Chapter Sixteen
Talia wasn’t often scared. Not even when she locked up the bar, and the streets were empty.
Her pepper spray was always easy to reach, and the chunky silver knuckle ring her sister got her was usually snug around her finger.
A year ago, her dad had insisted she take a self-defense class.
The elbows, knees, fingers in sensitive places type of class, where she learned fifty ways to cripple a man with bad intentions.
Thankfully, she hadn’t had to use any moves.
Well, except for that one time when a drunk patron had leaned over the counter to help himself to a Coors Light straight from the tap like it was a public water fountain.
She’d shoved him back so hard he’d landed on the floor and bruised his coccyx.
But this was scary in a completely different sense. Terrifying actually.
As soon as they stepped off the beach, the forest had swallowed them whole.
Darkness pooled between the trunks, and the moon didn’t penetrate the canopy enough to put Talia at ease.
In fact, it was so dark that she could barely see Sabine walking two steps ahead, and she had to rely on her other senses.
“Are we crazy doing this?” Talia whispered as she extended an arm for the umpteenth time to feel Sabine’s waist. She didn’t know why they weren’t just holding hands.
It would be safer that way. But Sabine seemed eager to get somewhere and had taken to leading the way.
“What if there’s... I don’t know, something that can kill us? ”
“Like what?” Sabine asked, still trudging forward.
This really wasn’t as romantic as Talia had pictured in her mind.
She’d pictured silver moonlight slicing through palm leaves, fireflies blinking, Sabine pulling her closer and murmuring something devastatingly hot in her ear before they kissed against a tree that smelt like flowers.
She definitely hadn’t imagined her toes catching on roots, the air thick and damp, and the unwanted feeling of being blind.
“Snakes?” Talia replied. “Spiders. Flying monkeys. Or something bigger.”
“Something bigger,” Sabine repeated. “You mean like crocodiles?”
“Crocodiles?” Talia’s stomach did a slow, nauseating flop. She hadn’t even considered crocodiles. “Are you serious? Are there really crocodiles in the Philippines?”
“Relax,” Sabine said, leaning sideways to dodge a branch that Talia had narrowly missed, because, you know, she couldn’t see.
“The Philippine crocodile lives in freshwater, not the forest, and it’s critically endangered, so the chances are slim.
The saltwater crocodile, on the other hand, well, it’s probably snakes we have to—”
“Snakes!” Talia interrupted, her voice trembling. She tugged her sleeves over her wrists and tried not to think about the fact that something could quite possibly be slithering on the ground nearby. “Maybe we should go back.”
“It’s fine,” Sabine said. “Most snakebites happen when people try to handle them. Statistically speaking, there are about fourteen thousand snakebites annually in the Philippines, but only about two hundred fifty deaths.”
“That’s comforting,” Talia said, though it really wasn’t. Anything above one death seemed like a lot. Yet she kept her feet moving forward and her eyes on the back of Sabine’s head. “How do you know so much about this, anyway?”
“Animal Planet,” Sabine replied. “The TV in the Serenity Room has been stuck on that channel for years, and whenever I need a minute between traumas, I go sit on the sofa. The nurses let me as long as I don’t fall asleep.”
Talia snorted as she imagined Sabine sitting on a thread-worn sofa, leaning against the armrest with her legs crossed under her and her Crocs digging into the old cushions, watching a lioness chase down a wildebeest.
“And also, because we did that safety workshop before the game started. Remember? The same one where they showed us which plants are poisonous,” Sabine added.
“Right, I remember,” Talia said, barely remembering anything beyond the laminated chart of banana trees up on the wall.
They pushed deeper into the forest. By now, Talia’s eyes had gotten used to the darkness, and she could make out tree trunks leaning over the narrow path and the vines coiling around them like snakes.
But that didn’t stop her heart from leaping into her throat every time a leaf brushed against her calf, or she stubbed her toe against something.
She would shriek, beg to turn back, and Sabine would stick her hand out like it was a lighthouse in a thunderstorm.
