Page 12 of Trapped: Between Sky And Wind

I wriggle in his grip, but naturally, I can’t get free. “Hey, that’s unfair!” I stop struggling and look up at him. For seconds, the past flickers between us—like a flashback that hits us both at the same time. Immediately, Bren loosens his grip. He seems scared, but I laugh and he takes a deep breath.

The moment is over, we simply overplayed it.

“Insolence must be punished,” he then murmurs over me.

“Oh, yeah? And what punishment do you have in mind, Mr. Connor?”

“You’ll feel it soon enough!” He bends down and I close my eyes. With my next breath, I feel his lips on mine, just a fleeting touch.

“I’ll tease you more often,” I mumble before he kisses me properly.

“Hush.” His breath enters my mouth, a cocktail of freshness, tobacco, and Coke. “Or it won’t work.”

I laugh, free my hands, and tickle him below the ribs. Bren flinches, making a strange noise. I slip away from him—maybe he lets me escape on purpose—then yank open the bathroom door and reach for the shower. As I turn the knob, ice-cold water pours out of the showerhead.

“One more step and you’ll be wet like those salmon you love to catch!”

With a crooked grin, Bren walks toward me. “I dare you!”

I aim the jet at him and a shower of icy water rains down on him. Bren’s surprised face tempts me to turn the spray up.

“Wait!” He jumps at me.

From that moment, everything happens quickly. He grabs me with one hand, and with the other, he wrestles the showerhead from me in a brief struggle. Freezing rain is beating down on me, on my head, on my neck. I squeak, scream, and laugh, choke and cough. Brendan is gasping, maybe he’s laughing too, he’s definitely making different sounds than usual, maybe he’s cursing for fun, I don’t know.

As soon as I catch my breath again, he leans his arms against the wall on either side of me, forming a cage around me. He turned off the shower but I’m standing ankle-deep in the water. His face is close to mine. Water drips from his eyebrows into his eyelashes.

“Who’s as wet as a salmon now? You or me?” he asks in a hoarse voice. His dark hair is disheveled like it was at the lake.

“Okay, I lost!” I gasp for breath, squeezing my soaking wet top with my hands. It’s white and translucent, which Bren can’t help but notice. With sparkling eyes, he looks down at me and up again, where his gaze lingers on my mouth. I lick my lips involuntarily. The muscles in his arms, which still imprison me, twitch.

“Lou,” he whispers roughly.

I get hot and cold under the darkness of his gaze. A deep longing for our night at the lake suddenly fills me. I want to feel him like that again, so deep inside me, so inseparably connected to me, and yet something is holding me back, a whole new kind of fear—of him, of us, of what will be. Tentatively, as if knowing my thoughts, Bren releases a hand from the shower stall and runs two fingers slowly down my temple to my chin as if waiting for me to stop him. Heart pounding, I look at him as his fingers continue to stroke my wet skin down my neck to the pit of my throat.

My pulse beats hard in my throat.

Nothing’s going to happen to you!

I close my eyes for a moment and feel his fingers on my collarbone before Bren stops and puts his hand on my chest. My pounding heartbeat thunders like an echo into the cup of his hand.

“Don’t worry, Lou.”

“I’m not,” I whisper, still out of breath.

He smiles and bends down. “Lying is also punishable.” The wild, tender tone melts something inside me. His lips are rough as he kisses me cautiously, almost gently, as if trying to keep his desire from seeping through the kiss.

With a sudden longing, I bury my fingers in his hair, feel the smooth, silky strands in my hands, and Bren wraps both arms around me, pulling me tightly against him.

“I’ll never give you back, Lou,” he murmurs in my ear. “Never.” I feel it everywhere. His tense muscles and the heat of his body through the wet fabric. It’s like we’re naked. He smells of fresh sweat and water. Warmth floods my stomach and every thought in my mind blurs, yet my body suddenly grows rigid.

Bren steps away a bit and looks at me. “Nothing will happen that you don’t want. You know that.”

My stupid fear annoys me. “Have you had a lot of girls?” I ask, more to say something and give myself the time I didn’t know I needed.

Bren shakes his head seriously. “It doesn’t matter, Lou.”

Suddenly, I feel inexperienced and naive. Everything was so natural the first time, like a powerful magic that follows its own rules. We were in the middle of nowhere, right and wrong were reversed, and neither questions nor answers existed. I didn’t think at all and let my body show me the way.

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