by Anna Sanders
“You listen to this crap?”
“This crap, as you call it, is one of the greatest-known power ballads of our time.” Keaton began to sing jokingly out of key. “So if you’re feeling lonely, don’t. You’re the only one I’ll ever want. I only want to make it go…”
Winx started laughing hard. It was odd how often Keaton made her laugh. Before him, nothing had been really funny. “You know the words? Christ, what a cheese ball you are.”
He laughed with her. “It’s one of those songs that just doesn’t go away.” He continued when the hook started. “Please forgive me… every word I say is true… please forgive me…”
“How do you do it?” She asked him, her smile fading.
“How do I do what?”
“How do you stay so upbeat after your family… after Stori…”
When her meaning was made clear, Keaton stopped grinning. Winx immediately regretted the change of topic.
“I don’t know. I guess…I’ve just been trying not to think about it. Not succeeding, but it’s easier to pretend it’s not happening.”
She nodded. “I try the same thing. But it’s hard. Especially since I don’t think Deja’s killer is really dead.”
“You really think it’s that lixyn?”
She sighed. “I have every reason to think so. Saying that Deja had what was coming to her? It’s incredibly incriminating. He must have ties to Chavez. Nobody else would have been given their own savages to toss at me unless they were.”
Keaton frowned in thought.
“It would explain so much if a lixyn were involved in her murder: why the order never wanted to punish the gangsters in the first place, why they try to discredit me, and why my punishment was so severe. It even explains how someone got away with killing Deja so effortlessly.”
“If that’s the case, there’s no way you could have known.” Keaton rubbed a hand over hers.
“I also didn’t wait to find out.”
“You waited over a year. And it wasn’t like that gang was innocent. You told me, they had a record of crimes similar.”
“But not actual murder. Defacing public property, petty theft, drug charges, or a date rape accusation here and there. It was serious, but not serious enough to kill over. Especially by some rogue vigilante.”
“Some would argue with you on that.”
“Maybe they weren’t guiltless on any front. But if someone made them kill Deja, then…fuck. I was right to be punished after all.”
“Excuse me?” Keaton threw Winx’s arm from over her eyes and towered over her vision. “Getting brutalized, having your wings severed, being forced to hunt savages, being nearly killed by a lixyn with a purest deviation...you really think that you deserved any of that?”
“Who’s to say?” Winx grumbled. “After all is said and done, I murdered five boys and they weren’t even the ones really responsible for Deja’s death. That’s pretty despicable.”
Keaton was not sure how to make her feel better. He ran a finger along her jawline. She looked up at him with those impressive dark eyes. The self-pity there stunned him.
“You will find a way to make this right,” he told her.
She looked away from him. “I don’t even know where to start. I have no idea where that maniac went, or if I’ll run into him. It’s literally up to him if I see him again.”
“I don’t see that stopping you.”
“Since when did you become an all-seeing—”
Keaton pressed a finger to her lips. She wanted to keep talking, but there was no getting around that look he was giving her. The smoldering gaze he usually tried to hide from her wasn’t new. But in the privacy of the barn with the rainfall, it went to her head instantly.
“Don’t kiss me,” she ordered.
Removing his finger, his eyes were noticeably foggier with the thought. “Now why would I do something stupid like that?”
“Because you get caught up in random romanticized notions?”
“Oh, yeah. I do.”
“That’s not a healthy habit to have,” Winx warned. “It can cause problems.”
Keaton was leaning closer. Partly from want, partly because Winx’s hands were wrapping around his arms like an anchor.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to kiss you?” She could hear the smile in his voice as his lips brushed against hers with each word.
“Shut up. We both know it’s you doing this.”
“Sure. I’m playing with fire.” He groaned. “It’s too tempting.”
Winx’s toes curled in her boots. How had she never let herself realize what a deep, perfect voice he had? And coming from that nice mouth of his, a mouth that needed her mouth against it. Her hands went from his arms up to his neck. The half inch that kept them separate disappeared as she pulled him down, taking the initiative as always.
