Chapter Fourteen
Adrienne stepped over a rock and was grateful the moon was still bright enough to light the way. She couldn’t imagine navigating the rocks in complete darkness, and the last thing she needed was a grazed knee or a twisted ankle. At least not before reaching Valerie.
She’d been thinking about this meetup all afternoon.
About Valerie standing at the watering well, all bent up about Sitka, about Valerie’s mom, who apparently was still sick.
And yes, Adrienne should’ve had more tact than to mention how badly she wanted to kiss Valerie, but in her defense, she’d never been good at comforting other people.
When Nicki had been dumped by that swindler guy with the fake hedge fund, she’d handed her a box of Kleenex, told her to get over it, and booked them flights to Cabo. Who could possibly be sad in Cabo?
But did Adrienne regret what she had said to Valerie? Absolutely not. She’d spent her entire life getting exactly what she wanted, and what she wanted was Valerie.
The small forest came up quickly. Adrienne had worried she might miss it because things always looked so different at night.
But that worry turned to relief when she spotted Valerie leaning against a tree up ahead.
At the sight of her, Adrienne sucked in her breath.
That same want from earlier today at the well flared up like a summer fever. It was intoxicating.
Keeping Valerie in her line of sight, she scrambled up the remaining rocks.
When she stepped through the trees, she said, “I don’t think anyone followed me.
” She hadn’t realized her voice sounded ragged until the words were out.
Just like she hadn’t realized she was nervous.
Properly nervous. “Although I do think Sienna might’ve woken—”
Valerie’s mouth was on hers before she could finish. Her hands were tangled in Adrienne’s hair, tilting her head down to deepen the kiss before Adrienne could even begin to wonder how long Valerie had been standing there, and if she’d pick her way over the rocks like a woman crossing a minefield.
But then Valerie’s tongue slipped into her mouth and her hands caught Adrienne’s waist, pulling them together so that a piece of paper couldn’t fit between them, and Adrienne’s mind was a blank slate.
Valerie then caught Adrienne’s bottom lip between her teeth and tugged hard enough for Adrienne to let out a breathless gasp.
Adrienne’s knees instantly turned to jelly.
She could feel Valerie’s want like it was something physical.
A living, breathing force that demanded every single ounce of Adrienne’s attention.
Which was why Adrienne was more than surprised when Valerie pulled back.
“I don’t know what it is about you,” she muttered.
Her lips were swollen, and her breath was completely wrecked.
So too was Adrienne’s. She could literally feel her chest rising and falling.
“But I just can’t stop thinking about you.
” Her hand slid down Adrienne’s arm, leaving goosebumps in its wake. “You’re not even my type.”
“I’m everyone’s type,” Adrienne said, more as a reflex than anything else.
She’d been told she looked like a young Raquel Welch on several occasions.
Her Instagram was full of comments from people begging for her hand in marriage.
Last spring, the twelfth heir to the Monegasque throne had literally sent her a five-carat diamond bracelet despite Adrienne mentioning several times that she wouldn’t date him unless he somehow grew a vagina. “That’s a fact.”
Valerie chuckled so softly Adrienne wondered if she had imagined it.
Then Valerie slid her hand back up Adrienne’s arm to her shoulder.
She stopped at the thin strap of Adrienne’s pajama top and hooked her finger underneath it.
Then she tugged it down Adrienne’s shoulder.
The very tip of her finger grazed so lightly against Adrienne’s skin that Adrienne shuddered, taking half the top with it.
It fell down just enough to expose her breast to the cool evening air.
Her nipples hardened instantly. The way Valerie’s gaze flicked down, the way her lips parted just slightly as if she was contemplating something, made Adrienne feel so hot she might as well have been in a sauna.
Without saying anything, Adrienne begged Valerie to put her mouth around her nipple, to flick it with her tongue.
But to Adrienne’s dismay, she didn’t.
