Conflicted in Paradise Ch. 03

"I think I need to have a long talk with Miss Winterton," Kelsey said darkly.

Before Carynne or Amanda could reply, Kelsey gave Amanda a reassuring kiss on her cheek and set off after Stacey, with the two girls quickly following her. The busy crowd made it difficult for her to gain much ground on her friend, however, and she was unable to catch up until Stacey and Siara had already reached the town square where they'd left the guys.

A huge crowd was surrounding the Bossa Ball playing field, and there was a very noticeable buzz coming from the assembled gathering. Rather than the buzz they'd noticed earlier, when all the spectators had been cheering and laughing, this one seemed rather more ominous.

Siara let out a small "Oh no!" before quickly setting off into the crowd, struggling to get through, with Stacey following closely on her heel. Kelsey gave Carynne and Amanda a confused glance, then she set off after the two tall girls.

Her slender size helped her flit through the massed crowd a bit easier, and she'd just caught up with Stacey and was about to grab her when they all reached the end of the throng and saw what the commotion was all about.

Ryan and Damon were standing just beside the massive trampoline-like playing field, being confronted by a group of large guys, several of whom were clenching their fists. Damon had a worried look on his face, likely on account of being outnumbered six to two, but Ryan seemed more angry than anything else.

"I don't like losing to a cheater!" said a tall black guy, who seemed to be the leader of the group confronting the two swimmers.

"And I don't like being called a cheater!" Ryan said heatedly. "You lost! Whining about it isn't gonna help!"

The black guy took a step forward, loosely rolling his shoulders. The crowd held its collective breath, apparently waiting for the blows to start raining down, but Ryan just stepped forward himself, coming to stand within an inch of the taller guy, a menacing scowl on his face. Both Damon and the other guys stepped forward as well, and a fight seemed inevitable.

"Bugger!" Siara groaned.

"What's going on?" Stacey asked.

"I don't know, but he always gets into situations like these," Siara sighed. "He always refuses to back down, even over the smallest bloody things!"

"Hang on, I'll get my bodyguards," Stacey said, looking around for the group of men that she knew would be close by. When she couldn't see them, she frowned in annoyance, then she rejoined the crowd of people in an effort to go find them.

"We need to do something!" Amanda said anxiously, obviously worried over Damon.

"Yeah. Let's go and see if we can get this resolved peacefully," Kelsey agreed.

Siara, having heard the two girls, turned around and shook her head. "Don't worry. Ryan and Damon aren't in any danger."

"That's not really how it looks," Carynne said with a determined grimace on her face. She'd never let a friend down when they needed her, and she wasn't about to now, especially not when it concerned the brother of the girl she loved. She took a few steps towards the group of quarreling men, but Siara gently took hold of her arm and pulled her back.

"You don't have to go over there. Ryan can easily handle these guys," Siara said.

"Are you sure?" Amanda asked doubtfully. "They look awfully big to me."

Siara smiled in a resigned fashion. "Trust me, Amanda."

The girls fretted for another moment, then they returned their attention to the confrontation in the midst of the town square. Apparently Ryan and the black guy had traded some more verbal jabs, and the black guy was now clenching his jaw and his fists, obviously spoiling for a fight. "I think I'm going to beat the shit out of you and your boyfriend!" he sneered. "Maybe that will teach you not to just come here and ruin everyone's fun."

Ryan shrugged in an unconcerned manner. "Are you sure you have enough of your buddies with you to try it? There's only six of you, after all."

The blow came quickly, though it wasn't the black guy who'd thrown it. One of the guys right behind him had stepped forward and swung a right hook at Ryan's face.

Ryan stepped aside so smoothly that it seemed like his opponent was moving in slow-motion. He caught his adversary's wrist, somehow wrapped his hand around it, then twisted it violently; with a loud scream of pain his opponent practically flipped in the air and landed on the pavement with a loud thud while Ryan kept holding on to his wrist and caused the guy's arm to be extended just a little further than it should, at a very uncomfortable-looking angle.

Two of the other men rushed forward, but Ryan just squeezed the wrist a little harder, and the ensuing cries of anguish caused the two of them to back off again.

"Now, how about you all just walk out of here, I'll let your buddy go, and we can all just forget this ever happened, okay?" Ryan said calmly.

