Four of Hearts (19 page)

She rolled to her side and Ryan followed, spooning her. He draped his arm over her waist and nuzzled the crook of her neck. “I love you,” she whispered before she closed her eyes and let sleep claim her.

* * * * *

Fallon woke slowly. She lay on her back for a moment, drinking in the reassuring feel of Richard beside her, one heavy arm across her midsection. She cracked one eyelid open and assessed her situation. Darkness had fallen, indicating she’d slept the better part of the day. A soft breeze wafted through the open balcony door to their suite, reminding her the ship was still anchored in deep water near Ryan’s island. She shivered as her mind flashed on the events of the last few days.

“It’s okay. I’m here.” Richard’s deep voice comforted as he tightened his hold on her. “You’re safe.”

“I know. I was just thinking. . . .”

“Don’t. Don’t think about it again.” He raised on one elbow and leaned over her. His kiss was slow and drugging, and made her want more. “I’m so sorry. It was stupid to leave you and Candace alone like that. I’ve learned my lesson. Never again.”

His fingers stroked her face as if memorizing it by touch. “Don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have known. Besides, we’re fine. No harm done.” He kissed her again and she wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him down so he sprawled half atop her. “I want you,” she breathed against his lips.

“I want you too, but. . . ..” He rolled away from her and off the bed. “It has to wait. Get up. We’ve got things to do.” Richard yanked the comforter off and grabbed her hand, pulling her to her feet. Dazed, she went along.

“What kind of things?”

“You’ll see.” Richard pulled her into his arms and nuzzled the crook of her neck. “God, you smell good.”

His erection pressed against her stomach. Fallon ground her hips against him, and he returned the favor. “Can’t we stay here?” she asked.

“Nope. Put on a passenger sarong, and let’s go. Tonight we’re off the clock.”

Fallon did as he said, but she had no idea what was going on. She just hoped it didn’t mean she had to make nice around a bunch of strangers. All she really wanted was to be alone with Richard, but she couldn’t bring herself to burst his bubble. After what they’d been through, maybe a little fun was just what they needed.

Before they left, Richard placed his collar around her neck. “Wear this tonight,” he said as he fastened the delicately wrought band he’d had made for her to wear when the more elaborate slave ensemble was too much. Fallon’s heart raced. Anytime Richard placed his collar around her neck, she knew a special night was in her future.

They took the private elevator down to the Mediterranean Deck, walked past the pools and took the aft elevators to the Pinnacle Deck. “Isn’t the Spa closed this late?” she asked.

“Yep.” He keyed in a code and Fallon heard the faint click of the electronic lock. “Sometimes owning this ship has its perks,” Richard said. He placed his hand on the small of her back and ushered her into the darkened entryway. Richard reset the lock as her eyes adjusted. A shaft of soft light reflected off the polished marble floor.

“Someone else is here?”

“Ryan and Candace. I hope you don’t mind. I thought they’d like some time away from the crowds too.”

“No, I don’t mind. I think it’s a great idea.”

His hand returned to guide her. “Let’s go then.” They went past the empty waiting area, past the private massage rooms to the bathhouse. Ryan and Candace sat naked, curled into each other on a futon near the edge of the lavender scented pool. A table covered with a white cloth stood in the corner. Low floor lights illuminated the cozy room. Soft music played from the speakers embedded in the faux rock wall. “Sorry we’re late.”

“No problem,” Ryan said. “We haven’t been here long.”

Richard turned to Fallon. “Take your clothes off,” he commanded. A shimmer of awareness skittered along her spine, but she released the fastener over her left breast and let the wrap fall to her feet. Richard removed his as well, scooped the garments from the floor, and tossed them on a bench by the door. “Shall we eat?” he asked.

Candace and Ryan joined them at the table. Richard removed the cloth to reveal a meal fit for royalty. He uncorked the wine and poured. “Enjoy, ladies.”

