Chapter Nine
Valerie had no idea what she was doing. Or maybe she did. Maybe she was more sane than she wanted to admit. Maybe she’d known that following Adrienne across the beach to the rocks would lead to this all along. Maybe she’d even subconsciously manifested this.
Was it a mistake? Definitely. But did Valerie let go of Adrienne’s hand while she led her into a rather dense cluster of Aleppo pines with needles so thick overhead that light broke through in shards? Absolutely not.
Before Valerie could even truly consider their surroundings, Adrienne turned on her and caught her by the waist. Then she pressed Valerie’s back against the trunk of a pine tree, and Valerie let out a raspy gasp as it scraped against her shoulder blades.
Not that she minded. If anything, Valerie barely felt it.
Adrienne’s lips on her throat were all-consuming. It was all she could think about.
“I hate that I want you this much,” Valerie muttered before she could help herself. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think Adrienne’s mouth was truth serum. “I hate that I’ve spent so much time thinking about you since that weekend.”
There was a split second where Adrienne stopped kissing, and Valerie felt the shift immediately. There was the faintest hesitation that made panic spark hot and white beneath Valerie’s ribs.
Shit!
She’d said too much. She’d gone and ruined the moment.
But then Adrienne captured Valerie’s lips, and a second later, her tongue slipped into Valerie’s mouth. She tasted like grapes. Salt lingered in Adrienne’s hair from the sea breeze, and her skin was silky and warm.
Valerie dragged her fingers down the sides of Adrienne’s neck and planned to move them all the way down when Adrienne pulled back.
“How badly do you want me?” she asked. Her voice had dropped so softly that Valerie wondered if she’d imagined it.
But the sudden, tight grip of Adrienne’s hands on Valerie’s waist proved she hadn’t.
“I’ve been dreaming of this,” Valerie admitted, leaning in until their lips almost brushed.
“I dreamed about dragging you out into the surf late at night when everyone’s sleeping just to taste the saltwater on your skin.
I dreamed about sneaking off with you into the forest, finding a tree exactly like this one where I could pin your wrists above your head and kiss every soft, ticklish part of your arms. I even dreamed about going down on you at the watering well. ”
Adrienne let out a little gasp that told Valerie that if she were to slide her fingers between Adrienne’s thighs, she’d find a satisfying wetness.
Instead of testing out the theory, Valerie spanned her fingers across Adrienne’s ribs until her thumb touched the swell of Adrienne’s breasts.
All that stood between them was a flimsy nylon bikini the color of ink.
A quick tug of the strings could dissolve it easily.
But then Valerie hesitated. She’d spent nearly two months imagining this moment, completely torn between her undeniable infatuation for Adrienne and deep dislike for everything Adrienne stood for.
What if this was a mistake? And even worse than that...
what if reality couldn’t live up to the fantasy?
Fuck it, Valerie thought. She’d deal with the repercussions later.
Right here, want was overriding every single ounce of logic left in her brain.
She smoothed her hand up to Adrienne’s neck, found the end of one of the strings, and with a flick of her wrist, pulled it apart.
The bikini top slipped down to expose smooth skin and nipples so peaked they would surely leave an impression in Valerie’s palm.
The thought was intoxicating. Valerie’s hand was on Adrienne’s breast before either of them could let out a moan.
Then Valerie squeezed tenderly before tugging gently at her nipple.
Then again. But less gently. And again and again until Adrienne let out a feral sound that reverberated off the nearest rocks.
Valerie hadn’t expected it, and it seemed neither had Adrienne.
She flicked her eyes open, looked sheepishly at Valerie, and said, “I’ve always had sensitive nipples. ”
Valerie chuckled and was just about to slip her hands under the waistband of Adrienne’s shorts because she was desperate to feel her wetness when Adrienne slid down to the ground. And as she slid down, she pulled down Valerie’s shorts until they pooled at her ankles.
Before Valerie could consider the very real possibility of a lone cameraman lurking about, Adrienne kissed her belly button. Then her lips travelled to the front of her panties, then just a little lower... and lower.
But Valerie needed more than just Adrienne’s tongue against the fabric.
