Page 23 of A Storm of Nightmares

Keith smiles and stands up gracefully. He extends his hand for me, and I reach for it without hesitation. I’m pulled to my feet quickly, standing only inches from his chest. My body is aching and stiff. He seems to be perfectly fine, though. A pang of jealously surges through me for a moment as I rub my sore butt, cursing the hard floor under my breath. Laying his hands on my waist, Keith pulls me closer and says, “You cloud my mind, Kat. It makes no difference if I’m awake or asleep. You are my every thought.”

I’m glad Keith has a hold on me, and I can lean my body on his. My knees go weak at his words, and I know if I was standing on my own, I would have swooned. Is this how it will always be with him? I feel like I’m living in a fairytale, even though we’re trapped in this room for the time being. Staring into Keith’s enchanting blue eyes, it’s all too tempting to sayfuck itand strip him down to the nude. After all, if we don’t survive this, I do not want to die a virgin. I’m very strongly considering it, but my stomach has other plans. It growls loudly, betraying me.

“Hungry?” Keith asks through a stifled laugh.

I nod. “I guess there’s no hiding it, now.”

Keith unwinds his arms from around my waist and walks over toward the wall covered in monitors. He stops right in front of an empty portion of the wall and puts his palm flat on it. After a few seconds, there’s a beep sound, and a small square door opens. I’m so stunned that I can’t even form a sentence to ask about what I just witnessed.

The door swings wide, revealing a cubby in the wall that can’t be bigger than two feet tall and wide. Keith turns to face me with a smile I can only explain as pure boyish excitement.

I walk over to stand next to Keith and peer into the cubby hole. Inside are several bottles of water, a handful of protein bars, and, much to my surprise, a few tiny bottles of vodka. I look at him, raising my eyebrows in disbelief. “What is all this?”

“I may have had a small obsession with spy movies when I was little. I always wanted to grow up to be a super cool spy with the latest technology.” He shrugs and lets out a small laugh. “I didn’t quite land my dream job, but when my parents died, I suddenly had a shit ton of money and no clue what to do with it. So, I made all these cool upgrades to the house. My surveillance room doubles as a panic room. Not that I ever imagined I’d actually have to use it. Or that I’d be stuck inside, against my will, with a beautiful woman.”

“Gosh, you are just too cute.” I shake my head and grab a peanut butter protein bar. “This whole time, I was a little bit suspicious of you. I thought with all the security precautions, you had to be hiding something. Or hiding from someone. Turns out you’re just a grown man with a spy fetish.” I take a bite of the bar, trying to hide my smile, and have to force it down. I’ve had worse, but it’s certainly no five-star meal.

“I’m glad I was able to clear that up for you.” Keith laughs and leans down. I think he’s going to kiss me, but instead, he steals a bite of my protein bar. He makes a face that matches my exact thoughts when I took my first bite. At least if we share it, it’ll be gone faster.

Once the dreadful protein bar has been eaten, I reach into the cubby in the wall. I intended to grab some water, but my hand finds a mini bottle of vodka instead. My fingers curl around the bottle, and I hesitate before pulling it out. I don’t drink. I mean, I’ve had wine occasionally with my parents. They’ve always said saying no to alcohol until you’re twenty-one will just lead to binge drinking.

So, from the age of sixteen on, they let Betty and I have one glass of wine with dinner if we wanted. I usually said no. Betty always said yes. I think that pretty much sums up the difference between her and me. I smile at the memories of Betty sneaking refills of wine at the table when mom and dad weren’t paying attention. She was always so bold. I need to be bold, too.

I pull the vodka out, twist the cap off, and take a swig.Holy shit, it burns.I finish the mini bottle and instantly regret it. Wine never burned my throat going down. My eyes even water a little bit.

Keith reaches in and grabs a bottle of vodka too. “It’s five o’clock somewhere, right?” He shrugs and tips the bottle back and drinks the fiery liquid like its water. I giggle, slightly embarrassed at how bad I am at drinking. Be bold, I remind myself. Before I can change my mind, I reach for another vodka and down it, trying to be quicker this time so I don’t taste it.

