COWBOY ROMANCE: Justin (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 1) (96 page)

Chapter Five

The sun rose like it had that morning.

Garthen stood with the water up to his ankles, the warm waves washing over his calves, and wracked his brains.

That morning.

Urgency had propelled one foot in front of the other, but fear slowed his walk to a run, and soon enough he had barged into Aleksey’s room.

“Come on!”

He was going to smuggle him out before his parents could send him away to be forgotten forever. Aleksey didn’t protest. He let Garthen lead him out quietly, because even then, as impossible as it was, they both knew they were just choosing one terrible fate over another. 

***

Keira ran toward Garthen. Excitement bubbled in the pit of her stomach at the sight of him standing in the ocean. Ever since she had saved him and he had repaid her with fish, she couldn’t help but think that somehow the two of them were in this together.

“Garthen!”

He turned. “Do you usually wake this early?”

Keira raised an eyebrow. “Do you?”

He scoffed and turned his gaze out to the sunrise. “No. Before the brig and impact, I’d wake up around mid-day.”

Keira grimaced. “What is impact?”

He huffed out a quick breath as if he were annoyed with himself. “Think nothing of it.”

Keira waded out a little farther and then watched him follow her. “Right. Think nothing of it. Like that time you asked if I was a healer, or that time that you called me a human…but like you weren’t one. And something about a Kaharan…” She lifted her arms in exasperation.

“What was that?” he asked. His eyes shifted back and forth. “About a human? When did I say that to you? What was I doing?”

Keira gulped. This was precisely what she didn’t want to happen. “I don’t remember.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Well maybe I’ll answer your questions if you answer mine.”

He chuckled at this. “So, you want to bargain now.”

“You can call it that,” she lied. She couldn’t tell how important keeping his memories from him could possibly be.

“Then come here,” he said, holding out his hand.

Keira shot him a confused glance. But, instead of following his orders, she waded deeper into the ocean. She ignored his calls for her to stop until the water had reached her chin. “Why do you want to touch me so bad?”

He grabbed her before he answered, the movement making her shudder. “I think you know.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, her heart fluttering in excitement. “Can you do it too?” It seemed too odd to be true.

But before he could answer, she felt something slick, muscular and large brush right past her legs.

She froze. “Uhm.”

He caught her change of emotion almost immediately. “What is it…?” But his eyes caught sight of what had touched her.

Keira’s muscles seized up in fear, her eyes watering in anticipation. “I don’t even wanna look. Please don’t tell me…”

“That’s a shark…I think.”

Keira winced at him. “You think?” Sharks weren’t exactly difficult to identify. But just to be sure, she looked over at it herself. A screech leapt from her mouth as her muscles propelled into action, swimming away.

“Don’t!” Garthen screamed.

Keira knew he was right; She shouldn’t be making sudden movements. But she was just too afraid. The fin wriggled back and forth at an increasing frequency as it swam toward them. Keira grabbed his arm and tugged. “We have to get out of here!”

“You won’t out run it.” With that, he slipped a knife out of his belt and went for the shark.

Keira screamed like a little girl as she watched him half running, half swimming toward the danger to meet it head on. She wrung her hands together as he drove the knife right into the shark’s eye. The swimming slowed to a stop as it just floated there, jerking back and forth.

Garthen turned and ran for her, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the shore.

Keira collapsed onto the sand, her tears of relief dripping into the puddles of salt water.

“What is it?”

She could feel him just inches away. “That is my worst fucking fear. My. Worst. Fear.” She looked up at him, the emotion rendering her helpless. “And you just ran toward it like it was nothing.”

He extended a hand toward her. “What is it you people say? An eye for an eye?”

Keira let him bring her to her feet. “There you go again, saying things that don’t make sense…” But her words trailed off because her uneven breathing matched his. And they were alone on an island in the middle of nowhere. And they were officially taking care of each other. And she was running out of reasons. To. Resist. Him. So she reached for his neck, brought him down to her level and kissed him.

Their lips danced together as the waves came in, washing their feet. Their wet bodies slammed against each other over and over again, his hands sliding down the side of her torso. But it wasn’t enough. As their mouths opened wider and he sucked on her bottom lip, she wanted nothing less than to be on top of him.

She hitched her leg up on his hip, but she didn’t have to wait very long before he picked her up all together and carried her just beyond the sand. She felt so light in his arms, like she wasn’t carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, like she could finally just sit back and not be the one doing the saving.

He lowered her onto the spongy mix of grass and dirt, his lips trailing the side of her neck, the center of her collar bone, her chest…

She pulled at his hair as his teeth clasped her nipple and his tongue flicked back and forth. She arched her back, her toes curling under and spasms shooting up her spine. She clawed at him, taking in every inch of his body as she searched for his manhood.

There it was.

It pressed into her belly, hard and throbbing. She wanted him more than she’d ever wanted another person, and she could feel that he wanted her too. The pang of pleasure she felt when she wrapped her hand around his cock and shoved it inside her was one she felt all on her own.

As he rammed himself into her over and over again, slow and steady at first and then faster and harder, she sensed that he could feel her too. His every move was in anticipation of how she would react, as if he could guess what she experienced.

They were working together, fucking together, climbing together… higher and higher and higher. Their lips searched for each other. One sloppy kiss delivered, then another, then another. Her nails dragged into his back. The pinch made her arch hers.

He pressed his hand onto her throat as he rammed her even harder.

