Chapter 23: Beach House Confessions
Mai's legs were warm across Mandy's lap, one bare foot resting on the arm of the couch, the other dangling toward the floor. The oversized rugby jersey she wore—some Scottish team Bruce had left behind—rode up her thighs every time she shifted, and she shifted constantly.
"You've been holding out on me, Williamson."
"I've been busy."
"Busy getting fucked by your brother on a magical dream plane while your sister ate you out—" Mai counted on her fingers. "—and you didn't think to call?"
Mandy laughed. The sound came out brittle, edged with something she didn't want to name.
Felicity sat cross-legged on the floor, her back against the coffee table, a half-empty mug of tea cooling beside her. She'd been quiet since Mandy and Mai had got back from the airport, but her eyes kept flicking to Mandy's face, then away, then back.
"The astral plane," Felicity said. "You mentioned it before. When you called from Chicago the first time. You said it was—" She paused, searching for the word. "—intense."
"Intense is one way to put it."
"Show me."
Mandy blinked.
"What?"
"Show me." Felicity's voice was small but steady. "The shard. What it does. I want to see."
Mai's grin spread slow and predatory across her face. She sat up, the jersey falling open at her collarbone, and reached for the hem of Felicity's t-shirt.
"Now you're talking."
Mandy's ribs ached. The shard had been burning since the plane touched down—a low, persistent heat that pulsed in time with her heartbeat. She'd been ignoring it. She'd been ignoring a lot of things.
"The Heretic gave us a key," she said.
Felicity's shirt came off. She didn't stop Mai. Her nipples were already hard, pink against pale skin, and her breath had gone shallow.
"He said it would unlock the vault. Get us past the Shine. But he was vague—he's always vague—and the key didn't work the way he said it would."
Mai's mouth found Felicity's neck. Felicity made a sound—soft, surprised, hungry—and her head fell back.
"On the astral plane, you arrive naked. In your idealized body. Whatever that means to you." Mandy's voice dropped. "Beth looked like Beth, but better. Rick looked like Rick, but stronger. Calista was—"
She stopped.
"Calista was what?" Mai asked against Felicity's skin.
"Calista was Calista. But her glamour was pouring out of her like honey. It filled the air. Made everything taste sweet."
Felicity's hands were in Mai's hair now, pulling her closer. Mai's fingers traced down her stomach, over her ribs, skimming the waistband of her shorts.
"Beth straddled Rick on the sand," Mandy said.
The words came easier than they should have. The memory was vivid—the pale stretch of Beth's back, the brown of Rick's hair between her thighs, the way Calista's glamour had made the air shimmer like heat off asphalt.
"She rode him slow at first. Testing. Then faster. And I—"
Mai's hand slipped beneath Felicity's shorts. Felicity gasped.
"I knelt between her thighs. Beth's thighs." Mandy's voice was hoarse now, rough with something that wasn't quite shame. "I ate her out while Rick fucked her from behind. I could feel his cock sliding against my tongue through the wall of her cunt. She was so fucking wet—tasted like salt and honey and something that was just Beth."
Felicity's hips bucked. Mai's fingers moved in tight, deliberate circles.
"The four of us came together. That's what shattered the key. And the shards—" Mandy pressed a hand to her chest. "—went into all of us. Beth, Rick, Calista, me."
"What do they do?" Felicity's voice was barely a whisper.
"They connect us. When one of us comes, the others feel it." Mandy swallowed. "And they make us want things. Things we wouldn't normally want."
Mai pulled her hand away. Felicity whined at the loss, but Mai was looking at Mandy now—dark eyes sharp, calculating.
"You'd do it again," Mai said.
It wasn't a question.
"Yes."
"Say it."
"I'd do it again. The shard makes me want it." Mandy's jaw tightened. "It makes me want all of it. Beth, Rick, Calista—anyone. It doesn't care who."
Felicity crawled across the floor.
She didn't speak. She just reached for Mandy's belt, unbuckled it, tugged her jeans down her hips. Mai watched with that shark's grin, her hand drifting back between Felicity's thighs, spreading her open, finding her wet.
"Show me," Felicity said again.
Mandy showed her.
