by K. A Knight
“So, why do you hate me so much?” I inquire, sitting up and crossing my legs as I stare at him.
He whirls around with wide eyes before they narrow. “We’re not doing this,” he snaps.
“Yeah, we are. It’s now or never, and let’s face it, all we have is time, so why do you hate me so much? Is it really just because I left?” I press, tilting my head. Tyler hinted that his brother loved me and so did Fin. Is that true?
Or do I just want it to be? I’m a selfish bitch who wants them all.
He sighs and stays silent. I don’t think he will answer, but then he finally does. “I don’t hate you, Peyton. I hate what you did to my family…to me.”
I flinch, but I asked so I stay quiet and let him carry on, knowing if I interrupt, he will clam up again. I miss my best friend, my dive buddy, and if him ranting and getting all his shit out on me is how we do it, fine.
“And I worry about what you will do to my family this time around. They are all I have, they are everything. I would die to protect them.” He lifts his head, showing me his vulnerability for a moment. “When I got back, I was messed up. You know that. They brought me back from the edge then and every day since. I promised myself I would protect them. It gave me a purpose, but I couldn’t protect them from you. You broke their hearts, and we had to pick up the pieces, and now you’re back and everything is getting messed up again. Tyler is lost, Fin is clinging to you like nothing happened, Riggs is scared, and me? I’m fucking terrified of what you could do. I don’t think we could survive it again.”
I wince and glance away for a moment, but he was honest with me, so he deserves the same. “I am too. I’m scared. I was back then, that’s why I left.”
“I know.” He sighs. “Even if I hate that, I know you left to try and protect Tyler from the truth.”
“But you told him anyway…about that night,” I hedge, and he snorts.
“I had to,” he murmurs. “Want to know the worst bit? I knew you were drunk, but I couldn’t stop myself. I wasn’t the least bit drunk, and I still kissed you back because I’d been imagining it for so long.”
My heart skips a beat. “Kalen…I wasn’t drunk.” I sigh too. I guess it’s all coming out now. When he frowns, I smile sadly. “I was tipsy, not drunk. I knew what I was doing. I just used it as an excuse to kiss you. Something I’d wanted to do for a while. I was hurting and lost, and you were my buoy among it all. Tall, dark, and strong, holding me so tightly, I felt like I could breathe for the first time since I heard the news about my dad. I wanted to do it again, still do, and that makes me hate myself, because it would kill Tyler. I left so I wouldn’t break you both, so I didn’t sever your relationship. I left because I was scared about how deeply I cared for all of you.”
He stares at me, and I stare back, both of us unsure what to say. We basically just admitted we wanted each other…and still do.
“So where do we go from here?” he questions hesitantly.
“We can be friends?” I suggest.
He laughs harshly. “No, we can’t.”
“Wait, why?” I ask. “We were before.”
“We were never just friends, Peyton, and that was before I knew what you tasted like. I don’t want to be friends.” Those hungry dark eyes lock on me. “I want to fuck you, always did,” he states bluntly.
I inhale in shock. Two minutes ago, he couldn’t look at me, and now he’s admitting he wants me? It throws me, but happiness fills me from knowing he wants me just as much as I want him. I can’t help but lick my lips as I stare at him, my pussy throbbing for a moment as I imagine him doing just that—fucking me. “So where does that leave us? You still hate me, Kal.”
His eyes run across me, lust filling his gaze like a light in the dark that I can’t help but lean into, and I shiver from the force. “Maybe I do. I can still hate you and want to kiss the fuck out of you.”
My heart slams as my stomach clenches. We stare at each other, both knowing we shouldn’t but unable to help ourselves. The same electricity and lust still arc between us, stronger than ever before. We know the consequences of wanting each other, but it doesn’t stop us. We’re like ships in a storm, bound to crash. This world always brings me back to Kalen, and I fought it for so long, so fucking long. I lied to myself, saying I didn’t want him, but staring into his dark eyes, I can’t lie. I can’t fight.
I need him.
For a moment, I want to be weak. I’m scared, locked away in a cave we may not get out of. Maybe we’ll die soon…and I can’t die without tasting him again, without feeling all that hunger and anger filling me, without tasting it on his lips and feeling it in his hands.