And it seemed Adrienne read her mind, because suddenly, she had her thumbs in the sides of Valerie’s panties and was yanking them down.
Valerie stepped just a little wider, and the next second Adrienne was there.
She slid her tongue between Valerie’s folds, then licked a stripe up the length of her.
Valerie had just managed to grab the sides of the tree before her knees buckled.
Then Adrienne closed her mouth over Valerie’s clit.
Fuck!!
Adrienne wrapped her arms around Valerie’s thighs like a snake.
Her nails bit into Valerie’s skin, and then she swirled her tongue in a way that had Valerie panting.
When Valerie didn’t think her arousal could build anymore, Adrienne stopped sucking and tilted her head up.
Her denim-blue eyes caught Valerie’s eyes for a moment.
Then, while keeping that eye contact, Adrienne stuck out her tongue and closed the gap until there was no more space between them.
But all she had to do was merely touch Valerie’s clit before that orgasm crashed down on her louder than any waves crashing against the shore.
Valerie wanted to crumple into a heap of broken china.
She even considered slumping down, catching her breath for a second.
But a second was too long to wait. Instead, she grabbed Adrienne by the waist and spun her around.
A little too hard, in fact. “Sorry,” she mouthed as Adrienne got her wind back.
When she did, Valerie was kneeling.
She went one step further—not that it was a competition, but if it were, she was winning—and guided Adrienne’s right leg over her shoulder, opening her up like petals facing the sun.
If Adrienne had been expecting her tongue to immediately slide through her folds, she was surely mistaken.
Valerie believed in making women wait for that.
Her fingers dipped in first. Adrienne was so wet that two slipped in easily, and then she added a third.
Adrienne’s hand shot out and gripped Valerie’s wrist, and before Valerie knew it, they were in a dance.
Valerie thrust her fingers in and out while Adrienne bucked her hips.
Adrienne’s head lolled back against the tree while Valerie kept her mouth a finger’s distance from Adrienne’s stomach.
Every now and then she’d press a kiss to the tan line that had become even more pronounced out here.
Then, right when the bucking slowed down and Adrienne’s grip tightened, Valerie swapped her fingers for her mouth. She licked and sucked and puffed a smiling breath against Adrienne’s clit. The moans that were coming out of the heiress’s throat were becoming louder. And louder. And then too loud.
But Valerie kept her mouth closed even after Adrienne had cried out. Only when Adrienne’s fingers tangled in Valerie’s hair did she peel her mouth off Adrienne’s clit.
“Who the hell taught you to do that?” Adrienne asked, looking astonished. She had beads of sweat on her chest and a few strands of hair matted against her temples.
Valerie laughed, feeling floaty and barely attached to the ground.
But then the sounds of crunching footsteps on loose rock sounded close, and suddenly white-hot fear curdled deep in her stomach.
She snatched her shorts up from the ground and barely registered the wild pheasant picking its way through the underbrush.
It wasn’t a person. It was a bird. But still, it was too late.
Whatever bubble she’d been floating in a second ago had burst.
“This can’t happen again,” Valerie muttered, shrugging on her shorts.
Adrienne already had her bikini fastened behind her neck and was staring at Valerie with those denim eyes.
“Why not?” she asked, tilting her head cockily to the side.
And Valerie wondered why not too, because what if she wanted this to happen again?
No. No, she didn’t. It was only lust talking, and lust wasn’t here to win the million dollars.
“Because I came here to win,” Valerie said. “Now let’s get back before someone actually comes looking.”
VALERIE HAD HOPED THEY could just slip back onto the beach unnoticed, praying they could blend into the background before anyone noticed they’d been gone for hours.
Had they been gone for hours? Or had it only felt that long?
But nope. Wishful thinking. Everyone except for Isla and Eden, who were still out enjoying the feast, was huddled around the fire pit.
The smell of burning driftwood hung thick in the clearing.
Sienna was talking, saying something about a bloody forehead when she’d first met Vivian, and Niko was scraping a machete against a flat stone.
The metallic shhhk, shhhk sound was grating on Valerie’s already frayed nerves.
She looked up first. Then frowned. Her bushy eyebrows pulled so tightly together that they formed one continuous line. “Where the hell have you two been?”