Chapter 17
Lizzie
By late afternoon, the mansion had settled into a rhythm.
The storm still raged outside but people had adapted.
Every hour the DJ cranked the generator and played two songs.
The winner of the last board game got to select the songs.
The rest of the time, music came from guitars and someone’s ukulele.
A girl from Oregon had brought a flute and was teaching people simple melodies in the reading room.
One of the guys did the same on his guitar.
Lizzie stood at the second-floor window watching waves crash against the shore from one of the windows where the plywood hadn’t been hammered on but only leaned against the window – so the staff could monitor the storm outside.
Their tents were gone. She’d watched them get swept into the ocean hours ago, bright fabric disappearing into dark water.
The game room was packed. Jenga had been going for an hour straight with people cheering every near collapse. Beer pong occupied one corner. Cards Against Humanity had everyone laughing so loud Lizzie could hear it from upstairs.
The spa was functioning better than expected. Rita had organized a rotation system. Everyone got fifteen minutes.
A few people had asked for refunds. Lizzie had directed them to Sarah, who handled it with her usual professionalism. Yes, they’d get compensation. Yes, this was an unusual situation. No, nobody could have predicted it.
This wasn’t true, of course. Sarah had. But nobody had listened to her.
An ongoing debate over if this could be called a tropical storm even when it wasn’t yet hurricane season had gone on for a while between a few girls from upstate New York, and a group of guys from Tallahassee.
No consensus had been reached. Endless videos had been filmed, however, and she knew that as soon as they were back in an area with electricity, they’d be uploading them. Would they be good for the hotel? Or a disaster? Lizzie couldn’t be sure.
She wanted them to be good. More so for Sarah than for herself. Yes, Sarah had acted like an ass, but she’d worked herself into the ground for these kids. It wasn’t her fault this disaster had happened.
“Hey! Where’s the chocolate for the marshmallows?” A girl’s called. Lizzie rushed to the banister.
“Coming!”
She turned back and hurried to check the storage room. Once there, she found them right away. Grateful that at least the snacks were not in the outside storage like the board games had been, she loaded a bag.
“I came to help.”
She spun around.
“Sarah?”
“Do you mind?”
She shook her head and stepped aside, letting Sarah into the narrow space that wasn’t made for two people.
“I think that should do it for now,” Lizzie said after a while.
Sarah cleared her throat. “Wait. I need to say this.”
Lizzie stopped. This should be interesting.
“I was wrong. About everything. The way I treated you that morning. Leaving you money like that.” Sarah’s voice shook. “I’m so ashamed. You weren’t a transaction. You were never that. But I made you feel like one and I hate myself for it.”
“Sarah, don’t…”
“Let me finish. Please.” Sarah took a breath. “You terrified me. The way I felt about you. The way you made me feel. I’ve spent so long protecting myself. Building walls. Making sure nobody could get close enough to hurt me. And you just walked right through them like they were nothing.”
The storage room felt even smaller now. Just the two of them and years of Sarah’s defenses crumbling.
“So I hurt you instead. Pushed you away before you could hurt me. Before you could see all the messy, broken parts I keep hidden.” Sarah wiped her eyes.
“But being here with you these past two days. Watching you. Working with you. The way you handled everything tonight. I don’t want to keep pretending I don’t feel this. ”
“Feel what, Sarah?”
Sarah stepped closer.
“That I’m falling in love with you.”
Lizzie forgot how to breathe. The words hung between them, impossible and perfect.
“I know I don’t deserve another chance. I know I hurt you. But I’m asking anyway.”
Lizzie should say no. Should protect herself. She’d spent days crying about this woman after all. But she’d been miserable without her.
“If I give you another chance, you can’t do that again. You can’t push me away when you get scared.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“How do I know that?”
Sarah stepped closer. “Because I’m done hiding. Done protecting a reputation built on lies.” Sarah reached up and touched Lizzie’s face. “Billy would want me to be happy. And you make me happy.”
Lizzie looked at her. At this version of Sarah she’d never seen before. Raw. Open. Completely honest.
“Okay.”
“Really?”
Lizzie nodded.
Sarah kissed her. Soft at first, tentative, like she was testing whether this was real. Then Lizzie kissed back and Sarah whimpered before she could stop herself. The kiss deepened. Became something desperate and hungry and full of promise.
Sarah broke away long enough to close the door. The lock clicked. She pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight, propping it on a shelf so it cast shadows across the small room.
“Is that a good idea? We have limited chargers.”
“It’s worth it.” Sarah pulled Lizzie close again. “You’re worth it.”
