Chapter Twenty-Four - OLLIE
Walking into the bike garage is like going home. All growing up this was the smell I knew best. Oil, and transmission fluid, and brake dust. I love it.
“So,” I say, placing my hands on Kat’s hips and swaying her a little. “Which bike should we fuck on?”
“Hmmm,” she says, biting her fingernail. “That one?”
She points to an old motorcycle that looks like no one’s ridden it in years. It’s a Shrike Bike, one my father made some time before I was born probably. And it’s got dusty ravens on the side.
Katja walks over to it and brushes off the gas tank with her fingers. “Shrike Rook,” she says, reading the fancy painted script. “As in Rook, your aunt?”
I bend down to look at the old bike. “Hmmm, I’ve never seen this bike in person, but I’ve seen pictures of it. I think it was my mom’s, but my dad said he wrecked it.”
“Doesn’t look wrecked to me.” She laughs.
“No, me either. I bet he lied. To make sure she didn’t ride it. I’ve heard stories about my mom in her younger days. She was wild. I can totally picture my dad smuggling it out here to Five’s island to hide it away.”
Katja lets her fingers linger on the tank, taking off more dust as she walks around it. “Why not just sell it?” she asks.
“Sell it? No way will my father ever sell this bike. It’s special. This was the first bike he ever built. And I think it had something to do with meeting my mom. But then… I remember seeing it in one of the old Shrike Bikes episodes. Back when he was doing the reality show. He gave it to Rook, gave it a new paint job, and then she sold it to my mom after Ronin told her she wasn’t allowed to ride it either.”
Kat laughs. “You men. So worried about us.” But she’s being playful and her fingertips are walking up my button-down shirt, unbuttoning it as she goes.
“It’s our job to worry,” I say, loving her attention. “For instance… I’m kinda worried about you right now.”
“Me?” she says, looking up as she slides my shirt down over my shoulders. “Why are you worried about me?”
I slip my hands inside her tank top and flatten my palms against the curve of her waist. Loving how warm she is. “Because I think you’re sad. I think you’re missing your sister. And wishing your parents were here to see you get married.”
She nods, frowning for a moment. “I am missing them. A whole lot, Oliver. But I’m trying not to think about it. I’m trying to remember that I’ve got a whole new set of friends to help me now. And Mariel is still here. So I’m thankful for that. And your sisters—while a little scary at times—will help.”
“They’d do anything for you, Katja. Anything.”
She nods, letting my shirt drop to the floor so she can place her bare hands flat against the muscles of my chest. “I know.”
She says it like she’s not sure. I’m sure, but I know them. I know the fierce loyalty that glues us all together. She’s just seen a little bit of that loyalty so far. But one day… one day she’ll have a problem and need help. And my sisters will come through for her in a way she can’t even imagine right now. One day she’ll understand.
Just not today, I guess. And that makes me sad. Because I want everything about this wedding to be perfect for her. I pick up my shirt, dust off the seat and tank of the bike, then lay her back on it.
She smiles, biting her lip. Because if she wants to fuck on a bike, she’s gonna get fucked on a bike.
“Are you ready for more?” I ask, unable to stop the sly smile creeping up my face.
“Gimme more,” she whispers, reaching for the button on my shorts. She pops it open and unzips the fly as I straddle the bike and maneuver my body over hers.
I lean down and kiss her lips, pulling her shirt up as I do it. My hands rest on her breasts, gently rolling them in my palms as my cock grows hard with want.
Her mouth is sweet and her tongue is cool. I kiss her gently, even though I know she’s as tough as any girl I’ve ever met. I want to treat her carefully. The way she deserves to be treated. I want to erase all those bad years and replace them with goodness. Kindness and love.
“I never thought I’d find a woman like you.”
“What kind of woman am I?”
“Perfect.”
“No one’s perfect, Oliver.”
“Except you,” I say. “You’ve got it all. Beauty. Intelligence. Common sense.”