When the deep kiss finally came to fruition, it might as well have lit sparks. They each sighed into it. Had anything ever been better than the way their lips molded together? Was there ever a feeling as tantalizing as his body pressing on top of hers, his arms gathering her nearer when it didn’t seem possible? It turned out that Keaton was right. Being close together was just logical. For warmth. The temperature was now through the roof, after all. Winx couldn’t ever remember feeling so hot.
When the kiss led to the two of them to lock legs and grind against one another, Winx pulled her lips apart from his. As wonderful as this was, something made her want to back off. She shouldn’t be kissing Keaton. Even if it did feel fucking fantastic.
Keaton didn’t seem to have a care besides continuing the delicious mouth play. He trailed the kiss from the corner of her mouth down along her neck to her collarbone. Oh yes. It was just the right amount of tease to make her stop thinking about the repercussions. It wasn’t her fault that Keaton knew how to kiss. No. She wouldn’t take the blame for this at all. It was his fault. Him, with his fine looks and…
Oh yeah. And that. The stiff rod pressing into her thigh. His shaky breath tickled her ear as he started to speak. Winx had to make herself pay attention.
“Do you think we’ve gone too far?” The whisper did nothing to cool her down. He brought a hand to her head and traced a finger along her red horns, which had exposed themselves during the heated play. “Sharp…” He grinned. She used her tail to tickle him.
Winx relished him in her arms, touching all of his bare back with hungry hands. He growled, and the bestial sound drove them into another round of kisses. This time, their tongues caressed and sealed their fate.
Keaton’s hands remained respectful even as his unrestrained mouth told her every dirty secret fantasy. Winx couldn’t let him go, her upward grind into him turned into an indelible slow dance of wanton hips. They were drowning in their need to go further, but both of them hesitated. If they went as far as their bodies were telling them to, would they survive it?
Their heavy groans and whimpers drove them on. Soon, Keaton was pulling Winx up to cover him instead. She became even more aggressive, gnashing her lips to his. The curve of her spine undulated adeptly. The jeans they both wore were near flaming from friction. They looked into each other’s eyes, lips still pressed together, drinking in the moment. Keaton arched his back and brought their loins together. Winx quivered from the contact, so he did it a second time. Oh, why weren’t they naked and writhing?
Wait a minute. What was she doing? Was she really going to sleep with Keaton? Yeah, she could do that. But knowing the animal, he would think that meant more than just a night of pleasure.
They parted a little more, but their stare continued. The enormity of their make out session was chilling Winx’s embers. Luckily, Keaton saw and let her pull away, but it took a lot for her not to tug him back into their dreamy state of arousal.
“I can’t tell right now.” Winx’s voice was softer than usual. “But this… might not be okay.”
Keaton didn’t say anything. He adjusted himself when Winx climbed off of him and retur
ned to her side of the hay. He visibly composed his emotions as she gathered her thoughts, the rain pounding sloppy drum beats against their shelter.
“I must be the queen of mixed signals right now,” Winx said matter-of-factly as she looked over her shoulder at him. “Sorry for that.”
“Hey, it’s all right.” Keaton remained casual. That’s what she liked about him, wasn’t it? His ability to have a slick back when the occasion called for it?
“I just think that we need to keep our eye on the prize and get to Washington to find out what’s needed of us.” Winx lay on her side, facing away from him. Her body was still alive with lust, and ignoring it was going to be quite the task. But Keaton crept behind her, pulling her close, as if his hands couldn’t get their fill.
“I’ve waited way too long to touch you,” he whispered hotly near her ear.
That did it. Any control that remained snapped in two. She writhed back into him, succumbing to the hunger that she too had felt but did not want to recognize. They removed their clothes with quick fingers, and Winx slipped back in his arms, eager and naked and wanting. Keaton drew Winx back on top of him, and his caresses were just as worshiping as hers.