I throw myself at him, and he catches me so I don’t hurt myself, but I refuse to be pushed away this time. He can’t say shit like that, looking at me like he’s never wanted anything as much as he wants me and then push me away. Not ever again. Straddling his lap, I grab his face and fumble until my lips find his. He freezes, not even breathing for a moment, before he groans. He clutches the back of my hair, using it to deepen the kiss. He dominates my mouth. There’s an edge of pain, of darkness, just like the first time, and it’s addictive.
It has me pressing my body closer to his. He’s so different from Tyler and Fin, all equally amazing. He obviously feels the same and is being fuelled by the need we have fought for so long, because he flips us and pins me on the ledge. His huge frame looms above me, holding me down as his mouth crashes back onto mine. He nips and bites, owning it, owning me.
It’s just like that night, with the kiss I could never forget from the man I should never have fallen in love with.
I moan into his mouth, and he swallows the sound, grabbing the zip of my suit and yanking it down until my breasts, only bound in a sports bra, are revealed. He tugs that down as well, and his fingers instantly pluck and twist my nipples, as if punishing me for how much he wants me. I arch into the sting of his touch as my pussy becomes embarrassingly wet, throbbing in time with my heart.
I wrap my legs around his waist, feeling his hardness pressed against me, even through the suit. He squeezes and grips my breasts until I’m crying into his mouth again. He groans, the sound so masculine and deep, I shiver as he grinds his cock into me. Kalen rips his mouth away, and I pant, tilting my head back as he kisses down my throat. We know if we stop or hesitate for a moment, the spell will break, our own guilt and past getting between us, but neither of us wants that this time. It’s frantic, his lips never leave my skin, and each kiss leaves a brand on me that I feel down to my very core. He trails his lips down until he meets my chest, and his dark eyes clash with mine as he sucks my nipple into his mouth.
The dirty sight makes me tremble as I hold him to me, desperate for this. We are losing ourselves in each other, forgetting everything else—the others, the cave. It’s just us and the hunger that has always existed between us. Rubbing myself against his hardness, I beg him with my body to fuck me, to take me like he hates me and unleash all that power across my skin until I can’t breathe. I want him to wash away this heartache and sadness until all that’s left is the love I have for this man.
The comms crackle. “Are you both okay?”
We freeze at Tyler’s voice, guilt instantly assaulting us both. It fills me as swiftly as my lust did, and tears fill my eyes. What the fuck am I doing? Haven’t I ruined these relationships enough? Kalen falls backwards, rushing to get away from me, his lips bruised from our kiss. I sit up and quickly pull my bra into place and zip up my suit, his eyes watching the movement with hunger and shame. Swallowing, I look away, blinking back my tears as my mind rages at me, throwing insults for giving in yet again.
I grab the comms. “Yeah, fine.” I cough, clearing my throat from the hoarse quality it has. “How’s it going out there?”
My eyes dart to Kalen, and I see he’s having the same internal war I am. I can’t drag my gaze away from him. Even though Tyler’s voice comes on again, even though we feel guilty and hate that we want each other,
we can’t stop ourselves. We constantly gravitate towards one another. My pussy is still wet and pulsing, and my lips ache from his devastating touch.
I want more.
“We’re looking at getting some equipment down to dig you out. It’s slow going, but I swear, baby, we are trying, okay? So hang in there, both of you.” Even now, the man I should be trying to win back, the man I still love, is trying to save me, and here I am thinking about how good it would feel to fuck his brother.
Yep, okay… I’ll hang in here, with his brother’s hands and mouth on my body. Fuck, I’m twisted.
“Okay, stay safe,” I offer distractedly, my tongue licking my stinging lips to recapture his taste as I put the comms down. Our breathing is heavy and his lips are taut as we both stare, unsure what to do.
“We should get some sleep,” he murmurs, his timbre dark and rough. It sends a shiver through me, and he notices, his eyes fluttering shut for a moment. “Fuck, princess, stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?” I retort with a naughty smile.
