Steaming Desire - Melissa Young

Chapter Nine - Knox

Cursing myself all the way down to the bottom floor did nothing to calm the pulsing anger in my head.
   I got shoved into the cell and all the air was forced out of my lungs from the impact. Panting for breath, I planted my palms on the hard floor when the metal door closed behind me with a terribly loud sound.
   I looked up and noticed Hunter sitting in front of me. He watched the two men with a murderous look and continued to stare at them until there was only one left.
   "Are you all right?" His eyes tensed and I bit my tongue. The man behind me must be listening intensively, and I realized that I had to keep my tongue from spilling all the truths on my mind in order to keep Kiara's alibi clean.
    Trying to come up with something that wouldn't crush her partnership with the others, but when I couldn’t think of anything I just nodded to Hunter. His face scrunched up, and I knew what he thought since I was thinking the same exact thing, 'How am I supposed to tell him what happened with Kiara?'
   "What is he doing here?" He whispered so softly that I doubt the man behind me heard it. I threw a glance over my shoulder and struggled to get to my feet. Hunter’s steps followed me when I walked to the bed. The second I sat down, my back ached with the memory from the brick hard bed.
   "You don’t have to sleep on the table anymore, we can switch." I rolled my thumbs and bit my lip, hoping he would take the hint.
   "What are you talking about, Knox?" He placed a soft hand on my shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I imagined that he thought I would tell him something difficult and emotional, not that I just got my cock sucked by our only way out.
   It was a real dick move to tell her what I wanted, especially since I knew she would do anything to keep her alibi. Pulling my legs to my chest, I wrapped my arms around them in some pathetic way of protecting my own skin.
   I leaned to his ear and whispered, "Kiara sucked my dick in the pantry so, you know." I stopped and looked at him. His face, frozen in what I guessed was anger or hatred, perhaps both. Most likely both.
   "You can stop feeling bad for eating her cunt," I finished and screwed my eyes shut, waiting for the impact. I waited and waited, but it never arrived. Opening one eye in Hunter’s direction to find out why I wasn't being beaten up on the floor. His eyes were thin slits, hands balled up into fists in his lap.
   I watched with jealousy running through every single vein in my body when he took a deep breath and composed himself, just like that. It always made me jealous when other people were able to contain their emotions, it was a quality I heavily lacked. He didn’t even look like he wanted to kill me anymore, just as quickly as the anger boiled up, it was gone. Gone without a trace of its existence ever being present, how the hell did he do it?
   He sighed and nodded while leaning close to my ear, "I didn't want to hope that you bedded her, but this is better, I guess." I just sat there and looked at him, mouth agape. It was an odd but highly useful skill. "I mean," he continued to whisper in my ear, "why wouldn’t you shoot your shot when you had her all on your own?"
   I shrugged and looked down, embarrassed. It was a really stupid way to go about the whole situation, and she didn't make it any easier when she kept on letting us do the stupid mistakes. Perhaps she was just as turned on by us as we were with her, but I knew that wasn't a possibility.
   I heard Hunter take a deep breath to resume talking, but faint steps from outside the cell caught both our attention. We turned our heads toward the sound and barely caught a glimpse of the man walking into the fog.
   Fog? Where did that come from?
   I blinked several times to make it evaporate, but a thick layer of white fog still covered the room. I gulped, the suddenly horrifying setting made my heart pound and my palms sweat, I didn’t like the feeling. Turning back to Hunter, I decided that some fog was the last thing we should worry about right now.
   "Why don't we take the time alone to talk about the elephant in the room?" Hunter nodded with his eyes still glued somewhere far down the hall, looking for something that wasn't there.
   "Agreed." He looked back at me. I sighed and unfolded my legs. "Tell me everything that happened." I bit my tongue and looked around the room again to make sure we were alone.
   "Nothing much happened really." I shrugged and he lifted one eyebrow. I rolled my eyes, why did he have to know me this well? "She sucked my cock after I threatened to tell the others what she was doing." Hunter’s eyes widened in obvious shock.
