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“Kayli,” he whispered, his breath hot against my neck. He thrust hard, and then put his palms on either side of my shoulders, pressing into the sand to angle himself in deeper. My hips lifted up at his movement.
I clawed at his shoulders, at his neck, as if I could pull him along faster and harder. “Blake,” I muttered.
He groaned loudly and then pulled out, pressing his length against my crotch. He must have been concerned about protection, too, and was being careful to pull out before he orgasmed. The hardness throbbed, warm and wet. His head moved down, biting my shoulder. He mumbled my name on a sigh.
I relaxed against the sand, wrapping my arms around his neck, taking in the stars above our heads. My heart was exploding all over the place. I was suddenly getting cold, but I ignored it, absorbing what warmth I could from him. I was content, hearing his breathing, feeling him on top of me.
“Kayli,” he breathed. He rolled over, onto his back on the sand. His chest shifted as his labored breathing began to slow.
I thought he said something else, but it was too quiet to make out. I wanted to tell him something, but then forgot what it was. I was suddenly so exhausted, all I wanted to do was sleep. But I knew in that moment, after all of this, I couldn’t simply let Blake go. We’d been through a lot together. We’d go through much more before all this was over. My heart hurt at how much I needed him, and it scared me to admit to myself that I did at all.
As much as I needed the others.
He may never understand. Neither would Axel. It was the torture and torment of my own heart.
But I’d fallen in love with all of them. Despite my horrible, unable to choose and fickle heart, among all the fighting and anger, I felt too strongly about them now.
To lose any of them now would kill me. I knew, though, that the reality was, that one day, I would have to choose, and then at least four pieces of my heart would break and it would be a miracle if I ever recovered. I’d maybe lose Corey’s friendship, too, depending on who I ended up with. I loved him, too. More than he knew.
Despite the walls she surrounded herself with, the thief had somehow let her own heart get stolen.
~ A ~
Blake Coaltar let Kayli fall asleep beside him on the beach. He needed to collect himself. He couldn’t believe he’d just made love to her on the beach in a wild moment of need. He didn’t regret it, not in the least. His desire for her was too much.
He did feel her pulling him into her. He’d tried to ask her at the end about if she was on the pill and if they needed to be concerned. She didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure if she heard him, he was speaking very low. Protection had processed through is mind at the last moment but he knew pulling out may not be enough.
Not that he’d be too upset if she became pregnant. While she slept, he entertained the idea of kids with her. They’d make beautiful children.
Not right now. Not the right time. He’d want to do things right with her.
He’d have to win her heart first.
His heart beat in his chest, harder than even the first moment he’d spotted her at his party, when she’d smiled in that way. Like she knew a secret and wasn’t going to tell. With those big green eyes and that long brown hair, she’d toyed with him.
He’d been trying to learn her secrets since.
Eventually, he had to wake her put his shirt back on her and guide her through the rough terrain. At first they’d followed the beach, but then when the trees cleared, he thought there might be a road. She clutched the shirt around her body, quiet most of the way.
He tried to use his watch to navigate by, but it was broken. It no longer glowed. It might have been waterproof and worth a small fortune, but his being around Kayli had caused the demise of yet another one of his possessions. He blamed her, but he did so in jest. He’d spent more money on that girl than he wanted to admit, more than any of the gold-digging girlfriends he’d had in the past, and she’d never asked him directly for a dime. She just somehow destroyed everything in her wake.
Why was he attracted to this?
The watch crystal was cracked, and with what little light the stars gave off, he found sand inside it. He carried it, like a badge. If Kayli wanted to break all his toys, he’d let her every time. He didn’t care. She’d put him in the poor house, and he still come scurrying along after her.
They came across a dark, closed gas station with a working pay phone. He had a phone card memorized, a habit for emergencies, and dialed Doyle’s satellite phone. Doyle picked up on the second ring. With Kayli’s insistence, he got him to report to Corey. “Corey wouldn’t have done this,” she said. “There’s no way. We can trust him.”
He believed her. He liked Corey. He had been the friendliest toward him on the ship, not like his brother, who gave him the cold shoulder, even when he forced a smile and worked with him. Blake got the feeling only Corey was really trying to get along. The next closest one was Raven, but it was hard to tell if Raven liked him or not. Raven seemed more of a cold brute, and it was hard to get a feel for him.