Instead, she slid her fingers down over Adrienne’s stomach toward her hipbone and tugged at the waistband of her shorts.
She let it snap back, and with her other hand, cupped Adrienne’s face.
For some reason, Adrienne didn’t move. Couldn’t move.
Not while the world slowed down to a crawl, not while Valerie swept her thumb across Adrienne’s cupid bow lips.
Not while Valerie’s other hand remained burning hot on Adrienne’s hip.
Then, driven by pure instinct, she parted her lips and drew the tip of Valerie’s thumb into her mouth.
It was so sexy that Adrienne would probably replay this in her mind later.
She tasted salt and nothing else. Valerie let out a shuddering breath and hooked her thumb slightly over Adrienne’s bottom teeth.
Their eyes were locked onto each other as if their lives depended on it.
Then, for some reason, Adrienne thought about the moon.
It must be bright because she could see everything about Valerie: her light sea-glass eyes, the faint speckles of freckles on her nose and bare shoulders, and that scar just below her hairline that was shaped like a fingernail.
And there, beneath all of it, she saw pain.
Raw, heavy pain that Adrienne felt desperate to take away.
Which was surprising because Adrienne didn’t do empathy.
She didn’t care about other people’s emotional baggage, and she had certainly never cared enough to try to fix it.
It was safe to say that this feeling bubbling in her chest was concerning.
What happened to the Adrienne Vale who treated other people’s crises like a TV show she could simply switch off?
This wasn’t like her. In fact, she didn’t quite like having all these uninvited feelings swimming about her chest. She needed to block them out.
So, Adrienne snatched her arms up, gripped the back of Valerie’s neck, and backed her up until her spine hit the bark of a tree, pinning her there.
Then she cupped Valerie’s cheek and crashed her mouth against Valerie’s.
But it wasn’t working.
Adrienne’s head was nowhere near clear enough.
Not even when Valerie buried her hands in Adrienne’s hair.
Or when she opened her mouth more and tangled her tongue with Adrienne’s.
Not even when Valerie’s fingers dug into the muscles in the front of her shoulders, and then down to her chest. There was a second where Valerie had Adrienne’s nipple between two fingers and rolled it.
But even that wasn’t a good enough distraction.
She was feeling things for Valerie that she didn’t want to admit out loud, and it appeared no amount of pleasure could exorcise those feelings from her heart.
“Relax,” Valerie muttered in her ear. “You seem so tense.”
“Do I?” Adrienne squeaked. She had one hand on Valerie’s hip and hadn’t realized she was squeezing quite so tight.
She slackened her fingers and sought Valerie’s mouth.
If Valerie could just touch her like she had that other night, her mind would blank to a fresh piece of paper.
“I’m fine,” she added, sliding a leg between Valerie’s thighs.
Was she imagining it, or could she feel Valerie’s wetness through the thin fabric of her pajama pants?
A quick slip of Adrienne’s hand southward, and yes, Valerie was so wet that it caused a growl to rise in Adrienne’s throat and the tension began to seep away.
Then Valerie pressed herself against her wrist, and Adrienne was on the track to forgetting everything but her own name.
“I need you to fuck me,” Adrienne muttered.
Valerie pulled her head back just a smidge, giving Adrienne a look that made her heart instantly drop.
For one horrifying second, Adrienne thought Valerie was about to call the whole thing off.
Instead, she pushed Adrienne forward, away from the tree, then pointed to a flat spot on the ground.
“Take off your pajamas,” Valerie instructed. “And lie on the ground.”
“You want me to do what?” Adrienne gasped, eyeing the carpet of dirt and leaves. There was no way she was going to lie her naked ass down on the ground. “I don’t think so, Val.”
“I thought you wanted me to fuck you,” Valerie said as she was shrugging off her own clothes.
“I do,” Adrienne said. She did. She really did. But why couldn’t they do it standing up?
“Then get down on the ground.” Valerie raised an eyebrow, and that was that.
