REND: Prior Cycle (Old Version)

I was munching on chocolate-covered churros, enjoying the ocean breeze blowing back my wavy hair, when Deen just had to disturb me. Leaning forward, she said, “Let’s return to our room. I want to make the most out of this cruise .”

I glared at her, irked that she disturbed my religious intake of sugar. “Deen, we’ll make the most of this cruise if we’re out here—using the amenities, enjoying the food, going around and stuff—instead of having sex in our room.”

“Shush!” Deen’s cheeks turned red as she looked around. “Don’t say that out loud.”

The nearest person was a couple of tables away, an elderly couple enjoying a plate of fruit—that was definitely not the right way to eat at a buffet. They should be in the jungle if they just wanted fruits! Same goes for people who ate only leafy greens at buffets. Massive waste of money.

“No one heard me,” I said, dipping my chocolate-covered churros into a cup of hot chocolate. This’d be even chocolatier if I added chocolate truffles!

I should get a Nobel Prize for this idea. Sometimes, my genius scares me.

It had been a couple of hours since our wild sex play in our room. After that, we met with the hero wannabes and planned how to search the ship for clues about Red Island. Deen and I were assigned to the expensive bars on the ship, had a few drinks there, eavesdropped on any important conversation, and so on. It went without saying that Deen might need to use her charms to get some rich guys to spill info.

But those bars weren’t open until nighttime, so we were chilling for now. The buffet was here to enjoy.

Deen wasn’t even keen on doing her assigned role. She told me we’d just stay in our room later, doing nasty stuff as usual, and she’d tell Dario she didn’t learn anything at the bar. Deen and I barely said anything during the meeting. The others might’ve picked up that we might back out of the mission, but they were thinking the same, too.

If we ever found the way to Red Island, I doubted that even Dario would order us to attack. That was the enemy stronghold—we’d all die if we went without more info.

“Yes, I don’t think anyone heard you,” Deen said. “But it’s better not to risk it.”

I pointed the churro dripping with chocolate at her. “Are you ashamed of our relationship?”

“I’m not ashamed!” Deen indignantly hissed. “I’ve explained to you why it’ll be a problem when my family learns of this. Didn’t I ask you to run away together? Doesn’t that show—?”

“Yeah, yeah. Just messing with you,” I said before munching on the churros. The chocolate was insanely rich, the slight bitterness accenting it. Maybe I could cover Deen with this chocolate and lick it off her? Deen would certainly appreciate the play, but that sounded like too messy to do.

And I preferred licking chocolate to Deen. Human skin didn’t really taste much after a couple of licks.

“We’ll stay here if you want to continue eating,” Deen said. “I’m sorry for not considering you. I know how much you love eating sweets.”

I raised a brow. “What’s this? Self-centered Amber Deen Leska, thinking about others?”

Deen rolled her eyes as she stood, transferring to the seat beside me. “Fine, I’ll admit I’m self-centered… sometimes,” she said, combing my messed-up hair with her fingers. “But I’ll always think of you first.”

“I’m not so sure about that ‘always’ thing.” I enjoyed her fingernails lightly scratching my scalp. “Your horniness usually takes precedence over everything else. Didn’t you want us to go back to our room, because you—?”

“After you eat! We’ll return after you eat. I didn’t say that you should—oh!”

A strong gust of wind blew Deen’s oversized sunhat away to the tables around the pool. I admired Deen’s body as she went to retrieve her very impractical hat. Like, why did she bring that? We had a roof over our heads. I wasn’t going to eat out there, under the freaking sun. I preferred to be as pale as a ghost.

Deen, as always, looked like she had walked straight out of a high-end travel magazine. Her body, equal parts voluptuous and toned, was perfectly suited for the backless sapphire sundress that made her golden locks pop under the tropical sun. Deen looked expensive. Her rich-girl aesthetic made other passengers instinctively clear a path for her.

I wasn’t sure whether my mouth was watering because of what I ate or the amazing view of Deen’s back muscles. I really didn’t have a thing for muscles before, but I was changing my mind now. The contrasted nicely with the softer and jigglier parts of Deen’s body.

