Ryker put the phone on speaker, then hushed us all as the phone started to ring.
When Ethan picked up, Ryker introduced himself and mentioned they had met at the volunteer fire brigade party two months before. Ethan said he remembered him, and Ryker told him that he and some friends were at Valerie and Tony's riding out the storm.
"We are cooking up a feed of seafood tonight. And wondered if you and Sacha would like to join us, say, 6:30 tonight?"
"I'd love to," replied Ethan, "but I'd better ask Sacha." And we all heard him partially cover the mouthpiece and yell that Ryker had asked them to dinner.
Although quite muffled, we heard a woman's reply that she wanted to talk to Ryker.
When she came on the phone, she asked, "How come you are over here?"
"And it's lovely to hear your voice too," Ryker laughingly replied.
"Sorry, It's been a horrible day, I thought our house was going to be blown away last night, and we have been cleaning up water damage and stripped tree branches all day. I'm just surprised to hear from you."
Ryker answered, "We're staying at Valerie and Tony's tonight and thought you might have borne the brunt of that weather and would like a night off and have dinner with us, as I've been sailing down at the Mercs and landed last night with a load of seafood that needs eating."
"My husband is nodding his head like a bobblehead toy, so I guess the answer is yes, we would love to. What time should we come?" we heard Sacha reply.
"I'll pick you up between 6:15 and 6:30. You'll be drinking, so you don't want to drive."
"What about getting home? You'll be drinking, won't you?" she inquired.
"Rex and Sally are here, and as he doesn't drink. They can run you two home as you live quite close to them. Don't dress up; just jeans and a T-shirt, that's all we have on." And he hung up.
But as he hung up, we heard the start of an objection from her; obviously, the news that Rex would be here had thrown a doubt or two in her mind.
Once he was sure that Ryker had hung up, Rex piped up, "We will need to get a couple of drinks into Sacha to loosen her up, but she's difficult. I've only seen her drink one glass at any of the parties we've seen them at."
Sally commented that it is because she tells me she quickly gets light-headed and is afraid of losing control, so she's always careful.
Ryker went over and talked with Rex. I heard snippets about the tasty cocktails that they could serve. Then Rex left to get some booze, glasses and extra chairs from their place. With the kids from the beached boat, there would be twelve of us for dinner, so there were a few things Valerie was short of.
Ryker called out, "Tony, can I borrow the van? I need to get stuff from the yacht, the Scallops, Paua (Abalone), and booze." He then asked Aaron, "Can I take Nique out to the yacht while you gut and clean the snapper?"
Aaron nodded his agreement but asked, "Why do you need Nique?"
"I want to download the photos she took and finish showing her the ones from the beach. Also, I can do with someone to hand stuff into the dinghy, and she's a damn sight better-looking than you!" He replied.
On the drive over the hill to Schooner Bay, Ryker elaborated on what he intended to happen that evening. He explained that over the months of working together, Ethan had opened up to Rex, that he wanted to see another man fuck his wife but didn't know how to go about it.
Ryker started explaining, "That's Rex's version, but I actually think Rex probably put the idea in Ethan's head, but that is all irrelevant anyway. Rex has been trying, but he's like a bull in a china shop and has only managed to put her guard up and make her wary of him. I had a good talk with her the last time I was here and sowed some seeds in her mind. I think I may manage to break her resistance tonight, but I don't want you to sit there, getting upset and thinking we are forcing her."
I could see all sorts of issues with him interfering with a marriage.
"Why do you need to break her down? Surely, if she wanted to play around, she would do it. It seems to me you should leave them and their marriage alone."
Ryker laughed; he leaned over and punched me softly on the arm, "I knew that would be your reaction, which was why I wanted you away from the others to discuss and explain."
"Look, I have messed around with half a dozen married couples over the last three years. The second I met Sacha, I read her like a book. And just in case you think I had any preconceived ideas, that was before I even heard Rex's side of things. I didn't find out what he had been up to until the end of my last visit.
