Derek

I’m woken up by a sharp gasp from Erin, who was asleep next to me in her bed.

“What is it?” I mumble, groggy.

“I need to go check on him.” She throws the covers aside, gets up, and grabs her clothes from the chair near the bed.

I glance at the only light in the room, the glowing numbers on the digital clock. “It’s three a.m., babe. Bryce is in the bunk room with him.”

“Yeah, but he’s sleeping.” She shimmies into her panties, and I’m woken all the way up just from watching her. “I just need to go see that he’s okay.”

“You want me to go?”

“No, it’s okay.” She pulls on her shorts and buttons them, then leaves the room.

I turn over onto my back and stare at the ceiling. We’ve been down here for two months now. The football season is in full swing, with some other quarterback at the helm of my team. I never thought my career would end this way, with me seemingly disappearing off the face of the planet before I set the record I’ve been chasing.

But I live a new normal now, and every day I see Matias is a day I’m fucking grateful for my health. I don’t think about what I don’t have anymore.

He’s in really rough shape. The rest of us don’t talk about it, but we all know. He could slip away at any moment. He barely has the energy to drink the water I bring him anymore. It’s been more than a week since he’s been out of bed to walk. Bryce and I have even been helping him use the bathroom from bed.

I cover my eyes with my forearm. It’s brutal, seeing such a good person dying so young. Matias should have the whole world in front of him. With a new kidney, he could’ve had a long, happy life.

Erin comes back into the room and closes the door. She gets into bed still fully clothed and crawls over to me, her face wet when she lays it on my bare chest. I put my arms around her and kiss the top of her head. There’s nothing I can say to ease this pain.

“Bryce is up,” she says softly. “He was sitting in the chair next to the bed crying, and when I saw him, I thought…”

I cringe. “Damn. Matias is okay, though?”

“He’s breathing. I think Bryce is just having a hard time seeing him this way.”

“I think we all are.”

Erin sniffles. “Even Kenna’s being nice to him when he’s awake.”

“You gonna be able to go back to sleep?” I ask her. “You take over with Matias at eight, don’t you?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll be okay.”

I slide my hand beneath her tank top, running my palm over her warm, flat stomach.

“You want me to take your mind off it?” I murmur against her skin.

She hums her approval. “That would be nice.”

“Nice?” I grunt in response. “It was more than just nice a few hours ago. You pulled about half the hair out of my head.”

She laughs. “Sorry, I forgot I have to manage your ego.” She clears her throat. “That would be mind-blowing at a level I’ve never dared dream, Derek.”

I lean up on an elbow and look down at her amused expression. “Someone’s asking for a spanking.”

She arches her brows. “Ooh, someone definitely is.”

The tears on her face dry as I slowly strip away her clothes, kissing every inch of skin as I expose it. Erin’s breathing gets heavy as I pull her on top of me, slapping her ass just hard enough to make her gasp.

During our nights in bed, the rest of the world melts away. I forget I’m in the bunker, and I even forget about Matias’s suffering. It’s just Erin and me, losing ourselves in each other until we pass out in exhausted sleep.

I make her come hard and fast with my mouth, then long and slow with my fingers. Instead of falling back asleep, though, she gives me a toe-curling blow job. Though she claims she’s not good at any of this, she’s really fucking good. It’s not just the physical feel of her that always pushes me over the edge, but knowing it’s Erin—the strong but tender woman who doesn’t see me as Derek Heaton, but just as Derek.

I’ve never had a chance to know if a woman could want me for myself. It feels really damn good, especially since I want Erin back with a fierceness I’ve never felt before.

We’re in a relaxed after-state of bliss when the alarm goes off to tell us it’s seven a.m. We leave the secret world that only exists for us then, me going to the kitchen to brew coffee, while she goes to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

Bryce’s eyes are swollen and red when he comes out of the bunk room for coffee. I put a hand on his shoulder.

“You okay, man?”

