Rules For Spanking: MMF Bisexual Romance

by A. Anders

  Sure that the jagged rocks below were about to break my fall, I held my breath. When I did, I realized that I had stopped. My arms were stretched and my fingers were hooked. I was hanging onto a limestone pocket. I was alive.

  I scrambled, knowing that my new supports could break at any moment. My foot scraped the wall in search of a hole. I found one, and relieving some of the pressure from my fingers, I loosened my hold to find a better grip.

  My heart slammed against my chest as I caught my breath. I understood why Gray had wanted me to go last. His plan was to get rid of me.

  “Are you alright?” Rose yelled down.

  “Yeah, I’m good. Just keep going. Don’t look down. I’ll be alright,” I said, unsure if I would be.

  I gathered my thoughts with a few deep breaths and then quickly assessed my injuries. Nothing felt broken, though my face stung. Also, the butcher knife in my pocket had drawn blood. Other than that, I was fine.

  I next looked around gauging my options. I could either climb down and hope that there was another way up, or I could climb back up now. I thought about Rose being left alone with Gray and immediately reached up in search of a divot.

  With my chest flat against the rock face, I slithered back up. It was hard. My forearms and calves burned. About halfway up, my legs wobbled, and I stopped, not sure if I could continue.

  “You can do it,” Rose yelled from above.

  I looked up. She was staring down at me from on top of the plateau, and she looked terrified.

  Rose was scared for me. Not for herself, purely for me. I hadn’t realized until that moment that she even cared. After that, all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her and hold her.

  With my muscles still burning, the only thing I could do was hug the wall. I looked down. The waves roared as they crashed on the sharp rocks below. I didn’t think I could survive that.

  So, unable to go up and not wanting to go down, I closed my eyes and centered myself. I took a deep breath and cleared my mind. I knew that I was running out of time. I had to make a decision. Either I was the type of guy who gave up or the type that didn’t.

  With my legs no longer shaking, I looked around for another pocket. I found one. It was easier to reach than I had thought it would be. I stretched out my leg and touched it. And pressing my chest against the stone, I shifted my weight across and stepped up. I had done it.

  I felt a surge of energy come over me after that. Everything seemed easier. I looked up again. They were all across the fence, looking down at me. Almost everyone was holding their breath.

  Less than five feet from the top, I stopped. I knew that only one thing could prevent me from getting off the cliff face.

  “Everyone who dies brings you one day closer to death,” I yelled up. “If I fall, it could be you tonight. If I live, it’s probably me. She hasn’t told me that she loves me. Remember that.”

  No one responded, and I didn’t move. It was a standoff.

  I looked up again. They were all staring down at me speechless. Everybody, except for one person.

  “Are you just gonna stay there, or are you gonna get your ass up here?” Gray asked angrily.

  He had realized that I had been talking to him. I didn’t know what he was planning, but he would only have a couple of reasons why he would have wanted me to follow him. Most of them involved him tossing me off the cliff.

  I reached, finding another limestone handle. One step at a time I inched up until finally there was nothing but grass to grab. I felt a hand around my wrist and knew it was Gray’s. The moment had come.

  I shifted my weight to his hand and felt a sudden drop. I wasn’t falling. It was the transfer of weight to his grip. He slowly pulled me over the edge, and when I was on solid ground, he released me.

  “Now, let’s go,” Gray ordered resentfully.

  It took a while for my exhausted muscles to stop trembling. By the time I stood up, Rose was the only one still waiting for me. She had stared at me blankly the entire time. It felt like she was going to tell me that she loved me, too, but she didn’t. She offered me her hand. Her gesture moved me.

  Rose and I walked together for four hours before Brad called for a men’s meeting. I looked at Rose for her reaction and found her hugging herself vulnerably. Men’s meetings made her uncomfortable, but it couldn’t be helped. She held our lives in her hands whether she liked it or not, and that was at least worth its own support group.

  “We should each get some private time with her,” Brad suggested looking directly at me.

