“Gemma, wake up.”
“Huh?” Gemma raised her head from where it had been resting on Rory’s chest and looked deliciously dishevelled.Her cheek had a crease where it had pressed against Rory’s shirt. A small smile crossed Rory’s lips as she remembered how rubbish her friend was in the morning.
“We must have fallen asleep.” Rory shifted slightly, her body stiff from being on the sun lounger all night.
Gemma sat up, and the blanket fell away from her, revealing those creamy shoulders that Rory had been drooling over last night. She rubbed her neck, and Rory wished she could massage the knots away. But the freedom to touch and flirt with Gemma that had come with the red wine last night had ebbed away, and she felt awkward and uncomfortable. The suit that she had felt so powerful in last night was now constricting. She needed to get away, to be alone in her room with her thoughts.
Rory pushed up off the sun lounger. She held out the blanket to the young pool attendant, who was hovering, trying not to look like he was eyeing Gemma up. She glared at him, and he hastily took the blanket and folded it before placing in back in the basket that it had come from. Rory awkwardly shuffled out from behind Gemma, and immediately her body felt cold in the chilly morning air. She looked down at Gemma, who was shivering, and immediately whipped her jacket off and draped it over Gemma’s shoulders. Gemma hugged it around herself before standing.
“Mother said they were having breakfast at 8am so we should be able to get back to our rooms for showers, etc.”
Gemma merely grunted in reply and let Rory guide her back to the hotel. Despite feeling awkward at waking up with Gemma, Rory had to hide a grin at her friend’s drowsy state. It had always been the same. Rory emerged from sleep energised and ready for the day, whilst Gemma needed several cups of coffee and at least an hour to properly wake up.
Rory steered them across the lawns back to the hotel. She loved early mornings, with the sun only just up and the stillness of the night hanging in the air. She thought back to the night they had shared and wondered how her world could have shifted so much in less than 24 hours.
Yesterday at this time, she was finishing up paperwork in her home office before driving to the hotel to meet her parents. Then she saw Gemma at the opera, and everything shifted, and she wasn’t quite sure how she could shift it back. Her mind was still full of these thoughts as she escorted Gemma to her hotel room and then walked back to her own. Fortunately, there were not too many people around the hotel this early on a Saturday morning, so they had slipped back to their rooms without anyone seeing them.
Back in her own room, she stripped off her suit and looked at her body in the mirror. It was certainly not the toned athlete’s body she’d had at university. Since she’d given up hockey, her body had slowly softened, and she grimaced at the curves that were now apparent without her clothes on. Many women would appreciate having her curves, but Rory hated them. She pulled her hair from its ponytail and, for a moment, moaned in pleasure at the release of the tension that having it up in a bun all day and all night had caused. She ran her fingers through her long hair and looked at herself. This was the woman Darcy had wanted. The successful female lawyer with perfect hair, perfect skin and a good bank balance.
She pulled her hair up again, preferring the look of her jawline without the brown hair swishing around it.
She looked at her breasts and took one in each of her hands, squishing them to her chest with her fingers. Shaking her head, she opened the shower door and started the water before she could get lost in her maudlin thoughts.There had been too many of those recently, and she didn’t want to get lost in them as she had so often in the past few weeks.
Quickly, she showered and washed herself and cast her mind back to her talk with Gemma last night. Before they had fallen asleep, they had watched the stars just as they had done as kids and caught up on ten years of news. There wasn’t much from Rory’s side. She’d graduated from university, started working for a big London law firm, moved through the ranks until she was knocking on the door of partner, and picked up and lost a fiancée along the way. Saying it out loud like that made Rory sad, the last ten years of her life lost to work. Gemma, on the other hand, had enjoyed university much more than Rory did, got involved in student politics, spent a year in Australia on a student visa and bounced around jobs and girlfriends ever since.
Rory washed her hair, annoyed at how long it took to apply shampoo and conditioner to her long locks. She massaged her scalp and then wondered why Gemma was single. Rory remembered her friend to be a fantastic companion. Gemma had always been her confidante when she was younger. She had been the first person Rory had confided in when she had wanted to come out. Her heart warmed as she remembered her friend’s soft smile and words of encouragement. She had confided in Gemma about her feelings for her first girlfriend and remembered how good it had been to talk to Gemma when she’d returned from uni for Michelle’s party.
As she rinsed her hair and deftly ran body wash over the rest of her body, she wondered if Gemma could be a friend once again. She needed someone in her corner. All her university friends were caught up in careers and families, and her school friends had never been as close to her asGemma was. As much as she wanted and desired Gemma, she realised she needed her as a friend more than she needed her as a lover. She mentally chastised herself for getting caught up in the opera's romance last night. Being in a suit rather than a dress had made her feel powerful and sexy. Seeing Gemma in that dress had inflamed her libido, and combined with the red wine lowering her inhibitions, she had let herself get carried away with flirting. She knew she had to put a stop to that and needed to rein herself in. Rory knew she was not in a place to fall into a relationship. It would be unfair to any potential partner to ask them to commit to her when she didn’t fully know who she was. Resolved, she dried herself off and pulled on a pair of smart jeans, steeling herself for whatever the families threw their way this morning.
Rory’s resolve was immediately tested as Gemma bounced into the breakfast room in a pair of short shorts and a strappy top. Her grandmother immediately lectured her about “proper attire in the dining room”, but Gemma had shrugged it off with a cheeky smile and a kiss to her grandmother's cheek. Rory had always admired Gemma’s rebellious attitude towards anything her parents or grandparents thought correct.
