Unbroken

My smile turned shy, though my voice wobbled when I responded, “One day you won’t. And this time—us here—will be a dream.”

Now he appeared inquisitive. “What makes you say that?”

I shrugged one shoulder, eyeing his hard chest again. “I feel something happening under the surface. I can’t describe it. It’s like everyone’s changing around me and I’m still the same.”

“You think Hunter and me are changing?”

I covered my face with my hand, pretending to massage my forehead, but really I was hiding my wet eyes. “We’re grown up now.”

That was all I was willing to say because anything else would be like splaying my vulnerabilities open. I didn’t want to talk about the heavy stuff now, I wanted to hide from them. Pretend they didn’t exist. And they didn’t in this cabin away from the world. From home life and work and responsibilities. From their eyes wandering elsewhere, to longer legs and prettier smiles—it was bound to happen. This chapter needed to close—another one needed to open.

“Want to know a secret?” Leo suddenly whispered, his eyes pinned to my mouth.

“What?” I mouthed out, barely making a sound.

“We might be older now, but you’re the same Skye as when we met. I’ll never not want you in my life.”

I could hardly swallow. My eyes glistened as I peered at him. “You mean that?”

He looked warmly at me, squeezing at my hip, but it was my bare hip, I quickly realized. Leo had snaked his hand beneath my top, his hot fingers pressing into my bare flesh. His face inched closer, and his nose bumped mine as he dug those fingers into my skin.

“Skye…” he whispered.

I went stiff from anticipation. His hot breaths blew against my parted mouth. My heart battered in my chest—

The shower pipes turned off and the shower door slid open. While Hunter had made sure to separate from me before Leo got to see his hand in my hair, Leo didn’t make any movement to detach from me. When Hunter stepped back into the room, Leo’s mouth remained inches away, his nose still bumping mine.

“We need the light?” Hunter asked.

“Nah,” Leo answered.

In just his briefs and nothing else, Hunter was running the towel through his hair when he shut the light off and came to his side of the bed. I twisted my head to watch him in the dark. Tossing the towel on the chair in the corner, he collapsed next to me, making the mattress under me jump from his weight.

Unconcerned with how close Leo was to me, Hunter wrapped his arm around my waist and tugged me so my back fit against his chest.

And for a moment there, in the stillness, in the light, it was us in our corner of the world. Me in the middle, facing Leo, his hand wrapped around my hip, his forehead pressed against mine, and Hunter at my back, arm possessively wrapped around my body, his wet chest seeping through my shirt as he buried his nose in my hair.

I shut my eyes to savour this moment. This happiness. This…everything.

And suddenly my heart never felt so full. I was so blindly in love with these boys, I dreaded when it all might end—

Thunder sounded suddenly, breaking through my torrent of thoughts.

“So much for clear skies,” Leo said.

On cue, rain came down heavy.

“This will break the heat,” I said, smiling at the sound of raindrops pounding the roof. “You know how nice it must be under that rain?”

Hunter shuffled my hair to the side, running his lips against my bare skin. “You want to go see, Skye?”

I did, but I didn’t at the same time. I was comfortable right here between them. I squirmed at the ticklish grazes of Hunter’s lips as they ran over my shoulder blade. Leo’s nose grazed mine, and then his lips were a breath away from me. I went still, breath caught in my throat as he ran his lips along mine in a tender way.

“You gotta tell us you want it,” he whispered between my parted lips. “It’s up to you.”

Hunter’s lips slowed, and Leo went still. They were waiting for me, and I…God, I wanted them so badly. How could I let them know how terrifying this was when my lips could barely form the words? All my life I’d been hearing everyone tell me this was wrong, it wouldn’t work, and we were going to wind up hurting—

“What’s scaring you, sweetness?” Leo asked. I could feel his gaze on mine in the darkness. “What keeps holding you back?”