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Laney blushed and turned away. “I can’t believe you watched.”
“Damn! It was a pretty sight.”
“Jason!” Sandra slapped his hand. “You weren’t going to say anything.”
“Yeah, but spooky nights like this just sort of bring out the devil in me.” He lunged at Sandra like a fiend, his hands going around her neck, and they tumbled to the ground, laughing.
“You’re going to have to wait to screw her,” Matthew’s voice rang out over the wind as he and Erik returned to the beach.
“What did you find?” Laney perked up.
“Ah, this is better than perfect,” Erik answered. “Some old estate house, wild looking place, but it’s shelter.”
“Then, let’s go.” Laney was on her feet, reaching out for Elise, while giving a sprawled-out Jason a gentle shove with her toe. She grabbed for her backpack and Erik’s, then trudged towards her husband. “I’m so exhausted.”
“We all are, darling. We’ll find a dry place and you can do nothing but sleep tomorrow.”
“That is, until we kings get our just desserts,” Jason reminded them all.
“There won’t be any dessert for you,” Sandra gave him an elbow to the waist, “until we’re all rested.
“Hey, listen, I’ve been looking forward to this payback for three months. We waited on you in Martha’s Vineyard like you were queens. Don’t think you’ll slide on this just because we’re marooned here.”
“No one’s going to let them slide,” Erik assured him. “But let’s get off this beach before we’re all wet again.”
The rain was beginning to fall—huge droplets pinging against their cheeks as they hiked to the top of the beach, over a rise of grasses, and along a meandering path through the dunes until it broke into a nest of palms and beach trees. In the midst of the trees loomed a darkened house—one of grand and once glorious stature. Like a transplant from the Deep South it rose two stories high, with shuttered windows, a large veranda across the front and a second story balcony across the same expansive length. Proud, stately, and now obviously abandoned, it lured the six stranded campers as though it had a gentle hand reaching out to beckon them inside with a crooked finger.
“You don’t suppose someone lives here?” Elise wondered as they started up the stairs to the front entrance.
“We’ve already checked,” Matthew moved quickly to the door and opened it wide. Creak it did, but it still seemed firm in its frame, as solid as the flagstone entry.
“Oh my,” Laney stared into the shadowy darkness illuminated only by the beams from their lantern and two flashlights.
“Fireplace seems to work all right,” Erik announced as he hauled a load of firewood he’d gathered from just outside the door. “And this wood’s dry, stored right under the overhang as though it was waiting for us.
They were in a grand living room, which was still sparsely furnished with sheet-covered sofas and chairs.
“This was someone’s masterpiece,” Elise noted as she ran her hands over the carved columns, and then along a marble statue of a naked female. “She’s beautiful.”
Sandra stood beside her, gazing benumbed by the glowing ivory surface of a woman, seemingly so faithful to the essence of life and femininity that they feared she would—except for one essential feature of the sculpture—step from her golden pedestal any second. The lovely lady was, however, bound; arms gracefully raised above her head, her hands crossed like a ballet dancer’s. Her wrists were entangled with marble chains embedded in the marble above. Though she shyly held her thighs together as if to cover her nakedness, the lustrous beauty smiled demurely, suggesting she kept some secret from those who gaped in wonder at her bondage.
The room began to lighten as Erik’s fire raised a sultry glow, dispelling half the shadows, though making more as the flames bloomed and flickered.
Turning their attention from the statue, Laney, Elise and Sandra warmed themselves before the hearth, while the men perused their surroundings with cautious interest.
“Interesting place,” Erik said. “See here. Wonder what they were for?” He motioned Matthew and Jason to join him, where sporadically along the inside walls were arched alcoves with O-rings embedded in the top and bottom of each space. Some had empty pedestals as though there had once been statues displayed in the small nooks.
“You see that statue of Venus?” Matthew asked him.
“You think it’s Venus?”
“Or some other goddess. She’s bound.”
“Kinda makes my crotch antsy,” Jason snickered.
“Who’s crotch is getting antsy,” Sandra called to him.
“Yeah, hon, we have something to finish,” he called to his fiancée.
