Jay's pov:
He led me over to the couch, but the moment the screen lit up, it was clear the movie was a mere formality. Keifer wasn't watching the television. He was completely distracted, his attention entirely fixed on me, his eyes burning with the heavy, unresolved desire from earlier. The faint glow of the screen cast sharp shadows across his jawline as he leaned over, his fingers gripping my chin to tilt my face up to his.
"Now, where were we?" he murmured, his voice a low, gravelly vibration that sent a direct spark straight down my spine.
Before I could reply, his mouth crushed back down onto mine. This was a completely different level of intensity. The kisses were deep, heavy, and endless, a reckless storm of friction that had my head spinning. His hands slid under the hem of my shirt, his palms scorching hot against the bare skin of my waist as he pulled me onto his lap. I gasped against his mouth, a soft, involuntary moan escaping my throat, and Keifer swallowed the sound instantly, his grip tightening possessively on my hips.
The kiss went on and on, stretching into a dizzying, breathless eternity. His tongue swept through my mouth with an unyielding, territorial heat, shifting angles again and again to deepen the friction until my senses were entirely overloaded. I was drowning in the taste of him, the solid, unmoving weight of him pinning me down, the absolute dominance of his touch.
Then, my internal clock violently jarred back to life. Ten minutes. Jare was supposed to be at the bedroom window right now. The danger rushing toward us crashed back into my mind like a tidal wave.
Panic spiking, I wedged my hands against Keifer's broad chest and tried to pull away. I broke the seal of our lips, panting, trying to slide backward off his lap. "Keifer, wait—the coffee—"
But Keifer didn't let me.
With a low, gravelly growl of protest against my lips, his hand tangled firmly into the hair at the back of my head, locking me in place. His other arm wrapped around my lower back like a vice, lifting me higher, anchoring me flush against his massive frame so tightly I couldn't move an inch.
"Not yet, Wifey," he growled against my mouth, completely unyielding.
He pulled me back down into the abyss, his lips devouring mine all over again with a fierce, redoubled hunger that completely swallowed my protests. The kiss grew heavier, wetter, and devastatingly thorough, a relentless onslaught that turned my knees to water and made it impossible to think. Every time I tried to turn my head to get a breath of air, his grip tightened, his thumb tracing the sharp line of my jaw to keep me exactly where he wanted me. He claimed my mouth until I was entirely compliant, whimpering against his lips, completely trapped by his affection.
We kissed so much that the oxygen vanished from the room, our breaths mingling in a desperate, tangled rhythm. Keifer moved with a relentless, driving hunger, finally sliding his lips down my jawline to the sensitive dip where my neck met my shoulder. He sucked firmly against the skin, his teeth nipping fiercely before applying a hard, bruising pressure that made me gasp. I could feel the sharp sting of a mark forming—a dark, unmistakable hickey blooming against my pale skin.
The sharp sensation finally gave me the adrenaline I needed to break the spell.
"Keifer—seriously, stop," I panted, using all my strength to push back until he finally allowed a sliver of space between us. My heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs, a fresh spike of panic cutting through the haze of passion. "I spilled a little coffee on my shirt. And I left my notebook upstairs. I need to grab it before we get too comfortable."
Keifer groaned, his forehead resting against my collarbone as he tried to catch his breath, his eyes dark and heavy-lidded with desire. "You're killing me, Wifey. Don't take long, or I'm coming up after you."
"Five minutes," I promised, my voice trembling as I finally slid off his lap.
I bolted up the stairs, my knees shaking with a volatile mix of leftover adrenaline and sheer terror. The moment I entered the darkened bedroom, a soft silhouette materialized against the glass. The window slid open with a faint scrape, and Jare vaulted silently over the sill, landing lightly on the carpet.
"Jay," Jare breathed, rushing forward to grab my arms. His eyes scanned my face frantically in the dim light, checking for injuries, but his gaze immediately halted, locking onto the dark, prominent mark blooming on the side of my neck. His expression hardened into a mix of disbelief and intense frustration. "Are you serious right now? The monster is tracking us, he just threatened to turn your house into a graveyard, and you're in the middle of a hookup?"
"I had to act normal!" I hissed defensively, my voice a desperate whisper as I yanked my collar up to cover the mark, my face burning with shame. "He was suspicious, Jare! He didn't want to let me go. If I pushed him away too hard, he would have known something was wrong. He doesn't know about Katrina, he doesn't know about him. I am trying to keep him alive!"
Jare exhaled a sharp, angry breath, forcing his focus back to the immediate danger. He pulled out an encrypted tablet, the screen casting a pale blue glow over his sharp features. "We don't have time to argue about your love life. Look at this."
He tapped the screen, displaying a complex map overlayed with tracking data. "The burner number that texted you? It didn't just route through a local tower. The signal bounced off a private server hidden inside Aunt Katrina's old logistics network. The stepfather isn't just running from the shadows anymore, Jay. He's actively using her infrastructure to pinpoint exactly where you are. He knows you're here, and he knows Keifer is with you."
My stomach lurched violently. "How did he get access to her servers? We thought we locked them down."
"He had the master bypass keys all along," Jare whispered, his grip tightening on my arm as his twin instinct flared. "Listen to me very carefully. If he realizes Keifer is your anchor, he will use him to break you. You have to scrub any digital footprint connecting the two of you from this house's router immediately. If the stepfather sweeps the network again and sees Keifer's active devices synced with yours, he'll have a direct line to target him."
"Jay?"
Keifer's deep, booming voice suddenly echoed from the bottom of the staircase, the sound cutting through the silence of the second floor like a gunshot. The heavy tread of his footsteps began to vibrate against the stairs, moving upward.
"Wifey, you've been up there for more than five minutes. Do I need to come up and carry you back down?"
"Get out," I hissed at Jare, my heart doing frantic, violent backflips against my ribs. "Go, now!"
Jare didn't hesitate. He gave a grim, tight nod, shoved the encrypted tablet into his leather jacket, and melted back into the shadows of the open window sill.
The heavy, rhythmic thuds of Keifer's footsteps were already clearing the middle landing. The floorboards just outside my door groaned under his massive weight. I didn't have time to think. I didn't have time to fix my hair or smooth down the fabric of my shirt.
I bolted across the bedroom, ripped the door open, and threw myself straight out into the dim hallway, slamming the bedroom door shut behind me with a sharp click just as Keifer stepped onto the very top stair.
"Whoa there, Wifey," Keifer breathed, his large hands instantly coming up to catch my waist as I crashed directly into his broad, solid chest.
The sudden impact stole what little breath I had left. He stood a full head taller than me, blocking out the entire hallway, his broad shoulders casting a long shadow over the floorboards. The heat radiating off his body was an immediate, overwhelming force, contrasting violently with the icy terror sweating through my palms.
"I thought I heard you talking to someone," Keifer murmured, his amber eyes narrowing slightly as he scanned my face, his voice carrying a trace of lingering suspicion. He tried to look past me, his gaze shifting toward the closed bedroom door. "Is everything—"
"I was just talking to myself," I cut in quickly, my voice a breathless, frantic rush. I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck, standing on my tiptoes to forcefully pull his attention back to me. "Looking for that notebook. But then I realized... I don't care about the notebook anymore."