25. Zac

TWENTY-FIVE

zac

I WAS NEVER leaving. This place was paradise, and so was the man who apparently owned it all.

I leaned over the kitchen island, picking through the options and decided on starfruit while East finished off another coffee beside me. I had so many questions for King, but for the moment, I was content to enjoy this little slice of heaven. No need to question it, not when King had his own timeline for when he wanted things to happen. Surely we'd get some answers before the end of our trip…and if not, the sex made it all more than worth it.

As I finished off the last bite of starfruit, its juice rolled down my hand, and the next thing I knew East had a hold of my wrist and brought my fingers up to his mouth. Hazel eyes, more gold than brown today, glinted as he licked the juice trailing down my skin.

I raised a brow as he sucked my index finger into the warm heat of his mouth. "What are you doing, trouble?"

He shook his head and continued with my middle finger, and my dick throbbed.

"East…"

He drew his mouth off me but didn't let go of my wrist. "Yes?"

He knew exactly what he was doing but batted innocent eyes at me. It was a night-and-day difference from the hours we'd spent at the mercy of King's incredible cock.

"Doesn't your ass need a rest?" I teased as he brought my hand to rest against his bare chest. At least he'd managed to put his damn towel back on for breakfast, or I would've been tempted to take him up on what he was offering.

"Probably, but I figured you could just keep me ready for the next time King wanted another go around. Lord knows we're gonna have stay prepared if we plan to keep taking that big, beautiful dick."

"I'm sure there'll be other things to occupy your time besides that."

"Better than sex?"

"I didn't say better. I said other."

"Where's the fun in that?" East nipped at the tip of my finger as King returned with a stack of plush towels in his arms.

"Starting something without me?" he asked, and I grinned and pushed East away.

"He's definitely trying to start something. Might need to find a way to keep him busy."

"Well, just give me the Wi-Fi password and I'll harass all my friends who decided to go on romantic vacations without consulting me."

"No Wi-Fi," King said, slipping his feet into a pair of slides by the door. "No cable either."

East's mouth fell open. "Excuse me? Did you say you have no connection to the outside world on this island?"

"There's a landline in the kitchen."

"Oh…my…God. But how do you function? Doesn't your secret society gig require you to be reachable?"

"I don't want to be reachable. Not here." He started out to the back patio, and I laughed at the way East was still sputtering as I followed.

"Well, I'm impressed," I said. "We're all too addicted to our phones anyway."

"But…" East trailed after me. "What are we gonna do out here?"

King tossed us both a towel. "I thought we'd start with a swim."

Now that's what I was talking about. The pool had been catching my eye since I'd walked out here this morning to get a better look at the island, but King bypassed the path that led to it and headed toward the ocean.

"Uh." I halted my steps, my stomach beginning to flip over the thought of getting in there.

East glanced over his shoulder and paused. "What's the problem? Can't swim?"

"No, I can swim, I just, uh…" I shook my head, trying not to imagine all the fish, seaweed, deep-sea creatures, and undertows.

"Zac?" King said. "Is this okay?"

"Oh yeah, of course. I mean, you two go ahead. I'm not really an ocean kind of guy." I tried to play it off, but I heard the way it sounded out of my mouth. Not even the promise of King and East all wet and naked would get me in there past my toes.

"I can work with the pool," East said. "That way we can avoid sand in unwanted places should anything come…up."

"I mean, only if you want to. I'm happy to hang up here while?—"

"It's cool—right, King?" East looked back to King for permission, and I didn't even think he realized he'd done it.

"Of course. I don't want you to do anything you're uncomfortable with."

"Thanks, I appreciate that," I said. "I just never got into the whole salt and sand thing."

East shook his head and started up the path toward the pool as King fell into step beside me.

"How long did you say you two have been together?"

I glanced over at King, who was watching East from behind his sunglasses.

"We aren't together together."

"Ah, that's right. Yet he's very…mindful of your wants when it comes to certain things."

East mindful of anything other than himself? Now that was a laugh.

"When it comes to sex, maybe, but that's about it."

"That's not true. Take now, for example. He was the first to mention the pool. He didn't make fun of you, and he made sure I would go along with his plan." King grinned. "He was taking care of you."

I snorted, the idea so ridiculous I didn't even know how to respond.

"You think I'm wrong?"

"Yes. You're absolutely wrong. East doesn't take care of anyone but himself."

"You know," East called out as he tossed his towel over a lounger and moved to the end of the pool. "This pool might just outdo the one at the Waldorf." Then he executed a perfect dive into the deep end.

"God, he's such a snob." I chuckled. "You think someone who lives at place like the Waldorf and only travels by private jet can really care about anything other than how to keep all of that?"

"I can."

