Chapter 7

Eva would have loved to strut across the beach like the hottest shit in the world the next day, but she was already distracted the moment she unleashed her niece to the surf.

Because that was not the brightest idea.

Once she wrestled Abigail back to the safety of the sand, where Nadia set up a canopy and beach chairs they rented from their hotel, Eva was sucked into the world of plastic toys and sandcastles. Abigail shared her grand vision of "churrets," which Eva eventually deciphered to be "turrets." I'm shocked she knows what those are. Like a lot of girls her age, Abigail was enamored with tales of princesses, witches, and castles. Going to Disneyland the day before had not helped. She wanted to recreate Cinderella's castle, and Eva was in charge of turrets.

Nadia settled into one of the chairs beside them, a hardcover book cracked open across her thighs. One wouldn't guess it looking at her now, but she really let it all out last night. No, Eva was not slammed onto the bed and forced to eat her pillow – not that she was opposed to that experience once in a while. Yet she did enjoy those glorious thighs spread across her face as Nadia stole another orgasm before pleasing Eva in return. In a former life when Nadia did not exist in her world, Eva easily veered between "selfish in bed" and "pleasure Domme." She was used to – and even happy to experience – giving all the pleasure without taking anything in return. Not physically, at least. With women like Nadia? Half the high was making them unravel.

Okay, but I like it when she touches me, too. Eva had been much louder than her wife. So much so that she begrudgingly suffocated herself with a king-sized pillow to keep anyone else in the hotel from hearing her "squeal," as Nadia so elegantly put it.

Eva glanced at her wife again, who currently read the latest Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection. Or so the badge on the front cover proclaimed. What a freak. Every time Eva got a glance at the woman behind those big eyes, the luckier she felt.

"No, honey." Eva snapped out of her memories when she realized her niece lunged for a tiny crab shuffling across the sand. "Leave it alone. You wouldn't like it if someone snatched you off the street, would you?"

Abigail stuck her tongue out with a pout as she distracted herself with filling up another yellow plastic pail with sand. One of her two blond braids thumped against the ground as she plunged her arm elbow deep, shrieking in delight when she discovered a plain rock in its depths. Eva didn't get it, but she also wasn't a kid anymore.

She snapped a couple of pictures of her niece when she wasn't looking. After sending one to her brother, she rejoined Abigail in constructing a fortress of monstrous proportions.

When Abigail inevitably lost interest, she climbed into the other chair by Nadia and wrapped a towel around herself before announcing she wanted a "quick nap." Eva teased her, suggesting that Abigail was now an old lady instead of a little girl. Yet Abigail pulled the towel over her head and overdramatically produced the most ridiculous snoring sounds Eva had ever heard. She knew when she was dismissed by Princess Abigail.

"You want something to drink?" Eva asked her wife. "I'm going to the juice stand."

"Whatever sounds good."

Nadia returned to her riveting book while Eva brushed off the sand from her legs and hoofed it toward the drink cart blasting classic rock ‘n' roll. From juice and soda to mocktails, the menu was daring enough that the only thing missing was boba tea.

"Any idea what's good here?"

The only reason Eva wasn't surprised to see Adrienne strutting up to the drink cart in nothing but a black and white polka-dot bikini and floppy straw hat was because she knew the other couple was staying at the hotel within view of the beach.

"Never been here before in my life." Eva realized what a mess she looked like compared to the always clean, never sandy Adrienne Thomas, the only woman to seriously contend for richest queer in their city. Does it count if she didn't consider herself queer at the time, though? Eva had heard every bit of juicy bisexual drama through Nadia and was waiting for the day Adrienne shared some of it herself.

Except they weren't that kind of friendship.

Adrienne checked the bottom of her wedged sandal before opening the coin purse she had brought from her beachside roost. "Can you believe the prices they gouge tourists with these days?" She gazed at the menu alongside Eva, who still couldn't decide what she wanted. "Eight dollars for an Italian soda. What is the world coming to?"

"You're rich." Eva crossed her arms, grains of sand grinding against her skin. "Pay up, Thomas, and don't forget the tip."

An awkward laugh blew Eva over. "How's Nadia? I hope she's enjoying her vacation. I know for a fact it's the usual parade of investors at the office as soon as we get home."

"She's doing great. It's a shame you and Amber had to leave so early the other night. She was looking forward to hot tubbing back at our suite. She told you two that we have a private hot tub, right? You can go skinny dipping and nobody but you and God knows." Eva leaned in toward Adrienne, whose floppy hat scratched the air between them. "I don't believe I've ever seen you naked before, Thomas."

