Kalani made her way—splashing and frantic—to the side of the rock ledge she’d originally slid into the water from. Where her clothing lay in a pile. She would need clothes in order to run back to the house and be presentable—minus, perhaps, the hyperventilating.

She would need to get back as soon as possible and tell them about Ethan getting tangled up at the bottom of the mine. She wouldn’t think about that until she got there. She couldn’t.

She raised her leg over the ledge, halfway over, the water spilling loudly onto the rocks. Her heart thumped hard, worse than when she’d entered the water. Her nerves fired just as harshly and chaotically. The only intelligible thought streaming through her mind: Where the hell was he?

She stood over the pile of her clothing, and over his, and then turned to look back across the lake one last time. If it was a joke, and he’d run off . . .

Please let it be a joke.

Kalani pleaded with him, silently, and then not so silently. Her little mumbles mixing with the babbling sound of water she’d left in the swimming hole. Please, Ethan. Please. Please be okay.

Oh, my God.

She heard his voice—coming from a far-off place, in an unexpected direction, in the dark shadows at the far end of the swimming hole. His voice, odd, ghastly, singing? Low and playful, melodic but almost teasing in its tone. But it was him . . . wasn’t it?

The internal volume of her panic, her pulse thumping through her ears, made it difficult to tell. To clearly hear. To clearly think. She screamed back at him with that same urgency, calling his name. And then cursing his name until his voice returned to a normal tone, a normal way of saying, “I’m over here.”

And, then, with a little fright in his own voice, perhaps at what he’d just done. “Kalani?”

She slipped into her running shoes and grabbed the rest of her clothes—not his—and made her way over the unsteady terrain of the rocks adjacent to the quarry. There was no way in hell she was getting in the water again. No matter what had happened, swim time had ended for her. The pool was most certainly closed, as were perhaps all kinds of other pleasure parks for Ethan.

He was laughing. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

He was in the shadows still, his voice echoing inside.

“Where are you?” Kalani said, her voice as icy as the water had been and as Ethan had turned the blood in her veins with the idea that he’d drowned.

“I’m over here,” he said. “In this cave. I found a cave.”

“What happened?”

“I dove under . . .”

She was close to the sound of his voice, but still couldn’t see him. “And then what?”

“And then I stayed under,” Ethan said.

“You fucker, you scared the crap out of me.”

“I’ve got a talent for that.”

“For scaring me?”

“For holding my breath under water. Didn’t I show you that back in Hawaii while surviving that tsunami? I thought I did. Magic—escape, mostly—silly hobby, really.”

She thought back to the tsunami. She’d been just as scared when Ethan disappeared as when she’d been living through monstrous waves. This time she had feared for more than her life. This time, it had been for Ethan’s. The idea of him tangled up down there in the murky depths of the swimming hole. That son of a bitch!

She could tell by the sound of his voice that he was smiling. “I just held my breath for a little while and then snuck over to . . . well, I swam underwater over to this cave.”

She wasn’t processing it correctly. Did he say “cave”? By the way his voice echoed out into the night, it definitely sounded like he was in a cave.

So that’s where he would actually die, then, in a cave. With his throat and airway squeezed off, and his balls crushed under her foot. That bastard.

“You see me yet?”

“No, but when I do . . .” She could feel the rage building in her voice.

“When you do what? You’ll feel relieved?”

“I’ll feel something . . .”

“What?”

“The satisfaction of sticking my foot up your ass.”

“Oh, I’d like to see you try that,” he said, laughing. “That’s what caves are for, exploring.”

“I won’t be exploring.”

“They’re also for making out,” he said, his face coming into view. “Think we can do that instead?”

Her hands went immediately to his throat, trying to grasp around and squeeze off his air supply. But she only got a few seconds of good choking out of the gesture before his arms swatted her away. He was too strong to choke out. But not strong or quick enough to block her knee from lodging between his legs.

He crumpled over and stumbled back, and then made some inhumane sounds as the pain of his crushed testicles registered in his brain.

