Page 21 of Down and Dirty Celebrity Edition

“It’s literally melting in my mouth,” Savannah replied, taking another bite just to be cruel.

“And the parfait?” Ezra chirped in, joining Kate and Luna. She dug the sharp tip of the machete into the sand and rested her chin on the handle. “Is the yogurt smooth and sweet or a little tart? I always like to fold in a bit of lime zest and a dash of cardamom to give it a little kick.”

“Silky smooth,” Amy called back, holding up her glistening spoon like a trophy.

“How about a little taste?” Avery said, cocking her head to the side. “I’d take a blackberry. Anything to cut the taste of beans and rice in my mouth.”

Savannah could do better than a blackberry. She wasn’t heartless after all. She tore off a piece of croissant with enough heft to be tossed a fair distance and then flicked it toward Avery, who snatched it up in her palm. Avery’s eyes rolled back with pleasure. “I hate you guys,” she muttered while chewing. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this envious in my life.”

“How about tossing all of us a few scraps,” Luna said, tilting her head up as if she were a baby bird begging for worms. “Have mercy on us, please.”

Savannah turned to catch Amy’s eye. Were they even allowed to share?

But then, suddenly, everything stalled. Luna’s voice was muffled as she begged for a tiny taste of the French toast. Even the crash of the waves seemed to slow to a crawl. There was just Amy, her lips dusted with powdered sugar, her bright eyes crinkling at the corners as she laughed, her voice like a siren’s song. A sudden, searing heat ripped straight through Savannah’s chest. She felt entirely on fire. But fires could be extinguished. They had to be. She quickly gulped down the rest of the mimosa and hoped it would douse the blaze.

But it didn’t.

In fact, it made it much worse.

Chapter Thirteen

Amy stared up at the delicate silver moon hanging low in the inky black sky. Inside the canopy of the mosquito net, it looked as if the world were draped in a fine, shimmering gauze. The cloud-like mattress and cool, softly draped duvet should have been enough to pull her into oblivion until morning. The duvet cover really did have a thread count of six hundred. But no, Amy couldn’t sleep. Not a wink. And considering the reward only lasted for one night, it was borderline criminal.

She pressed her cheek deeper into the pillow and pulled the edge of the duvet right up to her chin. The last time she’d slept on anything even remotely close to this comfortable was that old wool blanket Maeve had layered over the fresh hay in that deep red barn with its black slanted roof and white trim. Then she’d felt like Heidi in her alpine loft and had instantly been lulled to sleep by Maeve’s steady snoring.

Tonight, however, there was no chance of that. Every single nerve ending in Amy’s body felt hyperaware, buzzing with a restless static.

Savannah was so distracting beside her.

All Amy could think about was that if she shifted her leg just a few inches to the left, she’d bump her knee against Savannah’s knee. If she reached out her hand, her fingertips would brush the bare skin of Savannah’s forearm. Being this close to her and not doing anything about it was driving Amy completely out of her mind.

“Are you awake?” Amy muttered so softly she barely heard herself speak. Then she waited for five seconds, and when Savannah didn’t say anything, she shifted to turn around, because seriously, wasn’t it better to let sleeping dogs lie?

But then Savannah turned her head toward her. Under the moonlight, Amy could see her lips, silver and slick, resting just a breath apart as if she were on the verge of exhaling a secret. If this were a scene in her book, the protagonist would lean over and run the very tip of her finger along the soft, velvety curve of that lip.

“Are you struggling to sleep?” Savannah whispered.

Amy nodded, then remembered Savannah was night blind. Could she even see her? “Yes,” Amy muttered softly, just in case. The last thing Amy wanted was for Savannah to think that she’d imagined Amy speaking and then gone back to bed. “Did I wake you?”

“No,” Savannah said, shaking her head. “I can’t sleep either.”

Did Amy dare tell her why she couldn’t sleep? Would asking Savannah if her heart was pounding as fast as her own and if she also wanted to run her fingers along every inch of her exposed skin as badly as she did be completely inappropriate?

But even if she did, the lean-to was less than fifty yards away. Wyn slept so lightly that she would poke Amy hard in the ribs whenever Amy so much as sighed a little too loudly. Luna spoke in her sleep about jet skis every now and then, but apart from the rumble of the ocean as the waves crashed against the shore, there was no other noise to combat the moans that Amy wouldn’t be able to keep trapped behind her teeth if her hands wandered anywhere near Savannah’s. Not even a snorer. And wouldn’t a loud sawing of logs literally have provided the perfect cover for what Amy wanted to do?

The mattress suddenly dipped. Amy’s breath hitched as she realized that Savannah had moved closer. Then, because she couldn’t help it, because the heat radiating off Savannah’s body was like the damn sun burning away all her control, she whispered, “It’s driving me crazy to think that I can reach out and touch you, but I’m not allowed to.”

“Why?” Savannah asked, her voice barely a thread.

What did she mean by why?

“Because if I touch you,” Amy murmured, her hand finally bridging the gap between them until it came to rest against the warm, trembling skin of Savannah’s hip. “I won’t be able to stop.”

Savannah let out a soft, almost fractured breath. Savannah didn’t pull away as Amy expected. This was reckless, after all, and Savannah had clearly said she didn’t want to sleep with Amy again. Instead, her fingers reached up and traced the curve of Amy’s collarbone. An entire constellation of goosebumps erupted across Amy’s skin. She literally shuddered.

“Then don’t stop,” Savannah whispered, her face inching even closer until she breathed against Amy’s lips. “I want this too. You have no idea how much I want this.”

That was all Amy needed. It was the spark that nearly set the entire island on fire. Amy closed the final fraction of an inch until her mouth slid against Savannah’s mouth. Then Savannah’s tongue slipped through Amy’s slightly parted lips and brushed against hers, and Amy lost her train of thought completely... along with every last bit of her inhibitions.