42. Dylan
FORTY-TWO
DYLAN
The wind starts to pick up sometime around noon. At first, I’m not too worried, but as the day goes on the gusts get stronger and more frequent. Dark clouds appear on the horizon, moving incredibly quickly. It’s like a dark curtain is rolling in over the ocean.
I spend the early afternoon securing everything we have and making sure the ropes we used to tie the life raft to the trees that surround it will hold.
And then I get worried. Because Adrian still hasn’t come back from wherever he stomped off to.
The clouds are right on us now. I wipe my arm over my sweaty forehead. What’s the best course of action now? Wait? Or go look for him?
Logic says wait, but my instincts shout otherwise.
I grab the water bottle. I grab the sweater. I take off toward the jungle.
Already the trees are bending in half with the wind.
“Adrian,” I yell, but the wind carries my voice away and brings no reply back.
I keep moving, cupping my hands around my mouth to shout, “Adrian!”
Nothing but the howling of the wind.
The thick clouds are right above me now, and it’s dark. It doesn’t even feel like daytime anymore. Not even close.
“Adrian!”
That’s when the rain comes. Not gradually. Not at all. The skies open up above me, and I’m pelted with wind and rain from every possible direction. I swear it feels like it’s coming up from the ground.
The rumble of thunder grows louder and louder, and my whole body tenses. But I keep going instead of finding shelter.
“Adrian!”
I keep shouting, even though it’s pointless with how loud the howling wind and the thunder are around me.
I make it to the tree Adrian climbed that first day on the island. We’ve been here plenty of times since. Have both climbed the tree, too. It’s the highest one on the highest point of this place. If you go high enough, you can see the whole island.
Climbing it now would be suicide. Sheer idiocy.
I hesitate.
Thunder cracks, and my whole body jerks. Images of my mom dying flash through my mind and then morph into Adrian dying.
Stop it!
Would I even see anything through all the rain? I swipe my palm over my face again. Doubtful. I can barely see my arm when I hold it up in front of my face.
But I’m also out of ideas.
“Adrian!” I yell at the top of my lungs.
I’m breathing harshly, staring at the tree.
Maybe?
Maybe I could see at least something?
I’m out of ideas, and it turns out I do not think clearly when under pressure. I take a step closer to the tree.
It explodes with a deafening crack.
Pieces of wood rain down all around me, and a massive flame licks up the remnants of the trunk. I can feel the heat on my face.
I can’t seem to make my feet move.
Something slams into me from the left, and I stagger sideways.
“Move,” Adrian yells. “Move!”
The half of the tree that’s still standing tilts forward.
My feet finally get unstuck when Adrian yanks me after him. We sprint through the trees and the pouring rain. I can barely see two feet in front of my face.
“Come on,” Adrian keeps saying. “Come on!”
I have no idea where the fuck we’re headed. Not back to the beach, I don’t think, although I’ve lost any sense of direction in this mess by now. The wind is so strong that it’s bending trees halfway to the ground and whipping branches and debris at us.
“There,” Adrian yells.
He’s pointing at something, but I can’t see what it is.
The cracking of falling trees and branches sounds like bombs going off all around us.
We stop so suddenly that I smash into Adrian’s back.
“What?” I yell over the noise of the rain as I wipe water out of my face.
“There’s an overhang. We can hide there.” Adrian points at something.
I peer past him and finally see what made him stop. There’s a waterfall. At least, I think it is. Right now it’s more like a raging downpour than anything else. It’s never been there before, so this must be because of flooding, I think.
Adrian starts to move without waiting for my reply. I grab his forearm.
“We can’t explore that place right now,” I yell.
Another tree is ripped out of the ground by its roots. The wind howls and shrieks like it’s possessed by demons.
Adrian starts moving and tugs me along.
We go around the mess of water below the waterfall and approach from the side. The water’s coming down in such a rush that I can’t hear anything else. We make our way behind the rushing water over slippery rocks and stones, alternating between jumping, scrambling, and crawling.
Finally, we reach a shallow cave.
We stop, facing each other. We’re both wet and breathing heavily.
Neither of us says anything.
Our eyes meet.
For a moment, everything is very still.
My limbs buzz with adrenaline.
Adrian crashes into me.