Another hoot of laughter blasted across the sands. Not even the familiar chords of a famous The Rolling Stones song could compete when Adrienne pretended to be more fun than she was.

"I certainly hope not. Those videos are for Amber only."

Eva was only mildly caught off guard. "I've underestimated you, I see."

Adrienne counted out her cash – tip included – before fisting it into one hand and snapping her coin purse closed with the other. "You usually do."

Touche. "Decided on what you want?"

"Between what? A drink on the menu or how I wish to spend the rest of my vacation?"

Eva cleared her throat. "I believe there has been a miscommunication between us."

"Perhaps so." Adriene approached the young woman at the counter. After paying, she rejoined Eva, who had not yet moved to join the line forming in front of the counter. Adrienne tucked her receipt into her coin purse before continuing their conversation. "Amber and I had other people we were meeting for drinks the other night. I'm sure Nadia told you."

"Yeah, something about a bunch of surfers you met right here on this beach. How old were they, you cougar? Barely twenty-five?"

Adrienne wiggled her shoulders as she clasped her hat on top of her head. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"I don't need details, thanks." Adrienne didn't know Eva's traumas, and that was fine with her. "Good for you, though. Even spicing things up with one surfer could be… fun." In Eva's head, it was very much a female surfer. Preferably one with a golden tan and muscles that could lift a car without adrenaline. I may have dated a surfer once. A champion surfer from Australia, no less.

Adrienne's number was called. "Who said it was the one?"

She approached the counter with the bravado of a woman who had earned it. Was Eva slightly incensed? Yes, but only because Adrienne Thomas of all people should not be cooler than her on this trip. Out here, living her best love life with her partner while I'm still getting Nadia to open up more. Was Eva slightly jealous? No!

Maybe a bit.

"The thing about surfers," Adrienne muttered on her way by with two mocktails, "is that they've got stamina, Warren."

Her cackling cracked across the salty air as she bounded across the sand in a pair of wedge sandals that would have felled any other woman. "I deserved that," Eva muttered, that hedonistic laughter still haunting her. "I've gotta stop underestimating my fellow women."

"If you want to see me naked," Adrienne shouted across a crowded beach, "invite us over tonight to use that hot tub!"

Eva pretended she hadn't heard that. She approached the counter and ordered two Italian sodas with extra cream. Because why not?

"You never told me your friend Amber was a freak." That was the first thing Eva hissed into her wife's ear when she returned with their drinks. Abigail was back in the sand, digging a moat around what existed of her castle. Eva placed her niece's Italian soda beside her before returning to Nadia. "You know what she and freakin' Thomas did the other night?"

The only reaction Eva received was a fervent twitch of Nadia's feet. "Yup. They do that. I get to hear details sometimes."

"They ever do it with another woman?" Eva shoved her arms akimbo. "Just wondering."

"Yes. They like their vacation threesomes. Amber says it keeps ‘the fun alive' between them. She's still working Adrienne for all she's worth."

"Yeah, but she's having a ton of fun while doing it.'

Nadia shrugged. "Who cares?"

I care. For some reason. It was the principle of the thing. Like so many other damned things in Eva's everyday life. "I think we should invite them over tonight. Show them our deck."

"Eva."

"I don't mean it like that."

"Good."

"I'm just saying. I think I need to get to know Adrienne better."

"Why does this sound like it's stemming from jealousy? You know I don't like publicly self-conscious-with-something-to-prove Eva."

"I'm not jealous." Eva took a hearty drink of the Italian soda and snorted cream up her nose. "I'm horny."

She said that so quietly that she barely heard herself. Yet Nadia heard, and she instantly looked at Abigail, who was too far away to hear – let alone repeat that to some other adult later. Like my mom. Oh, God.

"We had sex last night," Nadia hissed.

"Are you serious? That was like twelve hours ago. Do you know who I am? I'm DTF every freakin' day." Eva didn't know when to stop talking. "I once screwed a different woman every night in Vegas. Like a revolving sex door in my hotel suite."

"Bet you'd love to recreate that with or without me."

Nadia snatched the drink from Eva. While she chugged the Italian soda, Eva bent down lower and muttered, "Always with you. I'd fucking die of happiness."

The smirk on Nadia's face killed her. "Really?" She smacked her lips after removing the straw from her mouth. "Different woman every night?"

"None of them half as hot as you."

"I don't care about that. I'm trying to imagine having that kind of energy."

