Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty Two
Courtney
Landon excuses himself from the hot tub pretty much immediately, while I continue floating. Honestly, I don’t know what to do or say. We got way too caught up in the moment, and once the orgasm haze lifted, my only defense mechanism was to float away. Solid tactic.
Luna and Shane appear. They got to go on their bonus date, or whatever they’re calling it, for winning the challenge, and they’re both looking entirely too lovey and glowy.
If I didn’t love this for them, it would make me sick.
I’m shipping them hard, though. Not just for the show but for life off the island.
If you didn’t already know they’d just met here, you’d think they’d been together for years.
“Hey, lovebirds,” I call out from the hot tub.
They stop in their tracks and change direction, heading over to me, all smiles and stars in their eyes.
“What’s up, bitch?” Luna replies.
“Just hanging out. What about you?” I say with a casual smile, like I didn’t just get finger-fucked within an inch of my life. By Landon of all people. Plot twist!
I know we agreed to play it up for the cameras and stuff, but I know for a fact they won’t be able to use that footage.
Which means it was definitely in the name of making Noah jealous.
Good. Little fucker could use some humbling.
I can’t deny the small voice in my head, though, questioning if I did all of that just to get back at Noah.
Maybe a tiny part of me had a good time…
I mean, Landon is objectively hot as fuck. Who wouldn’t have a good time?
“We just finished doing some confessionals after our date,” Luna says, smiling as Shane wraps an arm around her shoulder and kisses the side of her head.
“Ooh, what did they have planned for your date?” I ask.
“Oh my gosh, it was amazing. We went on this car ride. Well, it wasn’t really a car,” Luna says. “Like a four-wheeler. It took us up into the woods, and we got to see a ton of wildlife and have a picnic in a tree house.”
“I don’t know where the fuck we are. I swear to God I saw a python!” Shane adds in excitedly.
“What?” I ask.
Luna rolls her eyes. “Don’t listen to the drama queen over here. It was a vine.”
“With fangs?” he throws back.
She sighs, and he laughs.
“I promised her I’d make some late-night snacks. You in?” Shane offers.
I smile and nod. “You know I’ll never turn down a snack.”
I crawl out of the hot tub and wrap a towel around myself, then Shane and Luna lead the way. Water’s still pouring off me, but that’s what drip-drying involves, right?
When we make it inside, Savannah and Noah are loved up on the couch. As soon as their eyes meet ours, though, Savannah practically drags Noah out of the room. He cranes his neck to keep his eyes on me, and honestly, I can’t imagine what for. Didn’t he get enough of me for the night?
Shane shakes his head in Noah’s direction before sliding into the kitchen. “What will it be, ladies?”
Luna smiles. “Surprise us!”
He gives her a quick wink before rifling through the fridge and pulling out ingredients. Luna and I each take a seat at the kitchen island, then lean our heads together and whisper.
“How did tonight go?” I ask.
She gives me a deliriously happy smile. “Dude, so good. I swear, all we do is laugh when we’re together. When we aren’t screwing each other’s brains out.”
Ah, yes. The perfect combination.
“I feel like I’ve known him forever. We’re just like, best friends.” She grins.
“Um, rude,” I retort with a faux-angry eye roll.
She pushes my shoulder with hers. “Shut up, bitch,” she replies, a little louder. “You know you’re always gonna be my girl.”
“I don’t know, seems like I’m getting replaced. If you hate me, just say so,” I tease.
Luna laughs, then shakes her head. “Whatever. You know there’s no getting rid of me now. We’re only a few hours from each other out in the real world. You know what that means?” Luna asks.
“Enlighten me.”
“It means girls’ night, once a week minimum. We can stuff our faces with street tacos and drink Cadillac margaritas until we can’t walk.” Luna smirks mischievously.
I laugh. “Sounds great, but how will we get home?”
“I volunteer to shoulder that great burden,” Shane says, raising the spatula in his hand to the air. “I mean, you’re saying I get to throw two beautiful women over my shoulders and take them home? What a hardship.” He smirks.
We laugh at him, and I let out a soft sigh as Luna looks back to me.
“What about you and Landon? You guys are giving off the energy that you don’t want to maim one another now, or at least not as much.”
“A little less,” I agree. “We’ve found some… mutual ground,” I say cryptically.
You know, like how we mutually enjoyed dry-humping the shit out of each other in the hot tub. Wait, if it’s in a hot tub, is that still considered dry-humping? There was nothing dry about that water or me, let me tell you.
