As she wore a mask, it was difficult, if not impossible, to get a sense of the facial expressions she was making. I approached her, put my hand to her cheek and lifted her head up to look at me.
Santiago was pounding her ass, but he stopped for a moment.
I leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Do you know the magic word?”
She was breathing heavily. She wet her lips and said, almost as if it were a question, “Please?”
I whispered in her ear, “The magic word is ‘stop’. You can say it, can’t you?”
She gritted her teeth and said defiantly, “Don’t fucking tell me what to say.”
I stepped back and motioned to Santiago to continue; and he did.
Though we had never done anything like this before—not together at least—it was as if we were experienced and well-rehearsed. I leaned against the wall and watched.
I felt my cock start to stiffen again.
I slipped off my robe and went to Gwen for more.
We carried Gwen up to the hot tubs on the second floor. No sooner had she got in than she was served a drink and offered trays of foods.
“Holly,” she said. “Where’s Holly?”
“What is she wearing?” J.P. asked.
“Fire.”
J.P., Elijah, Nolan and Travis set out to find Holly.
“We got separated hours ago,” said Gwen.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll find her. You just relax.”
Not much later, the search and rescue team came back with Holly and the three guys she was with. The hot tub was large, but it couldn’t fit us all. That was fine by me. I was comfortable lying on the cushions next to the window.
I glanced at the beautiful gardens below then I looked at the beautiful woman in the hot tub, my beautiful woman, our beautiful woman. Surrounded by the Montrose Triplets and reunited with her friend, she beamed and laughed.
She caught me staring at her. She winked at me and smiled. I smiled back then shut my eyes. Satiated and without a care in the world, I fell fast asleep.
The days following the masquerade ball, I couldn’t get Gwen out of my mind. I replayed, constantly, the scene of our orgy. Even during training exercises. Through the medium of Travis, I texted her frequently, sharing with her my most mundane or strange thoughts: a funny thing I’d heard, what I’d had for breakfast, an interesting thing she’d told me that I had been bouncing around my head.
“You must be getting sick of this,” I said to Travis, “sending Gwen text after text of all my trivial thoughts?”
“And it’s not just your texts,” he replied.
“Everybody’s doing the same?”
He nodded emphatically. “Everybody.”
“We might have to amend our ground rules,” I said. He didn’t agree, but he didn’t object.
At night, those of us who weren’t on duty, met at the apartment. We talked about how hard it was going to be when we were deployed, how much we were going to miss her.
“She’s not going to wait for us,” said Tristan.
“Sure she will,” said Taylor, but he didn’t sound convinced.
“We told her it would only be for six months,” said Manny.
I jumped out of my seat. “Why did you tell her that?!”
Manny raised his hands defensively. “Because that’s what I was told.”
“It’s an eight-month deployment,” I said. I was angry, but not at Manny. I was angry at our superiors who had changed our schedule at the eleventh hour. It wasn’t Manny’s fault, but still, we’d promised to be open and honest with Gwen. This didn’t make us look good.
As the days passed, I continued to fantasize about Gwen; I continued to replay in my mind the sex we’d had in the dungeon. But my fantasies and my reimagining of the masquerade ball were changing. No longer was I seeing Gwen and the squad, but I was seeing Gwen and me, alone. I closed my eyes, and Gwen was wrapped in strips of white and silver silk, shackled to the wall, and I was fucking her, but there was no one else in the dark chamber.
“We’re going down to The Bean Counter tomorrow afternoon,” said Manny. “You want to come with us?”
“I might,” I said. “It depends. I might see my sister if she’s free.”
It had been a few months since I last saw my sister, Alexa. Her work was keeping her busy, but Alexa made time. We met for lunch at the Marina.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “Are you nervous about the deployment?”
“In a way, yes. But…” I didn’t know where to begin.
“But?”
“A lot’s happened since I last saw you.”
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s been too long.” Then she turned her head slightly and asked in a lower voice, “Good things?”
I smiled. “Great things!”
She beamed. “Terrific! What’s her name?”
I laughed. “Gwen.”
“Gwen,” she repeated then she fluttered her eyebrows. “I’m all ears.”
I picked at the food on my plate—nervous habit. “Well, you know how the last time we talked, you told me about your rather unique relationship?”