Chapter 8

Eva had few excuses for sneaking out to see a certain someone for lunch the next day, but she also had a fool-proof plan for getting Nadia out of the house and away from thinking about what her wife was up to.

It wasn't like Rebecca was turning down a free trip to a Hawaiian spa, anyway.

"What's the catch?" Nadia had asked when Eva announced she had arranged for a spa day with one of her wife's friends.

"Catch? Why would there be a catch?"

Nadia's brows knitted so hard that Eva worried her wife's face might stay that way.

But Nadia agreed to go, of course. She might give Eva shit, but she never turned down the opportunity to get a professional massage and a mud mask. With a friend? Even better! I've long learned to not make it a couple's thing. If Eva found a spa employee open to flirting, she couldn't help herself. Except that rarely made for a happy wife. Even though she knows that flirting is second nature for me, and I don't mean anything by it… Of course, Nadia knew. She was still with Eva, wasn't she?

The appointment was a full three hours, including a complimentary lunch and drink set. Plenty of time for Eva to call up someone and suggest they "catch up" over lunch.

"I can't beliiiiieve we don't see each other more often!" Belle had insisted on the exclusive café at the top of her building on the other side of the south shore, where a balcony carved into the side had an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean. Eva knew that she was only a floor beneath Belle's private penthouse suite. That nugget of information had not escaped her when Belle popped out of the elevator wearing a dress that transitioned easily from "around the house" to "out and about." Probably because she had come from her suite five minutes before. "I freakin' live in Honolulu and your family comes almost every year."

"Sometimes twice a year," Eva said.

"Do you rent the condo out the rest of the year?"

"It's a decent income, but of course it doesn't compare to the island in the Caribbean."

Belle's pink hair perked up when Eva dropped the fact that the Warrens had their tiny island out in the middle of nowhere. "I remember. You took me there, didn't you? Or am I thinking of Giselle Lawrence? Her family owns an island, too… and I dated her longer than I dated you…."

Eva swirled her straw in her iced tea. "It was me. We went because you wanted to go scuba diving on the neighboring island. Oh, and because you lost your mind at the thought of open beach sex."

"Ooh, that was with you!"

"Yes." Eva crossed her arms. "That was with me."

Belle sighed into her seat. "Man, those were the days. My twenties feel so far behind me now. Do I look like I'm in my thirties to you? Because I'm starting to be convinced that people see right through my look and think I'm too old to be dressing this way."

"Why? It's always suited you." If anyone could pull off a half-Lolita, half-Harajuku look, it was Belle Cherise, the woman who used to model for trendy magazines across Asia and even had a shop here in Honolulu for a while. The Japanese and American tourists alike loved it. Until their overall tastes changed, and it became too expensive to import the goods while keeping the store in the black. Belle Cherise may have been born into serious money (and married into more,) but Eva would never call her ex a poor businesswoman. She knew when to cut her losses and move on.

She's the same with relationships, too. Their breakup had been mutual, at least. No hard feelings. The way I like it. There was a reason Belle had been invited to Eva's wedding.

"Sometimes you get older and start to wonder about your place in the world, you know. I don't know. Maybe I'm having a mid-life crisis. Don't you ever feel that way?"

"Belle." Eva turned on the charm, something she had planned on from the moment she arrived. "You're a knockout. You were ten years ago, and you are now. You've got your style and you make the most out of it. There are women all around the world who wish they could look half as good as you in cotton candy hair and a safe-coo or whatever they're called."

"Seifuku," Belle corrected. "It means uniform."

"Right. Your whole concept suits you so well. Don't let anyone, least of all your brain, bring you down."

A dazzling smile threatened to blind Eva from across their small table. "You're always so sweet. Why haven't we stayed in contact, again?"

"If I recall correctly, we both got busy with our serious relationships."

"Riiight, but yours lasted longer than mine."

"But you got into yours first."

Even when she was forced to go down nightmare avenue, Belle still looked cuter than a professional birthday cake. Don't tell me she's gotten older. That's impossible. "Don't remind me," Belle pouted. "Would it be spoiled of me to say that I would have rather stayed single than have everything I have now?"

"Not spoiled at all. Sounds like it was rough, though."

"It was. I got way in over my head with Yui. I mean, I thought I had it made at the time. She wanted to invest in my fashion line, we split our time between Hawaii and Tokyo, and the sex…" Belle's eyes rolled back in her head as she grinned. "I don't have to tell you what that does to a girl."

"Trouble in paradise, though."

"Tell me about it. Started with our marriage not being recognized in Japan, so I could only go on a tourist visa. They don't like it when you do that a lot."

"No, I imagine not."