My feet faltered a little at that. My brain was still not connecting the man who owned this private island to the professor I'd worked so closely with over the years.

"Okay, so maybe I'm the one that needs to be a little more open-minded."

" Or maybe just be open to someone surprising you every now and then."

"Yeah, I'm learning that, professor ."

He chuckled and headed toward the pool to join East. After taking off his sunglasses, he dove into the deep end and cut through the water with clean, smooth strokes, swimming to where East was lounging on the tanning shelf.

"You've got a nice stroke," East said as King moved up to a spot beside him.

"A pun?"

"That too, but I actually mean it. One of my only requests when deciding where I'd be living out my college years was that the place have a spectacular lap pool."

I laid my towel over the back of a lounger, choosing to sit on the edge of the pool first and get a bit of sun. I let my legs slip into the cool water and leaned back on my hands. "I didn't know you were a swimmer."

East shrugged. "It's not really a group activity."

"How come you're not on the swim team?"

"Because I don't want to be." He brushed a fly from his knee before lowering it into the water.

"Couldn't deal with someone blowing the whistle at you every five seconds to tell you to fix your form?"

"My form is fucking perfection."

"Sure it is," I said, shooting him a wink.

"But if you must know, I swim to unwind and relax. If I were to make my hobby a sport, I'd never be able to clear my head."

"From your busy prank-planning schedule?" King asked.

I snorted as East shook his head."From my father."

King's eyes flashed with what looked like concern, but it was gone so fast I thought I'd imagined it. It was clear he wanted to ask more, and now I was curious why East needed an escape. We hadn't exactly opened up to each other about our lives before. Hell, I hadn't even known he enjoyed swimming.

"Why would you need to clear your head from your father?" I asked.

"Because he's a demanding son of a bitch, that's why." He lifted a shoulder. "All rich moguls are."

I looked to King, who had to fall into that category somehow. We didn't know shit about what he really did, who he really was, but all we'd learned about him so far certainly followed the rich mogul track.So did the demanding part—not that either of us were complaining.

"Are you…involved in his business?" King asked. It didn't escape my notice that he seemed to be choosing his words carefully.

"Oh, you know, here and there. It'll be more when I graduate. I do have a busy schedule right now, as you know." East smirked. "All those pranks to plan."

There he was. That impish side was never too far away, always just under the surface.

I pushed off the tanning ledge into the water, going under to get my whole body wet before breaking back through the surface. King and East watched as I stood up, the water lapping at my waist.

"Oh fuck it," East said, getting up to join me. "Who needs a tan?"

He dipped under the water, and just when I expected him to surface, I felt his arms wrap around my legs to pull them out from beneath me. I fell back and barely had time to hold my breath before crashing under.

"You fucker," I sputtered, wiping my face as East laughed from somewhere behind me.

"You really should be more prepared," he said as I turned to face him. "Aren't you the brains? Gotta be ready at all times for a surprise atta?—"

He was dragged under the water by a dark figure beneath the surface, and I glanced back at the ledge to see King had silently disappeared while we weren't watching.

He and East came up for air at the same time, and King licked the water from his upper lip. "You were saying?"

East slicked his hand back over his hair, and where I thought I'd see a scowl, there was a small smirk."Would you look at that? Mr. Hardass knows how to have a good time."

King swept his gaze around his gorgeous property. "Was that ever a question?"

"Let's put it this way—I wasn't sure if you knew how to have fun ." East skimmed his hand across the water, splashing it at King, who took hold of his wrist and pulled him flush to his body then planted a hard kiss to his lips.

"I know how to have fun, little prince. But I also know when to turn it off."

East squirmed in his hold. "Well, you're definitely not turned off now."

King chuckled and shoved East in my direction. "You were doing so well there for a moment."

"At being what? An adult? That's right. You want conversation, not sex, for a while." East cocked his head. "Is that a stamina thing?"

"You just felt for yourself it wasn't."

"Okay, fine. Conversation, huh?" East looked at me. "I'm pretty sure we can come up with something. The question is, are you going to answer anything we want to talk about?"

I had to hand it to East—he might come off as a superficial ass on the surface, but there was a layer of intelligence underneath it. He'd been trying to uncover who King was ever since we'd been whisked away here.

"Maybe not anything ," King said, clearly seeing the direction East was taking him. "But I'm willing to hear you out."

In other words, he'd tell us what he wanted and not a damn thing more.

"Okay, well, at least answer this—how can a professor afford all of this? Do you invest? Stocks? Real estate? Do you have a gambling problem?"

King floated to his back, a relaxed chuckle leaving him. "Would it really be a problem if I could afford a private jet and island?"

East glanced at me, narrowing his eyes. "Look who's deflecting now?"

He was right, of course. But where East avoided conversation with sex, King masterfully redirected your attention to a different question he was willing to answer.