There’s one mini-bottle left, and Keith eyes it wearily for a moment. Whatever reservations he previously had dissolve as he grabs the drink and finishes it off. “Well, there goes our liquor supply. I should have stocked more in there. I thought four would be plenty for myself.”

“Oh, shit. I’m sorry, Keith, I should have asked.”

“No, no, hey. I’m just joking.” He nudges me with his shoulder, a playful expression on his face. My cheeks are warm, and I don’t know if it’s from vodka or just the ever-present blush I have in Keith’s presence. I know alcohol doesn’t hit you immediately, but I also know it’s not a good idea to drink on an empty stomach, and I don’t consider half of a dry, tasteless protein bar to be an adequate meal.

“Do you have any blank paper? And a drawing apparatus of some kind?” I ask out of nowhere. Now that we’ve kind of eaten and had something to drink, I need to do something. I’m going to die of boredom in this room.

“Umm...” Keith looks around the room. “Yeah, actually. Paper and your choice of a blue or black ink pen.” He pulls out the supplies from the desk with case files and lays them all on the table in front of us.

“Blue or black, you say? Boy, you really have it all to offer a lady.” I wink and sit down. Keith laughs and joins me at the table. For the next couple of hours, I think, although there’s no clock in this room, we busy ourselves. We play hangman, tic tac toe, draw horrendously bad pictures, and laugh until we cry. The dim lighting makes things difficult but also more fun. Rick has made no move since shutting the lights off. So, I happily distract myself with the joy Keith gives me.

Chapter 13

After we’ve gone through every last bit of extra paper Keith had in the surveillance room, things take a heated turn. I don’t know if it’s the small amount of vodka I drank earlier that’s making me brave or just the lingering fear of possibly dying in this stupid room. Either way, I feel like I’m going to burst if I don’t do something. We’ve already been locked in here for what feels like an entire twenty-four hours, at least.

I slowly rise out of my chair and lift myself onto the table right in front of Keith. I’m sitting on the edge of it, my legs dangling between his. I give him a not-so-innocent look and bite my lip to keep myself from jumping on him. I want him to want me too. I need him to make the next move.

I catch Keith off guard, and his mouth drops open. His eyes rake up and down my body. He quickly recovers and grips my thighs with his hands, pulling me closer, and his mouth ravages mine. A soft moan escapes my lips at the sudden contact. Every time we kiss, it gets better.

Instead of pulling away, like we usually do, Keith stands and picks me up by my ass, our lips never losing contact. I instinctively wrap my legs around him while my hands find his soft hair, and I gently tug.

With one swift motion, Keith pushes all the loose papers and pens off the table and onto the floor, and he slowly lowers me down onto my back. I gasp as the cold surface of the metal table touches my skin, but the chill is quickly overpowered by the heat rising in my body. I watch as Keith crawls onto the table with me. His perfect, muscular body is hovering over mine. But he doesn’t lean down to kiss me again. I can see in his eyes that he’s hesitating, and I instantly feel self-conscious.

“What is it?” I ask wearily.

“I promised your first time wouldn’t be in here. I had so many ideas to make it special for you. But you’re making this extremely difficult for me.” He drops his hips down to meet mine, and I can feel how big he is. Desire instantly pools between my legs, and my body aches for him. “Just say the word, Kat, and I’ll stop.” Keith’s words are heavy and hushed. I know what he wants. I want it too.

“I don’t want you to stop,” I breathe. I grab his shirt and pull him down onto me, and our lips once again tangle together deliciously. Keith groans into my mouth. He stops just long enough to rip his shirt off over his head, and my eyes widen at the mouth-watering sight of his shirtless torso. I reach up and let my fingers trail down every crevice of his abs. Keith’s breathing hitches when my hand reaches the skin just above his pants. I trace the line of his boxers along his waist.

My fingers start to pull at the buttons on Keith’s jeans, but he stops me. “Are you absolutely sure you’re ready?”

---