The words echoed through the room like a death knell.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Rex
The forest trail surroundingPearl Paradise, CDS’ private beach resort, Madeira Island...
The forest was alive with the sounds of pleasure.Moans drifted through the thick, salt-kissed air of Pearl Paradise’s private trails with the backdrop of rustling leaves and the distant crash of waves against the shore.The treasure hunt was in full swing—Doms stalking their prey, and subs hiding in the shadows as their hearts pounded with anticipation.The rules were simple.Find your target, claim your prize.Rex, the wife hunter, had always been the best at this game.
But tonight, the thrill was gone.His fingers twitched at his sides.His usual focus was shattered.He had hunted two of his six potentials and claimed them, as was expected.His hands had been ruthless, his mouth unrelenting, driving them to the edge and beyond as their screams of pleasure echoed through the trees.But the satisfaction he usually felt was absent.Hollow.Like a man going through the motions of a ritual he no longer believed in.
Because she wasn’t here.Xia, his wife whisperer.His evaluator.The woman whose sharp eyes and sharper tongue had been his guide through every potential match.The woman he had spent the last two months pretending didn’t exist beyond her professional role.
The woman who had slipped away tonight.
“What the fuck, Rex?”Axel’s voice, laced with amusement, cut through his thoughts.“You have six potentials to hunt, and you’ve only bothered to look for two.”His eyes glimmered in the dim light of the torches lining the path.“Although, I must say, the screams of pleasure both times you caught them must be having the other four waiting on tenterhooks.”
Rex forced a smirk, but it felt wrong on his face.“Yeah, well...It’s a skill we all have.Making a woman come with only our hands and mouth.”
Axel chuckled, but Rex’s gaze was already scanning the trees, looking anywhere but at his friend.Because the truth was, he didn’t want the other four.He didn’t want any of them.
He wanted her...and she wasn’t here.
Max’s smooth, amused voice cut through the tension.“Really?”He arrived with Willow draped over his arm.Her cheeks were flushed, and her lips swollen from his kisses.The look of gratification on her face was testimony that her Dom had taken what he had wanted, and she had loved every second of it.“I got the impression Xia had the night off.”His gaze flicked to his wife.“Isn’t that what she said when you invited her to ride with us?”
Rex’s jaw clenched as Willow’s eyes sharpened and her voice dropped into that knowing tone he knew all too well.“Yep.She said the mightywife hunterwanted to do the wild thing tonight and didn’t need her help.”
A beat of silence followed before she twisted the blade in his gut and added, “Never thought I’d say this, especially to you since you have a brilliant mind, but you’re an asshole, Rex.A stupid nitwit who can’t see and appreciate what’s right under his nose.”
Rex’s fingers curled into fists.He didn’t respond.He didn’t have to.Because he damn well knew she was right.And that was the problem.
Xia had a job.A duty.One he paid her a fucking fortune to perform.And what did she do?She absconded.On the one night when the stakes were highest.Where the potentials needed to be chosen carefully.Where he needed her sharp mind, her ruthless evaluations, her unshakable presence to keep him from making a mistake.
But no.She chose to withdraw and hide from him.
Now, standing in the middle of a forest filled with willing women, all he could think about was her.Of the way her lips parted when she was annoyed, and how her eyes flashed when she challenged him.God, how he loved the way her breath hitched when he got too close.