"Got even worse when her work was keeping her in Tokyo for longer periods. When we got married, I was under the impression that Honolulu would be our base, and I'd visit my parents back in LA all the time. Instead, she was spending all her time in Tokyo, and I seldom saw her. When we divorced, she didn't even put up a fight over the Hawaiian properties. I think she was done with Hawaii, for whatever reason."

"Weren't her parents from here?"

"They were Japanese-Hawaiian, yeah. She even had dual citizenship until she was twenty, but she never got along with her parents. They always hated me. Guess it was a double-whammy for her – get rid of me and stick it to her parents. They still live around here, you know. Except I kept their daughter's Waikiki penthouse and the building attached to it."

"You haven't been doing too terribly for yourself."

"Honey, I got divorced right before the pandemic! I was supposed to have my hot girl summer, and then suddenly I couldn't leave the island. Not to mention the total lack of tourists to keep me occupied. Or in the black, for that matter."

"Occupied, huh?"

"A girl has needs, Eva. Surely, you can relate to that."

Boy, can I. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that."

Belle gasped. "Oh, don't flirt with me, you married woman! I didn't even tell you that Yui was cheating on me with some slut in Shinjuku. I always swore I wouldn't get involved with a married woman…"

Eva clasped her hand over Belle's, stilling her movements. It was also the first time they touched since seeing each other again after so long. "Stop. I'm not looking to cheat on my wife. That ain't me."

"There it is!"

Eva was taken aback. "Excuse me?"

"The ‘ain't.' I haven't heard you say ‘ain't' since seeing you last night. You used to speak like such a normal girl, not an heiress. I loved that about you. Hm, when did you get so much more refined?"

Eva snorted. "When I no longer had anything to prove to my mother."

That made Belle laugh. "I'm glad this isn't a date. I never took you for a cheater, anyway. It would have broken my heart to hear that about you, Eva."

"No…" Eva crossed her legs, which required pushing back her seat to accommodate how long they were beneath the table. "I may be married now, and I may speak more properly than I used to, but not much else about me has changed. I wanted to ask your advice about something. Perhaps also ask a favor as well. At your party tonight."

Belle prepped herself by pulling a vape pen out of her purse and twirling it between her fingers. Even as the owner of the building, she wasn't about to break the rules by vaping in a place where it was forbidden. Yet Eva saw the habit. She's ready for me to blow her mind. Hmph. Maybe Eva would.

She had blown many minds before, after all.

"All right." Belle didn't fire up her pen, but she did pretend to use it. Eventually, Eva remembered the oral fixation which once plagued her ex-girlfriend. I did put that oral fixation to good use, though. "Lay it on me."

Eva cracked a smile that she knew would leave even the strongest-willed woman putty in her hands. Belle Cherise? One of the weakest for a good smile that I know. "Are you still as adventurous in the bedroom as I remember, Belle? Because I know someone who could use some of your charms."

Belle considered those words while wistfully gazing into the depths of her drink. "You always had a thing for red and pink hair. Why do you think it's so fortuitous that I'm wearing this color right now? I knew you couldn't say no to the thought of us together."

Although she didn't stipulate who "us" was, Eva already knew what exploded in Belle's perverted head. Because she hadn't changed at all, apparently. Good. I can work with this.

"Who exactly is coming to the party tonight? Give me their names and what kind of freak they are – you only run with freaks like us, Belle."

Eva may not have recognized some of the names, but that never stopped her from plotting the most diabolical plans to ever hit her marriage.

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"Man, this is the life." Rebecca stretched her arms forward after her masseuse stepped away to select another oil. "There isn't a day that goes by when I don't think about how different my life is now that I'm living in a riverfront high-rise and taking winter vacations to Hawaii."

Nadia wanted to nod, but her head was secured in place while another woman ran her hands down the length of Nadia's bare back. "It really is," she said with a luxurious sigh. "I complain a lot about some things, but not this. Or the view from the condo."

Rebecca's fist reached toward Nadia's table. It took Nadia a moment to realize her friend was coming in for a bump. Far be it from me to deny a woman a fist bump.

"You could be a little more excited," Rebecca said when she pulled her fist back to her table. Her masseuse dripped sandalwood-scented oil down her back.

"Sorry. Thing you have to understand about Eva is that she doesn't spring these kinds of things on me unless there's something else going on. Like she wants me out of the house for a few hours to do… something. I don't know what. Let alone here in Hawaii. If I were a paranoid woman, I'd think she was cheating on me."

"Oh, no."

"I said that I'm not so paranoid. It isn't Eva's style. She'd break up with me first."

"Should I say ‘yay?' I can't tell if I should yay."

Nadia flopped her arms down by her side. As the masseuse came for her shoulders, she said, "I'm trying to say that I know my wife. She's up to something. I don't think it's nefarious, but it's got to do with me, and I'm not supposed to know about it yet."