  “That’s a good idea,” Gray agreed.

  I understood why they wanted it, but I had liked keeping her close. It was the only way I knew she would be safe.

  “How do we know someone isn’t gonna try and hurt her,” I asked, unintentionally looking at Gray.

  “What could someone do?” Gray asked.

  “There’s a lot, actually,” Brad countered with a smile.

  Gray thought for a second. “Rose is a smart girl. And something tells me that she could defend herself. Besides, I think everyone remembers what happened to Carl. Who’s gonna risk being anything but nice to her?”

  He had a point. No one left was that stupid. “Okay. I’m on board.”

  “Then it’s agreed. And since it was my plan, I’ll go first,” Brad announced.

  Clearly, Brad had some type of plan. I figured that Rose was probably safe. The rest of us, though, we were screwed.

  Having drawn the short straw back at camp, it was my job to tell Rose about our plan. When I did, I learned that her feeling of guilt had its limits. She looked at me challengingly and was about to object when I mentioned that Brad would be first.

  Once she heard that, her mood changed. Joy washed over her, and she was suddenly excited about the plan. The shift rattled me. Why was she so happy to spend time alone with Brad? I didn’t like that.

  Brad stepped up, took Rose’s hand and dropped behind the group as the rest of us continued walking. I looked around at the others. Everyone looked tense.

  They were probably all jealous. I certainly wasn’t, but I guess, they all had a right to be. She had professed her love to them. So, of course they were going to be jealous.

  Also, who does that? Who tells five different guys that she’s in love with them? Just the thought of someone tossing around feelings so casually made me mad… No. It made me…

  Wait, was I jealous?

  Why? I had no reason to be jealous. This was all just a game. Nothing happening on the show was real, except our dying, of course.

  Maybe that was it. Maybe I was scared of dying.

  I thought about it as I continued to walk. Never in my life had I wished harder to be scared of dying, but I knew that wasn’t it. She had gotten her grips into me, and I cared about her more than I felt that I should.

  I was willing to sacrifice my life to keep her safe, even if she didn’t feel the same for me. I was hooked on her. And the damn thing was that every guy here was probably just as hooked.

  Gray looked at me when I growled under my breath. I ignored him, but his gaze reminded me how much of an idiot I was for feeling anything for her at all.

  Hell, a part of me was hoping for another animal attack. At least with blood-thirsty predators, I had a chance of walking away in one piece. Against Rose, I was becoming defenseless.

  I mean, not that I was falling in love with her or anything. I was just feeling jealous, and the only reason I was jealous was because… I don’t know. I enjoyed being with her. I felt good whenever I talked to her. And she was beautiful. Yeah, she was really beautiful. And she has a strength about her that… Oh, crap! I’m in love with Rose.

  I immediately forced myself to think about something else. Certainly, I had more important things to be focusing on, such as a way that we could shorten our trek.

  Better yet, someone needed to start thinking about food. I was beginning to get hungry, and some of the plants around us had to be edible. Of course, the only pe
rson who knew which ones were edible was our botanist, and Brad was spending alone time with Rose, damn it.

  “Hasn’t it been thirty minutes?” Thorin asked to the chorus of five men grinding their teeth.

  “I think so,” I said casually.

  I needed to get Brad away from Rose. Out of everyone, Thorin was the least threatening. If Rose’s desires were keeping us alive, then Thorin was probably safe. As the only person who knew how to get the chips out, she wasn’t going to eliminate him, but I could never imagine her actually having feelings for Thorin the Pale.

  “You should let him know his time’s up,” I said, encouraging Thorin.

  When Brad returned to the group, he was sporting his familiar smile. I was beginning to hate that smile. He caught up to me and slapped me on the shoulder. Gripping my neck, he pulled me to him in a brotherly gesture, that bastard.

  “We’re gonna need food,” I said pulling away from him. “Which of these can we eat?”

  “Who knows? But I can tell you which ones can get you high,” he joked.