   "No, no, it wasn’t like that," I held up my hands in front of me with my palms toward him. "She was very willing." He sighed and apparently decided not to dig into it, letting me go on. "It was amazing, and afterwards she tried to threaten me if I didn’t go back down here. I asked what she was going to do if I didn't abridge, was she going to suck my cock again?" I gave him a cocky grin and didn't realize that I fucked up until I saw the look on Hunter’s face, and he didn't return the smile.
   His whole body shook, and his jaw was clenched tight enough for me to believe that it would break into pieces. "What?" I rolled my eyes. Hunter always made a hen out of a feather, but this anger was something I had never seen before, and it didn't suit him.
   "Are you fucking stupid, Knox?" He stood up and started to pace the room with one hand pressed against his forehead. I watched him when he moved back and forth across the room, still not understanding what he was getting at. "You really said that to her?"
   I scoffed, "It was more of a question, but sure." He stopped dead in his tracks and turned back to me.
   "Not the point, Knox," he screamed now.
   I leaned back against the hard wall to watch his tantrum from a safe distance. "She is never going to come back down here, do you not get that?" I started to get pissed now, who did he think he was? Lashing out on me when I hadn’t done anything wrong. I stood up, but still held a safe distance if he ever thought it was a good idea to throw hands.
   "Why would she stay away?" I tried to understand, I really did, but Hunter spoke in riddles, and it gave me a headache.
   He sighed and threw his hands out at his sides in a very obvious 'you are stupid' kind of way. "You sexualized her, you made her feel like a slut." I opened my mouth to fight back but closed it again, was he right? Did she feel like a slut? I realized way too late that, of course she did, how else did I think she would take it.
   I am such a fucking idiot.
   "Want to let me in?" Both me and Hunter jumped, taken aback by the third voice. Two heavy breaths were released when we recognized the tone of voice. Kiara leaned against the metal beside the door with her back to us.
   "Why are you here?" I gulped and placed a hand over my still pounding heart.
   "Seriously, Knox?" She scoffed. What have I done now? "You are scared that I will never come back and when I am here, and that is your reaction? Seriously? I should never have gone down here." She tried to walk away from us, but that won't happen on my watch ever again.
   I took two quick steps toward her frame and grabbed a hold of the back of her shirt, the soft material obeying my harsh grip. "Let me go," she yelled, but I reached out to take a stronger hold with both hands.
   At one point I got scared that she would fight until I ripped the dress shirt, not that I gave a flying fuck if it broke, but that she would run away if it did. My body was pressed tightly against the metal beams until the second she gave in, and I could breathe again. I exhaled, thinking I won the battle, I was wrong. She turned back to me and drew back her elbow, a tight fist attached to the other end.
   I wasn't going to fight against her since I, most likely, deserved a nose breaking punch and could never in a million years take her in a fight. Screwing my eyes shut and bracing myself for the shattering pain that was bound to course through my body at any given moment. As much as I wanted to back away, away from this incredible woman and her strong fists, I didn’t.
   I still held the shirt in my trembling fists, not because she didn't know how to get away from me because even if she couldn't, I would break in half from the impact of her punch and wouldn’t have any strength left to think about holding her. But because perhaps it meant that she would stay a little while longer, here, with me.
   A loud sound boomed right beside my ear and I wasn’t able to do anything other than open my eyes, needing to see what caused it. Kiara stood in the same spot as she had a second ago, only this time her hand wasn't beside her head. It was beside mine, and collided with the metal. Her eyes filled with tears when they stared into mine.
   "Fuck it." Her voice, so soft and broken when she whispered the words that I wanted to take her into a strong hug and never let go. Before I could ask about the two seemingly unimportant words, her lips collided with mine.
   I didn’t react the way I would assume, with a frozen expression, instead my body embraced the soft action and I kissed her back. It wasn’t an active decision to give in to the temptation as much as it was a stupid reaction. Her lips moving against mine felt so natural, so fucking right, that I didn’t even stop to question it.
