Chapter 17 Kolton
Kolton
Nothing was okay. The minute the lights went out, it was like my worst nightmare had come back to haunt me.
My heart pounded against my chest, which squeezed so tight I thought I’d choke.
I was dizzy and lightheaded and had the overwhelming fear that I was going to die here, inside this tiny little box.
I was going to die here, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
“Everything’s going to be okay.” Somehow, through my panic, I could hear those words whispered like a song.
But no matter how much I wanted to believe it, I couldn’t.
My entire body shook as the walls around me closed in, cutting off the dim light and throwing me into darkness, back to that day when I was only a child.
When my sisters had locked me inside the crawl space beneath their bedroom floor and left me there alone.
“It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay.
” That song brushed away the bugs that skittered across my flesh better than my hands could.
The musical lilt of it felt like a vibration under my cheek, and the subtle movement turned the walls that trapped me into soft pillows.
I sucked in a sharp breath, and I got a lungful of a scent that calmed me in a way nothing else ever had.
Lavender and vanilla.
A scent that nearly brought me to my knees whenever I smelled it. It smelled like Sloane.
That lavender soaked into me, pushing away the scent of dirt and mustiness, of the animals that crept under the house and made their nests under our rooms. The vanilla calmed me, pushing away the darkness that took over my mind and pulling me out of that horrible crawl space.
Breathing that in, I knew this nightmare wasn’t real. I was tucked in my bed, reliving that hell I’d been forced into as a kid. I could pull myself out of this, I just needed to relax. I needed to prove to my mind that I was safe, that—like that quiet song said—everything would be okay.
A song that sounded like Sloane’s beautiful voice.
My entire body ached, and my muscles were tense. If it weren’t for the rise and fall of her voice in the other room, I would have thought I was in hell. Her words, that mantra she kept on repeating like the chorus of a song, brushed over me like a warm breeze.
Each breath I took cleared away a wisp of the dark cloud that had descended over me, until I slowly became aware of the world around me. Still in darkness, I could feel the soft pillow beneath my head. Though I was trembling, I could hear her song calling to me through the fog.
My hands were sore. I loosened my fists and spread my fingers wide before forcing them to relax. Then I shifted, trying to shake off the tension while clutching my pillow and pulling it closer.
Except, my pillow didn’t feel like a pillow.
It was much firmer than the crappy things at the hotel I’d been stuck using since Sloane and I had arrived here in New York.
This one was smooth, silky, the case like satin rather than the cotton I was expecting.
And rounded, with structure those feather-filled sacks never had.
I slid my hand around in the dark, trying to figure out where I was, when suddenly someone sucked in a sharp breath. My body jolted as my fingers brushed against lace.
“Kolton?” Sloane’s voice was just a whisper, and much, much closer than the other room.
Spreading my fingers, I smoothed my hand upward, and what I felt had my eyes flashing open. I peered into the red-tinted darkness, finding black satin under my head.
“Are you awake?”
I lifted my head minutely, confirming… this had to be a fucking dream. Sloane Rivera’s leg was under my head, and my hand was tucked up under her tiny little skirt.
“What’s going on?” My words were a rasp dragged from my dry throat. I lifted my gaze upward, across her tight stomach, over her breasts covered by that little crop top, up to where she peered down at me with those flame-filled eyes.
Her face twitched with something like a smile, though there was something else there I couldn’t decipher in the dim light. Then her mouth fell open, and her chest rose as she dropped her head against the wall with a quiet thud. “Kolton.”
“Sloane?”
She slapped her hand down on mine, pressing against my fingers as they clenched and loosened, still trying to get the tension out of them. In a breathy voice I’d only heard when she was singing, she said, “I’m going to need you to stop that.”
Stop? I dragged my gaze down her heaving chest to where her hand pressed to mine. To where my fingers had been rubbing, right there between her legs.
“Holy fuck.” I scrambled from the floor, but the dizziness I’d felt earlier came screaming back when I realized I was still in that same fucking metal box. With my back pressed into the corner, I struggled to breathe.
“Kolton, no! Sweetie, it’s okay. It’s okay!”
