“Fine,” Adrienne replied. “Then what do you want instead, Val? Because there’s no way my legs are going—”
“I want to win this challenge,” Valerie replied so fiercely that spit traveled out of her mouth and dribbled down her chin. From the production’s point of view, she probably looked unhinged. Feral even.
“I physically can’t hold on any longer,” Adrienne muttered. “I’m sorry.”
Valerie squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable plunge. It was instinctive. Every time she got onto a plane, she closed her eyes during takeoff. If she couldn’t see the disaster coming, maybe her brain could pretend it wasn’t happening.
SPLASH!
Valerie held her breath, waiting for that feeling of falling, for the shock of the cold sea to swallow her whole. But the impact never came. Her feet were still pressed against the hardwood. Adrienne was still leaning heavily against her back. Then Valerie snapped her eyes open just in time to see Sienna’s head pop up like a bobbing apple in a carnival bucket. She coughed a wet, water-swallowing kind of cough and immediately blurted out, “I’m so sorry, Tamera. I’m sorry, I couldn’t hang on.”
Tamera, who was wiping wet hair from her face, laughed out loud. “Why are you apologizing? It was my legs that gave up.”
“Mine did too.”
“SIENNA AND TAMERA ARE OUT OF THE GAME!” Vivian declared, standing up from her chaise, holding her barely sipped glass of Aperol Spritz. “ISLA AND SAFIYA AND ADRIENNE AND VALERIE ARE SAFE!”
Chapter Twenty
Adrienne didn’t understand why Valerie was still angry with her. What was wrong with offering someone a million dollars? Wasn’t that literally the solution to Valerie’s problems? Valerie could build that house in Sitka and still have some left over for a rainy day. Adrienne was even prepared to throw in some extra if Valerie wanted to upgrade to Calacatta marble countertops or custom white oak cabinets, all for the chance to give up during yesterday’s challenge. The pain in her thighs had been like having her quadriceps slowly shredded by a cheese grater, and every desperate desire she’d had to win the game had dissolved.
She had just wanted to step off the wood.
Yet Valerie had reacted as if Adrienne had just spat on her shoes. Then she’d proceeded to give Adrienne the silent treatment, which was like telling Adrienne that the new Dior Bow clutch purse was being launched and she was banned from the boutique’s waiting list. It was utterly cruel. After an entire night of no talking and having to do water bottle duty alone, Adrienne was going crazy.
She combed her fingers through her hair and winced as a sticky, salty crust tugged through her roots. Then she swept her gaze across the shoreline in search of Valerie, who had once again made herself scarce right after breakfast.
It didn’t take long to find her.
Valerie was standing a few hundred yards down the beach. She was ankle-deep in the surf where the water churned into a milky froth against her legs each time a wave broke. Herarms were so tightly folded across her chest that her fingertips reached her shoulder blades, and her dark hair was billowing around her face, whipped stiff by the wind. It was hot enough in the sun that Adrienne worried about Valerie’s skin.
“Lovers’ tiff?” Isla asked.
Adrienne snapped around to face Isla, who was tying an old, half-torn T-shirt that had belonged to Niko around her head like a bandana. “She’s upset,” Adrienne said.
“I can see that,” Isla replied, cocking her head to the side to tighten the knot of the bandana behind her ear. “Why is she upset? Are you two breaking up? I hope not. I was really rooting for you.”
Adrienne was too tired to tell if Isla was being sarcastic or not. She sighed, walked over to the nearest tree providing the most shade—the sun had burned through all of yesterday’s overcast gloom and the beach was basically an oven—and slowly lowered herself to the ground. Her thighs still burned from the challenge. She might even have torn a muscle.
“We’re not breaking up because we were never together,” she said matter-of-factly, because it was a fact. Adrienne had experienced enough hookups in her life to know what they looked like, and this was nothing more and nothing less. The only real difference was that Adrienne could usually slip out of the hotel room before the sun came up.
“You two were very ‘together’ the other night,” Isla said, smiling. She used air quotes at the word together, and Adrienne shuddered at the memory of Isla catching them very naked and pressed against each other while Valerie talked filthily in her ear. Then she shuddered for a whole other reason... did Valerie really keep a dildo in her bedside table?
“It’s nothing more than just a release,” Adrienne said, shoving that thought out of her head. But even as the words left her mouth, they didn’t sound right, or more so, didn’t soundtrue. She looked toward the beach in time to catch Valerie yanking her T-shirt over her head. Valerie then walked into the shallows, sat down on the sand, and stared up at the sun while wave after wave splashed against her shoulders.
“It was like that in the beginning,” Isla said. “For Tamsyn and me, I mean. I thought we were just hooking up because, you know, the pressure, the isolation... but it went beyond that.”
“So you developed feelings for Tamsyn during the game?”
“Yes, probably the same kind of feeling that you’re feeling right now,” Isla said.
“I’m not feeling anything,” Adrienne replied quickly. Too quickly. Elisabet Vale would call her out on it. ‘The faster you reply, the guiltier you look, darling.’
“Really?” Isla asked, raising a single eyebrow in a way that could silence even the severest toddler tantrum. “Because you seem completely out of sorts since yesterday, when Valerie stopped speaking to you. And before you ask, I notice everything. It’s a gift.”
Was it true? Adrienne didn’t want to think about it. In fact, she desperately wanted to change the subject, or at least be interrupted, but her curiosity was like a splinter in her palm. She couldn’t possibly ignore it.
“When did you know that... the...” Adrienne cleared her throat, but goodness, she was making her awkwardness obvious. “Umm ...feelings you had for Tamsyn were real?”