"Hey, as long as she's ready for the party tonight, it's all good, I guess."

Right. The party. Nadia already dreaded it. If Rebecca weren't going, she might suggest that Eva go on without her. Nadia didn't mind parties in practice, but she was picky about the hostess, the location, and the event in question. She also wasn't excited about anything kink-related unless it was their closest of friends – and then it felt more like regular close-friend parties that happened to include frank discussions about their favorite clubs and kinky events.

"Have I told you that the hostess is one of Eva's exes?"

Rebecca scoffed. "No way. I mean, I believe you, but it's such a small world, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"The odds of some random party hostess being your wife's ex goes way up when the rich queer lady circuit is already the size of a small town at best."

"Depends on how small. Don't forget who you're talking to."

"Don't forget who you're talking to!"

Nadia chuckled through the deep tissue massage making its way across her body. As good as it felt, she was more entranced by the realizations dancing before her closed eyes. "I should have guessed it, though. Even I sometimes forget how much Eva got around before we went out. She was a serial monogamist like whoa."

"How ‘got around' are we talking about? Because I've yet to meet a woman who broke my post-break-up record. A ‘ho phase' that cannot be contested."

"Pretty sure my wife was a living ‘ho phase.' Only she put the ‘girl' in ‘hot girl summer.'"

Rebecca laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"No wonder you get at least a little paranoid. I've met Belle Cherise before. She's not my type at all, but she's cute and rich. A real personality. Eva knows how to date the interesting ones."

"Does that include me?"

"Definitely."

Once they were finished with their massages, Nadia and Rebecca were given the choice of a mud bath or a stint in the "award-winning" sauna. They sprang for the sauna, which was their private abode in a place that was already warm and humid – although nothing like the room where Rebecca loosened her towel around her chest and leaned back while her hair grew curlier by the second. Nadia kept her hair tucked into a sensible but plain ponytail – and her towel firmly on her sweating chest.

"Your freckles pop in here," Nadia noted.

Rebecca instinctively touched the patch of brown freckles beneath her eyes. "How do I get freckles all over me, but you barely have any?"

"Don't worry, I get moles instead. Every time I get one of any size, anywhere, Eva insists on a dermatology appointment."

"Because she wants you to live a long time."

"Don't your girlfriends?"

Rebecca turned into mush, her eyes sagging closed and her mouth as wide as her legs once she took up her whole bench. "My girlfriends want me available from the moment I wake up until they go to bed. Whether I'm the assistant, running the household, or servicing them in the bedroom. So, yes, I guess. I get a million dermatology appointments, too."

"You're really into that lifestyle, huh?"

To Rebecca's credit, she didn't take Nadia's comment any way but genially. "I get days off, too, you know, and I can say no whenever I want. I get a lot back from them, too. I mean, I love them to death. I don't question if they love me, either."

"That's not what I meant…"

"Nah. I know. You're talking about letting them boss me around so much. Come on, Nads, that's part of the whole appeal for me. I'm a girl who likes to be used."

She said that so nonchalantly, with her eyes closed and chest hanging out of her towel. Only then did Nadia feel insecure, towel tight around her torso and bare feet patting against the wooden floor of the sauna. Rebecca had always been so much more "open" than her. Something that Nadia didn't think about too much. Not unless something was already making her more insecure than usual.

When in Rome… While Rebecca's eyes were closed, Nadia loosened her towel and joined her friend in being topless in the sauna. Almost immediately, Nadia regretted doing it with such a bigger chest that everyone – including her own wandering eyes – could see. But her breasts thanked her because the sweat beneath them had become almost too much. Something Rebecca doesn't have to worry about, right? Maybe she did. Boobs were boobs. No matter the size, they got sweaty beneath the fold.

"So…" Rebecca's eyes snapped open. She did not comment on Nadia's bare chest. "How about you? Balancing the kink in your marriage?"

Nadia's fingers wrapped around the edge of her bench. Her head remained pressed against the wall behind her. "We're not lifestylers. You know that."

"Like I said… the balance…"

"What balance? The kinkiest it gets is that I'm more the bottom. That's it."

"Uh-huh."

"Okay, so sometimes I'm a little immobile…"

"Yup."

"And blindfolded."

"Tell it."

"And I might wake up the next day unable to sit down without my butt complaining…"

"Yesss."

Nadia laughed. "Just because I go to some of those parties with Eva, doesn't mean I'm into the extra stuff. It's more like part of the deal. She likes to be around it, I don't necessarily like doing it…"

"You guys ever think about getting a third who is into both vanilla and kink? Simply saying. More people should look into triads."