“It’s not.” I covered my face with my palms, shaking my head as my heart tried escaping from my chest. But Sloane gripped my fingers, tearing them from my face as she pressed closer to me. Closer, until she was no different than the walls behind me.
“It is,” she cooed, boxing me in but wrapping her arms around me and pulling me to her chest. “You’re alright. You’re safe.”
“Can’t. Breathe.” I gasped, sucked at the air, trying to get oxygen into my lungs.
Instead, my lungs were filled with her scent.
Lavender and vanilla.
I clutched her to me like a life preserver.
“You can breathe, baby. You’re okay. Just take a deep breath.
Breathe with me.” Sloane coaxed me until I sucked in a breath, then breathed with me as I let it out.
In, out, again and again. Until my rapid breathing slowed, until her song wrapped me up like her warm arms. “Everything’s going to be okay. ”
With her arms around me, I began to feel sane again. To feel like I wasn’t dying. Like this all would pass. I pressed my palms into her back, taking one long whiff of that divine scent.
“That’s better,” she sang, her melodic voice ringing in my ears. “You’re alright now. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“We have to get out of here.” That grit in my throat made speaking a chore, and my entire body grew heavy.
“We’re trying.”
“What’s that mean?” I edged back slightly, and she released me as she reached behind her for her bottle of water.
“Here, take a drink.”
I wanted to object. I didn’t want to drink her water and leave her with nothing. I wanted an answer to my question. But my mouth was so dry, I could barely speak.
A small sip, I told myself, as she held the bottle to my lips and helped me take a drink. Just a small sip, to wet my lips and wash some of the gravel away.
But I drank. And I drank. And she kept tipping the bottle up, pouring her water down my throat as I swallowed every last bit.
“Feel better?” She wiped the corner of my mouth with her thumb, and I swore, I saw the ghost of a smile cross her lips.
Nodding, I sucked in another breath and was filled with more of her delicious scent. “Thank you.”
There it was—her elusive smile. My god, I’d never tire of seeing that.
Sloane was beautiful, every last inch of her, inside and out. But damn, her smile could light up the darkest night.
I found myself smiling back, even though every muscle in my body felt weak.
“You poor thing.” She smoothed her fingers along my jaw, and the sensation messed with my head. As much as I didn’t want her to stop, I needed to know.
“What’s going on?” This time when I spoke, my voice came out less ragged though still weak. The only thing giving me strength was the feel of her hand against me.
Sloane sighed, then released my jaw to reach for her phone. “There’s a power outage. Half of Manhattan is black.”
“Your show—”
She sighed yet again. “They canceled it.”
“Why?”
Her usual irritation with me began to show. “Because we’ve been stuck here the past two hours.”
“Two hours?” I tried to get up, but another wave of dizziness hit. I dropped with a thud into the corner.
“Monica wasn’t very happy, but what can she do? The elevator doors are stuck, and without power, the hotel manager said they can’t get us out. They’re trying, but he stopped answering my calls.”
“Why? How many times have you called him?”
She cast a glare at me, and when she pursed her lips, it made me want to kiss them. My god, who knew a glare could be so fucking erotic.
“I don’t think five phone calls is too much.”
“Only five in two hours—”
“No.” She lifted her gaze to the ceiling as her shoulders rose toward her ears. “Five an hour. He’s about due for another.”
A breath huffed out of me, something that might have been a laugh if I could have mustered more energy. “Who all have you called?”
She wouldn’t look at me, and that fact had a smile tipping my lips.
“Only Monica, the hotel manager, the utility company, and the Secretary of State. His name’s on the certificate up there.
” She shrugged as she pointed to the piece of paper tucked behind plexiglass above the panel of buttons on the wall, then she grabbed my own cell phone from the floor behind her. “And your boss.”
That last one? Felt like she’d just stepped on my chest. “You talked to Lee?”
Sloane pulled the edge of her bottom lip between her teeth, looking at me out of the corner of her eyes. “He told me you suffer from claustrophobia.”
Head buried in my palms, I let out a tortured, “Why?”
“Hey.” Sloane tore my hands away from my face, and she was hovering over me, close enough to kiss.
“I forced him to tell me, alright? I got worried. You were shaking and crying, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t need to call the fire department to have them come break open the doors to get you out. ”
“Fuck, Diva.”