Kalani didn’t care. She didn’t care that it had been a tough night for his manhood. First the cold water, and then being pulverized. She couldn’t imagine what kind of shrinkage that last blow had just produced. Perhaps the sad little thing had even retracted into his body.

“Kalani,” he gasped, before expelling a few haggard-sounding coughs. “Kalani, that was . . . my God, that was a vicious attack.” He was slumped into a corner, his back against the cave wall. It took Kalani a few seconds to realize that he’d actually discovered an amazing cave there next to the swim hole. It was cool inside. Dark. The ground dry. About the size of a single-car garage, only it slanted down and pitched steeper the further she walked in. She had found Ethan leaning against a pile of rocks. And now he was crumpled against the wall, cowering in fear. Laughing.

“Jesus, Kalani. What the hell was that? Did I scare you that badly?”

“No, you pissed me off,” she said, finally catching her breath. “What the hell was that?”

“What do you mean? It was a joke?”

“A joke?”

“A parlor trick. A little skill I picked up back in the circus.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, I’m just kidding about the circus, but—”

“Can you stop kidding for a minute?”

His voice turned straighter, more mature. “I can hold my breath. It’s a talent. I don’t know, a natural talent. I just thought I’d have some fun.”

“Well, you know how I feel about you having some fun at my expense.”

“I really didn’t think it was . . . at your expense.” He laughed again and said, “Jesus, and I really didn’t think it was that long. You know can I only hold it for like thirty seconds. That’s not too long at all, compared to the pros.”

Kalani knew there was no way it was only thirty seconds. To her, it felt like thirty minutes. An eternity, almost.

“Maybe even shorter than thirty seconds,” he said. “It felt a lot longer to you, huh? You got scared?”

Kalani didn’t want to say it.

“Can you forgive me?” he said, his face turned serious. She could still see his shape from the moonlight spilling into the cave. He was sitting comfortably and resting against the wall like he’d planned for it all along. Like he’d been there before. And like he was quite used to playing jokes on Kalani and acting cool and calm and . . . and sexy. Damn him.

“How did you know about this?” she said.

“The cave?”

“Yeah, the cave, whatever this is.”

“I don’t know how far it goes, but I could see it, when you were in the water. It looked, I don’t know, interesting.”

“Interesting?”

“So I wanted to swim over to it and surprise you.”

“Yeah,” Kalani said, eyebrows raised. “You definitely surprised me.”

“I was hoping, you know, to surprise you in a good way.” He chuckled again and said, “I didn’t expect to end up getting kicked in the balls.”

“Sorry,” Kalani said. She really did feel a little sorry. The chokehold and the kick, it was a little extreme. But she had felt extreme in the moment, the anxiety, the hot adrenaline flowing through her . . . it had to go somewhere.

“If you were having such strong emotions about it,” he said, “I was hoping you could have used them for good.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t think that could be considered good, what you’re referring to.”

“Do you want to sit with me here?” he said. “I promise I won’t go anywhere.”

“I’m not sure if I feel them anymore,” she said.

“Feel what anymore?”

“Those emotions.”

“Come on,” he said. “Sit with me, help me with the pain. Talk me through it.”

“You’re still hurting?” she asked.

“What do you think?”

“I don’t know. I wouldn’t know.”

“What could you assume about the way I feel right now?”

“What could you assume about how I felt?” Kalani said. “Looking for you like that, Ethan. It was scary.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, all traces of humor having bled out from his voice. “I’m so sorry I scared you.”

“I was just worried, you know, about everything that’s gone on already.” She tried to think about it all, but not that much had actually happened for her to be so afraid. It was more the sensation that something would eventually happen that was making everything worse. The suspense. She never liked those kinds of movies. Especially movies when the boyfriend disappears in the dark, under the water, and for a long time. She liked movies with boyfriends when they stuck around, always.

She sat next to him, feeling through his shoulder the surprisingly slow rate of his breathing. She leaned her head against that shoulder and said, “Sorry I kicked you so hard.” The shoulder shook with his laugh. Kalani maybe liked him as a boyfriend.