"My libido was truly uncontainable in my early twenties."

"Yes, I've seen the drone footage."

Eva planted herself on the beach towel, determined to rejoin her niece in building the sandcastle. "Every night, Nads. Wild shit."

Nadia popped the book open before her face. Eva turned to her niece, who looked up from her creation and asked, "What does DTF mean?"

"Downtown fun."

Abigail accepted that answer, but when Eva glanced at her wife, she discovered Nadia peering at her from around her book's cover, speechless.

"Downtown fun," Eva repeated, louder.

"No, I heard you," Nadia said. "That's you every day, Eva."

"Text your friend!" Eva shoved a red plastic shovel into the sand, digging a moat like no one ever had before. "I've been promised… stuff!"

Nadia could only shake her head in disbelief. To be fair, Eva felt much the same way.

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"It's amazing who is too busy for you as you get older." Adrienne accepted a glass of wine after Eva opened the bottle. The suite's kitchenette was barely big enough to hold four women as they crowded around for some of the best wine to come out of Napa Valley, but Eva knew how to contain her elbows as she played sommelier. "Tina and I used to be the bestest of friends at Harvard. We couldn't go two days without hanging out at the library or grabbing coffee at the square. Now? You'd think my last name was Pariah."

Nadia cleaned up the bit of wine that had spilled. Amber sidled up next to her partner and said, "Is this the same Tina you told me got all jealous when you started dating Ethan?"

"What are you implying?"

Amber slid out of the way as Eva placed the backup wine bottle on the counter. "She had a crush on you and got big mad when you started locking lips with my future boss."

"Either way," Adrienne said to the other two women at the counter, "I've tried contacting her more than once this week, telling her I'm in town and I would love to catch up. I keep going straight to voicemail. At least it tells me it's still her number…"

"Who's this friend again?" Eva asked. "I've missed something."

"She's some bigshot agent now. Got the kind of acting clients you can't miss on the big screen. I think one of them was even in that Barbie movie." Adrienne sipped her wine. "Or was that ‘Oppenheimer?' God, I can barely keep track of what comes out anymore. I've never been a big movie person."

Nadia presented a platter of cheeses and crackers Eva picked up at one of the specialty markets on their way back from the beach. Although Adrienne and Amber couldn't come by until much later due to a dinner commitment, that didn't stop Eva from making good on her promise to host guests in their suite that night. Nadia had told the two that it was a casual affair for chatting and hanging out, yet here they were, in slinky slip dresses and push-up bras. If this one gets in the hot tub, Eva thought of Amber after staring at her impeccably blond roots, the water will be bleached.

"You have a connection in Hollywood, huh?" Eva asked, keeping the conversation alive. "That must be interesting. I haven't had one since… oof, it's been a while." Even then, most of her Hollywood friends were models and actresses who were either now retired or had disappeared from her life. Where had the time gone?

Adrienne's face lit up as soon as she remembered Amber was right next to her. "Do you know how many times she's tried to poach my girlfriend? To be a model?"

"Tina has made it very clear I'm not actress material," Amber said with a wrinkle of her nose. "Not that I want to be an actress, but she could be a little less Hollywood-sassy about it. I'm more than a hot body, you know."

Why did she say that to Eva, who was minding her own business at the island counter? "Is Amber being a model mutually exclusive to being your girlfriend?" she asked Adrienne. "I'd think your ego would love that."

"Of course, I'd love it for the whole world to know that she's the sexiest thing since Brooke Shields." Adrienne brushed her finger against Amber's chin when she said that. "But it's the distance, you know? What's the point of this money if she can't live the charmed life on my dime?"

"Ugh, stop talking dirty," Amber bemoaned. "You're getting me hot and bothered."

"Speaking of… didn't you promise us a hot tub, Warren?"

Eva gestured to the sliding glass door leading out to the deck. "Hope you brought your bathing suits, because this wine is going outside as soon as I'm in mine."

"It fits four," Nadia said.

"The perfect number of women," Amber quipped.

"Actually…" Adrienne wagged her bushy eyebrows at everyone but Eva. "Someone here promised me that this would be an au naturale gathering."

"Come again?" Nadia asked.

"I didn't think you meant that," Eva cut in, "but if you want to hop in naked, be my guest, Thomas. We're all women here."

With a wink, Adrienne helped herself to the sliding door with Amber slowly following. Every few steps, she looked over her shoulder at Nadia and Eva for an explanation. Nadia was as flummoxed as her friend.

