When Caden pulled back and pressed smaller kisses on her lips, Makenna took the opportunity to pursue him this time. She grabbed the back of his head and lifted her own as she kissed his mouth and sucked on his bottom lip. She gasped when she felt something metal on the side of his mouth and was so turned on at the unexpectedness of it that she groaned and licked at it. His answering grunt reverberated into her lower stomach. His lips quirked into a quick smile as she lavished attention on what she finally realized was a piercing of some sort.
More of the puzzle that was Caden Grayson came together just then. Tattoo. Piercing. Buzz cut. He must look rough on the outside. But he was a big, sweet, considerate, sometimes vulnerable softy on the inside. And she wanted to get to know both sides a lot better.
It was impossible to know how long they kissed in the darkness—time seemed to lose all meaning. But Makenna was breathless and needy and wet by the time he ran kisses and nips down her jaw line to her ear and, from there, down her neck. His short whiskers left a trail of fire against her skin as he moved. She curled her legs toward him, needing to feel more of him pressed against more of her. The groan he let loose when she hiked her knee across the back of his thigh made her whimper and rock her hips against him.
He pulled himself closer and slid his knee between her legs, keeping her from twisting her back the way she’d been. Not that she’d really noticed. Caden sucked the small diamond stud piercing her ear lobe into his mouth as his right hand ghosted over her body and settled on the hip wrapped around him.
“Oh God, Caden.”
His cheek drew into a smirk where it pressed against her own, but she didn’t mind him smirking when he licked and kissed and sucked at her neck the way he was doing. She tilted her head to the side to open to him, and ran her hands back up to offer encouraging caresses to his neck and head.
That was when she felt it. The fingers on her left hand clearly traced what could only be a scar on the side of his head. She hesitated for less than a second, but he apparently sensed it because he pulled back just a little.
“I’ll tell you all about it,” he whispered against her neck, “I promise.”
She inhaled a breath to respond when the elevator jolted and light exploded in the small space.
Makenna yelped and clenched her eyes shut. Caden grunted and buried his face in the crook of her neck. After hours of staring into blackness, the light was painful, blinding.
Makenna was frustrated with the timing of the lights, relieved they were on, but fearful about what would happen to her and Caden now that they were.
And then the elevator shuddered. They plunged back into darkness.
They both groaned again and curled around one another as they tried to adjust to the strobing effect the lights left behind their eyelids. Makenna went from being blinded to seeing a swirling kaleidoscope of disorienting red and yellow spots.
“Shit,” Caden rasped.
Makenna stopped worrying about her strained eyes and paid attention to him again, only to realize his body had gone rigid above her. Oh no. “Caden?”
His only answer was a strangled groan low in his throat and his left hand clutching a little tighter at her shoulder.
She understood what was wrong. She might’ve only known this man for a handful of hours. She might not ever have seen him. But she knew him. And she knew he needed her.
“Hey, hey,” she cooed to him as she stroked his hair. “It’s okay.”
He didn’t relax at all, but she sensed he was listening to her, or trying to.
“I’m here. And we’re okay. We’re gonna be okay. You’re not alone.” This time, Makenna added to herself. She was mentally cursing that teasingly temporary return of the electricity, because it’d offered the most glaring reminder of the whole night that Caden was trapped in a small, pitch-black metal box. She found herself furious on Caden’s behalf. As she continued to stroke him and offer occasional murmured reassurances, mentally she cursed the inventor of the elevator, the electric company, her meter reader, and, while she was at it, threw in a few choice words for Thomas Edison, too, because, well, Caden wouldn’t be trapped in a tiny electrical conveyance if good old Tom hadn’t gone and found a way to apply electrical theory. She wasn’t too happy with Ben Franklin and that damned kite, either.
Caden’s shoulders finally unbunched. He shuddered and inhaled. Makenna let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.
“I’ve got you, Good Sam,” she said with a relieved smile.
He nodded infinitesimally, but they were so close that she felt it nonetheless.
“Come here,” Makenna offered as she guided his head from where it’d been buried in her neck to her opposite shoulder so he could lie alongside her. She stretched to wrap her arms around him and was just barely able to clasp her fingers together as she held him.
The shock of the flashing light set off a panic attack so unexpected, Caden had a hard time breathing. The only thing that kept him from losing his shit entirely was the calming scent of Makenna’s hair and neck.
He didn’t need to wonder why the light had set him off. All at once he was sucked fourteen years into the past, hanging upside down with his head wedged between the front center console and passenger seat, buried in a pile of baggage and vacation souvenirs. Something sharp stabbed into his side, making it difficult to take a deep breath without worsening the sting of it. His head rang and throbbed. Something wet ran down into his hair. And his right shoulder sat entirely too close to his jaw to be natural. For the longest time, the darkness and silence was eerily complete. But then the full horror of his situation would be fully illuminated by a flash of light from a passing car.
The first time it happened, Caden had been filled with relief and used much of what energy he still had screaming, “In here! We’re in here!”
But no help came.
Not many headlights went by as the hour had become so late, but with each one Caden had his faith raised and dashed, his battered body further buffeted against the rocks of pleading hope and terrified disappointment.
As he passed in and out of consciousness, those rare moments were even harder to bear, because it became difficult for him to distinguish reality from nightmare. By the time a passing tractor trailer finally stopped to help several hours later, Caden was so sure he wouldn’t survive the crash he didn’t answer when the driver called out to ask if anyone could hear him.
“God, Caden, that’s horrible.”
He frowned and unthinkingly shifted his head to look up at Makenna’s still-hidden face. “What?” he asked, his voice a dry scrape.
“I said that was a horrible thing for you to have gone through. I’m so sorry.”
With a start, he understood he’d said out loud what he only thought he’d been remembering. And yet, here was Makenna, still holding him, soothing him, accepting him completely despite his infuriating childish fear.
For fuck’s sake, he ought to be the one comforting her through this ordeal.
He leaned his head back into the crook of her neck and breathed deeply. Without having seen more of Makenna than her gorgeous red hair and her tight little backside, Caden was sure he’d be able to pick her out of a crowd by her luscious scent alone.
As he relaxed more fully, something she’d said came back to him. “Why did you call me ‘Good Sam’?”