Everett’s jaw dropped when he saw Deen earlier. Even the robotic Dario paused, looking her way. Noisy Reo had a lot to say during our meeting, teasing Everett without pause.

Until Myra made a stop to it. I think Myra did know that Deen and I were a thing, and probably thought we were uncomfortable that Reo was trying to pair Deen with Everett.

When Deen bent down to pick up her hat, the majority of the guys within line of sight stopped what they were doing to watch. Part of me was annoyed, and the other part was proud of my trophy girlfriend. Well, Deen was richer than me, so was I the trophy?

I couldn’t really blame these guys. The thin fabric of the sundress hugged Deen’s butt, highlighting its bubbliness. Deen returned to me, doing a little catwalk with slightly swaying hips, knowing all eyes were on her. She probably enjoyed the attention somewhat.

“I was enjoying the wind while eating,” I said, “but it’s starting to get annoying now. It blew away a couple of my fries.”

Deen sat beside me, chuckling. “Are you thinking of declaring war on the weather?”

“You’re suggesting random stuff, hoping that I’m thinking about them. I’m not that random, you know? And I can’t think much because I’m too focused on eating.”

“What else do you want to eat?” Deen asked. “I’ll get it for you—see, I’m a very supportive girlfriend.”

“Hmmm…” I raised a brow at her. “Praising yourself, huh? I want a mango tart. And, uh, another plate of the chocolate truffles. I wonder why—”

“Why are chocolate truffles called that? Perhaps you’re wondering about their connection with truffle mushrooms?”

“Ye-yeah…” I answered, a bit weirded out by Deen’s seemingly mind-reading powers. Guess she was just used to my way of thinking.

“I actually know the answer. Earlier versions of chocolate truffles were roughly shaped balls. Cover that in cocoa powder, and they look like freshly dug black truffles. Nowadays, many chocolate truffles are more rounded, but the name remained.”

My eyes lit up, genuinely pleased to add another trivia to my mental library. And that was such a fun history, too. “Thanks for that, girlfriend. Now, can you please get me a plate of truffles? Maybe six or seven of them?”

Deen slyly smiled at me. “Is this still part of our Mistress play?” She leaned closer, whispering to my ear. “Will you spank me if I don’t follow your orders?”

I turned to look at Deen. Then I pecked at her lips.

She covered her mouth and looked around to check if someone had seen it. Probably someone did, because there were always guys, and maybe some girls, looking our way. Deen’s way, to be precise.

“Why did you do that?” she asked in a trembling and muffled voice.

“Why not? You’re my girlfriend, aren’t you?” I was playing a dangerous game here, but I predicted the chance that a passenger watching us knew Deen and cared enough to post on social media that she had a girlfriend was very low. But we did have to be careful of anything we’d do afterward, a camera might be poised to take a picture this time.

“Yes, you are…” Deen replied. “But…” She lowered her hands and faced the blue ocean to our left.

“Earth to Deen? What’re you thinking about?”

“Maybe it’s not a problem if everyone knew of our relationship,” she wistfully said.

“Huh? But you said it’s a prob—”

“It is. But maybe… I shouldn’t care about it. I’m not sure.” She walked away before I could respond.

In my view, it was better to continue hiding our relationship for now. We didn’t need the extra trouble, given that we still had the 2Ms to worry about. Dario and the Professor were problems as well, since we did plan to leave their little experiment someday. The best thing Deen and I could do was probably leave everything behind in one go.

We could go to Europe and join Mom. Certainly, Mom would be supportive of Deen and me. Mom would be disappointed she wouldn’t get a grandchild, but she didn’t think I’d ever have a long-time partner anyway.

“Here you go, Mistress,” Deen said, placing two plates in front of me.

“Do you seriously want to continue our play in public?” I asked before popping a truffle into my mouth. “Tastes awesome. Just like you.”

“I’d argue I taste better than chocolate truffles.”

I smiled. “Maybe we should— Oh? What’s that?”

A hyperactive cruise director in a neon pink polo shirt hopped on top of the stage on the other side of the pool. He blared into a wireless microphone, trying to rally a crowd of sunburnt vacationers. “It’s time for our couple’s game—Do you really know your partner? I invite all the couples to join!”