Chapter 4 In Daylight
In Daylight
Fireworks smoke still hung over Rosewater when I went looking for Vina.
The Fourth bash was winding down, but Rosewater winding down was still louder, brighter, and more watched than most places at full speed.
Music leaked from the terrace in a lower thump now.
Staff moved between tables with trash bags and trays, collecting red cups, abandoned plates, and the evidence of a hundred people pretending they were done for the night.
Delta Omega girls clustered near the bar with their sandals in their hands.
Kappa Rho girls leaned against the railing, phones glowing.
Lake guys hovered near the dock steps, still trying to look casual while watching who left with whom.
Phones were everywhere.
So was the phrase nobody had owned yet.
Nash's Girls had drifted through the party after the story reply landed during fireworks. Nobody had shouted it now, but I heard pieces of it in lowered voices as I crossed the terrace. My name. Vina's laugh. Somebody saying, “There he is,” like they were waiting to see what I'd do next.
Good.
Let them wait.
I found Vina near the outdoor bar, because of course I did.
One hip against the polished wood, one elbow propped, black dress clinging to her like the whole night had been built around that body.
Her hair was loose from dancing and humidity, wild around her shoulders.
Most of the gloss was gone from her mouth because I had kissed it off in the boathouse shadow, but enough remained to catch the string lights when she smiled.
She was talking to a lake guy I recognized but couldn't place. He was leaning in too close, laughing too hard, already losing a game he didn't know she had stopped playing.
Vina saw me before he did.
Her eyes found mine across the terrace, and the smile shifted.
Not smaller. Not shy. Vina didn't do shy.
But the performance changed gears. She had left me near the boathouse with my cock half-hard, my mouth raw, and an unfinished promise burning under my skin.
Now she was watching to see whether I would pick it up in public or pretend the moment belonged to the shadows.
I walked straight to her.
The guy's sentence died when I reached the bar. Vina's smile widened.
“You hunting me, Smoke Show?” she asked.
“I never stopped.”
Her blue eyes swept over me, taking in my flushed face, my still-raw mouth, the fact that I wasn't slowing down. “Bold.”
I took the drink from her hand, set it on the bar, and laced my fingers through hers.
Vina went still for half a second.
That was the part I wanted. I wasn't trying to knock the confidence out of her.
I needed her to feel the difference. I wasn't tucking her against a wall or waiting until nobody could see.
I was holding her hand in front of Rosewater guests, sorority girls, staff, lake guys, and whoever still had a camera pointed our way.
Her fingers tested mine. I held on.
“Oh,” she said, voice still sharp but thinner around the edges. “We’re doing this.”
“Yeah.”
“In front of God and half the lake?”
“Looks like.”
The lake guy took his cue and drifted off with both hands raised, grinning like he had been demoted from possibility to audience and respected the decision.
Vina watched him go, then looked back at me. “So are we leaving, or are you just showing off?”
“Both.”
Her laugh came low and dirty, but her hand tightened in mine.
I didn't look for a side path. I didn't aim for the staff stairs or the darker stretch behind the service building. I walked her right through the middle of Rosewater.
People noticed.
A Delta Omega girl near the drink station elbowed her friend and lowered her phone, then lifted it again like she couldn't help herself.
Three Kappa Rho girls stopped scrolling and watched us pass.
One of the older Rosewater regulars glanced at our hands, then looked away with the practiced discretion of rich people who still planned to talk later.
Tina Rose stood near the clubhouse doors with a staff manager, and her gaze dropped to my hand around Vina's before she gave me a small, calm smile.
Vina saw that too. Her shoulders straightened.
“Everyone’s looking,” she murmured.
“I know.”
“You don’t care?”
“I care.” I looked at her then, not the crowd. “I want them to see I’m leaving with you.”
Her mouth opened around a joke that didn't make it out.
So I gave the crowd one more thing to understand.
I stopped at the edge of the main terrace, turned her toward me, and cupped the back of her neck.
Vina's eyes widened, and then my mouth was on hers.
Not a polite kiss. Not a little public peck to make some neat point.
I kissed her hard, with the taste of fireworks smoke still in the air and Rosewater watching from every angle.
She made a sound against my mouth, surprised and hungry and just a little wrecked. Then she kissed me back like Vina, tongue sliding against mine, nails biting into my wrist where her other hand gripped me.
Somebody whooped from the terrace.
Poppy, probably. I didn't look.