She pulled her shirt over her head. She let Felicity push her back onto the couch, let Mai hook her legs over the armrest, let them both look at her—spread open, cunt slick, the shard's heat pulsing beneath her ribs.
Mai's tongue found her first.
She was messy about it—broad strokes, no finesse, just pressure and wet and the scrape of teeth. Felicity watched for a moment, studying, then leaned in and joined her. Their mouths worked in tandem, clumsy and eager, tongues sliding over Mandy's clit, dipping into her, fighting for space.
"Oh fuck—" Mandy's hips jerked. "Fuck, don't stop—"
Mai pulled Felicity's hair. "Lick her. Right there. Where my tongue is—"
Felicity licked.
Mai's hand replaced her mouth on Felicity, fingers pumping into her from behind. Felicity moaned against Mandy's cunt, the vibration pushing her closer, and Mandy grabbed her hair and held her in place.
"So fucking good," Mandy gasped. "Both of you—your mouths—"
Mai's free hand found Mandy's breast. Pinched the nipple. Twisted.
Mandy came.
It hit her like electricity—sharp, white, spreading from her cunt outward. She bucked against their mouths, thighs clamping around their heads, and somewhere in the back of her mind she felt the shard flare hot.
Beth felt it first.
Two doors down, in Shiv's house, she was brushing her teeth in the bathroom when the wave hit. Her knees buckled. She grabbed the sink, spat toothpaste into the basin, and stood there panting while the aftershocks rolled through her.
"Fucking Mandy," she muttered.
Marty appeared in the doorway, his hair still wet from the shower.
"You okay?"
"Fine." Beth straightened. "Just—Mandy's having fun without me."
Rick felt it in the condo he shared with Stacy.
He was kneading dough for tomorrow's croissants, his hands buried in flour and butter, when the pleasure hit him sideways. He stumbled into the counter, clutching the edge, leaving white handprints on the granite.
"Rick?" Stacy's voice came from the bedroom. "You good?"
"Yeah." He straightened, breathing hard. "Mandy's—"
"I know. Felt it too." A pause. "Get in here."
Calista felt it somewhere over the Appalachians.
The commercial jet hummed around her—Mike snoring in one seat, Casey reading a thriller in another, Katrina asleep with her head against the window. Calista's body jerked in her seat, her hands clenching the armrests, a soft gasp escaping her lips.
"Mandy," she muttered. "You told me to knock off the sex, you hypocrite."
Then she smiled.
She rather liked it.
She didn't care who knew.
She didn't care who knew.
Calista settled back into her seat, the aftershocks of Mandy's climax still rippling through her nerve endings like static electricity. Across the aisle, Casey turned a page of her thriller without looking up. Mike snored on, oblivious. Katrina slept with her cheek pressed against the cold window glass.
The shard beneath Calista's collarbone pulsed once, warm and satisfied.
She closed her eyes and let herself feel the distance between them—Mandy in Miami, Beth two doors down from her, Rick across town—all of them connected by something that had no name. The Heretic had called it a key. But keys opened things, and this felt more like a tether.
A leash.
She didn't mind.
---
Mai wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
"You taste like the ocean," she said. "Salt and something else. Something sweet."
Mandy's thighs were still trembling. She lay sprawled across the couch, one arm thrown over her eyes, her chest heaving. The shard had gone quiet for now, but she could feel it waiting. Always waiting.
Felicity sat back on her heels, her lips swollen, her chin slick. She looked dazed—like someone who'd walked into a dream and wasn't sure she wanted to wake up.
"That was—" Felicity stopped. Swallowed. "That was a lot."
"You want more."
It wasn't a question. Mai was already reaching for the duffel bag she'd dropped by the door, the one with the reinforced straps and the lock that required a blood sample to open.
"I want to try something," Mai said.
The strap-on she pulled out was black silicone, curved, thicker than Mandy had expected. Mai held it up to the light like a trophy, grinning that shark's grin.
"You've been holding out on me too," Mandy said.
"I've been waiting for the right moment."
Felicity's breath caught. She didn't say no. She didn't say anything at all—just watched as Mai stepped into the harness, adjusting the straps around her hips, the dildo jutting out from her body like it belonged there.
"On your back," Mai told Felicity.
