by Elle East
If he and his crew had been doing their jobs properly, they would have seen me fall over the side and could have gotten me out of the water quickly, like Grayson said. Instead, they were going to keep driving away, leaving me to die in the middle of the ocean. The only reason I was still alive was because of the Kings.
He was rattled by Grayson’s threat and was trying to act like the whole thing was my fault. He wanted me to take the blame so he could save himself. I wasn’t going to help him though. I just turned away from him, and Dean and I headed off the boat.
I was still wrapped in a survival blanket, and Dean gave me his coat to wear on the short walk to the car while he carried my wet clothes in a plastic bag. I had to wear my cold, wet shoes again, and they felt awful on my feet. They felt like they were sucking out the tiny bit of heat I’d been able to get back into my body.
The familiar SUV drove us back to the school building, and Dean helped me rush inside and to my room. I was still freezing cold and couldn’t stop shivering. I felt a lot better than before, but still not great. My brain wasn’t as foggy, but I felt like I had a hangover.
We made it back to my room, and Dean disappeared into the bathroom without a word. I threw off my wet shoes while wondering what he was doing in there, but I didn’t have to wait long to find out. The sound of running water slashing into the bathtub reached my ears.
He came out a few moments later, wiping his hands on his pants.
“I’m running a hot bath for you to help you warm up. It should be ready in a few minutes.”
“Thanks.” I smiled.
His gesture was nice—and unexpected.
“I’m going to get you something warm to drink,” he said.
“You don’t have to do that.”
He’d already been so nice to me after I’d come out of the water. He hadn’t left my side the entire time, and from what little I remembered, he’d done whatever he could to make me comfortable. He had wrapped my blankets tighter when they came loose. He’d changed out the coat under my head for a much more comfortable lifejacket he had found around the boat. And he’d given me his coat.
“Do you want more hot chocolate? Or do you like tea?” he asked, almost out the door.
“Tea!” I called.
On the boat they’d made me drink a couple of cups of hot chocolate, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to stomach any more for a while.
He left, and I was alone. I could hear the water rushing in the bathroom and couldn’t wait to get into it. I sat down in one of the chairs, not even bothering to change into real clothes yet—I was just going to have to change out of them again, anyway. The material of the blanket made my skin feel like it was suffocating, but I didn’t want to take it off. I was still wearing Dean’s jacket and caught a brief whiff of his smell whenever I moved. He smelled so incredibly good, like a warm, spicy forest. I loved to just breathe it in. I closed my eyes.
A short time later, he came back into the room carrying two mugs from the dining hall.
“What time is it? How did you get those?” I asked.
“I got you chamomile tea. Hope you like that. I figured you probably don’t need any help falling asleep tonight—I’m sure you’re exhausted—but I thought it couldn’t hurt.”
He handed me one, and I wrapped my hands around the warm mug.
“Yeah, I’m a chamomile tea fan. Thanks for this.” I took a sip, and the warmth ran down my throat.
He headed into the bathroom and shut off the water.
“Bath is ready whenever you are,” he called out.
I stood up stiffly and walked into the bathroom. I didn’t own too many luxury items, but I did have a bottle of bubble bath from the dollar store sitting next to the faucet. He’d noticed it, and the bath was overflowing with popping bubbles, and the air had the faintly chemical smell of cheap lavender.
“Thank you so much. This looks amazing,” I said, almost in awe.
I moved towards the tub when I suddenly realized I would have trouble getting in there while keeping my cast out of the water.
As if he could read my mind, he asked, “Do you need help?”
I turned to look at him, and he added quickly, “I won’t look. I promise. I’ll be a complete gentleman.”
I smiled at that. The truth was that I didn’t mind if he looked. I didn’t feel super sexy after just recovering from hypothermia, but the thought of him looking at me like that was exciting.
“Yes, please.”
He took his coat off my shoulders and threw it over the sink. He then helped me unwrap the survival blanket from my naked body. He held it up to give me a bit of privacy as I stepped over to the tub. He reached his hand out, and I grabbed it.
I looked over at his face and true to his word he was trying his best not to look at me—but his face was noticeably strained, and my heart couldn’t help but beat a little faster.
I stepped into the bath with the leg that wasn’t covered in a cast. He dropped the blanket away and held his other hand out to me. While trying to keep his eyes averted towards the ceiling, he helped lower me into the water.
He got just the briefest glimpse of my body before it was completely submerged and covered by bubbles. His nostrils flared, and his jaw tightened at the sight.
I leaned back against the tub and sighed in relief as the water started to warm me up. I was submerged up to my neck. Only my face and the leg in the cast were out of the water, perched on the rim of the tub. The thick bubbles covered everything so Dean could only see a little bit of my thigh before my cast started, but he still said, “I should go and give you some privacy.”
Something about the way he said it made me think he didn’t really want to go.
As he was walking out the door, I said, “Someone pushed me.”
He stopped and turned back to face me.
“Seriously?” he asked.
I nodded.
