Page 76 of Settling the Score

‘It’s okay if you’re busy.’ Bella’s voice warbled a little at the end, and Sienna guessed she was suppressing a laugh.

‘I’m—’

Aiden moved then, and she had to bite down on her lip to stop from moaning.

Another thrust, and she felt her grip slipping. Her body was tingling all over, the beginning of her orgasm fast and intense.

‘Oh my God,’ she whispered.

‘I’ll come back,’ Bella called, scuttling footsteps following her rushed escape.

‘Oh my God,’ Sienna groaned for a different reason now, arching her back and driving her hands through her hair, desperate to hold onto sanity and reality, even as she was falling apart, delightfully, deliriously, at the seams…

* * *

‘Well, well,’ Bella cooed, an hour and another orgasm later, by the coffee station. ‘Don’t you look like the cat that got the cream?’

Sienna felt heat flood her cheeks. ‘Listen, Bella, about upstairs…’

‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I borrowed a straightener from Cynthia – she’s a peach.’ Bella handed the coffee she’d evidently ordered for herself to Sienna. ‘You look like you need it more.’ She turned to the barista and placed another order. Sienna took a mighty grateful sip of the hot drink.

‘I love you,’ she said, closing her eyes as the caffeine infiltrated her body, bit by bit, reviving her from both sexual satiation and shock.

‘I know you do.’

‘But seriously, about this morning…’

‘It’s none of my business,’ Bella promised. But her face clouded over a little with solicitousness. ‘Just promise me you’re being careful.’

‘We are. I’m not going to risk anything happening, I promise.’

‘I don’t mean that.’ Bella waved a slim hand through the air. ‘This was meant to be a bit of fun. Flirty, casual. Easy. To teach him a lesson. But neither of you was meant to get seriously hurt in the process. That’s still the plan, right?’

Sienna shook her head a little. ‘I mean, I think any semblance of a plan whooshed right out the window within about twenty-four hours of getting to the island, don’t you?’

‘And why is that?’ she pushed.

The barista handed over another coffee and they made their way through the crowd – which had really started to fill out, with the wedding now just one day away – towards the terrace. The air out here was warm and sweet, filled with the heavy aromas of citrus and lavender. They moved to an unoccupied table.

‘I mean, the plan was pretty simple,’ Bella continued. ‘Unless you found it harder than you’d realised, to flirt with Aiden?’

‘I think we’ve established flirting with him wasn’t a problem.’

‘But you were meant to flirt and walk away,’ Bella reminded her. ‘To teach him a lesson?’

‘I know.’ Sienna’s glance dropped to her coffee. ‘That’s still what I’m intending to do.’ She thought back to the way he’d insisted on that.Just sex.Neither of them had said ‘meaningless’, because it wasn’t that, either. How could two people who’d shared so much ever have meaningless sex, anyway? ‘I’m not going to get my revenge,’ she said, lips pulling sideways. ‘But the thing is, I’m not really sure he deserves it, anyway.’

Bella’s perfect eyebrows pushed towards her hairline. ‘What? Is this not the man we’ve spent almost a year wanting to burn in effigy?’

Sienna rolled her eyes. ‘Not quite.’

‘Okay.’ Bella leaned forward, putting her hand on Sienna’s wrist. ‘But what happened? You thought he was the devil incarnate a week ago.’

She took another sip of coffee. ‘I know. I’ve spent more than ten years thinking that. But maybe, I mean, what if I was wrong?’

Bella’s expression was sceptical. ‘Were you?’

‘I think he had some pretty good reasons for wanting to get out of town,’ she admitted.