   I also realized that this was her way of telling us that she gave in, she would help us get out of here, end of discussion. Even if she had to fight giants made of misery and fire, she would get us home. It was a truly powerful promise that radiated from every pore in her body and vibrated in the fingertips that grazed her waist with absent-minded lust.
   Her quiet sobs traveled to my mouth and I drank up every single one of them, if this was the one thing I could get from her, that was enough. Another loud cry slipped between my lips at the same time she moved her hand from the side of my cheek and to the back of my neck.  She hummed softly against my mouth before she pulled away.
   I kept my eyes shut for a few seconds longer to keep the magic pulsing through my body. She still stood in front of me, but her eyes weren't focused on me, they were glued to something behind me. She tried to back away, but I held her waist, I was never going to let go. Her eyes darted back to me before they focused once again on something far away from me.
   Quiet thuds clicked against the floor behind me when Hunter took a few steps closer. Before I could comprehend what happened, Kiara reached out on my left for Hunter. Their lips crashed together in a very obviously passionate action. I watched their breaths mix in the cold air, visible to my eyes, and felt Kiara’s hand move from my neck to my shoulder as she wrapped her other arm around Hunter.
   I stared at their lips against each other but instead of feeling a sharp jab of jealousy, I felt… What? Turned on? The idea of having Kiara together with Hunter made my cock hard as fucking steel. My thoughts trailed off when I imagined all the things that we could do to her. The thought alone made me excited.
   I just stood there for a long time, watching them melt into each other's touch. My hand brushed over my front pocket and collided with something metallic that clinked against itself. I fished out the big hoop that I hadn’t until that very moment reflected on. Holding the single key in my left hand, while my right hand still held itself around Kiara’s waist.
   I reached outside the cell to get to the lock. It took a few tries until the ancient lock finally opened with a deafening click. I tugged on her waist and she pushed rather aggressively against Hunter’s hold on her. I thought she would run away like she did last time she was down here, but instead she surprised me by turning toward my frozen frame.
   Before I could stop or accept her, she melted into my lips again. I grabbed her waist with both my hands and immediately pulled her into me. I couldn’t hold in the small moan that escaped my careful embrace when her body pressed against my erection.
   Moving my hands over her ass, she wrapped both her arms around my neck. It felt so right on every level, and I never wanted it to end. Allowing my rough hands to continue down to the backside of her thighs, she gasped into my mouth when I spread her legs to be able to lift her toward me.
   I propped her up against my eager frame. She wrapped her legs around my back and I kissed her deeper. More sounds of kissing filled the room when Hunter took his place behind her, pressing his mouth against every piece of skin he could find. It was a truly magical experience, and it somehow turned even more vibrant when there were two of us.
   "Place her on the bed," Hunter whispered, his breath spreading over her back, "I need to taste her again." I huffed but started taking slow steps backward.
   "No fucking way," I told him in between flaming kisses, "you have already tasted her, it's my turn." Kiara gasped when the sensation of my dirty words tickled the tip of her nose.
   "I can describe it to you," I could hear the smirk in Hunter’s voice when he tried to get another taste of Kiara. The back of my legs hit something metallic, and I sat down on the hard bed. As soon as my butt hit the rock solid mattress, Kiara took a strong hold of my hair, tugging at the roots, and straddled me. She started to roll her hips in a painfully slow motion that made my throbbing cock ache to be inside her.
   "Eager, are we?" Hunter whispered from beside me and sat down. Kiara’s cheeks heated up a little, but she didn’t stop her slow movements. A moment later, she pulled away from my lips while still moving on top of me and leaned to the left to kiss Hunter.
   "Fuck me," she whined in between kisses. Hunter reached up and cupped her delicate cheek, at the same time he took a hold of her waist right above my hands. We were all moving in perfect harmony, like if we had been doing this forever. Like this was what we were supposed to do for eternity, no beginning, no end.
   "Tell us what you want, Love," Hunter challenged with what I assumed was his dominant voice.