Adrienne had always had a weakness for the sultry rise of one eyebrow.
Being bossed around by a beautiful woman was her ultimate Achilles’ heel, and that one look made Adrienne’s clit pulse with her heartbeat.
She couldn’t get her clothes off fast enough.
Then she chose the flattest spot, lay down, and parted her legs as she lifted her lips to meet Valerie.
Valerie settled between her legs. When their breasts touched, Adrienne nearly screamed.
But Valerie didn’t stay there long. After inching down a little, then sucking on Adrienne’s nipple for what was an excruciatingly short while, Valerie descended even more.
She brushed her mouth along the crease by Adrienne’s hip, so soft, so featherlight it was like she was performing sexual Reiki. Adrienne couldn’t get enough. She arched her back and moved her hips, guiding Valerie to where she needed her. “I can’t believe you convinced me to lie down on dirt.”
“Really? Because you actually look like a natural,” Valerie said, smiling.
Adrienne laughed, then abruptly stopped when Valerie lowered her head again and licked a line from her entrance to her clit.
Then she kissed her folds, trailing a path down, only stopping before the seam of her backside.
Was it possible to die from horniness? Like, would it be possible to have her heart stop because the desire filling her chest was so thick she couldn’t draw a proper breath?
Adrienne nearly jokingly asked, but then Valerie slipped her tongue into Adrienne’s center and started licking.
Adrienne had never heard such a violent sound escape her own mouth. Violent enough for Valerie to look up.
“Are you alright?”
“Never better,” Adrienne muttered so quickly the words stumbled out, but she didn’t think she could survive another second without Valerie’s mouth on her.
Thankfully Valerie’s tongue was back on her sex in no time.
She licked and sucked and hummed against Adrienne’s clit.
And when Adrienne didn’t think it could get any better, Valerie replaced her tongue with her fingers.
She curled two inside of her. Then, she moved them out and pumped them back in, and Adrienne’s hips were moving, literally grinding against Valerie’s hand. She was so close.
Valerie forced her thighs apart as she pushed her fingers deeper inside. “Ahh, right there,” Adrienne gasped as wave after wave of pleasure surged through her body. Adrienne’s orgasm swooped through her like a sonic boom, leaving her completely breathless and utterly ruined.
Valerie stopped thrusting, pulled her fingers out, and was already moving on top of Adrienne.
And not just on top but straddling her thighs while her palms braced Adrienne’s breasts.
She squeezed her nipples again, sending jolts of pleasure down to an area that was already saturated with pleasure.
The question wasn’t if she’d come; it was how many times an orgasm could physically rip through her without tearing her apart completely.
Valerie moved further up and braced a knee on each side of Adrienne’s head. “You don’t mind if I sit on your face, do you?” she said as she lowered herself down closer to Adrienne’s face. She watched as Adrienne opened her mouth to welcome her.
“It would actually be my pleasure,” Adrienne said as she pulled at Valerie’s hips.
Valerie pushed herself down onto the heiress’s mouth. She knew she was already so close to an orgasm; it wasn’t going to take long. She grabbed onto Adrienne’s hair as she adjusted her weight properly onto her face and gripped her face with her thighs as she ground down.
As she rocked in the rhythm of the sea, Adrienne’s tongue kept pace until Valerie rode out every last bit of pleasure on Adrienne’s face.
Valerie had barely climbed off Adrienne’s face when she muttered, “I like you.”
Adrienne froze. The confession hit her like a splash of ice water. Out of all the things she expected to hear right now, a declaration of feelings wasn’t in the cards.
Her brain scrambled for something to say. Anything to say. But then she remembered that hurt look in Valerie’s eyes, the need to take that pain away, and Adrienne couldn’t bring herself to say something dismissive.
“I like you too,” she replied softly, then abandoned the confession the exact second it left her lips so she wouldn’t have to face it. “We should probably get back before someone notices we’re gone.”