“Like you want me to bend you over and fuck you right here, damn the consequences, even while my brother is fighting to get to us,” he growls out, and his eyes narrow on me when I don’t speak. “Sleep, we need to sleep,” he grumbles, but is he talking to me or himself?
I nod and grab the blanket, lying down and trying to get comfortable, but it’s difficult and my back still hurts from hitting the wall. With a curse, Kalen scoots in behind me, pressing his hard body along the length of mine, and slides his arm under my head like a pillow, while his other arm crosses my middle, holding me to him. “Only because there’s one blanket, you hear me, Andrews? Now sleep.”
I’m back to Andrews. I wonder if that happened before or after he sucked on my breasts.
I close my eyes and try to sleep, but the notion of being trapped in here has my mind running a million miles a minute, not to mention remembering the way Kalen’s mouth felt against mine and how he watched me as he sucked my nipples. Plus, feeling his hard body against my back isn’t helping me calm down at all. Sighing, I twist on the hard ground, until Kalen growls, “Stop fucking pushing your ass into my dick.”
“I wasn’t. I was trying to get comfy—” My words cut off in a gasp as his hand comes down right on my pussy. The fucker just spanked my goddamn pussy, what the fuck?
“Stop,” he demands.
I huff and still for a moment. “Seriously, I’m just—” I yelp as I’m abruptly flipped and my forehead connects with his hard chest. He grins, trapping my legs and wrapping his arms around me as he forces me to lie on him.
“There, you’re warm and not on the hard ground, and I can stop you from fucking pressing into me,” he mutters.
“Oh yeah, this is a lot better,” I tease as I lift my head and meet his dark eyes.
“Princess, I swear I’ll throw you into the water to cool down if you don’t stop,” he warns, his eyes closing as he lies back. Huffing, I get comfortable and rest my head on his hard chest, listening to the rapid beat of his heart. Both of us try to ignore the clear evidence of his arousal.
It’s quiet, other than the shifting rocks and the slow lap of the water against it. “Kal?” I murmur softly.
“What?” he snarls.
I hesitate, but I have to ask. “We are going to get out of this, right?” It’s hard to admit I’m afraid, I don’t fear much, but this…this is pretty fucking bleak. I know the odds, this is one of the worst things that could happen. We might make it through the other tunnel, we might not. There might be water, and we only have one lot of gear.
So many things could go wrong, so lying in his arms seems to be the only thing holding me together right now, and I need him to tell me it’s going to be okay.
“Lie to me,” I whisper when he’s silent for too long.
“Never,” he murmurs, tightening his hold as his lips press against my head. “We’ll make it out, princess. You never gave up before, so don’t start now. This is just a bump in the road, another adventure.”
Another adventure. Fuck, I hope he’s right.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tyler
We have to get them out of there. Panic consumes me, but everyone is looking at me to lead to make sure we get Peyton and Kalen out of the cave. My heart stopped when I heard it through the mic. I thought I’d lost them both.
For a split second, everything seemed so stupid, all the arguments and resistance, because for one moment, they were gone, and all I could think about was that nothing mattered but them being in my life. Not the past, not the fact that she wants my brother too and he wants her. All that mattered was them.
My love for them.
That I can’t live without them…without her.
I want to tell her I forgive her, to ask her to stay and come back to us, but I can’t over the mic. It needs to be said in person. It gives me more motivation to get them out and back into my arms, and then I’ll never let her go again. I’ll fucking chain her to me if I have to, and she can earn her way on her knees and back with my cock buried in her.
Until then, I won’t stop, I won’t give up.
There’s always a possibility something could go wrong, but until it does, you never expect it will happen to you. Now it has, and we have to find our way through this and keep my family safe. Those up top, namely Steve, are fighting to get some equipment here that could free them, but it could take too long, and we don’t know what the stability of that section is. It appears fairly good, and the rockslide seems to have occurred from a large force hitting it, although we can’t figure out what.
We are running out of time and ideas.
Grabbing my hair and yanking, I lower my head to think. “I don’t know,” I mutter to Riggs. “I don’t fucking know.”
“Hey, look at me!” he demands. “Tyler, fucking look at me!”
