chapter 15

The voice said,“Blue, it’s me.” The arms held her tighter. “It’s me. It’s Lillian.”

Izzy was hallucinating. She’d been seized by the serial killer, and in her last moments she was thinking about Lillian Jackson. A vision—well, not a vision, but a feeling—of comfort. Lillian’s muscular body holding her.

A hand cupped the back of Izzy’s head.

Izzy recognized a citrusy warm perfume.

“Say something.” Lillian spoke quickly. “Are you okay?”

Of course she was okay. Izzy wasn’t afraid of the dark. Izzy didn’t have childhood issues, at least not in the presence of Lillian Jackson.

“Totally fine,” Izzy said.

“I think they shut off some sort of generator.” Lillian moved away, but she kept one hand on Izzy’s hip. Izzy couldn’t see anything, but they had to be close enough to kiss. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“A beautiful woman in the dark. When has that ever scared me?”

Lillian put her other hand on Izzy’s breastbone, holding her lightly.

“You screamed.” Lillian sounded worried.

There was no way Lillian didn’t feel Izzy’s heart pounding.

“You made me scream.” Izzy steadied her breath and let the words out slowly, the way Blue Lenox would, putting a wink in every word. “It wasn’t the first time.”

“Are you flirting with me?”

Izzy could hear Lillian’s bemused frown.

“Would you mind if I was?”

“You just thought someone was jumping you in a dark basement, and now you’re flirting with me? And I did not make you scream before,” Lillian added matter-of-factly. “You didn’t give me a chance. What are you doing here in the dark?”

“I stayed back to… think.” That was a little earnest. “To bask in my glory. I really was fabulous.”

The fight-or-flight adrenaline in Izzy’s body was changing—like water to wine—at the excitement of Lillian’s touch.

“Blue Lenox.” Lillian’s hand found Izzy’s cheek and she stroked it gently. “You are full of yourself.”

Izzy trembled at Lillian’s touch, but she kept her voice light.

“I saw your performance. I wish there hadn’t been so many lights. I wanted to see more of you.”

“The show was ridiculous with those lights. I felt like I was dancing in a lightning storm.”

“Was it hard?”

“No.”

Lillian said it without hesitation. Her confidence made Izzy’s knees weak.

“Besides saving me, why didn’t you go back to the Lynnwood? Everyone’s gone.” Izzy’s heart hung between the beat that said, Maybe she stayed for you, and the beat that said, Of course not.

“I was looking for you. To say I’m glad you made it through the round.”

It was good Lillian couldn’t see Izzy’s smile. Too big. Too broad. Too representative of issues Sarah would love to process with her.

“I’m glad you did too,” Izzy said.

“Wait. I’m supposed to say I came down here to crush your… overly woke, spoken word…” Lillian laughed as though she’d run out of ideas. “No. God, it was beautiful. To get an audience to love you when they’d been there for that long…”

“If they’d had phones, they would have been googling false imprisonment.”

With a whoosh of motors, the HVAC system resumed. The emergency lights flickered back on. Lillian stepped back. Izzy blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light, which seemed suddenly bright. The light caught in Lillian’s almost shaved platinum blond hair. She’d changed into brown leather pants and a tan suit jacket. She looked like she should have a riding crop and a ten-thousand-dollar horse named Century. Opalescent gold lip gloss shone on her full lips, standing out against her skin like gold on onyx. Lillian stood with one hip cocked.

“Look at you.” Lillian looked Izzy up and down. “In a… is that a Minecraft sweatshirt?” Lillian sounded pleased, not disappointed. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

Izzy followed Lillian down the hall to the staircase leading up to the soundstage and the exit to the street. Lillian stopped with her hand on the push bar that opened the door and hopefully didn’t set off any alarms.

“I just want to be really clear,” Lillian said.

Oh. This part. The butterflies in Izzy’s stomach slowed their fluttering.

“Yeah?”

“Just to be clear, I’m not going to sleep with you again.”

“I didn’t ask.”

Lillian touched Izzy’s jaw, just the lightest touch with two fingers. “But now, unless you say no, I’m going to kiss you one more time because you are…” Lillian seemed to lose her train of thought. “Because you’re you.”

Izzy gasped.

“Is that a yes?”

Izzy could only nod.

Then Lillian’s lips were on hers, forceful and commanding. But the way she ran her hand up Izzy’s neck and into her hair, cradling her head… it was so tender. Lillian nipped Izzy’s lip, just enough to make Izzy gasp again, then she kissed the same spot. The blend of sensations lit the hallway with stars. Lillian circled Izzy’s waist, pulling them together. Izzy moaned as Lillian moved her leg between Izzy’s, the pressure making Izzy’s hips undulate, matching the rhythm of Lillian’s. Lillian wanted her. Izzy could feel it in the push-pull of tenderness and strength. Every thrust of Lillian’s hips was a fight between rushing and holding back. And oh God, Izzy could break her no-second-nights rule. A sensible voice in the back of her head said, No. Everything else in her said, Yes. Then she felt Lillian stiffen as though she had mustered the resolve to resist something she desperately needed. And just as quickly as Lillian had kissed her, she released her.

“Good night, Blue.” With that, Lillian pushed open the door, held it long enough for Izzy to exit, trailed her fingertips across Izzy’s back, and then, with the speed of a track star and the grace of a model, Lillian strode away.