“God.” Bryn pressed her palm to her burning chest. “That’s so strong.”
She cleared her throat while Vivian handed her a small bag of Himalayan pink salt popcorn. Bryn looked down at the offering and then back at Vivian.
“What?” Vivian snapped.
Bryn didn’t know how to respond. How to say it was sweet that Vivian had guessed she would at least eat popcorn. That she hadn’t forgotten their last night together. That she still thought of the night they kissed. Or maybe it was a coincidence, and Bryn was going to embarrass herself by mentioning it.
“Alright, let’s hear it,” Bryn pivoted. “Room number.”
“You’re really going to make me humiliate myself twice?” Vivian cracked open another tiny bottle and made two more drinks with the rest of the juice.
“Humiliate?” Bryn repeated with a snort. “Now I really can’t wait to hear this.” She stepped back and offered Vivian the only place to sit that wasn’t her bed.
“Maybe I knocked on every door of this hotel until I found your room,” Vivian replied with a shrug.
Bryn’s eyes widened. It was ridiculous, but had Vivian considered doing something like that? Something so running-through-the-airport romantic.
Vivian sat in the chair she pulled out from under the console, and Bryn sat at the edge of the bed. “I may or may not have been very friendly with the clerk at the front desk. And may or may not have used my charm to have my memory jogged on my dear friend’s room number. We’re both up for a very prestigious award,” she said in the same hypnotically sexy tone she must have used on the front desk person.
Bryn leaned back, holding the drink at her side on the bed. Vivian never faked anything as far as Bryn could tell. She hadn’t even been friendly to her apparentfriendson the roof. What did it mean that she’d been fake nice to a hotel employee? That she’d made herself uncomfortable just to surprise Bryn? Certainly, she could have just asked Bryn her room number, but she hadn’t. She looked at Vivian. A mystery she so wanted to unravel.
“I’m sorry about what happened earlier.” Vivian’s attention darted to the cup she was holding in her lap.
“It’s okay?—”
“It’s not at all okay,” she said with bone-rattling conviction. “And Seraphina and Richard both know not to say a fucking word to anyone. What you do is no one’s business but yours.”
Vivian shifted into an energy Bryn had never seen before. She was so intense, Bryn couldn’t imagine bearing the brunt of her direct wrath. Just the reenactment was enough to make her body clench.
“What did you say to them?”
Vivian leaned back, one leg crossed over the other, dark eyes bright with self-satisfaction. “I was clear.”
“Vivian…”
“Bryn.”
Chuckling, Bryn shook her head and took another sip of the tart and way too strong drink. “Are you a bully?”
Vivian’s lopsided smile was mesmerizing. A poem etched in the tilt of her perfect mouth. A mouth that had parted in Bryn’s defense. Heart racing at the prospect of Vivian defending her honor, Bryn resisted the overwhelming urge to swoon.
“Bullies pick on the weak. What I did was more like… pest control.”
Bryn laughed. Truly laughed. “That’s a terrible way to talk about people.”
“I’m happy to discontinue the conversation about them at any time.”
Bryn’s body warmed from the vodka. Definitely the vodka and not the way Vivian was making her feel. Like the high school quarterback and prom queen had rolled into one incredibly cool person, and they’d leapt in front of a gaggle of mean girls for her.
Bryn took a deep breath and launched into what neither of them was saying. “Welp, I guess the porn is out of the bag.”
“It didn’t sound likepornto me,” she snapped, openly defensive.
Surprise made Bryn woozy and her body so light she was floating. “Vivian, do you listen to Siren?”
Despite Vivian exuding sultry energy even while doing the most mundane things like sitting cross-legged with one foot casually swinging, Bryn got the feeling she was a little… repressed. That Vivian was not very in touch with her sexual side.
Bryn couldn’t blame her. Considering her experience as a teen, Vivian probably didn’t have many positive experiences with sexuality.