“I did fall in love with you,” she says, smiling. “That might’ve been the best move yet.”
“You falling in love with me was my luckiest break ever. You changed all my plans, Katja Shrike.”
She giggles. “I can’t believe we’re getting married.”
“We are,” I say. “And tomorrow is gonna be the most beautiful day. And we’re gonna spend forever and ever and ever connected to each other. Eternity,” I say.
“Eternity, huh?” she asks.
I kiss her soft, sweet mouth again. Whispering, “Infinity, baby,” right into her soul.
She grabs my cock and holds me. Tight. I close my eyes and let the throbbing take over. The want and longing I have for her is indescribable.
So we decide no more words are necessary.
I pull on her shorts and she lifts and bends her legs, pressing them together so I can pull them off. And then she opens for me, the inside of her knees rubbing against the outside of my thighs as I gaze down at her wet pussy.
She takes my cock out, pumping me slowly. I exhale, wanting more from her, just like she wants more from me. I want to do everything to her right now. Push my cock down her throat. In her pussy. Her ass. Eat her out, suck her clit, put my fingers inside her. Fuck her from behind, from above, from below.
And like she’s reading my mind, she whispers, “We’ve got eternity, remember?”
I remember. So I go slow. I let her go slow too. I ease upward, position myself right in front of her entrance, and fill her up as I stare into her eyes.
She closes them for a moment. But just a moment. Like even she knows we’ve got so many more moments coming, but they will be perfect—too good to miss even a single one.
“You’re my everything, Katja.”
“And you’re mine.”
We don’t fuck like animals. Or have the wildest sex of our lives. Maybe we’ll do that later, maybe next year, or next lifetime, who knows? But this time right now, we stretch time out. We break all the rules of physics as we move together like we’re just a single person now. Like Oliver and Katja cannot exist alone ever again.
And I hear that song in my head. Our song. She gives me more… and more… and more…
We come together.
As one.
Because that’s the only way we can possibly exist.
Later, after we pull ourselves apart, we gas up the two adult-sized dirt bikes and head out to the stables for the next leg of our perfect day. The sun is shining and the temperature is rising, and honestly, everything about this day is bliss.
Cindy goes galloping past us on a pony as we head down, and I look over my shoulder to see if she wants us to stop and talk, but she’s already disappeared around a bend in the road.
No idea what my baby sister is up to, but she’s not with Pax, so fuck it. That, at least, makes me happy.
When we get to the stables, we saddle up an old draft horse and ride double down to the marina. I haven’t ridden double since I was a little kid, and I definitely don’t remember loving it this much. But Katja, who it turns out has never ridden before, presses herself into my back as I lead us down the hill. She rests her chin on my shoulder, and wraps her arms around my middle, and we rock with the rhythm of a swaying back and the music of clopping hooves. She talks about the island, and the wedding, and her dress—which she is so excited to try on later tonight and see what alterations Rory has made.
I hang on every word. I can’t get enough of her sweet voice in my ear. Her soft breath ruffling the tiny hairs of my neck.
We leave the horse in a pasture to graze and decide we’d rather snorkel than dive—because who has time for diving gear? And neither of us want to be that covered up. Her bikini is a light tangerine color, and her hair is up in some makeshift bun, and she’s got dirt and dust from the old bike smeared across her cheek before we dive in, but I think she’s never looked more beautiful. So I burn that image of her in my mind, and we hold hands and jump off the dock, and then we swim over the secret world that lives below the surface and… and it’s perfect.
This island is paradise and I wish we could stay here forever and never go back to real life. Like Five and Rory did. Raise a little family out here on the beach and pretend we’re the only two people on the planet.
When we’re tired and we’ve seen all the fish, we drag ourselves out of the water, feeling heavy and sedated. And we take the boat over to the little sandy island and plop down on a blanket under a palm tree shaped like an umbrella. I feed her muffins from the picnic we packed, and we drink bottles of exotic water, and she falls asleep in my arms once or twice, or maybe a couple dozen times.