They kissed against the shelving unit. Sarah’s hands were shaking as she reached for the hem of Lizzie’s shirt. She stopped.
“I want to do this right. I want to show you how much you mean to me.”
“Then show me.”
Sarah pulled Lizzie’s shirt over her head slowly. She traced the line of Lizzie’s collarbone with her fingertips, so light it almost tickled. Down between her breasts. Over her ribs.
“I thought about you every night,” Sarah whispered. “After that morning. I’d lie in bed and remember how you felt. How you tasted. How you said my name.”
She unhooked Lizzie’s bra and let it fall to the floor. Instead of touching immediately, she just looked. The phone’s flashlight created dramatic shadows across Lizzie’s skin.
“You’re so beautiful. I should have told you that morning. Should have woken you up with kisses instead of running away like a coward.”
Lizzie pulled Sarah closer and kissed her hard. “Stop talking about that morning. Be here with me now.”
Sarah nodded. She kissed Lizzie’s jaw, her throat, the hollow at the base of her neck. She took her time working down to Lizzie’s breasts. When her mouth closed around Lizzie’s nipple, Lizzie had to grab the shelf behind her for support.
Sarah’s tongue circled slowly. Too slowly. Lizzie squirmed but Sarah held her hips steady.
“Patience. I’m apologizing. Let me do it properly.”
She switched to the other breast. Used her teeth gently, then soothed with her tongue. Lizzie was already wet and they’d barely started. She could feel it, the ache building between her legs.
Sarah’s hands slid down to unbutton Lizzie’s shorts. She pushed them down past Lizzie’s hips along with her underwear. Lizzie stepped out of them, suddenly naked in a storage room while eighty people partied down the hall.
“Sit.” Sarah gestured to a low stack of boxes in the corner.
“Those might collapse.”
“They’re full of canned goods. They’ll hold.” Sarah positioned Lizzie on the edge. “Trust me.”
Lizzie sat. The boxes were stable, putting her at the perfect height. Sarah knelt between her legs but didn’t touch yet. Just looked.
“I dreamed about this.”
Sarah kissed the inside of Lizzie’s knee. Worked her way up the inner thigh with agonizing slowness. When she reached where Lizzie was wet and ready, she just breathed against her. Warm air that made Lizzie shiver.
“Please.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“You know what I want.”
“Say it anyway.”
Lizzie threaded her fingers through Sarah’s hair. “I want your mouth on me. I want you to make me forget everything except this. Except us.”
Sarah finally used her tongue. One long slow stroke that made Lizzie’s legs shake. Then another. She wasn’t rushing. Wasn’t trying to make Lizzie come quickly. She was savoring it.
Lizzie had to press her hand over her mouth when Sarah found the perfect rhythm. Long slow circles around her clit, never quite touching it directly. Building the pressure until Lizzie wanted to scream.
“Look at me.”
Lizzie looked down. Sarah was watching her, eyes dark in the phone’s light. She maintained eye contact as she put her mouth directly on Lizzie’s clit and sucked.
Lizzie nearly came right then. Sarah seemed to sense it and backed off, went back to those maddening circles.
“I could do this for hours,” Sarah murmured against her. “I love watching you. The way your breath catches. The way you try so hard to stay quiet.”
Sarah’s fingers found Lizzie’s opening and settled inside. Lizzie bit down on her hand to keep from making noise. Sarah pumped slowly at first, curling her fingers to hit that spot that made stars explode behind Lizzie’s eyes.
“I thought about this too. How tight you are. How wet you get for me.”
Sarah added a third finger. Stretched Lizzie in a way that was almost too much but not quite. Her mouth never stopped working, tongue flicking fast now against Lizzie’s clit.
The orgasm built like a wave. Lizzie could feel it coming, tried to hold it back to make this last, but Sarah wasn’t giving her that option. She sucked hard while her fingers moved faster and Lizzie came with her face buried in her own arm to muffle the sound.
Sarah kept her fingers moving through it, drawing out every pulse of pleasure until Lizzie had to push her away from oversensitivity.
Sarah sat back on her heels, her face wet. “My turn to get naked. Then you can decide what you want to do with me.”
Lizzie watched as Sarah stripped. She’d seen this body before, but it hit different now. Knowing Sarah had chosen this. Chosen her. Chosen to be vulnerable.
When Sarah was naked, Lizzie stood. The boxes had held after all.
“Against the wall.”
Sarah raised an eyebrow but obeyed. She walked backward until she hit the wall, her body illuminated by the phone’s glow.