Page 24 of Nothing Heals Me Like You Do
“Because you only had eyes for me?” Sienna sat in one of the lounge chairs by the glass railing.
“It quickly became obvious you invited me here for one purpose only.” Justine sat opposite her and smiled at Sienna. “Despite your preposterous claim of only wanting to talk.”
“We did talk.” They’d talked so much, in fact, that Sienna had only grown to like Justine more. Not just the slope of her cheekbones and how, when she looked into your eyes, she made you feel as though everyone else in the world ceased to exist, but the delicious contradiction of how she could be so self-deprecatingly honest about herself, yet at the same time could play coy like the best of them. Despite her direct manner, Justine didn’t strike Sienna as an easy woman to get to know—there was a thick shield around the most vulnerable parts of her—and, despite painful past experiences, Sienna found that wholly irresistible.
“Do we now have to talk about our talk?” Justine sipped from her coffee, then moaned low in her throat like she’d done a few times in bed last night. “Yum.”
Sienna shook her head. “We don’t have to talk, although it would be nice if you could answer my question from before.”
“What question?” Justine was not very good at playing dumb.
Sienna just tilted her head and waited.
“That hasn’t happened in a while.” Justine wrapped her hands around her mug. “Probably when I was with Marcy.”
“Were you together long?” Sienna couldn’t help herself. She might as well probe a little now that Justine was still here. It was Sunday and surely even someone as committed as Justine took a Sunday off once in a while.
“I wouldn’t say we were together per se.” Justine was surprisingly forthcoming, but Sienna guessed that last night’s intimacy had something to do with that. Making Justine come had been special—wonderful, even. “We went on a few dates and slept together a couple of times. That’s it. The whole thing didn’t last much longer than… I don’t know. Two months or so, not even that.”
“Did it hurt you when it didn’t work out?”
“Didn’t we cover this last night?” Justine’s foot found Sienna’s and she tapped against it. “I hope you remember what happened after your last interrogation.”
“How could I ever forget?” Sienna caught Justine’s rogue foot between her feet. She meant it. She wasn’t about to forget their exceptional night together.
“Are you trying to make it happen again?”
“Of course not. I wouldn’t expect that from a woman your age.” Sienna tried to keep a straight face.
Justine rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion. “I won’t even dignify that with a reply.”
“Would you like it to happen again?” Sienna surely would.
Justine exhaled slowly. “Sitting across from you, looking at your beautiful face, and the memory of last night still thrillingly fresh, I can hardly say no. But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a good idea.”
“Because of the movie?” Sienna was aware that her behavior as a cast member wasn’t very professional—and she vividly remembered Rochelle’s speech from the other day. She’d also heard plenty of outrageous tales from her father about how on-set affairs gone awry could derail production schedules, but times were different now. It might not be professional to sleep with the subject of the movie they were making, but Sienna considered herself professional enough to separate the two. No one on set even needed to know. She certainly wasn’t planning on telling Alexis, let alone the director, Mimi St James.
Justine nodded.
“I get it. I really do.” Sienna smiled. “It can be our secret.” The prospect of that was also rather exciting—perhaps a bit too much. In the end, they were making a movie, not performing high-risk surgery on someone whose life depended on it. It wasn’t even a big-budget movie—movies like this never were.
“Also.” Justine tipped her body toward Sienna. “Sleeping with someone twice in less than a week doesn’t change who I am or my priorities in life.”
Ouch.That was Sienna told. But maybe it was what she needed to hear. At the same time, it made Justine even harder to resist, because of course Sienna relished the challenge of being the one woman Justine did want to be with. The one woman she would change her stubborn ways for. Although Sienna was hardly that naive. She might be a lot younger than Justine, but that didn’t make her a lot more stupid.
“Let’s play it by ear then, like last time,” Sienna said.
“Sounds like a plan.” Justine finished her coffee, then regarded Sienna over the rim of her cup.
“What?” Sienna slid off her sandal and ran her toes over Justine’s shin. Pity she was wearing jeans.
“Nothing.”
“Tell me.” Sienna painted on her best smile again—the one Justine had not been able to resist twice now. “Please.”
“I’m just glad you’re not inviting me to do something today, which I then would have to decline. You know, that whole song and dance.”
Ouch again.It wasn’t as though Sienna hadn’t considered it. She wouldn’t mind spending some more time with Justine, getting to know her a little better—at least the parts of her she freely offered up to others.
