Page 22 of Truth or Dare

There was also extended family present during a showdown between Tommy and Pop the day he died and while we didn’t doubt loyalty of anyone who’d been present it was possible that word had leaked that there was a rift and if so, there would be suspicion.

Felicia had no clue how to build a sandcastle, but she tried to help. The gardener dropped off a pail filled with gardening tools. We didn’t talk, she just watched and tried to help when I was gathering up more sand, tried to mimic my actions. We worked at it for quite a while and then after I couldn’t fuss with it any longer due to lack of better tools I said, “How about a swim?”

She nodded, staring at the castle with a weird expression on her face. But then pulled her tank top over her head revealing the white bikini halter top. When she got out of her shorts, I averted my eyes so I didn’t look at her body too closely. It was hard not to look at her tiny, barely-there bikini bottoms with ties on the sides. Her tits looked luscious in that halter top. Her tiny ass was almost fucking perfect but would be better if she were allowed to eat whatever the fuck she wanted with carbonara sauce on it every day for a few weeks to mean a little more to grab onto.

I shook that thought off as I grabbed my shirt from the scruff and pulled it over my head and threw it beside the castle and then sprinted for the water, diving in as soon as it was deep enough. I swam underneath the crystal-clear water for a good, long while, just using up unused energy and taking the minute I needed to let myself feel the rage I’d been hiding.

Tension had built in every single cell of my body. This man was an enigma. I didn’t know what to make of him. I didn’t know what was next for me. I was frightened… I had this horrible, sinking feeling that wouldn’t go away.

I didn’t do well with the unknown. I mean, this past almost two years of my life had been a lot of unknown, but it was formulaic. I never knew what a new assignment would bring, but I knew what I had to do to get through it. Point A to B. It worked.

All that back-to-back A to B business had brought me to my C. Dario Ferrano was C.

My C.

Eyes like the sea, a beautiful body. He seemed perpetually pissed off, but he had been nothing but kind to me since yesterday. Feeding me like I was a starved child that needed nourishment and not taking from my body, even when I begged for it. Waking up in his arms that morning I felt safer than I could ever remember feeling. Even before I got here. He got between me and them and said they weren’t allowed to fuck with me because I was his.

His.

I didn’t know how to reconcile all of this and I knew it could all change in a heartbeat. It could be yanked away from me because he changed his mind or he could reveal his true nature and it could be a mask that, when it slipped, would reveal that he could be even more cruel and heartless than anyone had so far.

But we’d just built a sandcastle together, the best sandcastle I’d ever seen. It had several turrets, a moat, he’d done it all carving and molding the sand with his fingers and palms and small gardening tools and it was so attractive to watch him do that with strong fingers and a focused and determined look on his face.

Now he was in the gulf, he’d disappeared for a long time under the water. I stood in water up to my waist and felt something swish by me. He was there. He emerged from the water and took my hands and pulled me forward, deeper into the water with him.

“I, I don’t swim very well, Master,” I warned, feeling panic rise.

“No?” he asked and lifted me, a bit of a devilish smile on his face. I jolted at the feeling of being in his arms and my panicked face made his mischief disappear. He pushed off with his feet and now we were in water too deep to stand in. “I’ve got you. Hold my neck,” he said and let go of me and I started to sink but grabbed on and he was treading water, holding us both up.

I was freaked out.

“It’s okay,” he reassured. “I told you I’ve got you.”

I held tighter and then wrapped my legs around his waist and his words vibrated in every cell. He was holding me up, my only safety from drowning. He was my Master, my savior. I wanted to faint. He became erect against me and suddenly I wanted him inside me with a fervor I hadn’t felt about a man, ever.

I tightened my legs around him, leaned in, closed my eyes, and parted my lips, wanting him to kiss me. Nothing happened.

I opened my eyes. He was staring with an angry look on his face. I pulled in a breath and held it.

“We should head back,” he said and I saw muscles flexing in his jaw.

“Do we have to?” I breathed before thinking. This wasn’t like me. Wasn’t like me to ask and wasn’t at all like me to want to be in the water. But in the water, he was close to me, I was touching him. He had me.

His expression softened. He kept treading and I just held on. “Spin around,” he said and shifted me so I was on his back now. “Hold your breath.”

He swam underwater for a little while with me on his back. I opened my eyes and it was breathtakingly beautiful, so beautiful that I forgot to keep holding my breath and then took in a mouthful of water. I gripped him tighter and started to struggle so he swam upwards until we broke. I was gasping and sputtering. He moved us back to where we could stand and put me on my feet.

“You okay?” His eyes had so much depth, so much concern. Water dripped from his hair, his face, and it struck hard that he was the most attractive man I’d ever seen. And had been kinder to me than anyone since I’d been in Thailand. And I was his. I said a silent prayer that he wouldn’t change his mind and leave without me.

I recovered, pushing away the memories of the last time seawater was forced down my throat and nodded. “Yeah. I’m okay.” And strangely, I wasn’t lying.

We hung out in the water for a bit, me swimming and her sitting down in the shallow water just watching me. Then back in the room I got a shower. Then she took one. We had to get ready for the dinner I’d been asked to attend.

I just had to get through tonight and then tomorrow morning we’d be outta here. They’d have her passport ready and then after the eighteen hour flight we’d be back on home soil. I’d get her to my place and then I’d tell her that it’d all been a ruse. And then I’d figure out how to keep her safe, keep us all safe, while giving her back her freedom.

Somehow Tommy and I would work to figure out how to gracefully exit this business. At first, I’d thought maybe we could buy everyone out to eliminate the threat and then shut it down so we could deal that way and put all Pop’s ill-gotten money to good use.

When Stan had revealed that there was more off-shore money aside for us, it meant that me and all my siblings were extremely wealthy, filthy rich. We were already quite wealthy with Pop’s estate back home but the off-shore money? There was a lot of it.

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