Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
RYKER
After Penny explained that her light is only going to last for so long before it dies, we decided to quickly explore the tunnel to see if we can find a way out. Luckily it’s a bit larger than it looked and we have ample headroom to stand, even Brax, at his towering height.
Penny insists on leading the way, but thankfully, Brax refuses, getting her to give him her light so he can lead the way.
She holds both our hands as she walks between us with me at the rear.
We’re quiet as we move through the tunnel, I’m not sure if they’re worried about what we might find down here or just trying to listen for some signs of life.
But I’d be a liar if I denied I was a little worried.
Who knew what lived in these caves. Luckily, we hadn’t seen any signs of life yet.
I was totally out of my depth protecting Penny down here, I only had my instincts to rely on.
Anything to do with skyreachers, that was definitely my wheelhouse.
I was also pretty good with a bow and arrow.
But down here, unarmed in this dark tunnel, I was man enough to admit that I was really happy we had Brax with us.
My girl needs all the safety she can get.
I have a feeling that jumping on Harriet was not the most extreme thing I’d see from her, and I needed to make sure she was always kept safe.
It feels like we’ve been walking for hours when Brax’s voice breaks the silence.
“I think I see something.”
“Give me the phone, I’ll turn off the light.”
He hands her the phone, and she makes quick work of turning off the light. We all stay still, letting our eyes adjust to the new darkness. I step up behind her, watching the path in front of us, trying to see what Brax saw.
I wrap my arms around her shoulders and pull her close, pressing my lips to the side of her head. I can’t seem to stop myself from touching her. She grips my forearm, giving me a small squeeze as we wait for our eyes to adjust.
“There,” Brax says, and I realize I can make out his arm pointing in front of us. I couldn’t make anything out before, so there must be some source of light.
Squinting, I peer down the tunnel in front of us and realize that far ahead, it does appear to be slightly lighter than the pitch black we’ve been in.
“I see it, there’s light there somewhere.
” We resume our chain as we walk towards the light.
Soon enough, we come to the end of the tunnel and see it opens up into a large chamber.
Looking up, I can see a tiny hole above us where the light is entering.
It’s not bright in here, but there’s enough light to see around.
A small pool of water sits in the middle and it looks like a few tunnels branch off in different directions.
Besides that, there’s not much else of note in here.
“I wonder where we are,” Penny says, looking around the tavern.
“I have an idea what part of the mountain this is, but I’m pretty turned around, so it’s hard to know which tunnel we need to take. If we can see what way the sun is rising in the morning, then I should be able to guess which tunnel is likely to take us towards the bottom of the mountain.”
“I guess we’re camping here till morning then,” Penny says cheerfully.
She lets go of our hands and starts walking around the cavern, Brax hot on her heels, not wanting to let her get far.
His protectiveness makes me smile. I move to the water's edge and bend down, dipping my fingers in, then abruptly pull them out.
Nope, no hot sauna for us. Luckily, we are away from any snow or wind down here and we could huddle for body heat. My gaze moves to where Penny’s strolling around the cavern without a worry and a smile spreads across my face. Yes, I think body heat is just what we need tonight.
I find a nice flat spot for us to rest, and place my furs down in a makeshift bed before sitting down. I wish I had something to offer her, food or even water. I glance again at the pool here, maybe it was drinkable? I’m sure Brax will know.
“Hey, Brax?” When he looks over, I point at the water. “You reckon we can drink this?”
He walks up to the edge and crouches down, looking around.
I have no idea what he’s looking for, so I just wait for his assessment.
After a minute, he scoops some in his hands and pulls it up to his face, sniffing it.
He then touches it with his tongue before pulling his head back.
He seems to be waiting for something. After a minute he takes a small sip and drops the rest.
“If I feel fine in twenty minutes, then it should be good to drink.”
“And if you’re not fine?” Penny asks, looking angry.
“I’ll get over it.”
“Brax! You shouldn’t put yourself at risk like that. I don’t want to see you hurt.”
I see his face soften as he pulls her towards him and wraps his arms around her. “Baby, you worried about me? It was just a tiny sip, the worst that can happen is I get a small stomach ache.”