   I recognized the deep, demanding tone since it wasn’t too far from my own. Kiara gasped suddenly and threw herself backward. I had to take a stronger hold of her waist so that she wouldn't land head first onto the hardwood.
   "Let me go," her choked scream broke my heart into a million pieces and my arms fell beside my thighs like limp logs. She collapsed to the floor on her butt while planting her palms beside her to keep stable. Kiara's quick breaths flew through the room in a thousand different octaves.
   "What is wrong?" Hunter slipped down beside her with his back to me. I stayed where I was, if I had crossed the line, she wouldn't want me close. Kiara swallowed and buried her face in her hands.
   "I'm sorry." The two seemingly insignificant words that crushed my heart further. She didn't have anything to be sorry for, and if Hunter hadn't been so quick to point that fact out, I would have told her.
   "You don't have to apologize for having boundaries." I sat down on my knees in front of her folded legs and took her trembling hands in mine.
   "Let's talk about what went wrong and work from there," I smiled. She pressed her lips together and shook her head.
   "I make the rules, and we won't talk about it." She crossed her arms over her chest with a smug expression plastered to her face.
   "The hell you don't, you are going to talk about what is bothering you and that's that." My voice sounded more stern than I intended. Both of our arms went up to mimic her actions. Sighing, she relaxed.
   "All right," Kiara accepted defeat, "but not right now." Her eyes darted between us, we didn't contradict, mostly because we didn't have anything to say back.
  "The first mate ordered me to stay on the main deck or-" her sentence trailed off into the fog, and I placed a hand on her thigh. She looked down at it, up at me and took a deep breath, "more specifically that I couldn't come down here." A stupid smile crept onto my lips, she went against an order to come to us.
   "He made another crew member look at me so that I didn't leave. It took almost an hour before he stopped hanging over me like a shadow. I was just about to throw hands when he finally left me alone." She told us everything that had happened in the short time that we were apart with a smile on her lips, as if she would have enjoyed hitting him. With the little information that I had on Kiara, I was almost certain that she would more than enjoy his balls in a gue.
   "How did you get the guard to leave us alone?" Hunter asked the question on my tongue.
   "I took over for him," she shrugged.
   "Why are you here?" Her eyes suddenly went wide with shock and horror. She looked quite exactly like she just met a ghost. I instinctively pulled away, a feeling of wrongdoing pulsing through my veins.
   "What’s wrong, Love?" Kiara screwed her eyes shut, and I realized what was bothering her.
   "You don’t like that word, do you?" I arched one eyebrow and sat down again. She shook her head.
   "No, but that was not-" I interrupted her.
   "Does the word ‘love’ make it feel like we are taking this too fast?" She furrowed her eyebrows and parted her lips.
   "I have to tell you that-"
   "I don’t want you to feel like-" Hunter tried to make her feel better about her emotions. I recognized the exact second her mood changed from frustration to complete and utter anger, but when it did, she shoved both her hands over our mouths and pressed until I almost fell backward.
   "Shut up for a second," her voice was stern, a reaction of her frustration. "There is a ship with an eagle and the letters ‘OFLRM’ on the hull less than two yards away, with its mark on us." I threw a glance at Hunter, and he did the same thing.
   "What does that mean for us?" Hunter mumbled from under Kiara’s palm. She sighed and let her arms and head fall.
   "That means that the 'Official force of law for the royal family in Malium' is after us to get you back." She put her lip in between her teeth and bit down on it. "You can go home," a deep frown spread across her face. Hunter and I shared another look, and a wide smile started to tug at my lips.
   "We could go home," Hunter whispered when the words sunk in. I clenched my jaw because I hadn't thought about it, but now that I had the chance to go back to my old life, I didn't want to. I hadn't missed the cold and empty castle.
   The slow days that never seemed to end and the conversations with Hunter about the women we would never find. I couldn't for the life of me find a part of my being that would miss it.
   An idea sparked through my brain and struck in the part of it that wanted love but didn't have any consequential thinking whatsoever, rooting itself.
