Ten

Chapter One

Chapter One – The island

Madeline sighed. She knew that with her pale complexion, the sun was going to be the death of her if she spent much more time under it. She looked at her watch and decided she could wait a few more minutes before she slathered any more sunscreen on.

Besides, they could be here any minute now.

She had been sunning herself on the spacious second-story outdoor balcony of the beach house for several hours, but nothing new seemed to be happening around her. She had started out with a book and then moved on to lying topless on her belly, but that had gotten old after a while. Any attempt at a nap she knew was useless.

Even with the perfect cloudless blue sky and the even bluer water all around her, she could not bring herself to relax or feel any real enjoyment. There was no television, internet, or phone service on the island, so she couldn't distract herself with these trivialities. All she had left to do was to wait for the others to come.

The other three people on the island with her weren't much for company. There was the odd little European man who didn't seem to pay much notice to Madeline, though she was dressed, or rather not very dressed, in a black bikini that showed off her rail-thin, but shapely figure. Though this didn't really disturb her much at all, since he wasn't the kind of man she would be interested in anyways.

The Spanish-only speaking maid was not much for conversation either. The only one who had spoken with her was the lawyer, a stylish blonde in her thirties with nice legs and a meticulously perfect hairdo. Their conversation had been cordial and short, and the lawyer had spent the bulk of the time chatting away on a satellite phone with someone on the mainland.

It was when Madeline heard the faint sound of a motorboat in the distance that she perked her head up and sighed. It's about time.

Her bare breasts were exposed for a second while she tied her bikini top back on. After slipping on her sunglasses and a pair of backless high heels, which clacked on the wooden floor as she moved to the railing, she stood and watched as the motorboat came in from some ways off and continued closer towards the dock below her. While she was looking, a breeze from the ocean whipped up her jet black hair into a mess around her delicate face. Annoyed, she pulled it back into a ponytail and held it with her left hand. With her free hand she adjusted her large sunglasses and fixed her blue eyes on the oncoming motorboat.

She saw the boat driver, a youngish man with long red hair and a goatee, grab onto the dock and tie his craft to it with a line. Soon after he flipped a plank off the boat to the dock so the passengers, two women and four men, could disembark. She was a little bit impressed that the men she could see were quite gentlemanly as they went out of their way to help the two women off.

With a small sigh she then turned and went back to her beach chair, where she opened her purse and began to check her makeup. She then brushed her hair with her hands and stretched herself out again, carefully posing her body to be seen in the most attractive way possible.

She was ready.

***

Chloe, who was the first person off the motorboat, took great care not to slip on the plank in her flip flops. But once she was on the dock she couldn't help but take in the large beach house in front of her. It was a large wooden house, in some ways more like a mansion that came right down to the beach. A wooden staircase led to an oversized balcony where she thought she saw a girl in a bathing suit a second earlier.