Page 35 of Holiday Home 5

“Correct,” Tess whispered. She meant it.

“Consider it a deal,” he promised.

“Good. Now, give me a hickey.”

Liam did so gleefully. More than gleefully, thanks to Tess’s willingness to press her breasts, hard nipples rubbing against his skin, while he sucked passionately on her neck. She ran a hand up his back, eyes sparkling with desire. The other women watching saw it. Not one of them looked away.

Tess proved good to her word. When she lost to Victoria in the next round, after feigning negotiations for a short time, the woman with lighter hair shook her head. Standing up, looking around at her captive audience, she followed Avril and Anna and became the third naked woman Liam saw tonight. She tilted toward the latter’s decision afterward, redressing and moving over to sit with her students.

Liam met Victoria’s eyes. It was just the two of them. However, it wasn’t. Victoria had her path to victory, assuming she could deal herself a winning hand. If she couldn’t, he’d finally taste her lips.

Admittedly, he was slightly annoyed when Victoria turned over pocket kings, which became three of a kind thanks to the river’s king. Before then, holding a jack in his hand, with another sitting in the flop, he had liked his chances of getting to make out with not one but two professors in front of Avril and Anna. But it wasn’t to be. Not yet, anyway.

“I’ll have my win now,” Victoria said, letting everyone hear.

Liam got up. Four women held their breath. Even though three of them had already seen—and done plenty more than just look at—his cock, all four of his onlookers stared at the following act intently. The situation had amped up their investment, like links in an electrical current being connected. Their lust surged, shared between them all.

Liam sprang his cock free, then tossed his boxers, which had enough precum on their insides for him to intend to changeinto another pair before—wait, no. No, he didn’t. If Victoria were going to sleep naked, then so would he. Why the hell would he even think about putting clothes on tonight?

That was what he was thinking about. Based on the four hungry stares from four stunning women, they were on a completely different train track. Seeing how voracious their appetites looked, with even Victoria failing to hide the intensity of her stare, he wondered how things might have progressed if he had simply asked if anyone wanted to take a closer look.

Would only one of them take him up on the offer? Multiple? All four? How far could the lust hanging above them like a thick curtain of fog propel things? Would it smother even Anna’s inhibitions? Would a close look lead to a soft touch, then two, then three?Four?

His fantasizing caused his cock to twitch, and he saw multiple women inhale sharply. They looked entranced. Liam’s self-confidence reached an all-time high.

Don’t burn up in the upper atmosphere,Liam told himself.The stars are there, and you want to get to them.

It was too much, potentially. Too soon, at the very least. Anna had already admitted to a bit of fatigue, and he and Victoria hadn’t even done anythingalonejust yet. There were too many avenues for things to get a bit uncomfortable or unpleasant, and he didn’t want that at all—not for a single one of the beautiful women surveying him. He shouldn’t rush it. So hewouldn’trush it. The current pace was already more than satisfactory, so long as it proved consistent throughout the week.

Someone began to clap, which snapped the other three women out of their trances. “Congratulations,” Avril said, looking at Victoria. “You’re the winner of the inaugural Fiji Strip Poker Tournament. As a prize,youcan decide when the next one will be.”

Insufferably clever woman,Liam thought, seeing the glint in Avril’s eyes. He doubted she’d been holding that idea in her head the entire time. Probably around the time when she’d bowed out was when she’d come up with her next maverick gambit.

“What a prize,” Victoria said drolly, standing up. Heading over to Liam, he instinctively stiffened. Victoria met his eyes, then leaned forward, which arrested any movement from his body. Her left breastnearlybumped into his protruding cock as she picked up her bra, then began putting it back on.

If I had a heart problem, I wouldn’t make it back from this trip alive,he realized.

Eventually, everyone redressed. The smothering lust abated, and even though no one looked distressed or bothered with how far things had gone, they all felt some degree of mental and emotional exhaustion. Even Avril chilled out once she put her clothes back on.

Behind him, someone turned off the deck lights. As he turned around, the party responsible for doing so uttered only a single word.

“Look,” Tess said, pointing skyward.

Remembering that there was a whole universe out there, not just a single deck, eyes climbed toward the sky.

Seclusion. It meant many things. It meant no sounds of traffic or pedestrian crowds. It meant no sights of skyscrapers or suburbs. It meant no one could interrupt five libidinous tourists from their game of strip poker.

But it also meant no light pollution. Which meant the five of them could perceive a celestial spectacle that was nearly unmatched on all of planet Earth.

The myriad stars hung like shimmering jewels amid the vast, dark expanse of space, more than he could ever truly imagine counting. And it trulywasdark. A void hung above,staggeringly impenetrable. It went beyond that, however. Liam didn’t feel as though he was looking up at the sky. Instead, it felt as if he were looking off the very planet, standing unsecured on a tall ledge, and that a single step might cast him into eternity. He’d be gone forever, among the stars but not visible to those he’d left behind.

Those stars were so radiant that there was hardly any need for the moon, which hung in pure silver, half visible but still stark and eager to be seen. An array of light like no other glistened around it, and the enormous silvery band that was the Milky Way, slicing diagonally through the tapestry of stars, shone more brightly than Liam could ever recall. It almost appeared like a river filled with shining rocks at its bottom traversed the sky. There was nothing hazy about it tonight. There probably never was.

Some people sat, others remained standing, and some laid themselves down on the towels, marveling at the sheer scope of a universe barely explored by mankind. Even now, they could only see a small slice of the nearly infinite cosmos. On a tiny island in the world’s largest ocean, they could only perceive something of what was out there. Yet, it was still so much more than what Liam had ever witnessed.

The racing hearts on the deck calmed. Together, they found something enthralling in what lay beyond. Sights that had traveled for billions of years to reach them. While staring upward, he remembered that it took the sun’s light about eight minutes to reach Earth. He knew better than to attempt any conversion between billions of years and eight minutes. It was a long, long distance. He knew that much.

The universe above them nowwasn’tthe universe as it was now. It was a snapshot of history, much of it so unfathomably ancient that there was no chance for Liam and the others to ever know what was happening in the universe right now. Theycould only marvel at what they saw and wonder what might be happening a galaxy away.

---