“Goodnight, Harlow,” he whispers a second later, pulling his hand away, pouring an ice-cold bucket of water all over my desire at the loss of contact. His eyes drift closed, and he rests his hand against the mattress in the small space between us.
“Sweet dreams, Harlow.” Oliver nuzzles into my hair, and I feel his words in my bones. The room grows quiet, and it seems to take me forever to close my own eyes. After a while, the heat in my veins dulls, and exhaustion wins out, pulling me deep into the darkness. With all three brothers in the room, nothing can touch me, hurt me, and I let that sink deep into my mind as I lull off sleep.
I’m standing on the deck of a boat. My hands are on the railing as a brisk wind blows through my hair. It’s cold, so cold, and I bite my lip to stifle the sob threatening to rip from my throat. My emotions are out of control, short-circuiting. Out of nowhere, a hard shove from behind me causes me to lose my grip, the cold metal disappearing out from underneath my fingers. In seconds I’m flying through the cold night air, my body waiting for the pain to come.
A gut-wrenching scream rips from my chest, rushing past my lips a moment before my body hits the unforgiving sea. Pain ripples through me on impact, petrifying my bones as a terrorizing darkness swallows me whole. Sinking like a rock to the bottom of the sea. Panic grabs onto every cell in my body, robbing my brain of any thought but one. Survival.
It takes everything inside me to push aside the feeling of a thousand needles prickling across my skin that the ice-cold water leaves me with. My lungs burn, begging, pleading for air, but I have none to give them. Squeezing my eyes shut, I overcome the stiffness in my limbs and start kicking my legs with everything I have left. I will not die without a fight.
I swim through the darkness and toward the surface, giving it my all, but it’s not enough. The current is too strong, the water too dark. I’m too weak.
The sea is swallowing me whole…and all that is left is death.
It’s finally come for me…it’s finally time.
Air fills my lungs, and my eyes pop open as I feel around me to gather my bearings. Where am I? What’s happening? For a moment I’m suspended in time, unsure of everything around me. Sweat dribbles down the side of my face, and the sound of my heartbeat swooshes in my ears. Something moves beside me, and I look over, slowly coming back to my senses.
“It was just a nightmare, everything is okay, you’re okay,” Oliver soothes. My throat tightens, words refusing to come out at that moment. I wasn’t okay though. I was dying, drowning, alone in the darkness. The sea swallowing me whole.
Tremors of fear ripple through me as I remember the dream as if it actually happened to me, and then I realize… it did. I almost drowned. Someone did push me off a boat. Someone wants me dead, and I don’t know why. The fear inside me spikes and I find myself rolling over, and burying my face into Oliver’s bare chest. Inhaling his masculine scent, I try and push the worries away.
“Shh, I’ll never let anything happen to you again,” Oliver murmurs, his lips ghosting against my forehead. My entire body is shaking now, but I believe him. The hand slung over me rubs soothingly up and down my back, the motion alone pulls me from the foggy fear surrounding me. With every stroke of his hand, I feel less afraid, and more turned on. A fire sparking deep inside my gut.
Tipping my head back, I peer up at Oliver, his face is creased with sleep, but his eyes are magnificent, deep and dark, like melted chocolate.
“Are you okay?” Banks’ muffled voice sounds from behind me. The sheets rustle and then I feel him closer, his hard body brushing against mine. Oliver moves his hand and Banks moves even closer until he’s sandwiched me between him and Oliver.
“I almost died. In my dream, I was dying, and no one saved me, and the water was rushing in,” I whimper, unable to hold it together a second longer. Oliver caresses my face with his hand, his thumb brushing against my lip, while his eyes bore into mine.
“I jumped into the water that night to save you. There was no way I was going to let you drown. You weren’t alone, Harlow, and you never will be again.”
He saved me? He jumped into the water and saved me? Before I can fully grasp the significance of the statement, his lips are on mine. I’m vaguely aware of Banks’ fingers sinking possessively into my hip, pulling my rear into his hardness. With Oliver’s lips on mine, Banks brushes away the hair at my neck and peppers my skin with kisses. Instantly my body melts, my insides turning to molten lava.