The black guy and his friends looked at each other as if to ask the others what they thought they should do. Before they could come to any kind of conclusion, however, several policemen broke through the cordon of spectators. The guys bolted at the first sign of the cops, leaving Ryan and Damon standing there while the policemen walked up to them.

"What is going here?" the officer in charge asked, his gaze alternating between the guy on the ground who was still being held by his wrist and the group of men who had already vanished into the crowd.

"Just a minor misunderstanding, sir," Ryan said politely. "There was an argument over who'd won the last game. It's nothing worth getting excited over."

"Then why are you holding this man?"

"Because I want to make sure he understands that it's nothing worth getting excited over as well," Ryan said pointedly.

"Yes, yes! You guys won fairly, I agree!" the guy groaned, his face having turned white from the undoubtedly painful position he was in.

"Thank you," Ryan said, letting go of the guy's wrist. The guy winced in agony as he got up, clutching his sore wrist, then he scampered off in the same direction his buddies had gone.

"I apologize for the disturbance, sir," Ryan said to the officer after the guy had left.

The policeman shrugged. "Winston and his friends are known to us; they tend to go around looking for trouble. I would advise you not to stick around and to return to your resort as quickly as possible, however."

Ryan nodded. "We will. Thank you, sir." Without saying anything else, he motioned for Damon to follow him, and they quickly walked off towards the girls who were waving at them.

"What the hell was that?" Damon asked, a little in awe.

"Nikkyo." Ryan shrugged. When he saw that Damon didn't understand, he added, "It's Aikido."

Damon waited for him to say something else, but apparently Ryan wasn't in the mood to share more. The two of them reached the girls, and they both went to hug their girlfriends.

"I was really worried about you," Amanda said after kissing Damon. "What happened?"

"I'm not really sure. One moment we're playing the game, Ryan scores an awesome point, and the next thing we know, these guys are accusing us of cheating," Damon explained.

"Well, I'm just glad you're okay!" Amanda said in relief.

"Me too!" Damon grinned at her. "Though I think that Ryan could have easily held them off. I've never even seen a move like that before!"

They both looked over at Ryan, who was having a rather different sort of discussion with Siara.

"Why can't you ever just back down?" Siara asked in a seemingly resigned tone.

"Come on, babe. It's not my fault! They just jumped us after I scored and won the game!" Ryan said defensively.

"Did you cheat?"

"No! One guy on the other team had done the same thing not five minutes before, and nobody bitched at him about it!"

Siara sighed, after which she gave Ryan a huge hug. "I just wish you wouldn't get caught up in all this nonsense."

"Me too, Sia. But it's not like I go looking for this kind of shit..."

"I know."

The two of them looked at each other for several long moments, then they kissed.

Kelsey smiled at them both, then she looked at Damon and Amanda kissing, and her smile grew even bigger. She wanted nothing more than to kiss Carynne, but she figured there had been enough excitement for the afternoon already. The crowd was bound to go wild at seeing her and Carynne make out; after all, every other group of people that had ever seen the two of them kiss had gotten pretty excited too.

Stacey walked back up to her group of friends, her four bodyguards in tow. "I'm sorry that took so long! We kept missing each other!" she said, obviously annoyed. All four men looked decidedly chagrined, perhaps angry that they had managed to lose sight of their charge.

"It's alright, Ryan took care of it," Siara said with a wry smile. She looked at her boyfriend and was able to resist his silly grin for almost five seconds before she broke out laughing.

"I do think we should go, though. I don't want that joker to come back with twenty of his buddies in tow," Damon said.

"Yeah, let's go. You guys want to go get changed, and then we can meet up for dinner later tonight at that grill just down Main Street?"

The girls all nodded their agreement, and the group set off back towards the resorts.

*** ***

As soon as Stacey closed the door to their villa behind her, she was confronted by an obviously angry Kelsey.

"I need to talk to you," Kelsey said curtly.

"Okay. Here in the hallway, or do you want to go into the living room?" Stacey asked calmly, though she felt her stomach twist in a knot. She had a pretty good idea what the talk was going to be about, and she'd prepared arguments for both Damon and Amanda if they were to confront her. Kelsey being the one who was upset because of it had never occurred to her, however.