"Oh no, not this time, Batman," East continued. "There is absolutely nothing about you online. No business deals, no articles about you, no pictures. The only thing available is your schooling history, which, boring, I already knew all that."

King shifted to his feet, water sluicing over his skin in a way that made me want to lick it. "Always digging, aren't you? Just determined to find something."

"No shit. You already had my attention with the way you fill out your suits. But the fact I can't find shit about you online, that my hacker can't find anything… Consider my interest piqued."

King moved back up to the tanning ledge and lay out in the shallow water. He reached for his sunglasses, but just as he was about to put them on, East swam up beside him and snatched them out of his hand.

"I don't think so. You said you wanted to talk. So talk." He slid King's glasses on and looked at me. "Who wears them better?"

The audacity East possessed was on a whole other level. I'd never act the way he did around King, but the crook to the professor's lips told me he enjoyed it…to an extent.

"I'm going to say the original owner."

East flicked a splash of water in my direction. "Eh, you don't have any fashion sense anyway."

I shook my head as he turned back to King, who was watching our exchange with an amused glint in his eyes.

"But I want to look in your eyes when you tell me your true identity. Please don't tell me your name is Bruce. I don't think I could shout that when you're fucking me."

"And that's when you take it too far." King let out a sigh and plucked his glasses from East's face. "Always pushing too far."

"In all fairness, that's your fault," I said, shocking the hell out of myself. "The key with East is to stop him talking before he gets out of hand. You let him go too long."

"My mistake. Let's see if I can rectify that. Have you ever heard of TerraKohr?"

"The mega-conglomerate of luxury establishments and brands all over the world? Gee, no, what's that?" East said in a droll voice.

When King looked at me, I nodded. "Yeah, my family's business has contacts with a few of TerraKohr's restaurants. Why?"

He spread his hands wide. "It's mine."

It's mine. That was all he said. So nonchalant, like he hadn't just confessed to owning a company that had to be valued in the hundreds of billions .

I looked to East to get his reaction, but he just crossed his arms and stared down at King with a disbelieving expression."Yours," he said. "Really."

"You asked."

"I asked for the truth." He waved a hand around at all we were surrounded by. "An inheritance, sure. Getting lucky with the stock market, I believe it. The head of TerraKohr moonlighting as a professor at Astor? Bullshit."

"East—" I started.

"What? Don't tell me you believe him."

I opened my mouth to disagree, but I couldn't. Thinking the professor I'd worked with for years was some secret mega-billionaire made absolutely no sense. "I mean… It does sound a little crazy."

King nodded. "I won't disagree with that."

"But you're still standing by your story?" East said.

"Stand by it? I live it."

East narrowed his eyes. "TerraKohr owns practically every club I've been personally invited to in the city."

"I know. Onyx. Lure. Kyanite. Among many others."

"Anyone could Google that."

King asked me, "Would I know that we've offered to buy your family's company twice over the last five years?"

Wait, how did he know that? It wasn't exactly public information, and something my parents had only discussed privately.

"Gossip gets around," East said. "Big deal."

King chuckled as he sat up, and it was hard not to get distracted by all those muscles on full display. "You don't believe me. You don't have to. You asked, I answered."

He seemed completely unbothered by the accusations, but it was only because if it was true, I didn't know what to do with it. King kept blowing my mind at every turn. But even though he'd apparently been keeping massive secrets, it didn't make him a liar. He was usually blunt to the point of brutality, and that had me thinking maybe all of this was real.

"And you keep it private because…?" I asked.

"It's nobody's business. The more money one has, the more problems can arise. A professor, however, attracts no attention."

"Uh, have you seen yourself?" East pointed out. "You don't exactly look like all the other stodgy Astor professors."

"Doesn't matter. It's still a good?—"

" Cover for you and your hooded friends? Are they all professors too? Oh my God, if you tell me Livingston was there the night you came on our faces, I might just rethink this whole thing."

"No, Livingston was not there. I'm the only professor."

"Do they work for you? These hooded friends," East said. "Are you their leader? Do you punish them the same way you did me if they step out of line?"

King rose to his feet then, his towering presence even more so now that I knew this enormous secret he'd been keeping. Scratch that—the two enormous secrets he'd been keeping.

"I'm done talking about this," he said, walking over to pick up his towel.

"So that's a yes?" East asked.

"It's the moment you realize the conversation is over." King brushed the towel over his chest and leveled East with a stare that would've silenced most men. "I told you, I want everyone to feel comfortable while they're here. That includes me. Know when to stop, East—that's also part of being an adult."

King looked to me, probably to see how I was processing everything he'd just said, but I was too blown away to ask anything else. I needed to think. Something King seemed to understand.

"We'll talk more later," he told us, and then disappeared inside.