Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
The buzzing of Maddy’s phone against hardwood hauled her up out of a dead sleep.
She knew the sound well, and also knew that when she wasn’t on a remote island in Fiji, whoever it was could wait.
She kept her eyes shut as she became dimly aware that this was not her childhood bed.
The mattress was too firm and too narrow.
There was light coming through her eyelids, far too much of it.
Who the fuck didn’t have blackout shades?
And she was warm, the kind of warm that comes off another body.
A body she was currently sprawled half on top of.
Then she felt the soreness. Bruised lips. A tender spot on her neck. A deep ache low between her legs. Okay, that part felt kind of nice.
And then came the smell. Coconut. Warm skin. Sex.
Oh God. The previous night slowly started coming back to her. Maddy opened one eye.
Yep. There, three inches away from her face on the same pillow, eyes closed, dark hair everywhere, and entirely naked, was Aspen St. Claire.
Maddy was draped over her with a hand flat on Aspen’s bare stomach and a leg shoved between both of hers, and Aspen had an arm slung around Maddy’s back, holding her in place.
She’d had sex with Aspen St. Claire.
She’d had really, really good sex with Aspen St. Claire.
Four years of going head to head with the woman in high school, of barely beating her and being generally low-grade annoyed by her continued existence, and last night Maddy had moaned Aspen’s name as she came around her fingers. Three times.
Not just that, but Maddy had been the one who started it, and then gone back in for another round, and at one point, she was fairly certain, begged for more.
The plan had been simple. Get the fireworks, drive home, shut her own door behind her.
At no stage had the plan accounted for Aspen's mouth, or Aspen's hands, or the sounds she ripped from Maddy’s throat that she fully intended to take to her grave.
It was hands down the best sex she’d ever had. She turned her face and grinned into the pillow like an idiot.
The phone buzzed again from the nightstand. Shit.
Getting to the phone meant getting out of the bed, and getting out of the bed meant getting out from under Aspen, who was wrapped around her like a seatbelt.
Maddy very carefully slid two fingers under Aspen’s arm and lifted it off her, slowly, and gently set it down on the mattress. Aspen made a small noise and shifted. Maddy went still until Aspen’s breathing evened out again.
Then Maddy withdrew her leg from between Aspen’s an inch at a time. Aspen turned her face deeper into the pillow. Maddy held still, not breathing, until she settled.
Clear. She’d snuck out of beds before. She had never once done it this carefully, and she had never once wanted this badly to climb right back in.
She slid out from under the quilt into the cold air and picked her phone up off the nightstand.
Margaret. Two missed calls in the last forty minutes, and a third lighting up the screen in her hand right now.
That sobered her up fast. Margaret texted when it was small; she called when it wasn’t. Two missed calls and a third coming in before nine on a Sunday meant something, somewhere, was on fire.
Her panties were on the floor where they had been thrown the night before, and she pulled them on.
The borrowed t-shirt was a foot past it, the alien stepping off his UFO with one little hand up, crumpled against the boards.
She picked it up and pulled it over her head, the cotton dropping to mid-thigh, and she came in peace once more.
She allowed herself one brief little internal chuckle at the irony, which took on an entirely different meaning this morning.
Maddy crossed the floorboards on her tippy toes, fast and quiet, and slid the door to the little back balcony open, then eased it shut behind her.
The air was sharp and cold and smelled of pine, and the deck boards were freezing under her bare feet. The WiFi signal was weaker out here on the balcony, but would hopefully make it through.
She took one deep inhale of the crisp mountain air and then tapped the call button.
Margaret picked up halfway through the first ring, which meant she’d had the phone in her hand the whole time. “There she is. I was starting to think you’d disappeared on me.”
“Sorry, I got stranded in the mountains last night. One bar and the will of God up here.” Maddy tugged the alien shirt down over her thighs against the cold and started a slow lap of the little deck. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine. Great, actually.” There was a pause—the one Margaret used when she wanted to build the suspense.
“Jeff is leaving us for Seduction Island, which means Co-Executive Producer is up for grabs. I didn’t want to tell you until it was a done deal, but the network just signed off.
They want you. The job is officially yours. ”
Maddy stopped walking. For a second, the mountains, the trees, the cold, the worry —it all disappeared.
“Say that again.” Maddy's grip tightened on the phone.
Margaret laughed and said it again, slower this time, clearly having the time of her life. “You are the new Co-Executive Producer of Marooned I’ll be in the studio creating it.
Eight months before we ever even set foot on Fiji.
Alongside Margaret, of course. The format, the casting, the game mechanics, the twists, the strategy, the crew, the entire story we want the season to tell.
I’ll get a hand in all of it! This is everything I’ve been working towards for the past eleven years. ”
Right where the oh my God, Maddy, that’s wonderful! should have come in, Aspen said, “That’s…that’s really great, Maddy. Congratulations.”