My arms wrap around him instinctively, and his mouth comes down on mine. My back smashes against the rock when I stumble backward, and Adrian follows me, his lips never leaving mine.
The kiss is harsh, all teeth and tongues and rushing adrenaline.
My fingers are in his hair, tugging his head back. My heart is hammering like I’m about to die, and my skin prickles with anticipation. Adrian shudders and lets out a shaky breath into my mouth, his body curving toward me.
Everything feels raw and primal in a way I’ve never experienced before. I tug at his shirt until I can touch his skin, and I dig my fingertips into his back.
He pushes against me, panting into my mouth. His breathing is harsh and heavy.
I move my hand lower and cup one of his ass cheeks, experimentally and with some caution, because that has to make things a bit too real, right?
He keeps kissing me—even hungrier than before, because the kiss escalates. He bites down on my lower lip and tugs. I lose the last vestiges of common sense. It’s all instinct from here on out. Instinct and my hands all over his body.
I learn so much so fast.
He’s unbelievably responsive. The slightest touch of my hand makes him press against me. My lips on his neck make him drop his head back and slam his eyes shut while a shaky breath leaves his throat.
I put my hand on the front of his shorts, between his thighs, and move it upward until I graze the underside of his balls. His already uneven breathing turns into gasps.
I pull away just enough to look at him. The cave is dim, but that’s good. It works to my advantage if he can’t see me too well.
Makes it easier for him to… pretend I’m somebody else.
His lips are slightly parted, and he’s looking at me with wide eyes.
My heart is beating like crazy, but I ignore it.
I go down on my knees.
He sucks in a loud breath, but he doesn’t say anything or move away. My hand is still between his thighs, and I can feel him tremble just the tiniest bit.
A rush of lust explodes through me.
I lean forward and bury my nose in his crotch. He lets out a series of loud gasps. I push my hand farther between his legs and wrap my fingers around the back of his thigh. I look up and find him staring at me. I move my nose up the outline of his hard cock and inhale.
Everything about this moment is insanity, and that insanity is overpowering.
I look up, on my knees in front of him, and hook my fingers in the waistband of his shorts.
“Stop me,” I say in a gravelly voice.
He looks terrified with his wide eyes and heaving chest, but he gives a shake of his head.
He takes a shuddering breath. “No.”
I don’t press further. Maybe I should, but I don’t.
“Take off your shirt.”
His hands shake when he grabs the hem. He pulls the wet fabric over his head and lets it drop to the ground by his side. I take in the planes of his stomach and the defined lines of his chest and feel pleasure unfurl inside me. My cock hardens even more.
I slide the tip of my finger over his abdomen and goose bumps follow in its wake. With my other hand still wrapped around the back of his thigh, I wrestle his shorts down just enough that his cock bounces free.
Adrian slides his fingers into my hair hesitantly and gently.
“I’m not gonna break,” I say. “You can pull, tug, push me around. Whatever. I can take all of it. I want whatever you’ve got. Okay?”
He gives me another wide-eyed nod and, as if to test what I said, anchors his fingers more firmly in my hair.
“More,” I say.
He complies by threading his fingers through my hair and pulling me toward him, and I revel in the sting at the roots.
I kiss the ridges of his abdominal muscles and then move lower.
His breathing gets shallower. I brave a look at his face, and the blatant need in his expression hits me right in the chest. The wild desire in his eyes contrasts with the gentle caress of his fingers through the hair on the sides of my head.
His dick bobs against my chin, almost as if it’s demanding attention.
I lock eyes with Adrian and swallow his hard cock down.
His hips jerk forward, and he lets out a strangled noise, slamming his eyes shut, and his fingers tighten again.
His skin is silky soft against my tongue. He has a very pretty cock, thick and impossibly hard. It twitches in my mouth like it’s urging me to give him the release he needs. I’m the man for the job.
I go down on him with abandon, bobbing my head up and down, sucking him like my life depends on it.
None of my fantasies of Adrian have been like this. It’s always been us fully naked with taking our time with each other.
It’s nothing like it. Instead, it’s messy and carnal, Adrian’s shorts half-off, stuck somewhere around his thighs, and me sucking on him fast and hard, desperate to get him off because at any moment he might change his mind.
“Oh, fuck,” he chokes out with a guttural moan, and I feel that sound in my balls.
I cup Adrian’s in response and roll them between my fingers.