Vacation

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the publisher. For information contact: Pink Flamingo Publications www.pinkflamingo.com Email Comments: comments@pinkflamingo.com Part One Claudia awoke with a little start, suddenly aware that she’d been dozing. It had been THAT dream again, too. Her eyes shifted around behind her sunglasses to see if she’d done anything to attract the notice of the other people at the pool. Apparently not. Most of them were lying inert in the sun, getting a tan or a burn. A few were in the water. All of them were some distance away from her place in the shade. With her coppery hair came fair and very sensitive skin, and she’d parked her lounge chair well in the shade. She’d apparently been dozing long enough, though, that the sunlight was getting pretty close now. Well, she’d done her laps earlier, and might as well go on back to the bungalow she was sharing with Dianne and By now, they ought to be back from whatever little trip they’d taken. Dianne had promised some sort of surprise for her later. She was really going to miss having Dianne as her partner on the police force, but she’d worked too hard and planned too long to open her own private investigation office to just chuck it all away now. She’d still keep in touch, of course. Dianne had been her partner for three years, and they were closer than sisters. She chuckled inwardly at that. She rose from the lounge chair and stretched discreetly. The bikini she wore was a bit scantier than she usually liked, but it had been a gift from Dianne. It was a dark, royal blue, just two triangles above and two triangles below, all held in place by thin knotted strings behind her neck, between her shoulder blades, and on each hip. Around the pool, one or two men not stunned into sleep by the sunlight eyed her appreciatively. She smiled to herself. A woman liked to know that she was attractive…especially at 30. She was slender, but curved in and out adequately in all the right places. Her legs were long and limber. Thick, straight hair the color of new pennies fell to her shoulders, curling inwards slightly at the ends. She gathered up her forgotten book, slipped on her sandals and short beach robe, leaving it unbelted. It was late afternoon, and the air was warm and still. After a last look around to see if she’d forgotten anything, she set out for the bungalow. It was a fair walk, about half a mile if she went along the winding roads, a bit shorter if she took one of the many hiking and jogging trails that meandered around through the grounds. This was a nice place, with enough room and trees that the bungalows were almost private, not usually visible to each other. Very upscale, too. She’d have to thank Dianne again for this wonderful going-away present. Maybe take her and her boyfriend Rom out to dinner somewhere? She smiled to herself again as she set out along one of the trails. She supposed that etiquette required her to thank Rom too, but what more thanks could he get than he’d already gotten? Overhead, in one of the tall pines, a bluejay scolded. If they were back, Claudia thought, maybe there would be time for a little three-way interlude before dinner. Rom was big—all over—and seemed to have the stamina of a stud bull, along with a very easy-going attitude. He was, she guessed, five or six years younger than Dianne, who was very nearly Claudia’s age. Dianne had made it clear that her interest in him was entirely physical, which didn’t seem to bother him in the least. Claudia chuckled at that. Why should he mind? A middle-aged jogger came into view, approaching from the opposite direction. Claudia moved slightly aside to let him pass, and noticed how he slowed down to smile at her before huffing away down the trail. She smiled back. Or, maybe they could order dinner in and make a nice long night of it. Rom was very skillful. Maybe he’d want to blindfold them again, as he’d done on that slightly drunken night at the motel on the way here. It had been fun, groping around like that. She felt a warm glow beginning to blossom within her. Yes, definitely order dinner in tonight. She’d take them out to eat tomorrow. She met no more people before she arrived at the bungalow. “Bungalow” was what they called it, but it was more like a luxury suite: Thick-carpeted living room with a fireplace, big kitchen, two good-sized bedrooms and that improbable, huge, decadent bathroom. Dianne’s minivan was parked in one of the two spaces in front. Good, Claudia thought: They’re here. She tried the front door, found it locked (all that police training, she grinned) and fished her key out of one of the beach robe’s deep pockets. A puff of chilly air hit her as she opened the door. Rom liked to set the air-conditioning low. He liked it that way, and also liked the effect it had on Dianne’s n*****s. Claudia grinned to herself and closed the door behind her. She felt pleasantly and sensually drowsy, relaxed and a little bit randy. It was quiet inside. This probably meant that Rom and Dianne weren’t making love at the moment. Dianne tended to get pretty loud when in the throes of passion. Could they be asleep? “Dianne?” Claudia called out. “Rom? I’m back.” “In here.” Dianne’s voice came from the kitchen. “Come on in.” Claudia slipped off her sandals and went down the short foyer to the wide doorway to the kitchen. As she did, she tried to stuff her book into the pocket of her robe, so she was a few steps into the kitchen before she looked up…and froze. Dianne was there, naked, kneeling on a folded towel on the floor. A wide strip of duct tape covered her eyes, and she was handcuffed. Rom sat at the table with a beer in his hand. Sitting in a chair in front of Dianne, and playing with her breasts, was an unfamiliar man. He looked to be as tall as Rom, but leaner and feral-looking. He had short, black hair and a day’s worth of stubble on his chin. He looked up at Claudia with pale eyes and smiled...it seemed more like a baring of teeth than a smile though. He looked to be older than Rom, probably very close to her own