"I would die if I knew Eva was having sex with anyone else. I am way too possessive when it comes down to it."

"Soooo, threesome?"

"Did you not hear me? I'd die."

"In a threesome, you're getting some, too!"

Rebecca's insistence on it only made Nadia laugh more. Out of humor? Disbelief? Discomfort? I don't know. Out of all of Nadia's close friends, Rebecca was the one to cut to the heart of a matter faster than everyone else. Jasmine was far more passive. Sometimes to Nadia's fury – or relief.

"I've honestly never been in a threesome."

"Really? That's like half my love life now."

"How does that work? Like, do you all start having sex with each other? Or is there some order to it?"

Rebecca's breasts only shook when she laughed so hard that she nearly doubled over in stomach pains. Must be pretty powerful laughter, then. Yet when she came up for air, Rebecca had to deal with all of the frizzy hair getting in her face. She spat some out and pulled the rest away from her eyes before saying, "It's like anything else, Nads." Her tone was like a big, worldly sister chastising the baby of the family for not knowing the difference between second and third base. "Sometimes it's only me and one of them with the lights off, a little dirty talk, and a lot of romantic action. Other times they gang up on me like they've been plotting it all day. Sometimes I'm not there at all! They think I can't hear them when they're rowdy in one of their rooms, but I 100% hear them. This trip has been really bad for that. I don't think Caitlyn's let a day go by without getting some action… she's worse than me. Or Jane. That says a lot."

"From what I understand, it's their second honeymoon."

Rebecca grinned. "First night was in the hot tub in our honeymoon suite back home. Hottest shit of the year."

"Hotter than this sauna?"

"Hotter than Hawaii, girl."

"That's pretty hot."

"So, you've got a few options with a threesome," Rebecca continued. "You can be the center of attention, you can make someone else the center, or all three of you try to get some equal action. Honestly, in my experience, someone's usually the center of attention. The way my relationship is set up with two dominant types, it's me who gets all the attention. I bet that's what your wife would want."

"What?"

"She'd make you the center with some other dominant type. Or she'd want to gang up on some sweet submissive with you."

The sauna was hot as hell, yet Nadia still found a way to blush herself hotter.

"I see that idea goes over great with you."

"I can't imagine it. That's all."

"There are so many avenues to take, no matter how it works out. Trust me. You don't know the highs of sex until you've been spit roasted by two of the hottest women you've met."

"Spit-roasted? With what? Strap-ons?"

"You get creative."

One woman with a strap-on is wild enough for me. That woman was always Nadia, but she wasn't the only one who wore it in her marital bed. We both have our favorite one. Nadia wasn't about to share that, though. Even if she had the divine pleasure of pinning her wife to the bed about once a year…

Eva had made it clear she was up for more whenever Nadia was.

"Did I ever tell you about the key party we went to right before we got married?"

Rebecca's attention was fully focused again. "Maybe. Refresh my memory, though."

"Riiight. I agreed to go because I thought I could be spontaneous like that, but once it was happening, when I was in a room with some other woman, all I could think about was Eva with someone who wasn't me. I worried that she'd enjoy being with her more. I was barely thinking about the beautiful woman who wanted to have sex with me in a different room. The thought of Eva kissing another girl, let alone putting hands on her… it didn't even actually happen in the end, and I still get jealous at the thought."

"Is it jealousy, though?" Rebecca asked. "Or something else?"

"I think I know what jealousy feels like."

"Says the woman whose arms have been crossed against her chest this whole time."

"What does that mean?"

Rebecca shook her head. "You're one of the most insecure women I've ever met. Dollars to donuts, that's one of the things that attracted Eva to you. She seems the type."

Nadia was stunned speechless by that accusation. Not because she automatically disagreed, but…

"I wasn't insecure until I got in this relationship, and now I'm married to her. I've never questioned her love or devotion to me from the moment I accepted we had something between us, but I guess I worry about losing it because I can't live up to her or her family's expectations. It's always been the most difficult balance for me."

"You stick with it, though."

"Because I love her. Like, the money is nice and everything, but that was always one of the least attractive things about her to me. If anything, it's always made me worry more than anything else. I've seen money do crazy things to people. Luckily, Eva's always been a good person at heart. She simply used to be pretty disconnected from reality. You know. Immature."

"You wanna know what I think of that?"

Nadia shrugged. "Sure."

Rebecca leaned forward, her frizzy hair sliding across the bench and draping around her knees. "I think you're not mentioning one of the main reasons you got with her."

"Why? Because I like being wanted so much?"

"Because you love the idea of being with her."

Such a harmless assessment left a mark on Nadia's subconscious for the rest of the night, all the way until she and Eva attended Belle Cherise's party in Kahala, the most exclusive neighborhood in Honolulu.