It’s the harsh tone that has me raising my head and meeting his gaze as he crouches next to me. “You are the best, and so are they. If anyone can do this, it’s you. Figure it out and fast, because we are not fucking losing them, you hear me? Get over your shit, your guilt and worries, and focus on the job,” he snaps.
Fin stands behind him, his mouth hanging open at Riggs’ outburst. I’m gaping too. That’s not like Riggs, but the fact they are trapped is wearing on us, and Riggs has mostly been the one doing the check-ins, trying to keep them updated and upbeat. It’s clear it’s hurting him.
“Okay, okay, so we can’t move the rocks. The other tunnel… Can they get through it?” I ask, thinking logically.
Riggs frowns. “Maybe. We haven’t explored it yet, but from a guess on the map, it could lead back to the submerged cavern…which leaves us with the issue that Peyton has no rebreather. They would have to buddy breathe to the second open cavern, or we would have to time it perfectly to be there with some equipment, which offers its own risk with getting her into it underwater.”
“Fuck, okay.” I stand up. “I think we should plan to meet her there. They can buddy breathe if we’re late. She’s experienced enough to swap over, and then we get them to the second open cavern and set up a temporary base for them there while they rest before they come back here.”
“It’s all hinging on whether my calculations on that tunnel are correct, or whether the system wants to be a bitch.” Riggs sighs.
“They can do it, we have to trust in them, all they can do is try, but they are going to be exhausted, hungry, and cold. Luckily, they have water and food rations, but we know that won’t last too long. The sooner we get them moving, the better. We need to be here supporting them. You too, Tyler. She needs your voice,” Fin advises.
“No, I’m going to meet her—”
He narrows his eyes. “No you’re fucking not. I will. I can get there and wait, but she needs you, bro. She needs your strength. You’re the only one who can get her to listen, okay? You need to channel that now. Stay here, I know you’ll hate it, but you have to trust us to bring her back.�
��
“Fine, let’s do this,” I mutter as we start to get everything in place. We’ll let them sleep for now, they are going to need it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kalen
I wake up with my hands on her ass and my cock aching from the fierce hunger I have for the woman in my arms. My brother’s girl…but she isn’t anymore, is she? Yes, he still wants her, but they aren’t together.
I bite my lip as my fingers twitch on the plumpness. It’s wrong. I shouldn’t. He might hate me if I do. He forgave me for kissing her, but if I cross this line with her, I’m staking my claim—unashamedly, unapologetically declaring her mine.
Would he forgive me? At this point, do I even care?
With her in my arms, her curves pressed against my hard frame, and the taste of her on my lips, I’m finding maybe I don’t. That no matter what happens, I want to have Peyton Andrews to myself, for her to be mine just once. We might die here, we might not.
But I can’t die without ever having her.
She’s still asleep, snoring softly in my arms, and I find the sight addicting. I’ve never let myself be this close to her, even though it’s all I’ve ever wanted. Dragging my hands up her back, I stroke along her spine, and she grumbles and flips over, rolling off me. I catch her before she falls, the fucking heavy sleeper. Her arm tosses over her face as she lies next to me. She only gets like this when she’s had a really hard, long day.
She’s tired. I should let her sleep.
But I won’t.
Can’t.
I want her—no, I need her.
Propping up on my side next to her, I run my eyes down her body, the body I’ve had fantasies about a million times. Fuck, I even used to wank off to the sound of her screams through my wall like a sick fucker, knowing that was as close as I would ever get to her. Yet here I am, about to claim Peyton Andrews.
About to fuck her and make her scream for me. Watch her writhe beneath me as I pound my cock into her again and again, and do all the dirty, depraved things I have always wanted to do to her. All I keep seeing are those little string bikinis she used to wear, the fabric cupping her pert full arse and breasts so full, they used to spill free, her nipples pressing against the wet material as the sun beamed down on us and our boat. Peyton is every man’s wet dream. She’s sugar, spice, and everything nice…until she’s not. Until she’s a fucking hellcat, a troublemaker in a beautifully strong package. She’s all curves and muscle, with a filthy fucking mouth and an even better mind. I can still feel the way her breasts filled my hands and hear her moans in my ears.