“What?” Vivian asked.
“Our guide, Themba, told me this story about a painted dog that stayed behind because it wanted the baboon in the tree more than it wanted the pack,” Sienna said quietly. “That’s all I meant—I’m the dog, and you’re the baboon.”
Sienna laughed. She straightened her leg until her toes brushed against Vivian’s inner thigh. But she didn’t stop there. Her foot lingered, and her toes traced lazy, featherlight circles along her skin. Vivian’s body jerked. Heat spiraled through her like someone had turned the steam from the bath into molten lava and poured it straight into her veins.
“I—” Vivian started, then swallowed. How could she speak when Sienna was clearly exerting a spell over her, a spell that involved surprisingly dexterous toes? But then Sienna pulled her foot back, and for one disoriented second Vivian almost asked why. Surely it was just to trade her foot for her fingers.
But before she could get the words out, Sienna was shifting through the water. The few remaining bubbles parted around her like a curtain. Vivian froze as Sienna turned and the wet ends of her hair slid over her shoulder. And then she lowered herself back until her spine rested flush against Vivian’s chest. It was unexpected, to say the least. But so welcomed. The way Sienna’s back felt against Vivian’s front was practically criminal. She could feel every shallow inhale Sienna took, every ripple of movement. Her hands, which suddenly had nowhere appropriate to go, hovered in the air. But only for a second before Vivian felt comfortable enough to place them on Sienna’s stomach.
“I’ve always wanted to sit in a bath like this with someone,” Sienna said, her hands resting on Vivian’s knees. “Isn’t there a villa date coming up? I wonder if Elise would want us to have a bath like this. The viewers would love it. Just not sure who it would be with now that Brooke’s gone. Holly maybe.”
“Are you trying to make me jealous?”
Sienna smoothed her hands down Vivian’s legs and up again. “Is it working?”
“You have no idea.” Vivian grinned.
If someone had told her this was how her night would turn out, she would’ve laughed them straight out of the room. Not just because she was doing exactly what she’d sworn she wouldn’t—falling for Sienna when she should be worrying about her job and making sure she wasn’t going to get fired—but because, suddenly, she didn’t care about any of it. Everything she’d said the other night wasn’t true. It had never been true. At least Sienna had enough sense to read between the damn lines.
“By the way,” Vivian whispered in her ear. “I grew up in Florida, not Wisconsin. I don’t have any siblings. I’m allergic to cats. My nose itches like crazy when I’m in the same room as them. I prefer jogging to cycling, and you’re right, I do like pineapple juice, except I prefer to get it from a little juice bar close to my apartment in Malibu.” She kissed the side of Sienna’s neck. “And I’ve never dated a celebrity or an influencer. At least not yet.” Then she kissed her shoulder again and again until Sienna’s head tilted back and her legs opened wider.
Vivian didn’t waste any time. The water was getting cold despite her body heating up.
She smoothed her right hand down Sienna’s stomach toward her hips. When she reached her hips, she moved further south until her palm pressed against Sienna’s clit.
“Nice,” Sienna muttered under her breath. She tilted her head back until it rested on Vivian’s shoulder and rolled her hipsagainst Vivian’s hand, practically humping her wrist. “That feels amazing.”
“You like that?” Vivian asked, speeding up a little.
Sienna was making noises Vivian had never heard before. Which she took as a yes and decided to amp it up. Way up. While her right hand rubbed circles around Sienna’s clit, her left hand found Sienna’s nipples. Unlike before, they’d both perked up. Vivian rolled one between her two fingers and smiled against Sienna’s damp hair before she deepened the pressure to a squeeze. She did this over and over again until Sienna cried out, “Don’t stop.” Which Vivian wasn’t planning on doing anyway. Instead, she wanted to add to it, and so she slid her fingers between Sienna’s folds, parting her like the rose she was, and when Sienna moaned again, and Vivian was satisfied that Sienna was hungry enough, she slipped two fingers inside.
That had the desired effect.
Sienna moved her hips even faster. And every time she did that, her body pulled away from Vivian’s center only to slam back against it. Vivian had never considered the possibility of getting this stirred up in a bathtub, but then again she’d never actually tried this before. A revelation she’d take to the grave.
When Sienna’s body started to slow, Vivian pressed her mouth to Sienna’s temple. “I can’t believe you just walked into my villa and climbed into my bath.”
“Really,” Sienna whispered, her body close to coming to a complete stop. “I’m surprised you’re surprised.”
Vivian laughed. Sienna did too. For a minute they just stayed like that, their bodies slick and weightless in the bath while water sloshed softly around them and a fiery-necked nightjar trilled its soft, somewhat haunting “Good Lord, deliver us…” into the warm night.
“Thank you,” Sienna said, flopping her head back on Vivian’s shoulder. Her damp hair brushed Vivian’s chest, andher hands settled once again on Vivian’s knees. The water was warm, nowhere near warm enough anymore, but she was perfectly comfortable, perfectly content.
“For what?” she asked, her mouth close to Sienna’s ear. She wrapped her arms tightly around Sienna and held her close.
“For being prepared to come to my rescue.”
Chapter Twenty
Sienna woke up to light. Not the soft, forgiving kind that crept through the gauzy white curtains of her bedroom back home, but rather the kind that flooded the room and pierced her eyes like needles. Her first thought of the morning was that the sheets had never felt this soft. But then she remembered that these weren’t her sheets. They were Vivian’s, and she wasn’t lying in the bed in her glamping tent, but rather in the villa she’d snuck into last night.
Sienna glanced next to her. Vivian was still asleep. She was lying on her stomach, and her short blonde hair was stuck up at the back. One arm was bent under the pillow, and the other sprawled across the mattress. The sheet barely covered the curves of her hips, and the morning light that streamed mercilessly through the wide glass doors caught the slope of her spine.
Sienna’s breath hitched.
And then it all came flooding back: the rose ceremony, the conversation with Elise that had driven Sienna to Vivian’s villa. The two of them together in that hot bath. Then the bed. Then, falling asleep in Vivian’s arms and feeling safer than she’d felt in a long time.
Sienna raked her fingers through her hair and hoped this feeling would last forever. This giddiness that seemed to expand in her chest until it reached the tips of her fingers and her toes. It even seemed to reach to the knots in her hair. There were plenty. In fact, her fingers couldn’t even pass the top layer without yanking hard at her tender scalp.