   "You can come with us." My voice had an odd kind of plea in it, but I didn't care. Her lips parted and her eyes widened. "You can live in the castle with me, it will be fun." I decided at that exact moment that if she didn’t agree, I wouldn’t go home. If I got shoved into the empty halls that turned into a loud echo every step I took, that died out in my ears over and over again for eternity out, I would go crazy. Perhaps if Kiara came too, it wouldn’t be as bad.
   "Are you serious, Knox?" An almost humorous whisper echoed through the room. I placed my hand on her sun-kissed cheek and looked deep into her gray eyes.
   "Do I look like I am joking?" Her lower lip started to tremble when my eyes didn't give her the signs she was so intensively looking for. She shook her head, a slow movement that caused my stomach to drop, and a long sigh escaped my lips. I needed to make her understand that I won't leave this boat without her.
   "So you are coming with us?" Us? When did Hunter come into the equation? I hadn't even finished the sentence in my head before I knew the answer, he had always been in it. Two of us couldn't exist without the last person and I had been denying it ever since the first time the thought crossed my mind, but now I knew it to be true. She shook her head with such violence that I found myself afraid she would get a concussion.
   "I can't, my family is here." Her words were like knives in my heart, true, but just as painful nonetheless. I contemplated leaving without her just for her own sake, but the thought got overruled by the selfish part of my brain in an instance. I had already made up my mind, and I was going to drag her with me if I had to. This was the time to be narcissistic.
   "I'm not leaving without you." Hunter, once again, spoke the words on my tongue. It seemed almost uncanny how our brains were connected, but I didn't have time to analyze it, I had more important things to worry about.
   "Neither am I," my quick breaths came out in puffs of white clouds when I chimed in.
   A sort of frustration started to build in her eyes when she looked between us. She opened her mouth to speak, most likely to contradict, but she got cut off by a loud screech followed by a crash that made us all fall forward. Kiara was the first one to get to her feet.
   "You have to stay here for a little while so that it doesn’t look suspicious when we leave together." She turned toward the door, in a hurry to get back to deck. Quick to get up after her, I grabbed a tight hold of her upper arm and turned her toward me.
   "I am serious, Kiara. I am not leaving if you stay here." Her feet tried, without luck, to get away from me.
   "I'm sorry, but I can’t, and you have to respect that. I am helping you out of here with the small amount of freedom I have, and you don’t have the power to place that kind of pressure on me." Her eyes were stern and I knew I lost. Biting my tongue, but letting my arms fall. Another screeching sound mocked the last one, and a small tear formed on my waterline. I swiped it away with a quick finger, I wasn’t allowed to cry.
   I was the one that was going home, so I didn’t have any need to cry. Even though I wasn’t allowed to feel sad, I couldn’t help but acknowledge the lump in my throat when I thought about leaving Kiara here.
   "Please?" It was a plea of the pathetic kind, but I didn’t care.
   "You stay here until you hear shouting or loud sounds. When you do," she swallowed, "you head straight for the other ship, don’t look back. I am going to try my very best to keep the others away from you, but I can't promise anything." I was impressed by the calmness in her voice when she spoke of such serious matters.
   "There is going to be a big fight up there and the second you show your face the target is you. Some of them are going to pull you back, some of them are going to push you forward, you just have to know your destination."
   Her voice broke near the end of the sentence and I felt her pain. It was the kind of pain that broke you down over and over again, but I knew that when Hunter and I were off this boat, I would beg for the pain to come back.
   She turned away from me and, for the first time since we got here, left the door open.
   The sharp pain subsided with every determined step that she took away from us, my heart feeling as though it would explode out of my chest. "Good luck." Her words came out choked when she disappeared into the fog. I am not even sure that the words were for us, but I placed them in a special folder in my head nonetheless, perhaps they were the last words we would ever hear from her.

So happy that you read this far, thank you. If you enjoyed this chapter, please let me know by voting and commenting. I love you all, see you next Sunday.