age, but it was hard to tell. His face had the markings of a life lived mostly outdoors. “Claudia?” Dianne spoke up. “Claudie? It’s all right. These are friends of Rom’s. Remember Morningside Warehouse?” Claudia gulped visibly. Dianne had called her “Claudie”, which was their private signal that things were okay. She remembered Morningside all too well: she and Dianne had talked about it a lot. In fact, Dianne had brought it up again last night. Then the late realization: THESE are friends? “Hi, there.” Claudia almost jumped out of her skin at the friendly greeting from behind her. Another man had entered the kitchen. Average height and burly, brown hair cut very short, brown eyes, big, meaty hands. He had the same indefinable hardened look as the other stranger that set all of Claudia’s cop instincts on edge. She was suddenly aware of just how little fabric had gone into making her bikini. “Sam,” the newcomer looked past Claudia to the man fondling Dianne. “Jake and I got the bedroom all set to go.” Meaning there were three strangers here. Claudia repressed a shiver and looked at Dianne. “,” she asked with a tense calm. “Did you set this up?” Dianne’s head was tilted back. Sam, still looking at Claudia, was slowly rolling her n*****s between his fingers. “Ahh…” she breathed, licking her lips. “Yesss…I did…Rom was a big help though….” Claudia shot a look at He had a small, almost sleepy smile on his face as he looked back at her. For the first time, Claudia noticed on the table, along with the empty beer bottles, another pair of handcuffs, police issue, and a roll of duct tape. For her? She swallowed hard. There seemed to be more to Rom than she’d first thought. She made a conscious effort to slow down her breathing, to keep her hands from shaking too visibly. Dianne had promised a surprise. If this was it, it was certainly the surprise of her life. She told herself that if Dianne had set this up, it was carefully planned and safe. None of these men would be murderers, or have some horrible disease. It didn’t help much, because as painstaking as Dianne was in her work, Claudia knew she had a wild and unpredictable streak in her too. She resisted an impulse to belt her beach robe shut. She didn’t want to appear scared right now. She wasn’t really scared…just surprised, she told herself. The physical reactions to both were about the same though. “Claudie? Claudia?” Dianne’s voice sounded strained. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to...but they’re going to do me. I…ahhhh.” It looked as if Sam were trying to milk her now, with slow and deliberate alternating strokes. He smiled at Claudia again, and winked, as if they were sharing some small, private joke. In spite of her efforts, Claudia gulped visibly. She realized that some part of her mind was wondering how that treatment would feel on her own breasts and fought the unbidden thought away. She wanted to keep a clear head, wanted some time to think all this over, but the sight and sound of Dianne like that was not helping at all. “They’re…they’re going to get rough…with me.” Dianne went on in a shaky voice. “I…” She tilted her head back even further, licked her lips. “I want you to be with me.” “Quiet.” Sam ordered, turning his head back to Dianne. He pinched a n****e and Dianne squeaked. He grinned at that, and turned his attention back to Claudia. He stood up slowly and just looked at her for a long moment, hands on lean hips. He seemed to be amused at the whole situation, and Claudia bristled inwardly at that. He walked over to her slowly, taking the time to look her up and down. He stopped inches away from her and looked into her eyes, still wearing that arrogant, cocky grin. This close, she could see that his eyes were a very light blue, very intense, and totally unreadable. Claudia fought an urge to back away and met his gaze. He was a head taller than she was, so she had to tilt her chin upwards, almost as if in defiance. He just looked into her eyes for a long, long moment. Claudia kept her eyes fixed on his, unwilling to look away, feeling somehow that to do so would be to concede something to him. His grin widened a bit as his hands reached up and began to slowly slip Claudia’s robe off her shoulders. She stood very still. She had the irrational feeling that to do anything but what he wanted would be a retreat, a concession some part of her refused to make to him. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Dianne slump, head down now, breathing heavily. Her n*****s were swollen and dark. The robe slid to the floor. Claudia didn’t move. Neither did anyone else. Sam looked over her bikini for a moment and then smiled unreassuringly at her. “Gimme the cuffs,” he ordered Rom, holding out a hand without moving away from Claudia or shifting his gaze. Claudia took a deep, shuddering breath. She was trying to appear calm, but her heart was pounding furiously and she felt lightheaded. What the hell was she doing?! Her body felt completely detached from the part of her mind that was screaming for it to run. Four strange men…..well, three strange men and Rom, were going to take her into the other room and f**k her……not “Make love to”, not “have s*x with”, but f**k. And they wouldn’t be gentle about it. Rom handed Sam the handcuffs. He had the roll of duct tape in his other hand. Time seemed to slow almost to a stop. Morningside Warehouse had been a strange case they’d worked on a few years ago. The first to answer a silent alarm, they’d found a security guard and a friend of hers, both women in their early 20s, in a back room, naked, bound, gagged and blindfolded. Both were bruised and battered and very thoroughly used. Apparently, a gang of men had broken in to steal the money from several safes there. While they had worked on opening the safes, the women had been taken to that back room, ordered to strip at gunpoint, tied up, and then raped repeatedly by all of the men. The gang had been well-prepared, even doing the time checks the security guard normally did. It had taken many long hours to open and clean out the safes.