"I didn't think she meant it," Eva said. "You know. In my defense."

Nadia waited until the door was closed again before sighing in exasperation. "Eva…"

"Yes, snookum?"

"Why are our friends, let alone one of my bosses at work, taking off their clothes to get in our hot tub?"

"I told you, I didn't think Adrienne was serious when she said this was the only way I'd ever get to see her naked." Eva stretched her neck, one foot coming off the floor as she tilted sideways to get a look at Adrienne's figure in the darkness. As soon as the lights in the hot tub turned on, Eva saw nothing but naked skin. That may have included a tight butt and breasts way bigger than she anticipated. Nice.

"You've seen her naked before."

Eva snapped her head back around. "When? I think I'd remember nipples that big."

Nadia smacked her hand against her forehead. "At the club? She loves their strip poker event. Woman's practically become a nudist."

"Good for her." Eva couldn't help but look out the window again as Amber was coaxed into taking off her dress. "Hope you don't mind. I think our guests are next to have sex in our hotel room."

"They are not having sex in there. Or in here, for that matter."

"Now, hear me out, Nads…"

"Evangeline!"

Christ, my name. "I didn't think they were serious, but since they're here…"

"They're not my type," Nadia blurted. "Trust me. If I thought they were good contenders for our first threesome, I would've let you know by now."

"Ohoho, so you've thought about it?"

"Of course I have." Nadia hid her bashful look behind the refrigerator door, where she put the rest of the cheese and crackers away. "What are you doing?" she asked a second later.

Eva hesitated before pulling her T-shirt over her head. "Going to join them. You coming?"

"I'm not skinny dipping with them in our hot tub!"

"Aw, why not?"

Nadia threw her hands down at her sides. "Because some things should remain sacred where I work!"

"Adrienne's not your actual boss, and you better not have been skinny dipping with Ethan Cole. I'd kick his fucking ass, I don't care if everyone else loves him or not."

"You are the most unbelievable woman I've ever had the crazy dis… pleasure?"

Eva slowly cocked her head at that runaway sentence that led nowhere. "You okay?"

Nadia pried her eyes away from the window. She hucked back the wine in Eva's glass, completely forgetting her own. "Adrienne is fucking hot."

"You just now noticed."

Nadia braced herself against the counter, wine still making its way down her throat. That's right. Breathe in the beautiful naked women, my love. Eva would have laughed, but she didn't want to ruin whatever delightful thought ran through her wife's head. "I had forgotten she's got great boobs. Even though she's always showing them off at the office…"

"And at strip poker."

"We should go out there before they start making out and God knows what else."

"Yeah, don't want to be left out."

Nadia snatched her wife's wrist. "We are not having sex with them. Do you understand?"

"Loud and clear, my repressed wife."

"We're going to be cordial hosts and engage in tipsy conversation with them. Naked."

That was Eva's cue to snap off her bra. "We are a united force. A wall of nudity that is at home in our naked bodies, as granted to us by God. We admire, but we do not touch."

Nadia began unbuttoning her blouse. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Look, you get to say you were in the same hot tub as that rockin' hot bod out there." Eva shimmied out of her shorts and kicked off her socks. "I get to say I sat next to a naked woman who's been asked more than once to be a model."

"I already knew you wanted to sleep with Amber."

"I don't wanna sleep with her, baby." Eva struggled with her underwear, but only because she was that excited to run outside naked with her wife. "I want to do unmentionable things to her when you're ready to watch."

"Which will be never!"

Yet Nadia was somehow stripped down before Eva, who hopped around on one foot in the kitchenette, her cotton underwear refusing to fly off her big toe.

Hands to self, Eva. That only applied to their guests, right? Because Nadia was still the hottest woman in the tub, and Eva would die if she didn't get to at least cuddle her wife.

Nadia was already climbing into the hot tub by the time Eva made it out there. With all eyes on her, she proclaimed, "Here's to Friday nights in Malibu, ladies!"

She kept her hands to herself. Her imagination, however, had one of the best nights of its life.

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Nadia left Eva and Adrienne talking about awful mothers as she wrapped a towel around herself. Her padded footsteps led her back into the hotel suite, where she grabbed the second bottle of wine and the cheese and crackers out of the fridge. In the distance, the toilet flushed and the bathroom sink came on. The moment Nadia had everything out on the counter, Amber emerged from the other room, a towel wrapped around her as well.

"Please forgive Adrienne," she said. "She's letting off steam on this trip. I guess a lot is riding on some meetings when we get back home, and she's nervous as hell."