They toasted to good times and the future, which from where Fallon was sitting, looked pretty good. No one seemed self-conscious, but she was aware of an undercurrent of anticipation in the room. She couldn’t imagine what Richard’s purpose was in arranging this private interlude with Candace and Ryan, or why they had gone along with it. What else did Richard have in mind? It was one thing to dine naked with another couple, but that in itself raised questions she couldn’t begin to answer.

They’d finished eating and sat lazily sipping wine, and talking about any and everything except what they’d just been through, and why they were all sitting naked together. Then Ryan tossed his napkin on the table and stood. Fallon couldn’t help but notice his erection standing proud from his manscaped groin. He was nearly as well endowed as Richard, but where Richard’s cock was a bit longer, Ryan’s was thicker. She remembered how it had felt buried inside her and shifted her attention to Candace who now stood beside her husband.

“Time for dessert,” Ryan said.

“Have you ladies forgotten? Tonight is the chocolate buffet,” Richard said. She had forgotten. In all the excitement, it hadn’t crossed her mind, even though it was one of her favorite events onboard the
Lothario
. “Ryan has arranged for our own private buffet, so, if you’ll follow Ryan. . . .”

Fallon stood and followed Ryan and Candace into the next room. Richard trailed behind, one large hand protectively at the small of her back. A large platform bed with a vinyl-covered mattress occupied the center of the room, flanked on both sides by flowing fountains of pure chocolate. A table in the corner held a three-tiered serving dish laden with chocolate delicacies. A bottle of champagne chilled in a silver bucket next to it.

“Oh my!” Candace gasped.

Ryan swept his hand toward the bed. “Ladies, if you’ll make yourselves comfortable, we’ll be happy to serve you.”

Candace looked at Fallon and shrugged her shoulders. “Why not?” she said, as she moved to the bed and sprawled out. Fallon had to agree. Why not, she thought, and joined Candace. The men helped them get comfortable with a mound of pillows at their backs, then they popped the cork on the champagne. Thanks to the flowing fountains, the whole room smelled like a chocolate factory. It was enough to make a woman swoon, but having the best chocolate delicacies fed to you by two naked men went over the top.

Richard was attentive, offering Fallon one delicious tidbit after another and plying her with champagne between courses, but she had a suspicion the men had more in mind, otherwise, why not serve dessert at the table? Her suspicions were confirmed a few minutes later.

“Now, it’s our turn for dessert,” Ryan said. He dipped his hand in the fountain on Candace’s side of the bed. He pulled his cupped hand from the fountain and tilted it over the juncture of her thighs. A thin ribbon of chocolate formed an intricate pattern on her shaved mound and slowly trickled lower. Candace stared, open-mouthed at the satin bands slowly oozing into each other, some disappearing like underground rivers, into the secret channels between her thighs.

Richard grabbed Candace by the ankles and tugged until she lay flat on the mattress. Fallon yelped when he did the same with her. “My turn,” he said. She forgot all about Candace and Ryan as Richard began to systematically torture her by drizzling warm chocolate from one end of her body to the other. When she looked like a Jackson Pollock painting that had been left out in the rain, he spread her legs and coated her pussy in chocolate. “Now that’s a chocolate sculpture good enough to eat,” he said, just before he dove between her legs.

Fallon gasped and raised her hips to meet his lips. His tongue lapped at the chocolate mingled with her juices. She’d been wet ever since he’d placed his collar around her neck, but his mouth on her swollen tissues made her pussy flood. She didn’t care if she was coated in chocolate. She didn’t care if it took a week to get it out of her hair. All that mattered was Richard’s mouth on her, driving every rational thought from her brain. He teased her clit, flicking it with his tongue, then sucking it into his mouth.

