Chapter Fifteen
Skye stood with her toes half-buried in the cool sand. The moon, which was just a sliver, hung above the horizon. She glanced down at her dress, which was already wrinkled from sitting on the beach earlier, and tugged the hem a little lower. She was trying to smooth the fabric.
She didn’t usually wear dresses because she kind of hated how she looked in them, but tonight she was trying to impress Lucy.
If only Lucy would show up.
Skye swallowed a breath. It was already fifteen minutes past midnight, and Lucy was nowhere to be seen. Skye had no way of getting in touch with her either. She had no way of knowing if Lucy had gotten lost, or forgotten, or, even worse, simply decided not to meet up.
She squinted toward the darkness at the edge of the beach, half expecting a silhouette to appear. But there was nothing. Just the ocean, the stars, and a chorus of insects somewhere behind the palms.
“Come on, Lucy,” she muttered under her breath, rubbing her palms over her bare arms. “Why are you making me stand out here waiting for you?”
For a second, she doubted the success of their sunset date earlier today.
What if she had said something that made Lucy pull back and decide not to meet up with her?
Or what if she hadn’t said enough? But that wasn’t right, was it?
Lucy had been the one to show up at her bungalow.
She’d kissed Skye back. She’d begged Skye for a one-on-one date.
That had to count for something. It had meant she wanted this… Lucy wanted her.
Or maybe Skye had it wrong all this time. Maybe Lucy had decided that Skye was too closed off, and that her under-sharing wasn’t worth another—
There was a sound to her left, a crunch of sand. And then, out of the shadows, walked Lucy.
“Hey,” Lucy said, her voice soft, almost fragile. She stopped a few feet away, looking like she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to be there. It felt like she was caught somewhere between showing up and turning back.
“Hey,” Skye said, feeling a weird mix of relief and worry twist in her stomach. But worried about what? Did it even matter if Lucy didn’t want her? Did any of this matter considering there were still eight other contestants, ready and eager?
“I wasn’t going to come,” Lucy said.
Skye’s chest tightened as if someone squeezed her ribs.
“You weren’t?” she asked, genuinely surprised.
This wasn’t how tonight was supposed to go.
She’d imagined a quiet moment under the stars.
She’d imagined more kissing. More than just kissing.
She’d imagined a conversation where they weren’t surrounded by cameras.
Maybe then she could make sense of this feeling, of why she wanted to be near Lucy, of why she was willing to risk everything with this midnight escapade.
If Marla found out she was sneaking around behind her back and sleeping with one of the contestants, she’d be in deep shit.
And that raise and the possibility of finally getting a bigger apartment and maybe even a dog would be blown to pieces.
Lucy bit at her lip like she was trying to stop herself from saying something she would regret. But what regrets could she possibly have?
“No,” she said, shaking her head softly. She pulled at the sleeves of her thin sweater until they bunched over her hands. “I wasn’t.”
“Why not?”
Lucy shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“That’s not a good enough answer,” Skye said, taking a small step closer. It wasn’t enough to close the space between them, but enough to make it clear she wasn’t going to let this go. “You were fine earlier. We were fine. What happened?”
Lucy let out a breath, her eyes sliding toward the black stretch of water. “It’s nothing. Nothing happened.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
She flicked her gaze back to Skye with her lips pressed thin. “You kissed Alexis.”
Skye blinked right as the memory hit. She and Alexis had just gone on a helicopter ride over the island.
It was beautiful. They’d gotten a bird’s-eye view of jagged cliffs, waterfalls spilling into pockets of turquoise, and an ocean so clear they could see a pod of dolphins.
Alexis had kept one hand on Skye’s thigh the entire time.
When they had landed, Alexis had pulled her toward the edge of a lookout.
Wind had whipped her hair into her mouth and then, without much warning, Alexis had brushed a strand of hair behind her ear before she kissed her.
Skye could still remember the press of Alexis’s mouth, the faint taste of sangria on her tongue, and the way Alexis had pulled back with that cocky smile on her face.
The kiss had come as a surprise, but Skye hadn’t stopped it.
It was part of the show. The first kiss.
A memorable moment that would make for good TV.
No one knew that Alexis wasn’t Skye’s real first kiss.
Not a single person knew that Lucy had stolen that honor days ago in the shadow of the palms.
“She kissed me,” Skye said truthfully, not that she needed to give an explanation.
It was how things worked. Hand holding. Stolen kisses.
Light touches. The viewers wanted public displays of affection.
They wanted show not tell. They wanted to see the contestants fall in love and fight each other to win the heart of the bachelorette.
“I couldn’t stop it,” Skye added, still not sure why she was defending something that didn’t need defending.
“Right,” Lucy said. Her jaw was tight, and her gaze was fixed somewhere over Skye’s shoulder. “It’s part of the deal… you kissing other girls. It’s what we signed up for. Of course, it’s well known we are supposed to compete for your attention.”
Skye shifted her weight to her left foot. She wished she had the words to make this seem less barbaric, but there weren’t any. “Yes,” she said slowly. “It is. But that doesn’t mean it’s the same.”
“The same as what?”
“The same as you,” Skye replied, her voice softening to a whisper. “I didn’t kiss Alexis the way I kiss you.”
