Chapter 15
“A re you ok?” Ben asked Kyla, rubbing his hands up and down her upper arms.
Kyla, completely dazed, stared back up at him, blank, numb. “What? What just happened?”
“You drove, right?” Ben said, taking her hand. “Where’s your car?”
As the cold spring air bit at her skin, Kyla found herself pulled back to reality. Looking around her, she felt nothing but confused. Standing on the opposite side of the river, on the wrong side of the river to where her car sat, Kyla stared at The Black Iris crumpled into an unrecognisable heap of bricks.
Sirens and blue lights lit up the town like Christmas as ambulance, police, and fire crew attended the chaotic scene.
“Sam...,” Kyla said, looking around her frantically. “Where is she?”
“I’m here, don’t panic,” Sam said, putting her hands on Kyla’s shoulders from behind. “I called Dylan, he’s coming to get us.”
Kyla stared at the car park outside the club, where she’d parked her car. “But my car...”
“I think most of the cars in that car park have been destroyed, sadly,” Adam said, stepping in front of her. “Sorry.”
Kyla looked up at him, something inside her jolting when their eyes locked, unfurling a sense of unease combined with a heady mix of excitement. “Why are you saying sorry? Did you damage my car?”
Adam took a step back and grinned. “No, I most certainly did not.”
“I don’t remember anything,” Kyla said, trying her hardest to remember what happened.
She remembered the sickening lurch in her chest when she’d locked eyes with Adam in the club, then Sam going to him. Then Ben had taken her to the bar for a drink and they’d sat down, chatting.
“I remember you banging a shot glass down on the table,” she said, narrowing her eyes at Adam. “Then nothing. What happened?” She turned around to face Sam and said, “Where were you?”
“I went to the loo. The queue was huge. I’d literally just sat on the toilet when the earthquake hit.”
Kyla’s jaw dropped. “Earthquake?” She turned back to the club and gasped. “Is that what did that?”
Adam nodded. “It most certainly is.”
Kyla shook her head, confused. “Why don’t I remember anything after you putting the shot glass on the table?”
Adam shrugged his shoulders. “Everything went pretty mental. Trauma, shock.”
Kyla frowned at him. “How does running out of a building cause trauma?”
“I don’t know,” he said, snapping at her. “Do I look like a doctor?”
Kyla raised her eyebrow at his short tone. “With that attitude, you certainly wouldn’t have many patients.”
Ben chuckled. Sam giggled. Adam folded his muscled arms over his chest and stared down at Kyla, his green eyes hard and impassive.
With all the lights from the emergency services in the area, the darkness of the night had been illuminated into all but daylight, allowing Kyla to study the men’s features for the first time without shadows hiding them.
Dylan worked out religiously. He pushed his body to the limits, he had to for his job, and he had not an ounce of fat on him. Chiselled, ripped, whatever you wanted to call it, Dylan was poster worthy. But these guys, these guys were a whole other level. The way their clothes clung to them, highlighting every ripple and bulge, it was as if someone had photoshopped them in real life and carved them out with a paintbrush.
The way they elicited feelings with a single look only spoke of the energy surrounding them and the ease of confidence they lived with. Ben seemed rather laid back, thoughtful, and from what Kyla remembered of their conversation, he seemed sensitive and emotional.
Adam, on the other hand, seemed antagonistic and arrogant. The tilt to his chin as he glared at Kyla for challenging him spoke only of disapproval.
The roar of Dylan’s car cut through the buzz of chatter from the crowd of people converging near the river. Swinging into the road full throttle, Dylan flicked the car round, sending it sideways across the street as he came to a stop next to the pavement. He jumped out of the car and ran to Sam, his eyes never leaving Kyla.
Silence surrounded everyone, only interrupted by the sound of the fan kicking in to cool his engine down, which he’d left running.
“Are you ok?” he asked Sam, finally looking down at her.
Sam nodded. “I’m fine. We’re both fine. We got out, thanks to these two.”
Dylan glanced up at Ben, casting his eyes down to his hand wrapped around Kyla’s. When he diverted his eyes to Adam, he met a mischievous smirk and glinting green eyes.
Dylan narrowed his eyes at him for the briefest of seconds before faking a smile, giving him a single nod, and saying, “Thanks. Both of you.”