  Earlier he had hinted that he had crossed the fence. I suddenly realized why. He had needed the ingredients for his drugs. Wasn’t that why he had visited Rose in her cabin?

  I then turned looking into Brad’s eyes. His pupils were like saucers. He was as high as a kite.

  That’s why Rose was so happy to be alone with Brad. She’d needed a botanical stress relief.

  I did everything I could to contain my joy. It wasn’t that Rose loved Brad. She just needed him to get her high. What a friggin’ relief that was!

  I threw my arm around Brad’s shoulder grabbing the meat of his neck. I would have kissed him if I didn’t think he would get the wrong idea. Instead, I held him, patting his chest.

  “I bet you could get us high, couldn’t you? But how about you buy me dinner first?”

  Brad looked at me, surprised.

  Yeah, that sounded a little flirty, but I didn’t care. I was feeling good, and Brad was my friend again.

  Thirty minutes after Thorin had left, Gray dropped back. When Thorin returned, he wasn’t nearly as happy as Brad had been. It made me wonder if a guy like Thorin believed he had a shot with a woman like Rose.

  Sure, I could believe that Thorin had feelings for her, but he had to have figured her out by now. She made us do all of those physical challenges for a reason. It was because she wanted a guy who could protect her. She wanted a guy like…

  I hadn’t considered it before, but what she wanted was a guy like me, actually. I would do anything to protect her, and she knew that.

  We had kissed a couple of times. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the sharks, we would have done a lot more. And I did save her from the shark attack. Also, she did say that she was hoping that I would win the capture the flag challenge. So, would it be crazy to think that she might have feelings for me, too?

  Brad told me what mushrooms to look for, and I looked for dinner while my mind wandered to thinking about Rose. I was definitely in love with her, and whether or not she said it, I was beginning to believe that she might love me back.

  It had been a long time since I felt it, but the thought that Rose loved me filled me with hope. Yep, I said it, hope. It filled me with hope and made me smile. It lifted a weight from my shoulders that I didn’t even know I was carrying.

  I hadn’t come to the island looking for love. I wasn’t even sure if I was capable of loving someone again. Yet, for the first time in five years, I thought that I could. I had to admit, it felt really good.

  When Gray’s thirty minutes were up, I almost ran back to see her.

  “It’s time,” I announced when I found them.

  Rose and Gray were walking with their fingers intertwined and their shoulders touching. That surprised me. I couldn’t image Rose feeling anything for someone like him. Yet, they almost looked like boyfriend and girlfriend.

  “Give me a minute,” Gray demanded, turning toward Rose.

  “Wish I could,” I objected. “But thirty is all we get.”

  Gray glared at me, and I clenched my jaw for a tight-lipped smile.

  “I’ll see you up there,” Gray told her before kissing her on the lips. She kissed him back, and I hated everything about the kiss.

  Gray let her go and gave me a death stare as he walked by me. I kept smiling, but I didn’t back down an inch. Rose waited until Gray was out of earshot before she spoke.

  “You two really don’t like each other, do you?” Rose asked.

  “Us?” I asked casually. “Eh! We’re fine. He makes me laugh.”

  “Is that what it is?” she asked with a smile. “He makes you laugh?”

  “Yep,” I joked. “But the real question is, why you would like him? You a big fan of mustaches or something? You a mustache-o-phile?” I asked with a smile.

  Rose laughed. “A what? Is that a thing?”

  Rose was in a good mood. I liked that. Out of all of the beautiful things about her, her smile had to be the best. I took Rose’s hand and continued playfully.

  “Sure it’s a thing. You see it all the time. Some women love mustaches. They keep them in boxes, carry them around on sticks. I tell ya, if you knew how often guys go on dates with seemingly nice girls, only to wake up in a strange room missing their well-groomed mustaches… it would curl your hair.”

  Rose beamed “…into a 1940s curly mustache?”

  “See! That’s a fact only a mustache-o-phile would know. I’m watching you,” I warned, giving her the stink eye.