"No worries. From what I understand, this is mostly Eva's fault."

Amber flashed a knowing smile before leaning against the island counter, where she stabbed a piece of cheese with a toothpick and ate it in one bite. "I figured as much," she said.

"Something came over her tonight." Nadia drummed her fingers on the table before remembering there were more toothpicks in one of the cupboards. The hotel suite only provided a handful of dishes, a fridge, and a microwave, but it was enough to pretend to entertain guests like they would in their own home. "Actually, something came over her earlier today when we were all on the beach. Adrienne must have said something to her." With a shake of her head, Nadia looked out the sliding glass window. Eva and Adrienne sat on opposite sides of the hot tub, but it didn't stop how ridiculous they looked doing it naked. Good thing Nadia knew this would never make it back to her boss. Adrienne would have rather died than let her business partner know she was in a naked lady soup with the receptionist.

"Adrienne was acting like hot shit when she told me we were meeting up here tonight. I can only imagine what she was telling your wife. You know how those rich people are." Amber said that as if she weren't one of those very rich people now. Or me, for that matter. Yet Nadia knew what she meant. Women who were either born into such privilege or "earned" it themselves were made of different stock. What got them excited differed from what impressed women like Nadia. It's no longer about how much money you have, what you own, or where you've been. It was about experiences. The kind that mere mortal women could not attain perhaps more than once in their lives.

"I guess you guys had a lot of… fun the other night. With those surfers."

Amber almost spat her cheese back onto the counter.

"Didn't think you'd be shy about it," Nadia said.

"I'm not shy. It's Adrienne who is the shy one! Why is she talking about it with Eva? She's trying to one-up her, isn't she?" Amber shook her head. "I don't know what's gotten into my girlfriend. Maybe she's finally getting old enough that she doesn't care what other people think about her, but could she keep some things sacred? Like how many surfers partied it up in our room the other night?"

"I have a feeling that you and I have different definitions of ‘partying.' My parties don't usually end in orgies."

"Orgies? Oh, honey, now there's something Adrienne couldn't handle." Amber scoffed, once again comfortable enough to eat some cheese and crackers. "That implies she's not the center of attention. Adrienne is always the center of attention anywhere we go. I mean, look at her." She gestured her chin toward the window. "She's one-on-one with the Eva Warren, yet Adrienne's acting like she's got the whole world wrapped around her finger."

"It's because of her breasts."

Amber snapped her head toward her friend. "Excuse me?"

"Eva's been staring at her boobs this whole time."

"I mean, can you blame her? Adrienne's got a certified rack."

She had Nadia there. "Eva's acting all weird lately. I mean, I know why. Part of it is because we're here visiting with her mom, the She Demon of the Rockies. Interacting with Isabella always makes Eva want to do out-of-the-box things."

"Oh, doesn't that remind me?" Amber perfected a cracker and cheese combo that took five times as long to create as it did to eat. "You told me a while back that Eva made you promise you guys would have your first threesome this year. Did anything ever come out of that?"

Nadia slammed the fridge door shut. "We've still got three months left. Besides, what do you think Eva was after when she taunted Adrienne to get naked?"

Amber chuckled. "We don't shit where we eat, sorry."

"Trust me, I'm not interested in getting with my friends. Never mind the fact that I technically work with your girlfriend." Nadia finished cleaning up, prepared to carry the small tray of snacks out to the hot tub. "Getting with the boss is more your thing, not mine."

"Yes, work with her, not for her."

"There is no universe where Mr. Cole knows I've slept with his ex-fiancée."

"Well, when you put it that way…"

Amber helped Nadia carry the tray outside, where Adrienne welcomed them with a raise of her empty wineglass and Eva finally pried her eyes away from the nipples bobbing out of the water. Remember, Eva… Nadia handed her wife a cracker and cheese sandwich before dipping her feet back into the hot water. Look, but don't touch.

Amber truly had put it succinctly – you simply didn't shit where you ate. Doesn't stop my wife from sniffing tail, though. Instead of getting jealous about it anymore, Nadia accepted that this was an aspect of her wife that never changed. Like she would always be freakishly tall, and Nadia would always be overweight by even her "generous" doctor's standards.

Some things simply didn't change… but that didn't mean those things defined them.

Or that they make us bad. Nadia remained sitting on the edge of the hot tub, hand gently combing through Eva's slick and straight hair. The more Nadia let go, the more she got out of this marriage that came out of nowhere, but certainly took her somewhere.

She wondered where they would go next.