Chapter Thirteen
The dawn was close when Drew and Kael made their way into their camper. Every step they took crunched against gravel slick with salt spray and ash. It felt like walking out of one world and into another.
Kael was quiet beside him, his hand brushing Drew’s now and then, a silent reassurance that neither had drifted too far from the other. When they reached the camper, Kael opened the door, standing aside to let Drew step in first.
The air inside was warm and familiar. Their sanctuary. The small space smelled faintly of ocean, gun oil, and the citrus soap Aunty insisted they use. Drew could feel the weight of Kael’s gaze on him before he even turned around.
Kael leaned against the doorframe, his expression unreadable but his eyes impossibly soft.
“So,” he said finally, voice rough from smoke and adrenaline, “you want to tell me why you stayed back for a minute?”
Drew hesitated, tugging at the hem of his shirt. “You already know.”
“I do,” Kael said quietly. “But I want to hear you say it.”
He crossed his arms. “I was talking to Victor.”
Kael’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t move. “You let him go.”
Drew nodded once. “Yeah. He’s not ready to stay and keeping him in chains isn’t who we are. He needs to find his own way.”
Kael exhaled, long and slow. “You think he’ll come back?”
“I think he’ll try to be worthy of coming back.” Drew stepped closer, closing the distance between them. “You did the same for me, remember?”
Kael’s lips curved faintly, his eyes softening. “I remember.” He reached out, brushing his thumb over the cut on Drew’s cheek. “You always had a way of seeing the good in people. Even the broken ones.”
“Guess I learned that from you,” Drew murmured.
Kael chuckled. “Don’t make me the inspiration for your terrible decisions.”
Drew’s grin was crooked, but it faded as Kael’s hand slid down to rest at the back of his neck, fingers threading into his hair. The air between them shifted—electric, intimate. The silence was heavy with everything they hadn’t said, and everything they didn’t need to.
“Kael,” Drew whispered.
Kael’s answer was a kiss.
It started soft, slow—like testing the edges of something fragile—but it deepened quickly, hunger igniting where restraint had lived for too long.
Drew’s fingers tangled in Kael’s shirt, pulling him closer, feeling the solid strength of him, the steady heartbeat pressed against his chest. Outside, the ocean roared, a steady, wild rhythm that matched the pulse in his veins.
Kael pulled back only long enough to breathe, his forehead resting against Drew’s. “I am so fucking glad we found our way back to each other,” he murmured.
Drew smiled, his voice rough. “Me too, although I wasn’t sure it would be possible.”
“Yeah.” Kael’s hand slid down Drew’s back, tracing the scars there, reverent. “You know, when I built this thing, it was meant to move. No roots, no attachments. Just motion.”
Drew looked up, catching the flicker of something vulnerable in Kael’s eyes. “And now?”
Kael’s smile was quiet, full of meaning. “Now it feels like staying still isn’t the same as being lost.”
Drew leaned in, their lips brushing again. “We’ve both been running so long,” he said softly. “You, me, all of us. But tonight... we found something worth stopping for.”
Kael’s gaze held his, dark and full of heat. “That’s what this is, isn’t it? Full Throttle Overdrive. Always pushing forward, burning through everything in our path until we either crash or learn to steer.”
Drew smiled, breath catching. “You think we’ve learned to steer in this high speed life we live?”
Kael chuckled low, the sound vibrating against Drew’s lips. “We’re getting there.”
Drew’s laughter was swallowed as Kael kissed him again—deeper this time, slower, the kind of kiss that anchored rather than consumed. They moved together toward the narrow bed, the world narrowing to touch and breathe and the quiet, steady rhythm that only came from being safe in each other’s arms.
Kael’s hands were sure but gentle, mapping the familiar terrain of Drew’s skin, learning the new bruises, the old scars.
Drew returned the touch, tracing the lines of Kael’s tattoos, the muscle beneath.
It wasn’t frantic—it was deliberate, reverent, the kind of intimacy born not just from desire but from survival.