Then the panic would dissolve, and Talia would feel brave enough until the next noise.
After what felt like ten years, but was actually less than ten minutes, something somewhere made a chilling noise.
Then something else clicked back.
Talia’s imagination immediately took off running. “Seriously, Sabine,” she spluttered as her heart beat frantically against her ribs. “I think we should stop. I think we’ve gone in far enough. There’s no way anyone is going to—”
But she didn’t even finish before Sabine turned and placed her hands on Talia’s face.
She kissed her. Her mouth was warm and firm on Talia’s. Then her tongue slipped between Talia’s lips, and Talia couldn’t help herself; she made a small, involuntary sound that could’ve been mistaken for a bird.
“What do you think made that noise earlier?” Talia asked softly, her heart still racing.
Frankly, she wasn’t sure if it was from the noise or this kiss.
Probably the kiss. Her fingers found the front of Sabine’s fleece shirt and fisted it.
Sabine’s hands went to Talia’s back and under her sweatshirt.
When her palms touched skin, Talia shivered.
“I didn’t think you’d be this scared,” Sabine whispered against her mouth.
“I’m not scared,” Talia muttered back, her breath so hot it rebounded. “I’m just careful. There’s a difference.”
“Is there?” Sabine said, her voice lightly sarcastic. Which Talia only tolerated because Sabine’s hands were moving forward toward her stomach.
“Yes, there is,” Talia replied. Then, before she could stop herself, she blurted, “Do you ever get scared when someone comes into the ER and they’re like really bad?
Like their leg is mangled, or their heart has stopped.
Does it ever freak you out, knowing they might die if you don’t do your job properly? ”
Sabine paused. Then she slipped her hands out from under Talia’s shirt. She didn’t step back. She didn’t move her head away either. But Talia knew she’d ruined the moment. And she hated herself passionately for it.
“Yes,” Sabine said softly. “Sometimes. But less than I used to.” She went still for a moment. Just for a moment. “During my first year of residency, a man came in after a highway pile-up. He had been on a motorcycle.”
Talia sucked in a breath.
“He was awake when they rolled him in. Talking, cracking jokes. He kept asking if his bike was okay. It wasn’t.
” She smiled faintly. Talia would’ve missed it if her face weren’t so close.
“Ten minutes later he crashed. Massive internal bleeding we couldn’t see yet.
” She looked past Talia into the dark as if the forest had turned into a memory.
“I remember standing there afterward, thinking he was just talking to me. I remember thinking I should’ve known.
..” She sighed. “The fear that someone’s life hinges on a call I make in under five seconds used to sit right in my throat.
It was hard to breathe. But now it’s quieter.
Not gone. Just folded up and out of sight. ”
Talia swallowed. “That would break me,” she admitted. “And somehow it didn’t break you.” She wanted to touch Sabine. She couldn’t imagine doing anything else. “How are you so strong?”
Sabine shook her head. “I’m not,” she said, then she ran a light finger over Talia’s shirt, over her nipple, and pressed her lips to Talia’s lips.
Talia melted into the kiss. Her breathing was uneven, and her heart was loud in her chest. Her hands grabbed the bottom of Sabine’s maroon sweatshirt and lifted until her stomach was exposed.
“You are strong,” she whispered. “You’re—” But she didn’t get the rest out because Sabine had just pulled at her lower lip and then dipped her tongue inside.
“Shh,” Sabine muttered against her mouth. “Let’s not talk anymore.”
Talia couldn’t agree more. No talking. She absolutely did not need to talk. But did that count moaning? Because of the way Sabine’s hand was moving over Talia’s chest, her palm pawing at her nipple, well, she wouldn’t have a choice, would she?
Sabine spun Talia around so quickly that she didn’t know what was happening until her back was against a tree. Then Sabine was lifting the woman’s T-shirt over her head. Talia wasn’t wearing anything underneath, and Sabine was grateful there was nothing standing in the way.
“Ohhh,” Talia moaned, closing her eyes.
