they’re looking at us,” Avery whispered, waving her hand even as she kept giggling. Unfortunately, her whispered request just made them all laugh harder.
They were saved by the food showing up at their table. Thank goodness. Rae apparently needed something in her stomach to soak up the alcohol before she even thought about attempting approaching pink shorts.
Brian
“Take that!” Mitch jumped into the air, spiking the ball down right between Zach and Kincaid, who both dove for it and missed.
Mitch, Brian, and Law all jumped in the air, whooping.
That had been the final point to win in the closest match they’d had all morning.
They’d all agreed that this was going to be the final game, which meant winners took all.
“Dammit!” Zach pounded his fist against the sand and sighed, falling back. Laying on the sand next to him, Kincaid reached out to pat his shoulder consolingly while Nick stood over both of them, shaking his head in amusement.
“We almost had it,” Nick said reassuringly, chuckling. Unlike Zach and Kincaid, he didn’t seem to be taking their loss that hard. They really had been close; it had all come down to the final point.
Still, everyone liked winning better than losing, and Zach and Kincaid could be more competitive than some. Definitely more than Nick, who was taking their loss with a lot more grace than the other two.
“Almost doesn’t count.” Kincaid made a face, pushing himself up and turning to grab Zach’s hand so they could pull each other to their feet in a practiced move. Something simmered in the air between them before they turned away from each other, Zach clearing his throat as he stretched.
“Who’s ready for lunch?” Mitch asked, which pretty much guaranteed that everyone was going to say yes. No one wanted to tell the groom no during his bachelor party after all, even though he was hardly pushy about it.
“Lunch sounds good.” Law ducked under the net, rubbing his hand over his bald head. “I could use a break from the sun.”
“You could use some sunscreen,” Brian countered, holding out the tube.
Law eyed it disdainfully, and Brian rolled his eyes.
He was pretty sure Law had put some on before coming out, but he seemed to find it a point of pride not to reapply.
“When was the last time you were actually in the Philippines, dealing with the sun there?”
Huffing, Law took the bottle and muttered a gruff ‘thanks,’ which made Mitch snicker.
“You’ll be thankful later when you don’t have to have Iris rubbing aloe onto your head,” Brian said.
“Maybe we should get you a hat,” Mitch added, grinning when Law scowled at him.
“Maybe we should get you a hat.”
“Now, now, boys, no fighting, no biting,” Brian said mildly, taking the tube back from Law and passing it over to Mitch.
“Yes, Daddy,” Mitch and Law chorused, causing everyone except Brian to crack up.
Even he couldn’t keep the slight smile from his face, despite not wanting to encourage them.
Being called that also made his chest tighten because it was another reminder of Rae.
He’d managed to go all morning without thinking about her, and it didn’t make sense that she’d pop into his head over a title that she refused to call him by, but that’s what happened.
Pushing her back out of his thoughts—where she didn’t belong—he gave Law a stern look. The formerly grouchy Dom would have never made that joke a year ago.
“Iris has been a bad influence on you.” Brian shook his head sadly. Truthfully, she’d been a fantastic influence, but he wasn’t going to say that right now.
“I like sassy Law,” Mitch countered, slinging his arm across Law’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go get lunch.”
“I’m not sassy,” Law grumbled.
As they walked, Brian glanced over his shoulder. Kincaid and Zach seemed to be having some kind of intense discussion. Not wanting to draw attention to them, he turned back around. They’d work it out. Though he’d need to keep an eye on things if they were going to keep this up all week.
Not just because he didn’t want Mitch and Domi’s week disrupted by someone else’s relationship issues but also because they were both his friends.
Thankfully, Mitch and Law were too busy bickering—and Nick trying to play peacekeeper between them—to notice what was going on behind them. By the time they reached the restaurant, whatever was happening between Kincaid and Zach seemed to be resolved. Or they were pretending it was.