It wasn’t beyond Blake that Raven could have done this. Or Kevin. Or Brandon. He did know it couldn’t have been Axel; he had been in the dining room.
That didn’t mean he couldn’t have given an order to the others…but then Doyle would have heard it.
He didn’t want to forget the others on the ship, either. Right now, there were too many suspects to give in to conspiracy theories. He had to get answers, not make assumptions.
Corey said he’d get someone to pick Blake and Kayli up. It turned out, they weren’t too far from a friend of theirs who happened to be in the area. Based on Blake’s description of the immediate area and with Corey tracing the call, they determined were still in South Carolina.
They waited for a good while. Kayli had fallen asleep again in his arms while they sat against the wall of the run-down gas station. He picked her up as a car pulled slowly into the lot. Kayli remained passed out in his arms. He smiled at this. The poor girl had been through a lot today. It couldn’t have been easy for her, still getting over being sick, and then being drained of energy from the boys and their fighting. Then almost drowning, the long swim and making love on the beach. He’d be passed out, too, if he didn’t need to get them to a safe spot. He didn’t allow himself to even think about how tired he was. There was still too much to do.
At least he might have figured out what her cramps were about. According to Doyle, from what he’d heard, the boys kept getting close to her, and then right after each incident, she got the cramps. He’d suspected it was blood pumping through for her body to release in an orgasm. It was like men’s blue balls, only women got it, too. If you got heated up, and didn’t get that release, a woman could get cramps. Hers must have been getting pretty bad because she was getting it over and over again throughout the day. It might have been severely agitated by stress and having gotten over being sick. She’d claimed it wasn’t lady cramps. He couldn’t prove that was the case, of course, but he was suspicious. In any case, she hadn’t complained about cramps since they left the beach, just of being tired.
Her cramps were mainly why he’d insisted, when they’d made love on the beach, that he needed to get her to go first. He would have done it anyway, but he wanted to make absolutely sure. When she didn’t cramp after, he suspected that’s what it had been all along. The selfish brutes she’d been getting too close with had been leaving her hanging. And the immediate stress after was agitating the cramping. Like when she was in the pond with Marc and they all came in fighting over her.
He’d been jealous to learn what Marc and she had been up to, but more concerned about those cramps and why she was sick…and the guys all fighting around her and not seeming to really care. It was why he disliked Brandon. She’d been sick on the floor and rather than asking how she felt, Brandon had attacked him.
He put it out of his mind now. As he approached the car, the driver’s door opened and out came a man, shorter than Blake, may
be shorter than Kayli. He had strawberry blond hair and a stern face. He was older, maybe late thirties, but was a block of muscle, though, a tough guy with a grim expression. He wore a blue sweater, jeans and sneakers. There was no hint as to what he might have been doing so close by.
He looked at Blake and then at Kayli in his arms. “Tell me she’s still alive,” he said.
“She is,” Blake said. She shifted her causing her head to move. She licked her lips and then turned into him. She really was out. “Just sleeping.”
“Must have been a hell of a swim,” the driver said. He rushed around and opened up the back seat. “Want to put her in there? Does she need a hospital? We can drive back to Charleston, if you want.”
“No,” Blake said. “Just take us to a motel for the night. We’ll get some rest, and then we need to get back to the boat.” He gently angled himself and Kayli into the back of the car. He wasn’t going to leave her in the back seat alone. He didn’t think he’d dare leave her alone at all after this. He hated to admit it, but Axel had been right about everyone staying in pairs.
“Are you kidding me?” The man leaned in, looking in on Blake and then at the sleeping Kayli, now with her head in his lap, the rest of her curled up on the seat. “They just tried to kill the two of you. I was told to get you to safety. That’s not on the boat.”
“We have to get back or they’ll all be in trouble,” he said. “Don’t worry about it now. If you can get us somewhere for the night, we’ll sort it out in the morning.” He squeezed Kayli in his arms and looked at the man. “What’s your name?”
“Liam,” he said, reaching out a hand in offering. “You’re Blake Coaltar?”
“Yeah. Kayli’s boyfriend.” Blake wasn’t sure why he felt the need to say that. It’s not like he’d asked Kayli in an official way or that he’d want to make that assumption after everything they’d gone through. It just seemed safer to say he was. He didn’t know this Liam and didn’t really have much trust in anyone at this point. “I’m sorry to make your acquaintance this way.”