Sabine had just wrapped her mouth around Talia’s nipple and flicked it with her tongue.
The feeling was so good that her knees wobbled.
Then Sabine pinned her harder against the tree, and a second later, Sabine pressed her thigh against Talia’s center, and she couldn’t help it; she tilted her head back against the tree and moaned.
“Now do you understand why I brought us all the way out here?” Sabine asked.
Under a sliver of moonlight, Talia could just see her face.
She was smiling. And that smile was everything.
The smile alone was worth every spider, every potential crocodile, and even every snake.
Although she’d prefer not to become a statistic.
Talia nodded and said, “I moan too loudly.”
“Because you moan too loudly,” Sabine laughed.
Then she kissed Talia hard on the mouth and pressed her thigh even harder against Talia’s center.
“Not that I mind.” Her hand smoothed up Talia’s stomach, and this time it was her fingers that found Talia’s nipples.
They swiped and pinched, and Talia responded by lifting her hips.
Which only made Sabine press all the more against her with her thigh.
Talia circled her arms around Sabine’s neck.
She wanted nothing more than to remove the doctor’s shirt completely so their breasts could meet.
.. but frankly, she was a little preoccupied.
Soon enough Talia was doing nothing but humping Sabine’s leg.
Sabine, on the other hand, was scraping Talia’s neck with her teeth.
It was dizzying and intoxicating. She was so close to coming that it was criminal.
But then Sabine pulled away––which had to be illegal––and Talia flicked open her eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Shh! No talking,” Sabine reminded her.
Talia was just about to protest when Sabine slid Talia’s shorts down to her ankles and knelt before her.
She kissed that tender spot where inner thigh met hip, and Talia whimpered pathetically.
Though there was nothing about it that was pathetic when Sabine’s tongue grazed the line of exposed skin just beside her panties.
And there was certainly nothing pathetic about her delirious moans when Sabine’s fingers were digging into her thighs just above her knees to part her legs so she could get a better position to do whatever she was about to do.
Her body agreed. She was soaked through her underwear.
And she was pretty sure Sabine felt it too because as soon as Sabine pressed her lips to the gusset of Talia’s panties, she smiled and did what Talia had wanted for ages now.
She pulled her underwear down her legs and nudged her feet to kick them and her shorts free.
“Fuck,” Talia muttered, more to herself than anything. She wasn’t sure what to do with her hands. But then Sabine puffed hot air against Talia’s center, and the only right place for them turned out to be against the tree, where she could grip at the rough bark until her nails nearly made an indent.
Sabine stuck out her tongue and slid a line all the way up Talia’s center.
Then she did it again and again, drawing out moan after moan from Talia’s lips.
Her tongue was slow at first, but then she picked up speed.
She kissed and licked and swirled. Talia followed every action with a roll of her hips until she was practically sitting on Sabine’s face.
Not that she cared. Not even when Sabine pulled away slightly.
Talia just assumed she needed a second to breathe, but that wasn’t the case at all.
Sabine used the space to dip a finger into Talia.
Then she added a second. She pumped her fingers in and out until Talia’s butt cheeks were on the verge of cramping from all the rolling.
Talia knew she didn’t have long. That delicious feeling was already swelling and swelling, threatening to take over.
And she was right. Sabine had just closed her mouth over Talia’s clit when her orgasm spread down her body all the way to her toes. She gave one last whimpering moan as it burned straight through her. “Oh. My. God!” Talia cried out and reached for Sabine’s head to stop her.
Sabine stood up and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She barely waited a second before she kissed Talia, who, for the first time in her life, tasted her own sex.
The whole thing was hotter than the blazing sun.
“We should probably get back before anyone notices,” Sabine said, moving her lips to Talia’s chin where she pressed them softly and lovingly against her skin. “Isla is a light sleeper, and I don’t want her thinking we’ve gone off to scheme.”
“Would you rather have her thinking the truth?”
Sabine contemplated this for a second. “Yes,” she said and laughed.