Page 53 of Two Chambered Heart

“Perfect,” Kayden whispered, drawing Corey’s attention back to him.

Corey took a breath, steeling herself. She pulled her sweatshirt off and flung it to the bench, lifting her chin and standing tall, trying to take some power back after being so thoroughly ravaged. She looked down her nose at Kayden still kneeling in the dirt, and she pursed her lips.

“Get up,” she said to him.

Kayden stood, eyes dancing, and he was right at the ledge of the rocky outcrop.

She spread her hands out on his impressive chest, running a thumb along the line of his pec, caressing him. Then a wicked smile curved her lips, and she pushed him. Right off the ledge.

His eyes were wide for a fraction of a second as he tumbled over, before a manic laugh escaped him. He was falling and laughing, and then he splashed into the lake. It was several long moments before his head bobbed out of the water.

Corey didn’t look at Jason before taking one powerful step to the edge of the rock and launching herself from it too. A scream ripped out of her as she plummeted towards the water. A scream, not in fear, but of exhilaration, of unadulterated joy.

Too quickly, the descent was over. She broke the water.

It was ice, and it stole her breath away. She felt more than heard the splash of Jason’s body dropping into the lake next to her, disrupted waterrippling around her.

The water was so cold that it felt gelatinous. The freezing penetrated her to her very bones, and she could barely get her limbs to move. They were so heavy under the pressure of the cold. But she propelled herself up, her head breaching the surface, and she gulped back breaths. Her brain wanted to panic in the cold, but she was laughing too hard to let it, treading water.

She took another breath and submerged herself in the icy depths once again. She felt alive. So fucking alive. She stayed under for as long as she could before her lungs were crying for air. Tipping her head back underwater, she looked up at the water’s surface, shimmering silver with the reflection of the gloom.

She propelled herself up again.

Again, she panted for air at the surface.

She caught the bright eyes of the twins, both sets as deeply green as the coniferous forest around them, burning against the topaz water. Both of them looked just as alive as she felt, the exhaustion seemingly wiped from Jason’s soul by the vigour of the plunge.

She let herself float on her back, controlling her breathing, looking up to the sky and the clouds high above her, the bluffs and the trees surrounding them. It occurred to her only then that she had no idea how the fuck they would get out of the lake and back up to the bikes. She had assumed the guys were going to jump when they’d stripped their clothes off at the break in the treeline. She scanned the bluffs for a lower outcrop, one she’d be able to climb up, but there wasn’t one. The break in the treeline they’d jump from was the lowest bluff nearby. Did they expect her to climb? She was athletic, sure, but she couldn’t rock climb out of a grotto like some spider monkey.

She righted herself in the water as panic threatened at her edges, her body almost numb from the cold.

“How do we get out of here?” she gasped.

The worry must have shown in her eyes, because Kayden answered immediately, and with only a little teasing. “There’s a steel cable runningto the lake and iron rungs fixed to the rock face. Maybe you should have inquired if there was a way out before pushing me over and jumping after me.”

Corey let a breath out. “I figured you two wouldn’t be stupid enough to jump without a proper exit plan. Although, I’m sure you guys are very capable rock climbers with all that muscle.”

“You like our muscles?” Kayden said, his mouth just above the water.

Corey rolled her eyes and searched the bluff face for the cable, swimming over when she spotted it. She needed to get out before her hands locked up and she was stuck.

The cool air was sharp against her freezing skin as she hoisted herself out of the water. Her feet found purchase on the metal, the cold biting into her. She started her ascent, focusing on her movements, on getting some warmth back into her limbs so that she wouldn’t accidentally fall back into the lake. The twins waited below her, watching as she climbed, straining to pull herself up. It was hard work, even with the iron rungs for her feet. She hadn’t used her arms for much besides lifting kegs and boxes. Maybe she should start working out like the guys did.

Halfway up, Corey stopped climbing, looking out into the open air around her. How beautiful it was, to be naked in nature like this—like her ancestors must have been, enjoying time between hunting and gathering. The lake sparkled below her, almost like it was inviting her for another dip. But her nipples were rigid from the cold, her breasts hard and lifted. She could barely feel her toes. She looked up again to the ridge lip, and she kept climbing.

She got herself to the top, and pulled herself over, laying flat and naked in the grass and rubble there. Her breathing was heavy. The effort of the climb had warmed her up, but only a bit. Her body hair was standing on edge, her fleshed pebbled in goosebumps. She shivered as a breeze swept over her.

Corey stood up and wrung out her sopping hair. Then she went to the bench and got her sweatpants and sweatshirt on, keeping her hands in the sleeves to warm them up. She put on the leather jacket and hat to help insulate her body heat.

It took a moment for Corey to even register that there were four guns and a knife sitting unguarded on the bench. She didn’t think about taking the guns. Didn’t think about waiting at the ledge for the twins to come up. Didn’t think about shooting them one at a time, letting their bodies fall back into the lake below. The keys for the bikes were likely in their jacket pockets, which were also on the bench. Not that she even knew how to ride a motorcycle. She wondered why she wasn’t thinking about this—why she wasn’t devising a plan to run to the highway and hitchhike back to the city.

She was still staring at the weapons on the bench when, one after another, the twins pulled themselves up over the ridge of the bluff. And then she was staring at them, dripping wet with their matching dog tags glinting. And an entirely different reason for running formed in her mind, her fantasy from earlier on the bike coming back to her. If she ran into the woods, Kayden would chase her. If she ran, Kayden would catch her. And when he did, he would take her. If she was lucky, Jason would be there to watch. If she was really lucky, maybe he would even join in.

Fuck. She was so totally fucked if this was where her mind had gone.

“You’re shaking,” Kayden said, approaching her by the bench. He touched her mouth. “Your lips are purple. You must be freezing.”

She felt it then, the full-body shivers she hadn’t noticed.

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