“Maybe I deserved it,” he said.

“You did. But I’m sorry anyway.”

“Kiss and make up?” he said.

Kalani laughed that time and said, “No.”

She could feel his body tensing against hers, then turning, his face at the side of hers, lips at her cheek into a nice, sweet little kiss. The kind a loving boyfriend would have placed when he’d known he was still in a little trouble. When he didn’t want to assume too much or take too much.

“I didn’t know you were so stressed out,” he said.

“I’m not,” Kalani said. “But I am.”

“That sounds really annoying.”

“I know,” Kalani said, laughing. “I know I’m annoying. I’m a handful.”

“You certainly are,” he said, his hands groping at her playfully, climbing up around her, toward her chest before she swiftly knocked them away.

“No,” she said, “not a fun kind of handful. More like the quietly stewing, neurotic type of way. I think you’ve already seen some of that. Whatever it was that went down at the car mechanic’s shop. I don’t know . . .” Suddenly she felt a little awkward—half-naked and frail. Exposed to him in the dark of the cave. Up until now she’d tried to never let on about the extent of any weakness.

“We’re all a little neurotic,” Ethan said. “I’m a writer; I should know.”

“I know you are,” Kalani said.

“You know I’m what? A writer?”

“And a little neurotic,” she said, laughing, feeling him join in, too, a little. A nice, comfortable, soft laughter, comfortable against each other. They quieted down and became still, and Kalani said, “And a little sexy, too.”

“The sexy circus boy, huh? The human seal.”

“I suppose that was kind of neat,” Kalani said, “aside from how worried I was. But I meant everything else, the real stuff.”

“That was real.”

“The stuff like, how you saved my life in Hawaii. How you’ve been saving me ever since. That’s . . . that’s huge . . . that’s . . . I can’t even describe it and describe what it is about you.”

“Kalani,” he said, his voice dipping seriously again, “it’s simple. It’s love.”

It was.

It is.

How could it have been anything else? The way his body felt snug and perfect against hers. How thoughts of him lingered everywhere around her, in her. In dreams, in her bones. In other places.

“I might tease you,” Ethan said.

“What?”

“I might joke around, like tonight, but I could never leave you.” His hand had wandered up to the side of her face. It still felt cool from the water, long after her face had flushed with anxiety, and now, flushed with her want for him.

“I’m not going anywhere, either.”

Her want for his kiss was satisfied with a gentle lean forward, where they met again. The good type of contact. Not revenge kicking or strangulation. She felt almost sure that she would never have to do such things—and really mean them—ever again. Like he said, he might tease her. She could handle that. She grinned against his lips. She might do the same.

But now there was there was no teasing between them. No teasing of messages through newspapers, or clothes, their damp skin coming together and warming, and sticking, as he laid her back flat on a smooth portion of rock. She couldn’t see his face above her, not even the gleam in his eyes, since he faced the darkened end of the cavern. For once, it didn’t matter what was lurking unseen in the dark. She had Ethan with her, him and his surprise talents. He could take on anything. But right now she was focused more on how those eclectic talents could take on her.

He was saying something . . . it pulled her back into the moment.

“I know we probably shouldn’t do this, but . . .”

“Do what?” Kalani asked.

“But I mean we’ve already come out here, gone swimming, and we—”

“Ethan,” she said, sliding a finger across his face to his lips, silencing him, “Who cares?”

“They might care,” he murmured through her hand.

“No” she said. It was all she could think of saying, aside from yes to what she’d really wanted.

She slid a fingertip inside his mouth, wet and warm, and he sucked on her. His breath came out hard against the top of her hand as he enjoyed her.

When Kalani was certain he was finished talking, she removed her hand. She leaned up on her elbows, lifting herself off the rock and closer, and kissed very gently where her finger had been. The appetizer had made him hungry for her, and the kiss became not so gentle, and not so silent, her soft moan in the cave surprising her. It sounded foreign, otherworldly. It sounded like it came from the deepest part of the cave.