  Rose laughed and then wrapped her body around my arm. I could feel her clothed breasts press against my bicep. I didn’t know if she had done it on purpose, but it gave me a rush.

  I had no doubts now. I was in love with her. And unless I didn’t know anything about anything, I was sure that she loved me, too.

  As we walked, I wondered if I should tell her. I wondered if I could tell her. It did make it easier knowing that she felt something for me in return. With everything that had happened over the past week, telling her how I felt shouldn’t have been the hardest thing. But for me, it was.

  We walked in silence for a while as I found my courage. I decided to tell her and my heart raced. My eyes darted as I struggled to maintain my breath. I opened my mouth to say it when she cut me off.

  “I’m worried about you,” Rose said.

  The statement caught me off-guard.

  “You’re worried about me? Why? You mean because of Gray?”

  “No. Because of me?”

  I stopped walking to face her. She genuinely looked worried. I was confused.

  “Why are you worried ‘because of you’?”

  “Because you’re not like the other guys. You don’t say much.”

  “What do you mean? We talk. We’re talking right now.”

  “Yeah, but you haven’t said anything. Nothing important, anyway. With everyone else, I feel like I know them. I know the most important parts of them. But with you, it’s like… I don’t know.” She trailed off, shaking head frustrated.

  “But you do know me,” I said, feeling cornered. “You know that I would protect you with my life, don’t you?”

  “I do. I think I’ve always sensed that. And that’s probably why you’re still here. But now I’m worried… about whether you’ll stay,” she said, delicately.

  “But I don’t understand,” I said still confused. “Isn’t it how you feel about someone that keeps us alive?”

  “I think so,” she agreed.

  “So then, if you have feelings for me, I’m safe. The only reason I would have to worry would be if you didn’t feel anything for me,” I paused. “Are you telling me that you don’t feel anything for me?”

  Rose tightened her lips sending a queasy feeling to my stomach.

  “So, this entire time, you never felt anything for me?”

  She shook her head with regret in her eyes. “How could I? I don’t know anything about you.”

  My heart wrenched as it broke.


  “But that’s okay,” she quickly added. “You’re still here. And all you have to do is tell me something about yourself.”

  “What do you wanna know?” I asked, crossing my arms.

  “Something that’ll tell me who you are.”

  “You know who I am,” I told her.

  “That’s just it. I don’t. And I know that you’re pretending to be someone you’re not. I’m just asking for you to let me in.”

  “I don’t know what you want me to tell you,” I said, struggling for words.

  “Tell me anything! And believe me, I wouldn’t be saying this if I didn’t already like everything else that I’ve seen about you,” she admitted. “You’re smart. You’re brave. You’re gorgeous, not to mention the most heroic person I’ve ever met.”

  I flinched as a sickly wave washed through me, making me want to throw up.

  “There! That! Tell me that,” she insisted. “Why do you react like that?”

  Thoughts swirled through my mind. A tornado of gut-wrenching images rendered me speechless.

  Rose watched me struggle with sadness in her eyes. Taking my hand, she squeezed it and then pressed it against her chest. “Please, Ford,” she begged, slowly losing hope.

  My voice squeaked. “What do you want me to say?”

  “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I just need you to live.”

  Rose stared at me as I tried, but I couldn’t speak. Her vulnerable eyes showed me her heart. She did care for me, and I desperately wished I could give her what she wanted.

  We stared at each other in silence until she reached up and gently pulled my face to hers. She kissed me. By the time I thought to kiss her back, she had released my neck.

  “Please, Ford,” she asked, showing me her broken heart.

  “I wish I could,” I confessed humbly. “I really…” I could only shake my head with regret.

  Tears rolled down Rose’s soft cheeks. I recognized the pain in her eyes. It was the way you looked when you watched someone die. In her mind, she was helplessly watching me die.

  I would have thrown myself off of the cliff to relieve her pain. Yet, to say the words that she begged to hear, felt like a fate worse than death.