“I’d rather you didn’t get one at all.”
“Me too, Baby, but we need drinking water if we’re going to be here all night. Who knows how long we’ll be going through these tunnels.”
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll be out tomorrow, don’t worry.”
“How could you possibly know that, Red?” I ask her, shaking my head at her optimistic attitude. Truth be told, I love her attitude.
Do I love her? Yeah, it’s pretty clear I do, even though I’ve barely known her a day.
There’s something about her that calls to me, driving me to do more, to take care of her, to keep her safe.
The one good thing about being stuck in this cavern together is that we can get to know each other more and maybe she’d let us solidify our courtship.
Despite what she said, a part of me is afraid that as soon as we get to Havenridge, she’ll meet a group of brothers that will charm their way into her heart and she’ll drop us. I think that my heart knows she wouldn’t do that, but my head has twenty-eight years of prejudice pushing against me.
Eventually, the two of them finish their perusal of the cave and come over to join me. Brax sits down across from me and before Penny can sit beside me, I pull her into my lap, her back to my chest, as I wrap my arms around her.
“He got to hold you all day, it’s my turn now.”
She giggles and I watch as a smile spreads across Brax’s face.
“My, my, what a beautiful shade of pink you just turned.”
“Our girls’ blushing, is she?” I ask as I try to tilt my head around hers to see her face.
She gets all cute and shy as she looks down at her hands as if they’re the most interesting thing in the cave right now.
I smile as I sit back up, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable. “So, now what? We still got some daylight before we should go to sleep,” I ask them as I rest my chin on her shoulder.
“Are you guys hungry?”
“You got more chocolate bars in that bag of yours, Red?” I ask her eagerly. I had pretended to be put off earlier, but I have to admit it was pretty good.
“Yep! Snickers or kit kat?”
“You pick.”
She hands out chocolate bars and we all eat in silence as we gaze around at the cavern.
“Why don’t we play a game?” she asks.
“I think all the games I know require cards or dice,” I tell her.
“Hmm, I can’t think of any that we can play in here,” Brax adds, as he seems to think about it.
“Oh, I know lots of games we can play without needing anything.”
“Okay, Red, enlighten us.”
“Well… I don’t think we want to be running around, so I won’t bother mentioning any games that require movement.
We could play two truths and a lie. Or there’s twenty questions.
” She taps her finger to her lips as they twist in thought.
“I don’t think charades would work well considering…
cultural differences. Most of the games I can think of are drinking games. Oh, there’s truth or dare.”
“What’s that?” I ask, the name intriguing me.
“Truth or dare?” I nod, and she continues. “We each take turns asking someone, truth or dare. If they pick truth, we ask them a question and they have to tell the truth. If they pick dare, then we can dare them to do anything.”
“Anything?” I ask as my eyes quickly flick to Brax. Is he thinking the same thing I am?
“Umm, yeah.” She seems to pick up on the sexual tension that’s suddenly invaded our little group as her eyes move between us.
“Maybe we should stick with two truths and a lie?”
“I say we vote on it. I vote for truth or dare,” I say, raising my hand. We both turn to Brax and with a completely straight face, he raises his hand.
“Traitor,” Penny grumbles as she crosses her arms.
“Like you aren’t going to love playing this game with us,” I say as I tickle her sides.
She squeals, leaping from my lap.
“No fair, no tickling me!”
“I guess I’ll have to save that as a dare to give Braxton.”
She gasps. “You wouldn’t!” I just quirk an eyebrow at her in challenge.
“Fine,” she says, narrowing her eyes at me, turning her gaze to Brax. “I’ll start. Truth or dare, Braxton?”
“Dare.”
“Hmm…” She taps her lips in thought. “I dare you to… massage my feet!” she says, sounding proud of herself. He gives her a smirk as he reaches out and grabs her ankle, slowly pulling her whole body towards him. Her eyes widen in surprise, and I laugh, knowing she didn’t quite think this through.