Kelsey turned around without saying a word, storming into the living room. She saw Carynne settling into one of the leather couches and preparing to turn on the TV, and she walked over to her girlfriend. "I hate to do this to you, hon, but would you mind leaving us alone for a bit?" she asked.

Carynne nodded and quickly got up. "I'll go take a shower. Just promise me you won't do anything you'll regret later, okay? I can tell you're pretty angry," she said seriously.

"I won't, I promise," Kelsey said softly.

Carynne gave her a long kiss, then she squeezed Kelsey's amazing ass. "And if there's going to be any make-up sex afterwards, you two better come have it in the shower with me!"

Kelsey tried not to, but she couldn't help but giggle. Carynne just gave her a quick grin as she scampered off up the stairs, happy with herself for making Kelsey laugh again. She knew her well enough to know that making her laugh kept her from staying angry. She made up her mind to take an extra long shower, because the prospect of having sex with Kelsey and Stacey in the hot water made her pussy practically leak with desire.

As soon as her girlfriend disappeared from view, Kelsey's smiling face turned back into a scowl, and she turned around and faced Stacey, who had taken a seat on the largest couch.

"What did you say to Amanda?" Kelsey demanded angrily, her fists on her hips.

"The truth." Stacey shrugged. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"And what's your idea of the truth?"

"That you miss her, she misses you, and you're both miserable because of it."

Kelsey ordered her heart to stop messing around, as it skipped several beats before it began thudding quite heavily—which was nothing compared to the churning in her stomach. "Well, of course we miss each other, but that doesn't make it right for you to trick her into coming into that dressing room and fuck me and Carynne!"

"Trick her? I didn't trick her. I just told her what you and Carynne were doing, and I asked her if she missed it. She said yes, and she joined you two."

"There must have been more than that! She wouldn't just break her promise to Damon like that without something else!"

Stacey gave her a hurt look. "Why are you so angry at me, baby? Isn't getting Amanda back what you wanted?"

"I'm the one that chose not to be with her and Damon anymore. It wasn't her decision, or even what she wanted, so why didn't you come talk to me? You're acting like it was her fault!"

"Because you were absolutely right. For you to go off and be with Damon and Amanda while Carynne can't join is completely unfair to Carynne. Talking with you about that wouldn't really have made much sense, would it?" Stacey said in a reasonable tone of voice. She curled her knees up on the couch in front of her, locking her arms around her legs and resting her chin on her knees. It was a position she always took when she had an argument with her dad, or with one of her brothers, since she knew it made her look cute.

"Stop trying to talk around the issue. I made a decision, and you went and talked with Amanda and tried to change her mind about what she'd decided. Why did you do that?"

"You were all so unhappy, anyone could see that! All of you have been sad and mopey during the past couple of weeks. You're crying all the time, and I hate it! I hate seeing everybody in pain and so dreary; you most of all, Kel... I love you too much to not try to help when you're unhappy," Stacey said, her voice on the verge of breaking.

Kelsey felt her heart ache for her friend, and though she tried to maintain her anger, she could feel it melt like snow before the Bahama sun. She let out a deep sigh. "I love you too, Stace, but you didn't have the right to interfere in Damon and Amanda's lives like that."

"I didn't interfere, I swear! I just talked to them. All I said was that they'd already made an exception in their exclusivity for you, and it wouldn't hurt them to make one for Carynne as well."

"Wait... them? You talked to both of them?"

Stacey nodded.

"That doesn't make any sense. Why was Amanda so upset that she hadn't talked to Damon about it, then? If you'd already talked to both of them..."

Stacey blushed slightly. "Eh... I might not have told them that I'd also talked to the other one about it."

"So you snuck around behind both their backs?"

"I didn't sneak! I wanted to see how they both felt about it before I got them together to talk to them."

"Why?"

Stacey frowned. "Because I figured it was easier to talk to them separately first, and—"

"No, I mean why did you feel the need to talk to them in the first place?" Kelsey interrupted. "Why did you take it upon yourself to mess with our decisions?"

Stacey lowered her head until her face touched her knees. "Don't you love being back with Amanda?" she asked softly.

"Yeah, but not if it means..." Kelsey started, only to quickly stop to bite back the tears that threatened to well up in her eyes. "Not if it means she and Damon are going to have trouble because of it!"

Stacey lifted her head again, her eyes also filled with tears. "Trouble? Why would they have trouble?"

