Page 71 of Sinners Retreat

When we’ve composed ourselves, we return to the window. Bennett has removed his hands from the top of the dresser so that he can caress the fruit wedged within the drawer. Histhrusts slow, and we all watch in horror as he completes his mission—right inside the pineapple.

But, oh god, it doesn’t stop there.

Bennett finishes spilling his load, then drops to his knees. Now I can see that he’s cut the bottom of the fruit away and taken out the central core, leaving the perfect slot for his dick. Kneeling in front of the destroyed, pulpy innards, Bennett leans forward and begins licking the outer hole he created.

“I know they say pineapple makes it taste better, but I’m not sure this is what they meant,” Cat says...right as the song comes to an end.

Bennett’s head whips toward us, and, like a bipedal chameleon, he jumps to his feet and shifts from tan to beet-red.

“Why aren’t you assholes on the hike?” he screeches as he snatches a blanket from the bed to cover his crotch. But not before we’re blessed with a view of his pierced glory.

Another song begins, and Bennett rushes to the stereo to silence Celine Dion’s “I’m Your Lady” before disappearing into the bathroom.

Ezra leans into the window. “We wanted to see if you’d join us on the hike.”

“Fat chance of that happening now,” I say. “After we caught him with his pants down, I don’t think he’ll be up for hanging out.”

Cat nibbles her lip and giggles. “On the contrary, Kindra. Now he doesn’t have a choice. Unless he wants his fruity little secret to get out, he has to come along.”

“You clever girl,” Ezra says. “My god, this little tidbit of information is going to come in handy.”

Realizing Bennett isn’t going to open the door, Ezra hoists himself in through the window while Cat and I wait outside.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ezra

It takes some convincing, but Bennett finally emerges from the bathroom once I’ve closed the windows and assured him the girls are still outside. He rushes to remove the offending pineapple from view, taking it from the room and, I assume, disposing of it. When he returns to the bedroom, he’s resumed a more natural skin tone, though he still can’t look me in the eye.

“What are you three jackasses doing out this way?” he asks. “I figured you’d all be on the hike or asleep this early.”

I sit on the edge of the bed and try not to look at the half-open drawer. “Kindra thought it would be nice to invite you on the hike. She didn’t want you to feel left out.”

I don’t mention Cat’s machinations.

“You know I hate hiking,” he says.

“I think it would mean a lot to Kindra if you?—”

“Why does that matter?” He pins me with a look and lowers his voice. “You’re just fucking the girl, right? I mean, you still plan to tell her the truth tomorrow, so it’s not like you two can keep seeing each other after this.”

I swallow everything I want to say. That she’s broken me, well and truly, and I have no desire to tell her the truth. That, for the first time in my life, I’ve considered what it might be like to attach myself to someone else and forsake all others. He wouldn’t understand.

But my silence tells him everything.

“Ezra, you can’t keep her. You need to shut down whatever fantasy you’ve concocted in your mind and be honest with her. And yourself.”

“Myself? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Bennett begins dressing, trading his boxers for gym shorts and his bare feet for hiking boots. “You know exactly what it means, and I’m going on this hike to make sure you do what’s right. Stop deluding her, and stop deluding yourself. This can’t be anything more than a memory after today.”

“And if I don’t tell her?”

My brother’s back faces me as he sifts through the shirts hanging in the closet, but his body language speaks tomes. His shoulders droop, and he shakes his head as he pulls a shirt from the shadows.

“Look,” he says, “if you can’t scrape up the balls to be honest, I won’t do it for you, but I’ll also lose any semblance of respect I have for you.”

I don’t see how that’s possible. If I’d been honest from the start, we could have somehow worked past the initial hurdle, but now I’ve only made the problem worse by building a tower of lies. There is no way we can make that leap.