That’s where we are now. Living in bliss.
“Should we go back?” she asks me, her words low, and throaty, and filled with satisfaction. “Won’t your family be here soon?”
“Sure,” I say. “We can. But man, this is the life, right?”
“It’s the best getaway ever,” she agrees. “I’d like to come back some day. When life gets to be too much, this is where we should come.”
“I could live here,” I say, my eyes still closed. “It’s fucking perfect.”
“Could you really, though?” she asks.
“Could I really what?”
“Live here.”
“Hell, yes.” I laugh.
“Wouldn’t you get bored?” she asks.
“Bored? Nah, there’s so much do.”
“Yeah,” she agrees. “But we did it all, right? I mean, realistically, what more is there to do here? We rode the bikes, the horse, saw the reef, and rested on the most perfect island. But there’s more to life than downtime, right?” She props herself up on one elbow and smiles at me. “Like shopping.”
I laugh. “Yeah, I mean, the grocery store is kinda far.”
“So far! And what if you wanted like… a bubble bath? And you’re out of bubbles. You’d have to plan your bubble baths. Or what if you wanted to see a movie? Not a DVD, but a movie?”
“Five has a satellite,” I say. “Pay-per-view, I guess.”
“So I guess date nights are out?”
“I guess,” I say, frowning. “But this is a pretty good date, don’t you think?”
“The best,” Kat says, leaning over to kiss my lips. “The very best date ever. But…” She hesitates. “Forget about dates, then. What if we got sick? Or one of us got hurt? It’s a long helicopter ride to Nassau, and I’m not entirely sure what kind of hospitals they have there, but I’d bet we’d have to go to Miami if something really went wrong. That’s kinda scary, right?”
“Yeah,” I say, thinking it over.
“And your family would be so far away. It’s like five hours by plane. So far. Wouldn’t you miss them?”
“I would,” I admit. “Call me a mama’s boy if you want, but I like living close to my parents. And my sisters, crazy as they are.”
“So don’t you ever wonder if…”
She’s silent for a few seconds. And when she doesn’t add to that, I ask, “Wonder what?”
“Don’t you ever wonder if Rory doesn’t think of this place more as a… prison? Than a paradise?”
“What?” I laugh. “No. She’s with Five.”
“And that’s all she needs?”
“Yeah,” I say. “They’re like—”
“Soulmates. I know. You told me that already. And I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, Oliver, because you and I are soulmates too, but if I had to live on this island for so many years, with no chance to have my own life apart from yours, I’d go crazy. Absolutely crazy.”
I don’t know what to say to that. At first I’m kinda pissed off. But she makes sense, so I dial down my anger and stew in it for a little bit.
“I’m just saying that… well, you know Pax didn’t steal Cindy from you. It was Five who stole Rory. It’s Five you’re really mad at.”
“No,” I say, not laughing at all now.
“Maybe not,” she says, standing up and brushing sand off her body. I watch her put her bikini back on, then tie the strings of her top when she turns her back to me. “Maybe I’m totally wrong about that.” She smiles and extends her hand. I take it and she pulls me to my feet. “But then again, maybe I’m not.”
I think about that the whole way back to the island.
Am I mad at Five? Am I… what do they call it? Transferring my anger at losing Rory onto Pax for falling in love with Cindy?
I pull the boat up to the dock and Kat jumps out to tie it up. She talks about stuff as we make our way back to the bungalow to shower, change, and get ready for the parents to arrive.
But I can’t stop thinking about it now.
Is Rory happy? Is this paradise? Or is this just a prison Five’s locked her in?
Is she Rapunzel? Is this island just another tower made to hold a princess?
Has she been miserable all this time? Has she been waiting for one of us to save her? Is this why she’s got her twins testing? While everyone's here? So they will take up her fight and convince Five to let her leave?
I feel sick.
Utterly sick.