"I'm not sure, but Amanda seemed really worried. I could just tell."

"Kel, they both want this!"

Kelsey gave her a doubtful look. "Really?"

Stacey nodded rapidly. "Yes. When I talked to Damon on the beach, that morning when you came back crying so hard after talking to them, he was pretty close to agreeing that having Carynne join the three of you wouldn't hurt them. And then Amanda felt the same way when I talked to her in the bikini shop!"

"You should have told them, Stace. Now Amanda is scared to death over what Damon will think!"

Stacey sighed. "I didn't mean for that to happen! I just wanted you all to be happy again. I hate seeing you all so miserable, and I've missed..." she stopped suddenly and hung her head, blushing furiously.

Kelsey's curiosity was piqued as she tried to figure out what that meant. She sat down on the couch beside her friend and wrapped her arm around Stacey's shoulders. "What did you miss? Us being happy?" she asked, pulling Stacey close against her.

"Yeah, but also... I..." Stacey stammered, her face still pressed against her knees.

"Is it Amanda?" Kelsey asked. Her voice was full of compassion as she added, "Do you miss her?"

Stacey didn't respond for a few moments. Eventually she raised her face just a little and whispered, "Yes. You and Amanda were the first girls I'd ever gotten close to, and I just have a special place in my heart for you two. I miss not being able to... to do anything with her anymore."

"I didn't know you felt that way," Kelsey said sympathetically. She began stroking her hand through Stacey's blonde hair, trying to comfort her friend.

Stacey turned to face Kelsey, blinking away a few tears. "I do. I've just really missed having her come over and hang out, and fool around, and all the fun stuff we used to do together."

"I'm sorry. Carynne and I have really tried to make up for her absence."

"I know, and you two are so wonderful. But... I just... I dunno. Maybe it's not even so much that I miss her, and it's more that I'm just kinda lonely."

"Awwww!" Kelsey said while squeezing Stacey tightly against her, trying to think of what to say. Now that she knew, it made perfect sense that Stacey was lonely; of the group of friends, she was the only one who didn't have someone of her own. With Ryan and Siara having joined them, it just reinforced the fact that she was by herself.

"And I've missed your brother too," Stacey whispered, almost inaudibly, after almost a minute of silence.

Kelsey did a double-take, and her hand froze. Had she heard that right? "What?"

"I miss Damon."

Kelsey gazed at her friend in amazement for several long moments, pondering what she meant. Did she miss just having sex with him, or was it something more? It seemed unlikely it was just the sex, since Stacey could have basically any boy she wanted. "Stace, are you in love with Damon?" she finally asked.

Stacey turned her head away, but Kelsey quickly drew it back, forcing her friend to look her in the eyes. "Are you?" she repeated.

"Yes," Stacey finally said. "But I swear that I'm not trying to break up him and Amanda, Kel. I know that with my meddling of the past few days it may look that way, but I just want everyone getting back together and having fun. I didn't do it to wreck their relationship! Please, you have to believe me!"

"Sshhh, I believe you. But why didn't you ever tell me? Or him?"

Stacey shrugged, her face a little sad. "What good would that have done? He's happier than anything with Amanda, and then he had you too. Even if I wanted to, how could I've ever competed with that?"

"Well, you could have kept buying him awesome cars," Kelsey said with a smile. "Get him one of those Veyrons he keeps talking about, and he'll likely forget all about us."

Stacey stared at her for a second, then she started laughing. "To be honest, I don't even know what I feel for him. There are days when I think I genuinely do love him, and there are other days when I'm sure I just feel this way because no other guy has ever treated me as wonderfully as he has."

"Oh Stace," Kelsey said affectionately. "There's a guy out there for you too; or a girl, whatever. Just because you haven't found him yet doesn't mean you never will."

"I hope so. It's just hard when the four of you are so obviously wonderfully happy together, you with Carynne and Amanda with Damon, and... and I miss being part of that. I miss being together with all of you, and having all of you come over to my room. That Saturday, when Damon swam his semi-finals, was the greatest day of my life! I want that back. Remember how happy and carefree we all were?"

Kelsey swallowed several times, loudly sniffing her nose. "Yes, I do. I miss it too. A lot has changed since then, though."

"I know, but I figured if you and Carynne could join Damon and Amanda again, then maybe..."