Felicity lay back on the floor.
Mai knelt between her legs. She didn't rush. She ran the head of the dildo along Felicity's slit, coating it in her wetness, watching Felicity's face the whole time.
"Tell me about Rick," Mai said to Mandy.
Mandy sat up. Her body was still humming, oversensitive, but she found herself talking anyway—the words pulled out of her by something she couldn't name.
"He was bigger than I expected. Not—not huge, but thick. Heavy." She watched Mai push the dildo into Felicity, slow and steady, watched Felicity's mouth fall open. "The first time, he was gentle. Careful. Like he was afraid of breaking me."
Mai started to move.
Felicity made a sound—half gasp, half moan—and her hands found Mai's hips, gripping hard.
"But the second time—" Mandy's voice dropped. "The second time, he didn't hold back. He fucked me like he meant it. Like I was something he needed, not just something he wanted."
"Did it hurt?" Felicity asked.
"Yes." Mandy's hand drifted to her own cunt, fingers sliding through the wetness there. "It hurt so good. The stretch—fuck, the stretch was everything. I could feel him in my throat, in my stomach, in my fucking bones."
Mai drove in harder.
Felicity's back arched. Her tits bounced with every thrust, her nipples hard and flushed, and Mandy wanted to touch them but couldn't stop talking.
"Beth sucked on my nipples while he fucked me. She was on top of me, her mouth on my chest, her teeth scraping just enough to make me crazy." Mandy's fingers circled her clit. "I came with her mouth on me and Rick's cock inside me and Calista's glamour in my lungs."
"What about Calista?" Mai asked. "What did she taste like?"
Mandy laughed—a raw, broken sound.
"Honey. Sunshine. Like the first day of summer when you're a kid and the whole world feels possible." She closed her eyes, remembering. "I ate her out on the sand while Rick watched. She rode my face like she'd been doing it her whole life. Her thighs clamped around my ears and she came so hard I thought she'd crush my skull."
Felicity was shaking now. Mai was pounding into her, the slap of their bodies echoing off the walls, and Felicity's moans had turned high and desperate.
"The second time," Mandy said, "Stacy was there."
Mai slowed. "Stacy?"
"Rick's girlfriend. She was sitting on a rock, watching us. Watching me ride her boyfriend." Mandy's fingers moved faster. "She wasn't jealous. She wasn't upset. She just—watched. Like we were putting on a show for her."
"And then?"
"She suggested we try it in the real world sometime. All of us. Together." Mandy's breath hitched. "And I wanted to. I wanted it so bad I could taste it."
Felicity came.
Her whole body clenched around the dildo, her hands clawing at Mai's back, her voice ripping through the beach house like a siren. Mai fucked her through it, relentless, her jaw set with focus.
"One more," Mai said. "Give me one more."
Mandy's climax hit without warning.
It was different this time—sharper, hotter, like the shard had reached into her chest and squeezed. She doubled over, gasping, her vision going white at the edges.
And then she felt them.
Beth, two doors down, gasping in the bathroom. Calista, somewhere over the mountains of Tennessee, biting her lip to keep quiet. And Rick—
Rick was close.
She could feel him through the shard's connection, feel the rhythm of his hips, feel Stacy beneath him. They were fucking, right now, across town in their condo by the marina. Stacy's legs wrapped around his waist. Rick's hands in her hair. Both of them feeling Mandy's climax ripple through their own bodies, amplifying everything.
"Fuck," Mandy whispered.
"What?" Mai pulled out of Felicity, the dildo slick and glistening. "What is it?"
"Rick and Stacy." Mandy pressed a hand to her chest. "They're—I can feel them. They're fucking right now. They felt me come."
Felicity sat up, her face flushed, her eyes wide.
"That's—"
"Insane? Yeah."
"Hot," Felicity finished.
Mai laughed. She unbuckled the harness, let it fall to the floor, and stretched out on the couch beside Mandy.
"So you’re all connected," she said. "You, Beth, Rick, Calista. Every time one of you comes, the others feel it."
"Looks like."
"And the shards are part of the key."
"Parts of it. We still don't know what happens when we put them back together."
Mai turned her head. Her dark eyes were serious now, the playfulness drained away.