They hadn’t really guessed that sex was an option for them until Keaton was poised to enter her. They stared deep into each other’s eyes, and finally, she slid on board, both of them emitting renewed sounds of lust. The too good feeling reduced them to an animalistic, rough ride of a mating. Keaton dug his heels into the ground for leverage, snapping his hips up to meet Winx’s. She was a burning flame embedded on his lap. When she dug her blunt nails into the contours of his chest, it only further encouraged him.
Countless minutes passed as they both forced Winx down onto Keaton’s responding body. Both of their heads were tossed back in the throes of their delight. Each simultaneously fed into the heat of the sudden lovemaking.
Keaton pulled out of her so that he could force her down off of him. He had her bend over on all fours and clamored behind her. His haste made Winx almost purr with anticipation. They didn’t speak, but flowed against one another until a paradise made for only them beckoned on the horizon. An instantaneous eruption was building from the core, the source their blindingly fast paced feasting of one another. Keaton bent Winx down further to force her arms above her head. His hips kept the pace as she arched her back and rested her brow against her forearms. Even in her mindless ardor, she did not resist his obvious power play. So he gave her more, and more, until she bellowed out loud in the torrents of her pleasure, wracking her body until she went boneless in his hold.
After their loss of control and subsequent release, they both redressed. Keaton had a wide smile on his face that would not go away. Winx had a myriad of conflicting emotions changing her features from a small smile to worried frown and back again.
“That was absolutely incredible.” Keaton laughed happily behind her. He pulled her back into his hold when she finished pulling her shirt over her head. “Wasn’t that incredible?”
As always, she found it hard to not be influenced by his mirth. Her responding smile wasn’t dour. “Yes, it was.”
Keaton had never been a closed book, and he only brimmed with gratification. Winx hadn’t been made into a trophy, but a partner in his fulfillment. She leaned back into him contentedly. Keaton cuddled her close and kept her there as the two of them gave into sleep.
CHAPTER 10
The two barnyard stowaways didn’t hear when the rain stopped or notice when the sun began to pinken the sky. It was too pleasant to lay unburdened in each other’s arms. Even as they slept soundly, they refused to move too far away from the other. The barn was chilled from the cloudy weather, and even though the two were moist with sweat from their proximity, neither moved due to discomfort. The world outside was fraught with trouble, but there was something languid about their cuddle streak.. There was no need to disrupt it.
Winx woke up first, luxuriating in Keaton’s big strong arms. He was so warm, and she wanted to explore that heat a bit further.
He opened his eyes when she started trailing her fingertips up and down his solid chest. When she kissed him, their mouths molded with dancing tongues and just the right amount of pressure. His groan made her body quiver. Their hands searched in feverish need, grasping all the areas that had gone unexplored for too many hours. The magic of the moment made the area around them peak in heat.
It was…actually really hot. An inferno. What was once chilly air was becoming rapidly, well, not. Their kiss slowed in pace. They opened their eyes, both silently acknowledging the change in atmosphere. The air was thick, as if someone had left a gas stove on for too long.
It was the only warning that they got before a loud explosion cracked apart the barn. Winx and Keaton jumped out of their skin. Looking around didn’t tell them much about where the combustion started, but the loose bales of straw were playing the role of kindling way too well, and the barn was now quickly being licked apart by flames.
Winx screamed as terror left her immobile. Where was an exit? One minute, it was a cozy haven; now, it was the mouth of hell! Surely there was no surviving this.
“Come on! Get up!” Keaton tugged her over his shoulder and out of the way as debris tumbled down and crashed around them.
She clung to him as he zipped around the expansive room in search of a way out. Every corner of the barn was ignited. Each move they took made avoiding the flame harder and harder, the fire fierce as it promised death.
“Keaton!” Winx screamed over the roar of danger. “Just run through a wall!”