“No problem at all,” Ben said. “It’s a shame our evening was cut short. We were having a good time, right, Kyla?”
“From what I remember,” she replied, taking her hand from Ben’s and walking towards Dylan.
“I can walk you to the car if you like,” Ben said, taking a step forwards.
“I got her,” Dylan replied, slipping an arm around Kyla’s waist as she reached his side.
Sam stifled a giggle as Kyla rolled her eyes.
Kyla turned to look at Ben over her shoulder. “Thank you. See you soon maybe.”
“I hope so,” Ben replied, smiling at her.
Kyla turned her attention back to the car as Dylan opened the front passenger door for her. After she’d sat down and settled herself in, Dylan closed the door, gifting the two brothers one final glance.
“I’ll sort myself then, yeah?” Sam said, snorting at her brother’s lack of care for her door to be opened.
“You’re a big girl,” Dylan replied. “You can work a door.”
Jogging around to the driver’s side, Dylan got in and immediately feathered the throttle, revving the engine to warn gathering spectators he would be moving. As they cleared a path and allowed him through, he saw a clear, straight road and gunned it, filling the air with the noise of his V8 engine.
“Was that necessary?” Kyla asked, looking at him.
A muscle in his neck and another in his cheek twitched. His shoulders were tense, his knuckles white from where he gripped the steering wheel so tight. “You know how I drive, Kyla.”
Kyla rolled her eyes. “That was nothing more than you being the last dog to piss up the lamp post. You may as well have all got your dicks out and argued over whose is bigger.”
“You’re lucky the cops are all busy, driving through town like that,” Sam said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a visit tomorrow.”
Dylan responded to his sister by accelerating. He hurtled them around the country roads at speeds that even Kyla wouldn’t dare drive at, at least not on these roads. Three minutes later, he pulled up outside his and Sam’s house, the fan on his engine still whirring.
“Do you know what Mum and Dad will say if I tell them you drove five miles in three minutes?”
Dylan rolled his eyes. “Do you know I don’t give a flying fuck?”
Sam’s jaw dropped. “Wow. You really are something else, Dylan.” She touched Kyla on the shoulder and said, “I would say you’re welcome to stay but I don’t particularly want to hear you two fucking all night and I suspect he needs some tension easing.”
“It’s fine,” she said, patting Sam’s hand. “I think he needs to mark his territory.”
“I’m right fucking here,” Dylan said, his voice all but a growl. He stared straight ahead, his carotid artery pulsing underneath his skin. “And if I fuck you hard enough, you might remember where you’re better off.”
Kyla glared at him. She knew the green-eyed monster had gotten a hold of him, real good. Still, his ego needed taking down a peg or two. “It’s not about fucking me hard, Dylan. It’s about fucking me right.”
He turned to look at Kyla, his eyes wide with shock. “What?”
“Ok,” Sam said, opening her door. “I’m out. See you two tomorrow.”
Sam jumped out of the car, running for the safety of her house. As the door slammed shut, silence encompassed Kyla and Dylan, every ticking second raising the tension by ten levels.
“Are you telling me I’m not fucking you right?” Dylan asked.
Kyla bit her bottom lip and looked away. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.”
“My question still stands.”
“You know our sex is good, Dylan. I have no complaints.”
“Good?” He snorted and floored the car down the driveway, heading back out onto the road. “Good is like a B grade, Kyla. Some would argue even a C grade. I don’t want good. I want fucking mind blowing amazing. The kind of sex that you think about when I’m not there.”
Wow, Kyla thought to herself. Really dented his ego with this one.
“And what’s our sex to you?” she asked him. “Is it mind blowing amazing?”
He cleared his throat and loosened his grip on the steering wheel, his knuckles returning to a normal colour. “It is, yes.”
“I can feel a but there.”
“But sometimes it would be nice to not just, you know, fuck like animals that can’t control themselves.”
Kyla’s heart started pounding. She had a horrible feeling this conversation was going to go somewhere she didn’t know how to process. “What are you saying?”
Dylan let out a long breath. “I’m saying that as much as I love our banter and our power play dynamics, sometimes it would be nice to just be, you know... nice. ”
“I’ve had a fucking day from hell, Dylan. Please don’t push me back to where I was twelve hours ago.”
Dylan nodded. “Understood. End of topic.”