"The mountain's not going anywhere," she said. "We need to move soon."
"I know."
"Tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow." Mandy's hand found Mai's. "But tonight—"
"Tonight we rest."
Felicity crawled up onto the couch, squeezing in beside them. Her body was warm, still trembling with aftershocks, and she smelled like sex and salt and something sweet.
"One more thing," Felicity said.
"What?"
"You said Rick and Stacy were fucking right now. Can you feel it? What she feels?"
Mandy closed her eyes.
She could. The shard pulsed with it—Stacy's pleasure bleeding through the connection like light through stained glass. Rick's rhythm. The wet sounds of their bodies.
"Yeah," she said. "I can feel it."
"Show me."
Mandy opened her eyes.
"Show you how?"
Felicity's hand slid down Mandy's stomach, fingers finding her cunt again, still slick and swollen.
"Let me feel it too. Through you. Whatever you feel from them—let me feel it."
Mai's eyebrow rose.
"You're full of surprises tonight, Winkle."
"Shut up and help."
So Mai helped.
She stretched out behind Mandy, her tits pressed against Mandy's back, her hand joining Felicity's between Mandy's legs. Four fingers working together, spreading her open, finding her clit.
And Mandy felt all of it—Stacy's climax building, Rick's thrusts getting faster, the wet heat of their connection—and let it flow through her.
"Fuck," she gasped.
"Tell us," Felicity said. "Tell us what you feel."
"She's close. Stacy's close." Mandy's hips bucked. "Rick's—he's saying something. I can't hear it, but I can feel it. The vibration of his voice."
"What's he saying?"
"Her name. Over and over. Like a prayer."
Mai bit Mandy's shoulder. "Goddamn."
"He's going to come."
"So are you."
"No—" Mandy shook her head, but her body was already tightening again. "No, I can't—"
"You can. You will." Felicity's fingers moved faster. "Come with them. Come with Stacy."
Mandy came.
It ripped through her like a hurricane, pulling every nerve ending taut and snapping them at once. She screamed—actually screamed—and the sound echoed through the beach house, rattling the windows.
And through the shard, she felt Stacy.
Stacy coming. Stacy shaking. Stacy's voice in Rick's ear, saying words Mandy couldn't hear but could feel.
Then it faded.
Mandy lay on the couch, boneless, her skin slick with sweat, her heart hammering against her ribs. Mai was still pressed against her back. Felicity was still between her legs, her fingers still buried in Mandy's cunt.
"We're going to the mountain tomorrow," Mandy said.
"I know," Mai said.
"We're going to kill Eddie Murphy."
"I know."
"And then—"
Mandy stopped.
Then what? The shards would come together. The key would be formed. The vault would open. They'd face whatever the Shine had been guarding.
And after that?
She didn't know.
But for the first time in weeks, she felt something besides fear.
She felt ready.
The door to the beach house opened.
Beth walked in, barefoot, her hair wild, still wearing her pajamas from Shiv's house. She looked at the three women tangled on the couch—Mandy naked and splayed, Mai behind her, Felicity between her legs—and rolled her eyes.
"You couldn't wait until I got here?"
"Beth—"
"Don't 'Beth' me." She crossed the room and flopped onto the armchair. "I felt everything. Twice. Marty was asking questions I couldn't answer."
Mandy laughed.
It hurt—everything hurt, in the best possible way—but she laughed.
Beth's expression softened. She looked at her sister, at the exhaustion and the hunger and the hope all tangled together in Mandy's eyes.
"Tomorrow," Beth said.
"Tomorrow."
"We end this."
"We end this."
Beth nodded. Then she reached for the pizza box on the coffee table, found a slice still warm, and took a bite.
"So," she said, mouth full. "Who wants to hear about Marty's reaction when I came in the shower?"
Mai sat up. "Oh, I need to hear this."
"His face. He literally fell through the door."
Felicity laughed.
And for one more night, they were just people. Not shard-bearers. Not soldiers. Not heroes.
Just people.
The city hummed outside, neon and noise and salt air. The shard pulsed beneath Mandy's ribs, steady as a heartbeat.
Tomorrow, they would move.
Tonight, they rested.