Rory’s family were well established around Larchester, but Gemma’s father was newly rich when Gemma had started at Rory’s private school. Whilst Rory had been through prep school and then to senior school, Gemma had been in the state system until her father moved her to the same private school as Rory. Their parents had become friends at the tennis club, and Rory had been asked to lookafter Gemma. Initially, she didn’t want a silly first year traipsing around after her. She was in the upper fifth and making her mark on the school. Quickly though, the bubbly teenager had become a firm friend. Their shared history was a big part of what was holding Rory back from going further with Gemma. Breakfast was thankfully uneventful, once Rory had got used to Gemma flitting around in her short shorts, and soon they were preparing to head out to the swimming pool.
Rory returned to her room to change, grateful for the privacy. Unlike Gemma in those deliciously short shorts, Rory had dressed properly for breakfast and now poked through the things she had bought with her for something to wear. She pulled out her swimming costume and pulled it on her body, not stopping to think too much or she would never leave her room. Fortunately, she had thrown it into her suitcase on the off-chance of visiting the spa here.
She smoothed the fabric over her body and stopped to take in the high cut on her hips and twisted round to see how it dipped in the back. She had bought this for the last holiday she and Darcy had spent overseas. Rory had been running on empty, having worked hard on a big case, the bonus for which was paying for the holiday. She had been looking forward to spending a couple of weeks exploring the local sights and switching off from work, whilst Darcy wanted to shop, lounge around by the pool and snap pictures for her Instagram feed. When Darcy had joined Rory on an excursion, she moaned about the heat and her feet so much that it ruined the day. Eventually, Rory had relented and spent the rest of the holiday by the pool reading whilst Darcyworked on her tan. She had never been so bored in her life, and daily she had to cope with Darcy moaning about the fact that Rory wasn’t in a bikini like she was.
Rory pushed the thoughts away and pulled on a pair of shorts and a vest top over her swimsuit. She didn’t hold out much hope of getting some proper swimming in but grabbed her goggles anyway. She threw everything into a small backpack and rushed to join her parents, who were meeting in the hotel's lobby before heading to the pool.
Before they arrived, Gemma’s family had already arranged sun loungers, a couple of tables, and glasses of lemonade for everyone. Rory had wondered how long it would be until George started ordering Pimm’s for everyone and groaned at the thought of the combination of sunshine, alcohol and Gemma in a swimming costume. She pushed away thoughts of last night as her gaze was drawn to the sun lounger where she had slept with Gemma in her arms. Resolved not to go down that path again, she purposefully chose a sun lounger as far away from their spot last night as she could, while still being a part of the group. She glanced around quickly but couldn’t see Gemma. Her shoulders relaxed a little at the thought of being able to get settled without Gemma being around. Her talk to herself in her room bounced around her head. She wanted Gemma as a friend. She couldn’t get distracted by her lust, and she was in no position to fall into another relationship right now.
Splashing behind drew her attention. The world seemed to morph into slow motion as Gemma emerged from the swimming pool in the sexiest bikini Rory had ever seen. The water sluiced down her body, and Rory’s gaze was drawn toher cleavage. Her full curves were on show, and Rory wanted to simultaneously rip the bikini from Gemma’s body and make passionate love to her and throw a towel over her so no one else could see the beauty that should be hers. Rory swallowed hard. This was going to be a long day.
9
GEMMA
Gemma positioned herself on the sun lounger and sighed happily as the sun beat down on her skin. Rather than the stifling heat of London, the sun here was welcome, and she tipped her face upward in silent worship, absorbing as much energy and vitamin D from it as she could. She’d taken a picture of herself to send to Teagan and posted one of her and the family on her social media. She’d even got Rory to pose for a picture, and Teagan had replied that Gemma looked happy, and that Rory was hot!
Gemma giggled and put her phone away. Teagan was bi and, though she was committed to Brad, she always had a comment or two about the women Gemma dated.
Not that she would be dating Rory, Gemma reminded herself. The last thing she needed right now was to have a fling with an old flame who was on the rebound.
She wriggled on the sun lounger and pulled the halter neck strap of her hastily purchased bikini over her head to avoid any tan lines. She had liberally applied sunscreen and settled back to enjoy the heat of the sun, which was glorious and hot for mid-May. Rory huffed from the bed next to her,and Gemma felt a frown cross her forehead before consciously relaxing again. Rory had been unsettled and distant since she’d arrived. At first, she had tried to select a sun lounger away from Gemma, but the grandmothers had decided they wanted to sit together and shooed Rory away. She’d then tried to settle with her parents, but they were all discussing the gossip from the tennis club, and she was moved on again. With a huff, she had settled next to Gemma but within minutes she was stripping off and thrashing up and down the pool with strong, sleek strokes before her grandmother chided her for splashing too much. With a sigh, she had settled back on her sunbed with a towel across her lap and tried to concentrate on her Kindle, before huffing and announcing she was going to look at the lake. Gemma needed time away from Rory and happily let her go. The other woman was giving her whiplash with her changing moods this weekend, and Gemma was getting exhausted living with it. Eventually, the lack of sleep from last night and the Pimm’s her dad had pressed into her hands as soon as midday ticked around took her over, and she felt her head dropping.
“Gemma.”
“Mmm.” Gemma moaned, enjoying the sun on her body until a cold drip landed on her overheated chest. She shot up in shock and looked into the grinning face of Rory.