“That’s good. It’s one step closer to hate-fucking.”
I laugh. “What is it with you and hate-fucking?”
“I want it for you so badddd. You deserve it!” she says, stretching out her arms on the table and looking at me empathetically.
Shane places down two plates of French toast before us, then dusts them with powdered sugar.
“Dude, are you a chef or something? Because if not, you should be,” I say, shaking my head before I take a huge bite.
“One day maybe,” Shane says, smiling as he tosses a kitchen rag over his shoulder in a totally cliché move.
“He’s going to open up a breakfast café and name it Luna’s,” Luna jumps in.
I smirk. “Oh yeah?”
Shane rolls his eyes but doesn’t fight a smile of his own. “So she says.”
Luna takes a bite of her French toast and winks at me before diving into a very thorough argument covering why he should absolutely name a café after her.
My eyes flutter open in the dark, and the first thing I see is the ceiling fan gently spinning in a circle.
It takes me a moment to place where I am.
My bedroom. When I came to bed, Landon was already passed out, thankfully on his side, so I had enough room to slide in.
Just like the other night, as soon as I lay down, he wrapped his arms around me, almost like it was instinctual. I definitely didn’t hate it.
A soft tap sounds on the door, and I turn my head in that direction, waiting another couple of seconds to see if I’m just hearing things, but it happens again. Definitely not hearing things.
I carefully unwind Landon’s arm from around me before slipping out of the bed. Running my fingers through my hair, I let out a big yawn as I open the door. The person on the other side is the last I would have expected.
“Noah?” I whisper softly.
Unlike me, he looks like he’s been up for hours. His eyes have deep, dark circles beneath them, his clothes are rumpled and his hair is mussed like he’s run his fingers through it a million times.
“Can we talk?” he asks, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
I look at him like he’s crazy because seriously, what the fuck?
“No. It’s late. Goodnight,” I say as I go to close the door.
Noah grabs my wrist, stopping me in my tracks, and places his other hand on the door to keep it open. “Please. I need to say this… please,” he replies almost desperately.
I don’t know why I agree. Maybe I’m keen for some sort of closure. Maybe I want to see him beg a little. Or maybe I’m just too fucking tired to argue.
I gesture for him to lead the way, and he nods gratefully, then takes a step away from the door so I can step out fully. The door shuts behind me, and Noah begins leading me towards the living room when I stop.
“Here is fine,” I say, crossing my arms.
He pauses and looks around. “In the hallway?”
I nod, and he looks like he’s about to argue with me before he shakes his head and sighs.
“Look, I just… I never got the chance to apologize,” he says.
I wait for him to continue, but he doesn’t. I stare at him for several seconds before I scoff.
“Okay, an apology usually starts with ‘I’m sorry’ or something else with that meaning.”
He nods quickly and rubs the back of his neck once more. “I know, I know. I just… shit. I fucked up bad. I hurt you. I don’t even know why I did it. I guess I wanted to make sure I wasn’t making a mistake by locking in with the first girl I saw.”
Wow. If this is his version of an apology, he’s doing a remarkably terrible job.
“Looking back, I realize how stupid that sounds. What you and I had… it was so natural. So easy, and I blew it. I’m so sorry I let my head cloud what my heart knew from the moment I saw you.”
Oh my God. This guy thinks I’m a total idiot or something. Oh no, wait. He doesn’t know that the crew showed me the video of him and Savannah. He thinks I assume he left me to follow his heart, not his dick. And now he’s trying to gaslight me into believing this spoon-fed shit? Fuck that.
“You let the little head in your pants cloud what you thought you knew,” I say with my head held high.
Noah opens his mouth, but I shake my head and hold my hand up.
“Don’t even try to deny it. I saw the footage of you and Savannah before the locked-in ceremony.
You made a decision, now stick to it. If she’s satisfied whatever you were looking for, or you’ve run out of shit to talk about, that’s not my problem. ”
His face pales, and I can see he’s trying to come up with anything and everything he could possibly say to excuse it all away. It won’t work, though. I’m not even remotely interested in whatever the hell he wants to try selling me.
Shaking my head, I turn on my heel and head for my room. What a fucking joke. Interrupting my sleep for this? Wars have been started over less. Probably. I don’t know. There have been a lot of stupid reasons that wars have begun, so I’m sure it’s true.