“How am I supposed to do that?” He choked on the words as the cloud of smoke closed in around them.
“The walls are weak enough. You just have to do it!”
“We’re going to catch on fire!”
“That’s going to happen anyway!”
Keaton let out another wheezy cough as Winx squeezed her eyes shut. Then, summoning all of his strength, he ran at top speed. They both shouted when the flames singed their skin, but Keaton kept his fierce pace and threw his weight against the weakest boards he could find.
The two crashed out of the barn and rolled out of the vicinity of the fire. As they rolled, Keaton’s ankle made a sick cracking noise that made him shout louder in pain. It didn’t stop Winx’s panicked hands from slapping at her searing skin, even when the last of the embers had died away. Tears stained her face as she sucked in fresh air and fought the urge to vomit. Her thin clothing hadn’t done much to protect her person, and pain zinged through her every time a lesion contracted the ground.
While Winx dragged herself further away from the wreckage, Keaton army-crawled beside her. He looked just as horrified and in pain as she did. His lovely, long locks were scorched and uneven. His clothes held patches that exposed his burn wounds.
“Are you okay?” she wheezed.
“I think so.” Keaton tried to give her a reassuring smile, but he couldn’t stop hacking long enough to do it. He paused in his retreat to hold his left foot with a look of agony.
“Oh, Christ, Keaton—”
“I’m fine,” he growled.
It was only after they were sure there was a good amount of distance between them and the flaming barn that they looked behind. All that could be seen was the hollowed shadow of what used to be the structure through the fire and Winx’s car blazing alongside it. Smoke filled the air in a thick cloud.
“This can’t be happening…” Winx’s voice was hoarse. “Everything was in there. Our clothes, money, phones…our weapons…”
“I’d rather lose all of that than lose you.”
Keaton tugged her over to him for a hug, and Winx was limp against him. She stared in disbelief, unblinking, at what been their shelter and transportation ten minutes ago.
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
“What we have to in order to stay alive. We can start walking towards town. Any town.”
“We’re in the middle of nowhere!”
“We have to find something eventually.”
Another thought disturbed her. “Was this an accident?”
There was no doubt about it. Keaton shook his head, no. Winx shouted in aggravation.
Keaton urged her to her feet. “We don’t know how much time we have until the next strike.”
“Everything’s gone,” Winx repeated as she rose up from the ground.
She was shaking. Keaton, limping, managed to wrap an arm securely around her waist and to hustle her away from the wreckage. Even injured, his stride was a lot longer than hers, so she had to trot to keep up. Behind her, Winx could still feel the flames on her back, as if they were crawling across the field of grass to tease her. When she wiped a drop of sweat from her brow, she felt how grimy her palm was.
The terrain was uneven from overgrown plants and gopher holes, but the two of them stomped on.
“Hey,” Keaton said. “We can still get somewhere safe.”
“We’re totally exposed right now.”
Winx watched Keaton’s eyes scan around them, his nostrils flaring.
“Anything?” Winx asked.
“If someone’s out there, the explosion masked their scent.” Keaton sagged a little. “And I can’t see anyone. Can you hear their thoughts?”
Winx shook her head. “Not if they’re a cryptid. I can only get a sense of their presence, or an idea of their emotions.”
“So… nothing?”
“Not right now. I think my nerves are too shot for that.”
“Gods, they’re probably watching us right now.” Keaton was still looking around every which way as they shuffled along, hurrying as best they could with their injuries. “But where? There’s no cover around here.”
That became even more obvious when they reached a long stretch of road. There were no cars nearby, and any hope of finding a hiding place was lost when no other ranch houses or rest stops came in view. The two of them climbed over the chicken-wire fence blocking them from the road anyway, jumping from field to paved street.
“We wait for a vehicle, and then you can glamor the driver, right? Piece of cake.” Keaton looked more upbeat despite his obvious discomfort.