He sighs heavily. “Kid’s only nineteen years old. It’s just so wrong.”

“I know. He deserves a hell of a lot better than this.”

Bryce pours a mug of coffee and sits down at the table, looking lost in his thoughts. I take peanut butter and crackers out of a kitchen cabinet and start making breakfast. My shift with Matias starts at eleven, and I need to get in a good workout and shower by then.

I’m also planning a surprise for him. When I was going through his tools, I found a remote-control car in his tool bag. I put fresh batteries in it, and I’m hoping to bring him out to the couch so he can drive it around the great room. If he’s up for it, it might give him a smile.

I make enough crackers and peanut butter for everyone and leave a platter of them on the table, then bring Erin some coffee and Matias his first water of the day. I give him around eight ounces, which is more than usual. I’m hoping it might give him a little extra energy.

And so our day begins. Erin stays with Matias, even before it’s time for her shift. I squeeze her shoulder on my way out of the room, and she sends me a quick, sweet smile.

When I step out of the bathroom after my shower a couple hours later, Kenna is leaning against the wall next to her bedroom.

“Hey, can I talk to you?” she asks, pushing away from the wall.

“Sure.”

Bryce is watching TV on the couch, so I follow Kenna into her bedroom since she must want privacy, and she closes the door.

She ditched the coat part of her suit a couple weeks in. Now she wears her dark purple skirt and a silky looking sleeveless shirt she had on under the jacket the day we got trapped down here. The heels have been abandoned too.

“What’s up?” I ask.

She sits on the edge of the unmade bed and looks at me in silence for a couple seconds. I stand in front of the closed door, crossing my arms as I wait for her to speak.

“I’m not even sure how to say this.” She puts her hands in her lap and sighs. “I guess I’ll just put it out there.”

“Okay.”

“Did I do something to offend you?”

I furrow my brow, confused. “No, what makes you think that?”

“You hardly even acknowledge my existence anymore.”

Shit. I don’t know how to respond to that.

“I’m not that bad, am I?” Her voice shakes as she continues. “I mean, I’ve won some pageants. Done some modeling gigs.”

I open my mouth to respond, but she cuts me off.

“I just—it feels like you’re pissed at me, the way you’re carrying on with the crazy girl and completely ignoring me.”

“Erin’s not crazy.”

Kenna’s eyes widen with surprise. “Really? That’s your response to what I’m saying?”

“Erin and I like each other.”

“Yeah, but…I like you too. And I can’t believe you’d pick her over me.”

I shift, uncomfortable. “I never saw it like that. This thing with Erin and me…it just happened.”

“Why can’t a thing with you and me just happen?”

Fuuuuuck. I hate these kinds of conversations. There’s no way it can end without Kenna feeling rejected.

“It’s never been like that between us,” I say.

“I know, because I worked for you. But everything’s different down here. We’re free to see if there’s something more between us now.”

“I just don’t feel that way for you, Kenna. I’m sorry.”

She scrunches her face and cries then, and I feel like an epic asshole. But there’s really not a way to let a woman down without feeling this way.

“Just go,” she says through her tears.

“Hey, I—”

She puts up a hand to silence me. “I’m fine. Just go. Keep banging the crazy grocery girl, asshole.”

I press my lips closed to keep myself from responding. She’s just hurt. I hope it’ll pass, because the five of us have to live together.

That was awkward as hell. I sit on the other end of the couch from Bryce, watching the Western he has on to get my mind off the conversation I just had with Kenna.

Did she have her eye on me this whole time? Before we even ended up down here? If she did, I never saw it. If I had, I wouldn’t have kept her on as my assistant.

It must’ve looked to the outside world like I hired a hot woman to be my assistant so I could get with her whenever I wanted, but nothing is further from the truth. I hired Kenna because she came highly recommended and did a great job.

Now she’s calling me an asshole. That bridge has been burned. But then, so has every other aspect of the life I had before I got trapped down here.