“I get it,” Delilah said. “It’s fine.”
“I just—”
“It’s fine,” Delilah said again. Her tone was so sharp, Astrid flinched, but she didn’t want to talk about this right now. Not with her breath stuck in her chest like this, her legs still wobbly from having Claire’s mouth on her neck.
The damn light finally blinked green. Delilah opened her door and disappeared inside before either of them could say another word.
Chapter Fifteen
FUCK.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
As soon as she was alone, Claire tore off her clothes and all but threw herself in the shower to try to calm herself down. She turned the water all the way to cold, maybe to freeze off the memory of Delilah’s mouth on hers, her hands, the way she’d tasted, how her neck had smelled like spring, like rain and fresh grass.
How Delilah’s face had gone still as a stone, her fiery gemstone eyes dimming to a dull blue, the moment Claire asked her to keep what had just happened a secret.
Why the hell had she done that?
Because Astrid would have completely lost her shit, that’s why.
One didn’t simply make out with one’s best friend’s estranged sister and then announce happily that it was the single hottest fifteen minutes she’d ever experienced, and that included the time she and Josh frustration-fucked on her backyard patio table three years ago while her mother had taken Ruby to a movie. Tonight, she hadn’t even come, Delilah hadn’t even ventured below her hip bone, and Claire still felt like she was about to explode just standing here under the water.
But that didn’t matter.
It didn’t matter that the whole thing had felt like so much more than just kissing and touching, or that even an hour later as she lay in bed wide awake, she was still wetter than she’d ever been in her entire life, her body humming and twitching like a live wire.
None of that mattered at all because what happened tonight absolutely would not happen again. It couldn’t. Delilah lived in New York City. She was leaving in less than two weeks, for a huge show at a major museum no less. She didn’t do relationships. Claire knew this from Astrid, just like she knew Delilah didn’t care about anyone but herself and never had.
Claire grabbed the pillow Delilah had been using and threw it across the room. Then she got out of bed and turned the air-conditioning all the way down, hoping the cold would distract her from remembering the look in Delilah’s eyes as she’d told her about Jax, about photographing Claire on the shores of the river. A look that seemed like the exact opposite of not caring.
Chapter Sixteen
THANK THE GODDESS for AirPods.
Delilah spent the entire drive back to Bright Falls with a sapphic fantasy audiobook blasting in her ears. After an afternoon of touring the vineyard and snapping photos of Astrid, Iris, and Claire tasting all sorts of fancy wines and then hocking them back into what can only be described as a spittoon, and trying her best to ignore Claire while making it seem like she totally wasn’t ignoring Claire, all she wanted right now was her chintz-covered couch at the Kaleidoscope Inn, some liquor she could actually swallow, and a nice long session with her California Dreaming Minx.
Iris sat next to her in the back seat, which Delilah would also thank the goddess for except Iris legit kept writing messages to her on her phone’s Notes app, then thrusting the thing under Delilah’s nose.
What now?
We have ten days.
Come on, I’m sure you can think of something really devious.
Hello?
If you don’t answer me, I’ll just get more annoying.
When Delilah did nothing but glare, Iris did indeed get more annoying. She snatched Delilah’s phone right out of her hands and started tapping at the screen with a smirk on her face. Delilah fumed silently, not wanting to draw attention to whatever the hell Iris was doing. She finished with a final jab of her forefinger, and Iris’s phone immediately buzzed with a text.
And so did Claire’s.
Delilah snatched her phone back, her book still playing, and looked at her screen. Her messages were open, and there was a new group text that included her, Iris, and Claire, because of course Iris had just gone ahead and put everyone’s numbers into Delilah’s phone. Iris had named the chat OSB, whatever the hell that meant, and apparently, Delilah’s first text to the other two women had been You’re both queens and I live to serve you.
Claire shifted in the front seat, turning slightly to look over her shoulder at her.
Delilah quickly tapped out a text.
DELILAH: I hate you both.
IRIS: That’s not what I heard.
In the front seat, Claire choked and went into a coughing fit. Delilah felt her cheeks go red. Had Claire fucking told Iris what happened between them last night? No. She wouldn’t. Not if she was so set on Astrid not finding out. Iris was clearly not a great secret-keeper, as evidenced by her texting the two of them right now while Astrid sat in the driver’s seat and babbled on and on about some design job she was doing for a law firm.
IRIS: You just said we were queens.
Delilah relaxed a little while Claire chugged her water and made uh-huh sounds at Astrid.
CLAIRE: Ris, what are you doing?
IRIS: Um, texting?
DELILAH: What the hell is OSB?
IRIS: Operation Shit Boot
DELILAH: Shit boot?
IRIS: SHIT. BOOT.
Delilah looked at Iris, half irritated and half amused. Iris just smiled, then went back to texting.
IRIS: What’s our next move?
CLAIRE: I think we can wait to talk about this until Astrid isn’t two feet away from me.
IRIS: We could, except we only have ten days and last night did not go as planned.
DELILAH: Last night went exactly as planned.
Claire cleared her throat, and Delilah wanted to roll her eyes. She opened up a thread with just Claire.
Not what I meant.
I know, Claire texted back.
IRIS: Are you two texting on your own?
CLAIRE: No.
DELILAH: Maybe.
Claire huffed out a breath, and Delilah couldn’t help but smile.
IRIS: Okay, no secret conspiring. I don’t care if you two do want to bang each other’s brains out.
Delilah choked on her own spit, which caused a coughing fit. She pounded on her chest while Claire’s thumbs flew over her screen.