When I pulled back, Vina's lips were swollen, her eyes too bright.
“You’re out of your fucking mind,” she whispered.
“Maybe.” I brushed my thumb over the side of her neck. “Still not hiding you.”
The joke tried again. I saw it gather, saw the old Vina armor shine up for one more round.
It didn't land.
She just looked at me, breath moving fast, fingers digging into my hand like she was checking whether I was real.
We kept walking.
At the far edge of the terrace, Kit stood with Poppy and Luna near the railing.
Kit's gaze went to Vina first, not me. She smiled, small and warm, and nodded like she had known exactly what I needed to do.
Poppy pressed both hands to her cheeks in exaggerated delight, but her eyes were soft.
Luna gave Vina a tiny salute with her drink.
Vina lifted her chin and kept hold of my hand.
We passed the last pockets of guests, down the terrace steps, and along the lit path toward the guest wing. The party shrank behind us without ever going quiet. When we reached the side hall near the lobby glass, I stopped but didn't release her hand.
Vina looked at the guest wing, then at Rosewater behind us, then back at me.
“You just walked me through the whole party,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“Held my hand. Kissed me. Let everyone get their little story.”
“Not for the story.”
Her smile shook at the edges. “You know they’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Probably tonight.”
“Nash's Girls will get another ten thousand comments.”
“Let them comment.” I squeezed her hand. “They don't get to decide what you are to me.”
Her eyes searched mine, and this time there was no dirty cover fast enough.
“You’re really not playing,” she said.
“No.”
Her palm came up and pressed against my chest, right over my heart. She held it there like she needed to feel the beat before she believed the words.
“Good,” she said quietly. “Because I wasn't playing either.”
Then she stepped closer, black dress riding high on her thighs as she leaned into my side with a softer smile than she had worn all night.
The crowd behind us could keep its stories.
I had Vina beside me, visible and unashamed, and I had no intention of letting go.
***
I didn't take her away from Rosewater.
That mattered.
We stayed inside the resort's public skin, close enough that the terrace lights still glowed through the lobby glass and far enough that the music softened into a pulse under the floor. Vina watched me with one eyebrow raised, her hand still in mine.
“Please tell me you’re not having second thoughts,” she said. “Because if you brought me here for an ethics lecture, I’m going to bite you and not in the fun way.”
“I’m texting Kit.”
Vina went quiet.
It was so fast I almost missed the shape of it. Her mouth stayed parted around whatever joke she had been winding up. Her fingers tightened around mine, then loosened, then tightened again.
“You’re texting Kit,” she said. “Right now.”
“Yeah.”
I pulled out my phone and opened the thread where Vina could see the screen. I didn't angle it away. I didn't hide the words with my thumb.
With Vina. Staying at Rosewater tonight. Luna's getting us the emergency suite. I wanted you to know before we went upstairs.
I hit send.
Vina stared at the message like it had teeth. “You just told her.”
“I told her.”
“You didn't ask if you could.”
“No.” I set the phone between us, screen up. “This isn't permission. It's honesty.”
Her laugh came out thin. “You make honesty sound like foreplay.”
“With you, it might be.”
That got me half a smile.
The three dots appeared almost immediately. Kit had always been fast when something mattered.
Her reply landed in two bubbles.
Have fun, Smoke Show. Take care of our girl.
Then:
Tell Lips I said I’ll see her at breakfast. Also she is not allowed to break anything I want later.
Vina read it once. Then again. Then a third time, slower.
“Our girl,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“She wrote that.”
“She did.”
Vina looked toward the guest wing, blinking hard like the lobby lights were too bright. “Your girlfriend is terrifying.”
“Accurate.”
“And she’s not mad.”
“She’d be mad if I hid you.”
Vina's throat worked. For one long second she didn't look like the woman who had made a public terrace forget how to breathe. She looked like someone standing at the edge of a room she hadn't expected to be invited into.
My phone buzzed again. Luna.
Side elevator. Third floor. Lakeview emergency suite. It's held for disasters, so please use it for something better. Key is with me.
I showed Vina.
She stared, then laughed once, helpless. “Your women are insane.”
“Our women,” I said before I could overthink it.
That took the air out of her.
The side hall door opened. Luna stepped out wearing a Rosewater sweatshirt over her party dress, hair pulled back now, bare feet in sandals, keycard envelope in one hand. She looked tired from the party and completely calm about what she was doing.