She was louder when his hand traveled between her legs, with enough pressure to wrench out another groan from the tightness in her chest. “Yes,” she whispered. “There. Right there.”

It occurred to her, earlier on, before Ethan had climbed on top of her, that the mouth of the cave would act like a sort of band shell, amplifying and broadcasting whatever sounds they made out into the night. It would be worse than the quarry walls, amplifying the sound of their passions. They would be like the rest of the animals out in the forest at night—not thinking, just doing. Ethan’s hand slipped underneath and into her bra, desperate for her breast. She helped him, unfastening the bra and letting it fall off her body as his other hand joined the first, his mouth on hers as he squeezed, as his thumbs circled her nipples. They’d been hard since the water, and the feeling of Ethan teasing them sent shudders of pleasure through her body.

From cold hands to a hot mouth, Ethan left their kiss to taste her, sucking and pulling at her nipple. She reached around him and slid off his shorts, no sight to any of it. Nothing but touch and the warm and close sounds of their breathing, their bodies moving together. Ethan’s shorts slid all the way down to his knees and his cock sprung loose, jutting against his abs and pressing against her hip. Clearly, the cold water and the knee to the groin had no lasting effects. Kalani reached down to grab ahold of him to be sure, grasping him firmly in her hand.

“Oh, good,” she whispered. “There you are.”

His lips came back to her neck, tongue all the way up to her chin, and then back down between her breasts. She ran her hand down the length of his erection, priming him more, sliding her hand under, deeper, to hold his balls in her palm. She squeezed ever so slightly as he quivered and groaned. “Oh, good,” she said again.

Something had changed in him, almost a low, guttural anger, some deep and quiet roar from the inmost parts of him. Then two hands were at her hips, pulling down her panties with the finesse of a savage. He’d just gotten them off one ankle before she spread her legs as widely as she could for him. Feeling his weight come on top of her, between her, feeling that warmth again, and then the heat of his cock pressing into her.

Two hands again, under her ass, lifting. His hips racing in harder. His cock, splitting her. Stretching. Burning back and forth until she could only tremble out a half whisper of the word “Good” that was just as unintelligible as any other of her gasps in the quarry’s freezing water. He made her gasp again as he moved deeper inside her and gained more and more of her for the taking.

“God, you’re so tight. Perfect,” Ethan grunted, almost shaking with effort. She could hear the strain in his whispered breathing as he thrust harder, struggling between giving her time to adjust and powering into her body the way he clearly wanted. God, she wanted it, too. She loved making him struggle that way, her favorite kind. She could tell Ethan wanted to lose all sense of himself and of her, and to lose any semblance of maintaining an even, workable rhythm. Something he could manage for the long haul. She liked it, what her body had done to him, how weakened she’d made him.

“Oh, God,” he said, finally admitting to it. A struggle, she knew. She’d already begun to lose herself in it.

The rock beneath her had been punishing for her back, certainly. The hard surface so random and spontaneous and not exactly conducive to their needs.

But it didn’t matter.

If he’d wanted her on that slab of rock, he would get her that way. Uncomfortably, yes. Uncomfortably full of him, hell yes. It was what she needed, too. After all this time, she didn’t mind how real and roughed up she felt under him. She clasped on to him, her hands at his sides and roaming down his body so she could feel the flex of his work, the torque of his work into her. Hands squeezing behind the smooth curves of his ass, more flexed muscle now, more tempo, a little more grunting from up in his chest.

“God, yes,” she groaned. She wanted it. She wanted him all.

He understood, shifting his hips to slide deeper still inside her and then thrust faster.

“Yes, fuck me . . .” The words were coming out free and so utterly without filter or logic.

Just as he’d begun to satisfy the desire, she felt a dramatic shift, a move to immense ecstasy. It was either her back going numb against the rock, or the next rush of endorphins—bigger than the last—that had spilled over to eclipse any sensation other than mind-numbing pleasure. It was her last valid thought, the distinct awareness that her mind was going numb. And then nothing. Just warmth. Just Ethan. Just her wrapped his legs over his back, and squeezing around him as she came, screaming his name.