Tempest (17 page)

TWENTY
shamise

“That doesn't sound like the Mercedes I know and love.”

I relaxed in the cabin with Jay and Candy, finding myself in need of a break from the intensity of the day's events. I'd never seen my Daddy that upset before, and there was nothing any of us could do to calm him down. I didn't know how to deal with that, and it scared the hell out of me for the first time since I'd been with them.

I lounged on the couch, enjoying the feeling of letting my body relax for a few moments while I tried to make some sense of things, and maybe finding a solution to set things right between my Daddy and my Goddess. I was their Alpha slave, and whether they wanted me to or not, I had a duty to help keep the House intact.

Candy leaned against Jay on the bed, enjoying the teasing on her skin, cooing every so often when he placed his lips on her skin. I felt a twinge of envy, wanting to find my own pleasure and solace, if only for a few moments until my mind cleared. Jay looked up at me and said, “Scarlett, you know how Kane can get when he's pissed off about something. You have to give him some time to process things. He doesn't stay angry for long; he's too measured and controlled to allow that emotion to take over.”

“I understand that, baby, but it's rare that the focus of his anger is Mercedes,” Candy chimed in, sinking deeper into Jay's chest to get more comfortable. “This might last a little longer than usual; it's never been this crazy, not since—” Her voice trailed off.

“Not since what, Candy?” Jay and I were both at a loss, confused over her cryptic reference to the past.

“Not since Kane cheated on Mercedes a long time ago.” Candy sighed as she thought about the situation. “That was a bad patch… a really bad patch. It was a miracle they survived and got things back on track.”

Jay sat up from his spot and looked at Candy as though she'd revealed that she'd cheated on him. I had a similar “what the fuck” look on my face, too, trying to get an idea of what Candy really knew that I felt I should have known.

Candy felt the eyes on her, and she exhaled and sat up on the bed to begin the story. “Kane wasn't always the man you both know now. He was a selfish man, a player of the nth degree. He thought he was God's gift to women, and had no problems telling anyone exactly that. I guess it was his overbearing arrogance that attracted us to him.”

“Okay, so what's so different? He's still an arrogant man,” I quipped. My body reacted, and I cursed under my breath to calm down. Even when speaking about him in anecdotal, he got me wet.

“Yeah, but he was a train wreck waiting to happen back then,” Candy soberly explained. “Between his arrogance, his narrow-minded outlook on women, and the mistake in the form of a woman by the name of Imani Taylor…I think back on it now and I really wonder if it was by the grace of God that things worked out the way they did.”

“Okay, you're being cryptic again, baby.” Jay was irritated, and I couldn't blame him. I needed her to get to the point, too, but I forgot how much of my Daddy's influence could be had on other people. “Get to the part where this makes sense to us, okay?”

“Okay, okay.” Candy looked perturbed that she was being rushed,
so she settled in again and recounted the incident. “Mercedes, Kane, and I were a threesome couple at one point in our lives, and Imani threatened to split us all up because she wanted Kane all to herself. She hatched a plan that nearly worked because he wasn't as strong-willed or as sharp mentally as he is now, playing us and making it look like we were just another couple of tricks, saying that we had been fucking other dudes behind his back between parties.”

“Wait, so, he wasn't playing when he said you belonged to him and he allowed us to date?” I saw Jay's ego deflate in the blink of an eye with that revelation. He tried to recover by focusing on the story at hand. “So, did Kane believe her over both of you?”

“Yes, he did.” Candy wiped away a tear. “There was this other dude that wanted what Kane had, and at every party, he would find a way to sex one of us and then brag about how it was all our idea and one of us would come after him. He laid it on thick, telling anyone who would listen that either Mercedes or I would make humiliating comments about Kane, and his lack of skills while fucking him.”

“But that's crazy!” I yelled before realizing I never met the man when he was single. All I'd ever known of my Daddy was when he was married to my Goddess. “Okay, I have to remind myself that he was what he was before I met him.”

“We were young and dumb back then, but we both loved him. Mercedes was the one who married him, but they kept me close the entire time.” Candy kept rattling off the details. “Imani had him convinced that his wife and his girlfriend were with him for the wrong reasons and that she was the one for him. He left us at a party to sleep with her at her house and then came back acting strange and accusatory.”

It was all I could do to keep from tearing up. Whether she realized it or not, Candy was slowly tearing down the man that I worshipped. I knew he had faults, I wasn't entirely naïve, but it hurt my heart to realize that he could be so cruel toward the women he loved.

Candy trembled for a moment as the memories of that night threatened to overtake her own emotions. I wanted to comfort her; this couldn't have been easy for her to do, and despite her strong feelings for Jay, her heart belonged to my Daddy. I couldn't blame her; I was cursed with the same affliction, and sajira was only a nudge away from the all-consuming abyss, too.

Hopelessly hooked…and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Jay felt like he was the odd man out for a moment. Fighting his way back into the conversation, he said, “Look, Kane is not that man anymore. He's my boy, and we've been deep for a long time. He'll get through this without a problem, and he will make things right.”