“Please,” she begged. He knew every cunnilingus trick in the book, and he used them all, bringing her to the brink over and over again. She longed for restraints. Without them, she had to fight for control of her body, a fight she was rapidly losing when Richard abruptly stopped. She faltered on the edge as his breath fanned over her stomach. The whimper that passed her lips sounded foreign to her ears, but it quickly gave way to a sob as Richard’s tongue swiped a glob of chocolate off her stomach, then proceeded to remove all traces of the sweet concoction from her skin—one inch at a time.

He didn’t miss a spot, and while he licked, he kept up a soft monologue, describing the taste and texture of all her body parts. When he finished with the front, he told her to wiggle around in the chocolate sauce pooled on the mattress. He flipped her to her stomach and began the wickedly torturous process all over again.

Fallon had never wanted to beg for anything in her life the way she wanted to beg Richard to let her come, but when he flipped her to her back again, she realized he had more in store for her. She groaned as he held his cock under the curtain of chocolate flowing from the fountain. The mattress dipped beneath one knee, he grasped her head in one hand and with the other, guided his chocolate cock to her mouth. “Eat,” he commanded. Fallon swept her tongue along the length of him from base to head. His unique taste, coupled with the rich chocolate was ambrosia.

He shuddered under her touch and thrust his cock toward her again. She wrapped her fingers over his at the base and took him deep in her mouth. Richard groaned as she swirled her tongue around him. He held her head steady, but allowed her access to all of him, and when she’d cleaned him thoroughly, he knelt between her legs.

Beside her, Candace moaned, but Fallon couldn’t spare her a glance. Richard filled her vision, and her body. He took her with slow, deep thrusts that drove her crazy. She met each downward stroke, grinding her clit against Richard’s hard body. Fallon wrapped her legs around Richard’s hips, urging him to take her deeper and harder. He obliged, setting a rhythm that brought her to the brink and sent her over in a matter of minutes.

Fallon clung to Richard as her body quaked around his pulsing shaft. Richard collapsed on top of her, and for a moment, their hearts beat in tandem. After a few breathless seconds, he leveraged himself up and scooped her into his arms. Fallon wrapped her arms around his neck and held on as he carried her to the spa pool. He negotiated the steps into the pool as if he carried priceless crystal. Once they were in the waist deep water, he lowered her to her feet, and reached for a cloth from the neat stack along the edge of the pool.

Richard washed the remaining chocolate from her, pausing here and there to taste and tempt. Fallon returned the favor, cleansing Richard’s body as thoroughly as he had tended hers. Soon, Candace and Ryan joined them. Richard sat on the low bench that ran the perimeter of the pool and Fallon curled into his lap, letting the warm water caress their bodies while Ryan and Candace tended to each other.

Ryan joined Richard on the bench and lifted Candace to sit in his lap. Fallon rested her head against Richard’s shoulder, content to be in his arms. Nothing existed outside their warm, languid cocoon. Soft music played in the background. Flickering candlelight illuminated the lovers, and the water in the small heated pool soothed nerves frazzled by the events of the previous days. Fallon closed her eyes. This was where she wanted to be, safe in the company of the ones she loved, and who loved her.

The water came to a stop an inch or so beneath her breasts, and Richard’s hands kept up a gentle caress across her shoulders, over her breasts and down to her hips. Fallon’s mind drifted, and when Richard lowered her over his arm and took her breast in his mouth, desire unfurled low in her body. With her back to Ryan and Candace, Fallon wasn’t aware how close they were until a hot tongue flicked at the hollow behind her ear.

“You missed a spot,” Ryan’s voice rumbled across her tight nerve endings. She couldn’t suppress the shiver of awareness that ran through her body.

“Why don’t you take a closer look,” Richard said. His fingers found the swollen flesh between her legs, and his eyes held hers. Heat blazed in his green eyes. His lips curved into a smile, and Fallon raised her hand to his cheek. God, she loved this man.

“Only if you return the favor,” Ryan said.

Richard raised one eyebrow. Fallon smiled at him and nodded her head. Richard released her, and she switched places with Candace.