Two men who had lived through fire and finally found calm in each other.
When Kael pushed him gently back against the mattress, Drew’s breath hitched.
The glow of the small lamp painted Kael’s skin in shades of bronze and shadow, catching on the curve of his jaw, the ink winding along his arms. Drew reached up, brushing his thumb across Kael’s lower lip. “You’re beautiful, you know that?”
Kael huffed a laugh. “You’re delirious.”
“Maybe,” Drew murmured. “But it doesn’t make it less true.”
Kael bent down, kissing him again, slower this time, letting the moment stretch. The storm outside had finally faded, replaced by the whisper of waves and the steady hum of life returning to the island. For once, neither of them had anywhere else to be.
Drew went to sit up a little more, but was gently pushed back by Kael.
“Let me,” he said, and Drew could no more deny him than he could stop his heart from beat, so he laid back against the mattress as Kael reached for the tube they had placed on the mattress beside them.
Kael knelt between his spread legs, gripping his hard cock in two lubricated hands, and began to stroke him from root to tip. “I love this.”
Drew huffed a breathless laugh. “My dick? I have to tell you, lover, that he loves you too.”
Kael laughed. “No, idiot. I love the fact that I have the right to touch you. Wherever I want, whenever I want.”
Drew’s heart turned over in his chest. “Like I told you, you are the only one in the world who ever had the right to claim me.”
Kael shot him a look filled with heat and promise, then leaned down and, true to the man’s nature, dove straight in. Drew cursed when he felt the back of Kael’s throat and the strong draw he made on him.
“I will not last long,” Drew sighed into the camper, arching his back as Kael used his lubricated fingers to gain access to his ass. Kael moaned, that had him vibrating against Drew’s cock, and had his body tightening even further
After a few gentle probes, and pushes, Kael breached his ass, and quickly found his prostate.
“Fuck, Kael!” Drew arched hard as Kael began to tap his finger against his prostate in a strong syncopated rhythm. Drew was soon writhing on the mattress, legs spread wide, his body lifting and falling almost to the rhythm of those magic fingers within him.
And even before he could warn the man he loved that he was about to come, his body pulsed and spasmed, and he cried Kael’s name to the world.
Kael stayed with him, his finger continuing its movement, and he swallowed again and again.
Drew weakly dropped back to the mattress, fighting to draw breath, as Kael pulled back, pressed a kiss to the head of his cock, and slid his fingers free.
“Mm, I do love the way you taste, ipo,” Kael murmured as he shifted on the mattress. moving to stay on his knees, legs spread, with Drew’s legs, over his thighs and open to his lover.
As Drew slowly came down from his high, his breath hitched as Kael pressed himself into him. Drew moaned as Kael rolled his hips twice, three times, and then was buried balls deep within him.
“Christ, ipo you feel so fucking good.” Kael’s tone of awe and love had Drew smiling.
“I feel so full when you’re balls deep within me,” Drew groaned.
Kael began with a strong steady rhythm, that after a while became a frantic rush toward fulfilment, hips slamming together, curses, hands gripping tightly to each other.
Every touch was a promise, every growl a release.
It was connection, redemption, and belonging all wrapped into one.
And it culminated in an epic orgasm for Kael that was so big, it triggered another smaller one for Drew.
When the madness was over, they lay tangled together, the sheets damp with heat and salt. Kael traced lazy circles on Drew’s shoulder, his voice low. “You think we can make this last?”
Drew turned his head, meeting his eyes. “Yeah. I think we already have.”
Kael smiled, slow and sure, the kind of smile that reached his eyes. “You’re trouble, Hawkins.”
“Good thing you like trouble,” Drew murmured, eyes heavy with contentment.
Kael leaned in, pressing one last kiss to his lips. “Full throttle,” he whispered against Drew’s mouth.
Drew smiled, finishing the thought. “And overdrive.”
Outside, the waves crashed softly against the rocks, steady and endless, as if echoing their rhythm. Inside, the air was warm, the world small, and for the first time in a long time, Drew let himself believe in forever.