"Anyway, during our conversation, she quizzed me about the rumour that Sally had slept with four of us the night before. It seems everyone knows everyone's business on this island. She was very obtuse in her questions, sex obviously disturbed her, but I could see the excitement behind her eyes, so I pressed her about how she would like that. I worked on her all night whilst we danced, and near the end of the evening, I got her to admit that she had dreamed of things like that happening to her when she was younger. But she was emphatic they were just - in her words - dirty filthy dreams and would never let that happen.
"As you can imagine, I took that as a real challenge, and I think I can get her willingly onto that table tonight. However, if she doesn't let herself go, I won't force her, nor will I allow anyone else to push her.
"But I have a problem: she'll never do anything in front of Ethan, so I need one of you girls to keep him out of the way." Ryker held his hand up when he saw my hackles go up.
"I'm not asking anyone to sleep with him, and I think it should be Sally, not you," he said, looking me in the eye. "She needs to get him out of the way, take him outside, or hide him in one of the bedrooms. As if Sacha starts to let her guard down, I know she will not entertain anything if he is standing around watching her."
I interjected, "So you're the big white knight that will race her off into the sunset, fucking her silly and fulfilling all her dreams!"
Ryker roared with laughter as he pulled the van next to the dinghy and jerked on the hand brake. He turned to face me, "Nique, you're wonderful. Yes, you are probably right. I do get a big kick from awakening the tiger in a sexually frustrated woman."
"What do you want me to do? I'm unsure I want to help you lead this innocent soul astray," I answered.
"I do have a specific task for you. I want you to look after Rex."
Again Ryker held his hand up to stop me from arguing. He saw my hackles rise. I would certainly not have Rex pawing around me again; lunchtime today was definitely a one-off.
"I just want you to keep him in check. Valerie has told me all about today's lunch and says you handled him better than many women twice your age could have. Nothing surer he will try and get involved, and he will stuff it up for all of us. Rex must be the last guy if Sacha goes past the point of no return. In fact, I would rather he was not involved at all. I believe he will listen to you. He'll get stroppy if any one of the guys tries to stop him. I want this to be a really good experience for Sacha and not marred by anyone acting crude or Rex starting a fight."
Ryker opened the van door, "Let's get the dinghy in the water. We need to pick up some stuff, then get back to the house; there is a lot to do."
As we rowed to the yacht, I took in the day around us. The wind had fallen away, and the cloud had lifted to show patches of blue sky.
I piped up, "Aren't we fortunate to be here? Look at this day; we don't need to wear masks. Thank God we don't live in India, Brazil or any other countries where Covid is walloping them."
Ryker turned his head, "God has little to do with it. Are you religious?"
I heard a faint tone of bitterness in his retort, "Not very; my mother and father took me to church almost every Sunday. So most of my friends are from our church. But I stopped going about two years ago when I started the sixth form. It's funny; my mother and father have not been that often since, either. My mother has started opening up to me, something I'm a little uncomfortable with. In one of our discussions, she told me my dad just went to church to give me a good grounding in religion so that I could make up my mind and to give me a good set of morals. They stuffed up there; look what I have been up to in the last four days."
"There is nothing wrong with your morals. You have not hurt anyone. I would say you have the highest morals of anyone in that house we have just left. You're young enough to be untainted by what life throws up."
Embarrassed, I tried to divert his attention, "You don't seem to have a very good opinion of religion?"
"I'm not a fan, no, but my main issue is with the people like Sacha's mother, who are all bitter and twisted and use religion for their own ends. For example, she has instilled in her daughter the belief that anything that gives pleasure is evil and that she will go to hell if she enjoys herself. How fucked up is that? Anyway, enough of all that; you have turned out alright. The church has not managed to fuck around with your mind too much."
When we reached the yacht, we climbed aboard, and Ryker went straight to the computer to download the photos. Once he had the photos downloading, he asked me to get specific items out of the freezer while he got some bottles from under the seat where he stored all the booze.
Then from the live bait tank, he took some Paua and Scallops. He said he had dived for these while Aaron and I were on the beach. "Your job when we return will be to make some fritters with these."
We set everything we were taking with us on the transom, then he got in the dinghy, and I handed everything to him. Once loaded, we returned to the cabin to look through the photos.
"These are bloody good. You have a good eye, Nique." And he thanked me for taking them.