Lucy’s breath visibly hitched. “How do you kiss me?”
“Like this,” Skye muttered, stepping forward at the same time her hand reached over and slipped around Lucy’s neck.
Skye’s mouth was on Lucy’s in a matter of seconds.
Her lips glided over Lucy’s as her other hand slid low to Lucy’s waist, drawing her so close their bodies practically melded into one.
Lucy’s hands moved to Skye’s back, under her sweater, and then glided up her spine. She let her palms linger there, at least until Skye’s back was covered in goosebumps, and then her nails scratched down Skye’s back like tiny lightning bolts.
The kiss was everything she wanted and everything she needed. There was hunger and lust. Lots of it. But there was also something else, something small and unkempt, like a quiet explosion in her chest that was somehow delicate enough to feel like a barely there prick on her skin.
For a moment, Skye pulled back just enough to meet Lucy’s eyes. She needed air. She wanted to search Lucy’s eyes for any hesitation or signs of doubt that what they were doing was a bad idea. But she didn’t see any of that. Skye simply saw a woman who wanted more.
“I don’t know why this is different,” Skye whispered in a raspy voice. “But it is.”
“What does that mean?” Lucy asked again.
Skye wanted to tell her the truth. She wanted to tell her that she wasn’t supposed to be the bachelorette, that she was just the substitute.
She wanted to tell Lucy that she belonged behind the camera and that she hated the attention.
Skye wanted to tell her that she wasn’t good with people, and even worse with relationships.
In a small but direct way, she wanted to tell Lucy that whatever was going on between them would probably fizzle out like a doused firecracker.
But she didn’t. Because telling her all that meant no more kissing, no more secret meetups, no more sex.
And for the first time in a long time, she was actually looking forward to sex.
Just sex. Not a happily ever after.
Hell, Skye barely believed in dating at all.
But she did believe in hook-ups. Especially the kind that ended in a glorious climax.
It didn’t matter that by the time The Sapphic Match wrapped up its filming, Lucy would be gone.
She would be back to her life, to her column, and they’d never speak again.
She would become just another memory while Skye figured out where her own life was headed after the show ended.
The big question that needed answering was whether she’d keep running this circus or if she would finally step away for good. That was the real unknown.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, shaking her head, wishing she had said anything, anything at all except for that. “Why does it have to mean anything? Why can’t we just enjoy this for now and take it day by day?”
“So, you want to continue sneaking around behind everyone’s back?
” Lucy asked, frowning. Something about her tone and the way she had taken one step back told Skye that the moment was ruined.
Whatever stargazing she had planned—if they were going to stargaze at all—wasn’t going to happen. At least not tonight anyway.
“Yes,” Skye said matter-of-factly. “If this came out. If the other contestants…” she let her voice trail off, hoping Lucy could finish the sentence for her without actually saying it out loud. “You should probably get back before someone notices you’re gone,” Skye added.
Lucy’s face fell. She pressed her lips thin enough for them to disappear and nodded. “Good idea. We wouldn’t want anyone to find out what we’ve been doing for the last few days,” she said dryly.
Lucy’s sarcasm wasn’t lost on Skye. She would’ve said something back, something to defend her reasoning, but instead she simply nodded and smiled a tight smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said softly.
“For the group date. Apparently, we’re all going snorkeling.
Fun,” she said in a voice just as dry as Lucy’s had been a moment ago.
There were a few seconds where neither said anything, but it was short-lived.
“Goodnight,” Lucy whispered, then she turned and disappeared onto the dark, sandy path toward the villa.
Skye gave it another minute before she hurried back to her bungalow, her bare feet making almost no sound on the soft sand. Her heart was doing that annoying thing where it betrayed her just as she tried not to think about Lucy.
Just as she reached the porch, she thought about turning back and heading to the villa to make a surprise announcement. She could wake up the contestants, simply so that she could see Lucy again, and maybe get a whispered apology in before she was swept away by either Alexis or Nova.
But then Marla appeared out of nowhere.
“Where have you been?” she asked, frowning. She glanced over Skye’s shoulder at the path that led to the beach and frowned even deeper.
Skye panicked. “Getting fresh air,” she said quickly when her mind hit a blank.
Marla’s eyes narrowed, scanning her like she was trying to spot a lie written all over her forehead. “It’s well after midnight. Fresh air can wait until sunrise. You should be getting some beauty sleep before tomorrow’s busy schedule.”
Skye chuckled nervously. “I know, I know,” she said, smoothing a palm across her forehead. “But I couldn’t sleep. Needed to get out for a minute to clear my head.”
“Why does it need clearing?”
“Why do you ask so many questions?” Skye snapped without meaning to. She walked past Marla and stepped onto the porch.
Marla followed her, intercepting before she could reach the sliding door. “You know,” she said, her face deadpan. “If you’re sneaking around with one of the contestants—”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Skye interrupted, her voice sounding far more shrill than she would’ve liked. “I needed fresh air. That’s all.”
But Marla didn’t look convinced.
“I just needed air,” Skye said again. She gave Marla another look and then stepped inside of the bungalow before she slid the door shut behind her. The soft click sounded way too loud in the quiet of the night.