FOUR PEOPLE LEFT ALIVE, Carli had posted on the public Facebook page for the game.
Wow, four people. That means I’m one of them! I glanced down at the lifeline on my wrist, and tugged my sleeve over it to hide it. If I was going to die, I didn’t want it to be while I was held hostage in the Mu Beta’s living room.
There was a knock on their front door. Finally! I thought, exasperated and irritated, as the blond hunk in front of me got up to investigate. The men behind me had returned to their rooms, so I was all alone in their room.
Within seconds, I heard my blond captor talking in a hushed tone with whoever was at the door. He was so engaged with his conversation, that he hadn’t noticed the creaking of the opening window in the living room. I glanced behind me to meet Derek’s eyes. It felt incredibly silly, the fact that he knew that I was held captive here no matter how unseriously yet he had to find a roundabout way to fetch me. Regardless, I leapt out of my seat and rush for the window towards my stepbrother.
Without hesitation, he looped his arms around me and carried my body out of the window. Once we noticed that his friend was safely walking away from the Mu Beta Alpha house, we interlocked fingers and made a run for it.
We finally slowed down once we reached the lake. My heart immediately leapt at the sight of it, memories of what had happened the other night flooding me. Shyly, I glanced over at Derek to see if he was thinking the same thing, but I could tell from the look on his face.
His fingers slipped out of mine, and suddenly I felt strange and empty at the same time. Strange because it hadn’t occurred to me that we’d been holding hands the entire time; it had felt so natural that it just melded in with everything else that was going on. Empty because now that I’d lost what I didn’t know I had, I desperately wanted it back.
I picked up my pace to match his, pretending to ‘accidentally’ brush my fingers against his as my arms swung to see if he’d noticed. He didn’t.
Derek’s eyes were totally focused on the trail around the lake, like he was on a mission.
Daring to break the silence, I asked, “Uh, Derek, what had happened back there? And where are we going?”
He shook his head, as if snapping back into it. Smiling warmly at me, he said, “It’s a surprise. Sorry, I just don’t know if it’s…” My stepbrother crouched down beside a bush, moving some leaves out of the way. “Here,” he finished, pulling a wicker basket from the confinements of Mother Nature.
Curiously, I watched as he set the basket down on the ground near the lake. He took the lid off, and immediately started unloading a blanket, bottle of wine, and some Tupperware with snacks and treats inside.
“What’s all this?” I asked, not able to stop my grinning. It was incredibly adorable that Derek, of all people, had gone through this much trouble. For me!
It’s for me, right? It better be for me, otherwise I’d seriously have to kick his ass for getting my hopes up.
Sheepishly, he answered, “I felt bad for how we left things off on Friday, so I thought we could hang out.”
“Hang out?” With an incredibly romantic picnic by the lake? Also, yes! It’s for me!
“You want to hang out… don’t you?” He murmured, taking a step towards me as he brushed his knuckles gently on my cheek.
“I’d love to ‘hang out’,” I giggled, nuzzling my cheek on his hand without realizing it. After the way things ended last time, I had just been dying to pick up where we left off and get more of Derek. To get all of Derek.
Suddenly feeling awkward, I pulled away and helped spread the blanket on the grass. “Wine?”
Nodding, he reached into the basket to grab glasses that weren’t there. “Fuck. Damn it. I knew I was forgetting something!”
I followed his gaze to where he thought the wine glasses would be. Tenderly putting my hand on his, I said, “It’s okay. We can chug from the bottle.”
Derek laughed, a rich, hearty laugh from deep within his throat. It sent butterflies racing through my belly straight to my heart to know I was the one who made this gorgeous man laugh like that.
“You don’t mess around, do you?” he asked, his eyes still shining bright.
Batting my lashes at him dramatically, I responded, “Well, sir, desperate times..!”
His grin disappeared into a look of pure hunger, Derek’s lip twitching approvingly. “Sir?”
“Oh!” Blushing, I added, “I was just acting.”
“I know,” he responded huskily, “do it again.”
“Um, I don’t know what to say… sir?”
His mouth widened in an award-winning smile. “You’re so fucking cute, you know that?”
With a pounding heart, I gave him a small smile. “No?” How do you even respond to that?
“Come here,” he growled, as he looped an arm around my waist. With his other hand on my hip, he pulled me on top of him effortlessly. Instinctively, I brought my mouth down to meet his lips.
Hungrily, his mouth devoured mine. He worked his tongue and teeth, licking and gently tugging on my lips. Involuntarily, my body arched towards his, pressing my breasts into his hard chest as my arms wrapped themselves around his broad shoulders.
Groaning into my mouth, Derek’s hands stroked tingling circles into my back. His fingers traced zig-zags under my sweatshirt, all the way up to my bra strap. Just before I thought he was finally going to unclasp my bra, he pulled away, his voice thick with want. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me.” Raking a hand through his thick, dark hair, he looked at me earnestly.
“This is what I want,” I assured him, bringing his hands back to my body. “Believe me. This is what I’ve been waiting for.”
“I just don’t want to drag you into something you can’t get yourself out of…” he started, his pained voice trailing off.
“What do you mean?” Frowning, I slid off of his lap and sat beside him, getting started on opening the wine.
“Karla,” my stepbrother sighed sadly. “What do you think your mom or my dad would do if they found out? What would my fraternity do, your sorority?”
“We can keep it our secret,” I breathed, hopefully. Where’s he going with this? “You can’t possibly be asking that we stop already? Unless you’d given this zero thought, how could you possibly do that to me?”
My body fought back tears as I spoke, and I distracted myself by taking a healthy drink of the dry red wine.
Derek took my hand in both of his, his deep blue eyes full of concern. “Trust me, the last thing I could ever want is to hurt you or be away from you. I just want you to really think about this. There’s a good chance it won’t work out, and if it doesn’t… After we’ve… It’ll make it that much harder.”