“You saw how high those railings were. I wouldn’t have just slipped and fallen overboard—I’m not that tall. Someone pushed me, but I didn’t see who it was. They came from behind and ran away by the time I could look back.”
“Fuck,” he mumbled and shook his head in disbelief. “I thought something was fishy about what that girl was saying. She said she saw you slip and fall over the side, but I took a look at those railings and that would have been almost impossible. Also, if she saw you slip then why didn’t she get help immediately? She said everything happened so fast she wasn’t sure what she saw at the time and only realized it after—but that sounds like a lot of bullshit to me. Do you think she was the one who pushed you?”
“Could have been, but I’m not sure. I didn’t recognize her voice. Do you know who she is?”
“I’ve seen her around. She’s in my English class, but I’ve never spoken to her before. What do you think she could have against you?”
“I think someone made her say it,” I said quietly. “Someone made her lie.”
Dean’s brow darkened. His amber eyes were full of concern—and anger.
“The Kings?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Maybe—but they were the ones who save me after all…”
He growled in frustration and picked up the wooden chair that sat in the corner of the washroom. He brought it next to the tub and sat down so he could look me in the eyes easier without me having to crane my neck upwards.
“Maddy, listen…” he started. He was wringing his hands together, and it looked like a war was waging inside his head. “I feel like shit about what I said to you on the boat.”
A lump formed in my throat. His words had hurt me deeply, and they were the reason I’d been out on the deck by myself right before I was pushed.
“It’s ok,” I said quietly.
Even if it had hurt my feelings, it was the truth. And I wanted him to be honest with me. I’d been lied to enough at Crestmoore.
He sighed violently and rubbed his hands on his pants in an agitated way.
“I didn’t mean
it, and I’m sorry. I’m just getting so frustrated. You keep getting hurt, and I feel powerless to stop it—and it makes me feel useless. I thought this mission would be easier than it’s been so far, but you’re right, this whole thing is a lot more complicated than I ever imagined. I’m frustrated with myself and my own lack of progress, and I took it out on you. That wasn’t fair of me.”
He looked into my eyes as he told me sincerely, “I’m sorry.”
I mouthed back, “That’s ok.” Because I could barely speak around the lump in my throat.
We sat in silence for a moment. The only sound in the room was the popping bubbles.
“About last year…” I finally started.
I wanted us to be honest with each other, even if it wasn’t pleasant. There was something unspoken hanging in the air, creating distance between the two of us when we were together. I wanted all the cards on the table so we could hopefully have a fresh start.
So I told him everything that had happened last year between the Kings and I.
I didn’t gloss over anything. I told him about the make out sessions. I told him about how they pretended to be my friends again, and how I’d stupidly thought they were telling the truth. I even told him about the one night the four of us spent together, when I’d just laid in their arms and we’d kissed and talked all night.
I could tell he didn’t like hearing it—I thought his jaw was going to pop out of its socket because he was flexing it so much, but I kept going. I needed him to hear it.
“… and that’s everything,” I finally finished. “Everything up until today, when they jumped in and saved me. I don’t know why they did that.”
“Me either—considering they were probably the ones that pushed you.”
“How long was I in the water for?” I asked.
“Not long. Between the time you left me and the time they carried you back into the cabin, couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes.”
“It felt like so much longer. It felt like I was in that water for hours.” I shook my head to stop thinking about it.
I almost died today. That wasn’t something I wanted to dwell on at this moment.
“I’m sorry. I should have been there.” I could tell he was berating himself internally.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
I reached out a hand to comfort him and happened to displace some of the bubbles covering me. He got a quick glimpse of my chest, and his eyes darkened with lust.
I placed a warm, wet hand on his knee. We stared into each other’s eyes. The tension in the room was getting thick.
“This is getting dangerous. You should go,” he said quietly. “Leave Crestmoore.”
“Do you really want me to go?” I asked, and we both knew what I meant.
“No,” he said firmly, and bent down and kissed me.
Chapter 14
He kissed me with all the passion that had been building between the two of us for the past six months. Ever since the first time I saw him in the hallway of his dad’s townhouse in Queens, I wanted this. I wanted to feel his lips against mine. I wanted his large, powerful hands roaming my body.
He was so in control in real life—he was a detective’s son after all—so put together, but when he kissed me he was wild and passionate.
I reached out and cupped his firm jaw in my hand. His dark stubble scratched against my palm, and I pulled his face closer.
He slid his arms around my bare back, into the bubbly water, and pulled me against his chest. He didn’t care that all his clothes were getting soaked. He was too busy kissing me with his demanding mouth to notice.
He licked my bottom lip, and I opened my mouth with a moan. He took the invitation and claimed me with his tongue. I wrapped my wet arms around his neck and pulled him closer.
I’d been waiting for this for so long, and now that I finally had it, it was better than I ever could have imagined. I was so turned on I was seeing stars. His hands slipped across my wet, slippery flesh and grabbed at my body possessively.
He slipped one hand up into my hair and wove his fingers into the strands. He tugged slightly and used his grip to maneuver my head where he wanted it. It didn’t hurt because he expertly grabbed a lot of it in his big hand and held it close to the roots. It was insanely sexy the way he was taking me over.