Candy kissed Jay across his lips. “I know he will, baby. He has his moments when he loses his way sometimes, but that's what makes him…well, him. We never gave up on him back then, and we won't give up on him now, right, Scarlett?”

I smiled for the first time since this conversation began. Yes, my Daddy had his faults. He could be stubborn, cruel, and that temper of his could make the devil himself quake in his skin. But there's the side of him that only those closest to him are privileged to see, and I wasn't about to give that up for anything. He was worth suffering for because the bliss that came after the suffering was so delicious, so decadent, one would think we were addicts who couldn't get enough.

“Yes, Candy, you're right. He's going to find his way back, I feel
it deep down in my soul.” I sat up on the couch, feeling the storm clouds lifting. There was a shift in my attitude, like I had the energy to go for the next twenty-four hours without sleep. I felt my Daddy's presence surrounding me again, and the peace of understanding that everything would be okay pushed me into a different zone.

God, the things that man did to me even when he's not around me should be considered illegal.

I unconsciously touched my shoulder, welcoming the flood of fond memories of the things we'd done over the course of the week, and the fantasies of what I wanted him to do to me before we left the island, including a replication of that hot fire scene he did with keket. My legs instinctively parted, and soon nothing and no one else mattered except reconnecting with him in my own way. I mouthed the words, “Daddy, come back to me, please,” as I gyrated my hips and touched my skin as though every nerve was on fire.

I forgot Candy and Jay were there, and I could only imagine what they could have been thinking in that moment. I looked straight through them and saw his image behind them, his eyes locking with mine, giving me the motivation I needed to stay right there with him in this space.

I heard his voice in my ear, “I might be out of sight, baby girl, but I'm never out of your mind.” Soon, my mind delved deeper into my subconscious, placing me right where I wanted to be…kneeling at his feet.

“Daddy, don't leave us, please.”

“I haven't gone anywhere, baby girl. your Goddess and your sis, your brother…I won't be going anywhere unless He deems it necessary.”

“But the way You pushed us away, how were we supposed to help
You?”

“There are some things that even you are not able to fix, My precious shamise. Know that I am returning to you, and those that tried to take Me away from you will pay dearly for their treachery.”

“What happened? Can't You tell me anything to help the others ease the anxiety?”

“I know you want to help, baby girl, but this is something that Daddy needs to put to an end, so that it doesn't happen to anyone else again.”

“i love it when You're like this, Daddy…it turns me on when You're aggressive like this.”

“I'm just getting started, My darling. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough
to deal with this properly. I know I might have done some damage…that you might think a little less of Me.”

“i am Yours, Daddy…i belong to You and my Goddess…we belong to You. Nothing will change that, ever. i love You.”

“I love you, too. Now, let Daddy go and take care of some trash so I can
come home and make things right. I promise I won't be long.”

“i'll be waiting, Daddy.”

By the time I came out of my trance, I returned to stares as though I'd lost my mind.

“Where in the world were you?” Jay asked. “The way you moved—”

I blushed. “i was with my Daddy.”

Jay shook his head. “He and I need to have a long talk one day so I can figure out how in the hell he managed to…never mind, I don't know if I'd ever understand.”

Candy and I giggled, sharing a knowing glance before I got up from the couch and walked toward the door. I blew a kiss at them and commented to Jay, “You never know what you might understand unless you open your mind to the possibilities. You'll come around sooner than you think, especially if she has anything to do with it.”

I walked out of their cabin and made my way to the family cabin. I felt lighter, especially after feeling my Daddy's presence around me again. I wasn't completely convinced that the rest of the day would be peaches and cream, but I had a feeling things would be set in their proper balance.

By the time I got to the cabin, I would realize how right I was.

TWENTY-ONE
sajira

“What the fuck are you doing???”

My worst nightmare had come true and he had the nerve to act like there was nothing wrong.

I had intended to have a serious talk with my husband. I felt there was a way to find a compromise because I was still in love with him, despite the craziness that had happened, and I thought there was a way to work things through. I happened to walk by Mistress Sinsual's cabin where I knew lynx was staying for the week, and the sounds I heard coming from the balcony stopped me in my tracks.

The sounds were purely orgasmic, but that wasn't what stopped me cold.

Not hearing a woman among the sounds was what forced my feet to move a little faster and figure out if I heard what I thought I heard.

I rushed up to the balcony area where the sounds came from, doing my best not to disturb the participants until I felt I couldn't hold it in any longer. I could hear the familiar sounds of my husband, but the other man in the amatory affair were foreign to my senses.

I finally reached the point to where my eyes and ears could focus their attention simultaneously, and the shock to my primary senses was cataclysmic.

I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience as I watched lynx and tiger having an unbridled fuck in the open space, with the setting sun as the backdrop of their pending climax.

I couldn't take my eyes away, no matter how much my mind wanted to.