Her cunt, engorged in her pleasure, shuddered at this, the sensation rippling down her legs and up her torso. She could hardly breathe, and the only sound she was aware of was that of her own heart pounding in her ears. “Oh fuck.” She gave in, falling into her orgasm.

He ripped his cock out of her, coaxing his seed out and spreading it all over her.

As Keira’s heart rate slowed, the thoughts came back. “I can’t believe I did that,” she whispered.

Garthen didn’t respond, just stood up, holding his hand out to her. “Come. Let’s wash off.”

Neither of them spoke as they went back toward the ocean, staying strictly knee deep and splashing water over themselves until Garthen said, “You never told me who you are.”

Keira smiled. “Well neither did you, but if it’s a name that you want, then it’s Keira.”

“Keira.” He nodded and looked out in the distance.

Keira followed his gaze just in time to spot something in the distance. “Is that a boat?”

Chapter Six

Garthen sat in a secluded room in what had to be the bowels of the ship. It rocked from side to side, the water level reaching nearly halfway up the small window by his bed.

Keira.

He stood up and rushed toward the door, stupidly trying the handle. Of course it was locked. He banged his fist against the door. One knock. Then another. And another.

Then he heard a siren. He slid to the ground, desolation washing over him.

Aleksey.

And just like that, he wasn’t alone in an unknown room of an unmarked ship. He was standing in the doorway, at forty seconds until impact. There was Aleksey, standing outside, beyond the protection of the small house he had built for them. He called to him, but the disabled Kaharan wouldn’t listen. The colors were too pretty. He had forty seconds. Not long enough to save him.

So he didn’t.

There was the navy.

A lottery.

An aircraft.

A crash.

Keira.

His heart ached at his initial intentions. He detested his former, suicidal self, but none of that mattered now.

No.

Now, he was on a ship manned by drug lords looking to take over that small island. But where was…

“Keira!”

***

Keira sat in the next room over. Another small bed and window. Another locked door.

“Keira!”

She gasped. She had every reason to believe he hadn’t survived the vicious blow they each got to their head when they took the two of them. She stood up and banged on the wall. “You’re alive!”

There was a pause before, “I’m getting you out!”

But how?

As Keira listened to him banging on the door, she set to work herself, scouring the room for anything she could use to pick the lock. But her captors were thorough because there was nothing. She stood in front of the door, a huff of frustration slipping out of her mouth when she ran her fingers through her hair and came out with a bobby pin.

Her lips folded into a tight smile.

Could she?

As she worked the lock, she heard something explosive on the other side, followed by a yell of triumph.

Keira nodded. “Good. That’s good.”

But then she heard other voices. “Hey! You vermin!”

Her heart sunk.

They were in the hallway!

But the more desperate she became to unlock the door, the harder it got. There was the sound of flesh hitting flesh before she was finally able to break through.

“Garthen!”

A man pinned him down while another wielded a club.

The man with the club came charging toward her. She had no choice but to run in the other direction. Yet that hallway ended in a dead end. She slammed into the wall and then turned. Her heart pounded against her chest in anticipation of this man.

The next thing she knew, he swung his club at her, but she swerved out of the way. As she turned around him, the sight of a small pistol clamped in his belt caught her attention.

He swung at her one more time, but she ducked his blow and delivered one of her own, right into his face. As he doubled over in pain, she snatched the gun out of his belt and pointed it at him. Her hand shook because she had never shot one of those in her life, but she pulled the trigger anyway.

A bullet found a home in his knee.

His scream filled the hall.

She ran back toward Garthen, who had managed to get out of the man’s grip. They threw punch after punch at each other, bobbing and weaving around each other’s blows like they were going for a championship.

“Garthen!” she yelled.

When Garthen glanced at her, she didn’t hesitate to throw the gun at him.

In the next second, another shot had been fired.

Chapter Seven

Keira and Garthen shoved their guards on rowboats to be found by their criminal partners, who had stayed on the island. No sooner had the ship been rid of them did Garthen fire up the engine, taking them away from their little island as quickly as possible.

Keira watched him steer the boat, all of her questions coming back. “So—”

“I remember,” he interrupted her.

Her stomach turned. “You do?”

He must have heard the fear in her voice because he shot her a crooked smile. “You have nothing to worry about.”

Keira took that as a sign that it was safe to approach him. She stood next to him, clutching the back of his shirt for support.

He chuckled. “The lifeguard that’s never been on a boat.”

“I hate sharks, remember?”

He shrugged. “I’ll just pretend that made sense.”

Keira examined him. “So, now that you remember, do you care to tell me what would have happened to me?”

He let out a short laugh. “It’s ironic, because it’s nothing different than what already did.”

Keira furrowed a brow. “I don’t understand.”

“I was sent here on a mission, so to speak, but I was so done with being myself that I had no intention of living long enough to complete it. I wanted to experience what it would be like to be with a human woman. When I saw you, I knew I wanted you and nothing less.”

Keira’s heart fluttered. “That’s oddly romantic.”

He shrugged. “I know. Poetic, someone once told me.”

Keira stepped behind him, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his back. “So, who sent you and what was the mission?”

He let the wheel go and turned to face her. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Keira scoffed. “Please. I have silver eyes.”

He laughed, taking her face in both of his hands. “And I have purple ones. So what?”

But before Keira could say anything more, he kissed her.

“Why won’t you tell me who you are?” she asked when they broke apart.

“Because I want to be lost with you forever,” he said.

Keira liked the sound of that. “Okay,” she said, turning back toward the front of the boat. “But I’ll never stop asking questions.”

“Then maybe, one day, I’ll start answering them.”

THE END