“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.”
Liam had an odd look on his face. He paused a long while and then nodded. “It happens,” he said and then closed the door. He ran around the car and got back in behind the wheel. He took off down the road.
It was five miles before they got to an actual highway, and they crossed the border into North Carolina before they got to the closest motel. It was one of those old ones, like the Bates Motel from that horror movie. It had a generic name but the Vacancy sign was still on. Liam offered to find one that didn’t look like a dump, but Blake said not to worry about it. “I need to sleep, too,” he said, feeling the weariness to his bones. “And soon. We just need a few hours.”
Liam paid for the room and got the key. He got back in the car and pulled around to the room. Blake carried Kayli into the room after Liam opened the door. She woke briefly, calling to him. He tried to soothe her, asking her to go back to sleep. He adjusted the blanket around her, ignoring the moldy smell and the scorched cigarette marks in the blanket. “Sweetheart,” he whispered. “You’ll be fine.” He wanted to believe it.
Before she passed out again, he took the wet shirt off of her body. He thought to clean the sand off of her skin, but she was out and he decided to let her sleep, tucking the sheet over her. She could shower when she got up.
Liam hovered in the doorway the entire time. Blake wanted to sleep, but he supposed he needed to update Liam on their plans if he was in touch with Corey. He didn’t think he’d get away with just shooing him out the door at this point.
Blake closed the door of the motel room as quietly as possible. Liam leaned against the metal railing of the old porch façade. He stared at the rows of vehicles in the parking lot.
Blake joined him, unsure of what to say. “She’s dead asleep,” Blake said.
“I would be, too,” Liam said. “I can’t blame her. Sounds like you all have been through a lot.”
“So you’re a part of this Academy?” he asked. He didn’t want to talk about her.
Liam turned his head and squinted at Blake, studying. His reddish hair was too fair for his tan skin. It looked funny. He wasn’t ugly, might even be handsome to the right girl. Still, he had an edge to him. Blake could imagine him with a temper. “Did they tell you I was?”
Corey hadn’t said anything about who was coming to get them when they were on the phone. He didn’t give Blake much info about anything, only that he was glad Blake was with Kayli and they were safe. They hadn’t even known they’d gotten off the ship, although they had been looking for her.
Blake focused on the man in front of him. “I assumed you might be, since you’re friends and all.”
“Then I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t answer the question. Not something I like talking about.”
Blake nodded. Reasonable assumption to think Liam was part of the Academy, but he understood they wanted to keep their secrets. At the moment, he didn’t care. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” he said. “Just as long as it isn’t about that.”
“Back when you picked us up and I introduced myself, you looked...funny.”
“Funny?” Liam roughed a palm across his chin. “I’m not that ugly, am I?”
“No,” Blake said. “I mean, when I said my name and whatever else, you seemed to hesitate. Was there a reason?” He wondered if Corey might have said anything. He was fishing for clues to see if there was any prejudice from Corey, in case he had been wrong about him. He couldn’t rule out anyone from throwing him—or Kayli, for that matter—overboard.
Liam sucked in a breath and then turned his attention back to the parking lot. “No. Honestly, I just...never mind. It’s not important.”
“What?”
Liam pressed his lips together tightly. He continued to stare out at the cars, as if he were going to memorize every single one. He went without talking for so long that Blake was sure he wasn’t going to answer. Eventually, Liam’s palm slid against the rail, bringing him from his thoughts. “You introduced yourself as her boyfriend.”
“So?”
“So when I got the call from Corey, he specifically said, ‘My girlfriend Kayli is in trouble. Please help her.’” Liam turned his head, meeting Blake’s eyes. “It’s none of my business, really.”
Heaviness settled into Blake’s heart, something he’d felt since he’d met Kayli and had discovered she was with Brandon, and then later became confused when each one of them seemed to be interested in her, in more than just protecting her. Corey had been protective of her when they first met. He wasn’t sure what Kayli had told them, although she’d said she’d never asked for a commitment. Had they all assumed? It was doubly confusing when Kayli had said Corey was gay. It didn’t make sense. He obviously felt pretty strongly about her. “I can’t account for what Corey might have said.”
“It doesn’t matter to me. Maybe he meant girl friend, as in his friend that’s a girl. Maybe you called her your girlfriend because of some protective need when I was a stranger to you. Maybe you’re both her boyfriends. I don’t know. Like I said, it really doesn’t have anything to do with me.”
Blake hung over the rail, looking at a car coming into the motel lot. An older gentleman emerged, making his tired way toward the lobby. He didn’t seem interested in Blake and Liam other than to flick a concerned glance that they were outside staring at the lot, but he walked on anyway.
When he was inside, Blake continued. “You’re right,” he said. “Not really your business.”
Liam sighed. “Being that it isn’t my business, but I’m here anyway, can I give you some advice? Just out of the blue from an outside perspective?”
Without a shirt, Blake was feeling the cool breeze hard against his skin now. Sleep was close, and he wasn’t in the mood to do anything else but curl up near Kayli and call it a day.
Curiosity got the better of him, though. It had always been a problem for him. It was how he’d gotten into this mess. “Advice is usually fre
e.”
“Yeah.” Liam tapped his fingers against the rail, drumming. He was either musical, or nervous and not really sure about this conversation, a move Blake had witnessed before. “You see, I come from a very unusual...family.”
This threw off Blake’s assumption of what Liam might say. Family? What did this have to do with himself and Kayli? “Huh?”
Liam tapped at the rail and traced the edges between his fingers. “My wife. She has...other men in her life.”
A cheater? Well, that sucked. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“No. Not like that,” he said. He looked up, meeting Blake’s eyes with sincerity. “They were my friends. I loved her first, but they grew to love her over time, since they had to spend a lot of time together. Eventually, there was a mutual arrangement of sorts. We agreed we’d share her.”
Blake’s head reeled back a bit, but then he recovered. He wasn’t totally ignorant in the understanding that a girl might have two boyfriends, or a guy have two girlfriends. It was just never a situation he’d encountered himself. He’d never thought about it seriously. “O…Oh.”
“I don’t mean to shock you,” Liam said. “To be honest, I never bring it up with anyone. No one really understands. It’s hard enough in life if a man’s gay, or likes to dress as a woman for fun, or if a white couple adopts a black baby. Things like that are still no one’s business but those involved. Unless there’s a direct reason to involve others, a man’s business is his own.”
“So why are you telling me about it?”
“I guess I just wanted to offer myself up to talking about it if that’s a place you’re headed. There’s not exactly a lot of people out there like us, so running into another one...”
“I’m not another one,” Blake said quickly. He wasn’t usually so snappy, but it had to do with Kayli and his usual air of politeness had disappeared when he got thrown off of a boat, and she after him. “There’s just a mix up.”
Liam lifted his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Okay. My apologies. I must have gotten the wrong impression.” He put his arms down, leaning back against the rail. “Especially when Axel sent me twenty texts since I left to come get you, and in no less than two, he’s called her ‘my girl’.”