He doesn’t break eye contact with her as he undoes her boot and pulls it off before moving to the other foot. He’s sitting with her legs across his lap as he starts to rub his thumbs into the arch of her foot. She lets out the longest moan before dropping to her back.
“Braxton, That feels amazing. How are you so good at that?”
“I’m glad you like it, Baby. Is it my turn now?”
“Uh huh,” she mumbles as he continues rubbing her feet.
“Penny, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Did you mean what you said out there when we were running from the avalanche?” I see her suck in a breath, her body going rigid as she tilts her head up to look at him.
“What did she say?” I ask. Nobody answers as they seem to have a stare off.
“Yes, I meant it,” she finally answers before dropping her head back. I look at Brax, trying to figure out what they’re talking about, but from the look on his face, he’s very happy about that answer.
“Truth or dare, birdman?” Penny asks me.
“Dare.”
I hope she’s going to ask me to massage another part of her, I think I can really get into this game.
“I dare you to… sing me a song.”
“Oh no… No no no no. You really don’t want that, trust me. I’m a terrible singer.”
“Well, if you won’t do the dare, then I have to give you a truth.”
“All right, hit me with it. What’s my question?”
“Remember, you have to be honest.”
“I promise,” I tell her, eager to know what she’s going to ask.
“Do you think our second date is going better than our first?”
I hesitate before I burst out laughing. I’d forgotten she told me that a new date starts when we wake up.
“Well, I really liked the way our first date ended, but we did get stranded on a snowy mountain during it. However, I’m not sure that being trapped inside that same snowy mountain is much better. So I guess it depends how this date ends.” A smile crosses my face as I ask, “Truth or dare, Penny?”
“Truth.”
“How do you want this date to end?”
“Ohhh… you sneaky little bugger. I don’t think I can answer that without bursting into flames.” She covers her face with her hands, making me and Brax laugh.
“You know the rules, if you don’t want to answer that, you have to do a dare.”
“Fine, give me your dare, birdman.”
“I dare you to touch yourself.”
“What?!” she squeaks out, her wide eyes turning to me.
“You heard me. I want you to touch yourself while we watch. Show us how you like to be touched, make yourself come.”
“I… I… I can’t do that.”
“Have you never touched yourself before, Penny?”
“Yes, but not in front of anybody.”
“You don’t want us to see you?” Brax asks.
“It’s not that, it’s just… it makes me feel uncomfortable.” I can see she looks nervous and if anything, the lust has slightly drained from her face.
“Hey, come here.” I drag her back into my lap as Brax shifts so he can continue rubbing her feet.
“I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable, of course, you don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. Was yesterday too fast for you?”
“No, not at all. It’s not… It’s not that I don’t—Ah! Why is this so hard?”
I rub my hands up and down her arms as I speak softly to her. “It’s okay, just take a minute, gather your thoughts. There’s no rush here. Tell us when you’re ready.”
We watch as Brax works on her feet and after a few minutes, she seems ready to talk.
“I guess it’s just that I don’t really like to touch myself. I’ve done it before, but not with my own hand, I use… toys.”
“So, it’s not that you’re uncomfortable coming for us, it’s that you don’t want it done by your own hand?” I ask, just to make sure I’m clear.
“Yeah, I guess that’s it,” she says, then I can feel her body relaxing now that she’s been able to express how she feels.
I give her a kiss on the shoulder before speaking. “Don’t worry, Pen. Like I said, we’re not going to make you do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”
I slowly move my hands up and down her arms before moving them to her sides and across her stomach. “Tell me, how do you feel about coming by our hands?” I see Brax’s hands freeze for a moment before he continues.
“Okay,” she whispers, like she’s afraid of giving us that answer.
“Only okay? We must have done something wrong yesterday if the thought of our hands on you is only okay.”
“Ry, that’s not what I meant.”
I have a feeling that she’s shyer than she lets on. That she might want us more than she feels comfortable expressing. Luckily I know a way to help her. “Truth or dare, Penny.”
She hesitates a moment before answering, “Dare.” I smile as I gently bite her shoulder.
“I dare you to take off your clothes.”