He surged so that he was hovering over me. I clung to his neck for dear life as our tongues battled, and our lips crashed together. I then felt his other hand slowly slide up my thigh. I didn’t think it was possible, but my breathing got even quicker, and my heart started hammering in my chest as his hand went higher and higher.
What he was doing to my body was a perfect representation of him. He was kissing me wildly and had one hand tangled in my hair, while the other was moving slowly up my thigh, with complete control and restraint. It was like he was two people trapped in one body.
All I could concentrate on was how his body felt against mine. He was teasing me. I wanted his hand to hurry up, but I was powerless to make him go any faster. He controlled me and wouldn’t let me rush him.
I moaned into his mouth, and he growled quietly in his throat. He smelled intoxicating, like cedar and sage.
My hands slipped down to his biceps and squeezed the bulging muscles there. His lips left my mouth to tease my ear—right at the moment his hand finally reached my core.
Bolts of electricity shot through my body as his skilled fingers caressed my sensitive flesh.
I felt like I’d been waiting years for it. I let myself give into the sensations and closed my eyes as he rubbed me beneath the water and kissed the back of my ear. It felt incredible. I opened my legs wider, inviting him inside—just then, there was a loud knock on the door.
I jumped a mile high. I was so lost in what he was doing to me I completely forgot where I was for a moment. His hand slipped out from between my thighs, and he mumbled a curse into my skin before standing up.
I felt cold without his touch—and it had nothing to do with my recent hypothermia. I wanted to reach back out to him, grab him and pull him back against me. But there was another loud knock at the door, and Dean strode off to answer it. His face—and the bulge in his pants that he quickly covered with his blazer—clearly said he was annoyed at being interrupted.
I leaned back against the tub again, closing my eyes and taking in deep breaths to calm myself down. My skin still burned where he’d run his hands along it. I could still feel his fingers in my hair. His mouth against mine. I raised my fingers up to my lips and touched them softly.
Soon the sounds of an argument reached my ears, and my eyes shot open. The door to the washroom was open, but the wall was blocking my view of the front door. The voices were muffled but I could clearly hear it was two males arguing.
I slipped out of the tub, with a bit of difficulty and not very gracefully—because of the recent hypothermia, but also because of the cast and the fact I was so turned on I could barely feel my body. I took the robe the school provided off its hook, slipped it on and headed out into the main room.
Archer was standing in the doorway. He and Dean were engaged in a serious argument, but as I walked over Archer saw me and stopped. His eyes swept over my robe-covered body and narrowed in on my bare legs—well, 1.5 legs because of the cast. His eyes darkened in desire. And I would be lying if I said it didn’t affect me.
I took a good look at him. His face looked rough but still as incredibly handsome as ever. How was he able to do that? He was pale, and his cheeks looked hollow and a bit gray, but he still looked like he could be a model. Any girl would feel lucky to get just one glance from those stormy eyes.
“Maddy, how are you?” Archer asked sincerely.
“She’s fine,” Dean cut in abruptly.
“I was talking to Maddy.” Archer emphasized my name angrily.
“I’m ok,” I answered.
The two guys went back to glaring at each other furiously, sizing the other one up. They looked like they wanted
to rip each other’s heads off. They were about the same height and build. If they got into a fight, it was anyone’s guess who would win—except Dean had the advantage at the moment because he hadn’t been in freezing cold water. He hadn’t gotten hypothermia like Archer had when he tried to save me…
“You can’t trust him,” Archer finally said to me without looking away from Dean.
“Oh yeah? Like she can trust you?” Dean spat back.
Archer’s eyes darkened in fury.
“Who saved her from freezing to death? Was it you? Or were you too busy hanging out inside the nice warm cabin while she was outside dying?” Archer asked sarcastically.
I opened my mouth to interject but then stopped. I didn’t know what to say.
“Guys like you only care about one thing and that’s themselves. You didn’t save her because you’re some fucking hero. Did you realize you went too far and could be charged with murder? Is that why you jumped into save her? After you pushed her, that is,” Dean growled and stepped closer to Archer menacingly.
Archer’s face twisted in disbelief and indignation. “Are you fucking serious? You think we did that?”
He stepped closer to Dean, and the two of them started arguing in earnest.
“Maddy, it’s convenient this guy never leaves your side but the second he does something bad happens to you,” Archer said to me over Dean’s shoulder. “Mighty suspicious if you ask me.”
“What the hell are you accusing me of, King?”
“You know exactly what I’m saying, Smith.”
It looked like at any moment they would come to blows.
“Stop it!” I finally yelled.
I couldn’t stand the fighting anymore. My mind was all jumbled up and a mess from everything that had happened that day. I was suddenly so exhausted it took all my strength to stay on my feet.
“Get out,” I said wearily.
Dean looked at Archer with a smug smile.
“Both of you,” I added.
Dean turned to me with a confused expression—and it was Archer’s turn to look smug.
“Maddy?” Dean started, but I cut him off.
