By the time they returned, the picnic had ended. Deja waited at the gates for them, but they sped past her on the bike to the front of the manor. Tatum aimed his camera at them as they entered.
“Damn it,” Linda said. “I look like the fucking villain again.”
Charity shook her head. “You’re okay.”
Sabrina leaned against the wall of the foyer, arms crossed. “You were going to leave without telling me?”
Linda stood, dripping onto the floor.
Deja burst through the door. “You didn’t think that was going to work, did you?” she said, anger rattling her words. “There’s a fucking mudslide.”
As Charity stepped forward, her footsteps tracked mud. “Linda didn’t believe it was real, so I wanted to show her.”
Deja came so close to Linda that Linda could smell her wine-breath. “You thought I’d fuck with you about being trapped here? How little you must think of me.”
Linda pursed her lips together, willing herself to remain a level above Deja’s prodding. She wouldn’t give her the outburst she wanted. She couldn’t let the camera see.
“Is she so off base?” Charity stepped between them, moving Deja and Linda apart with outstretched palms. “You’ve been messing with us all from day one.”
Deja’s gaze traveled down Charity’s body to the floor beneath them, then flicked her irritated stare to Linda. “We’ll deal with this later. Right now, you’re making a mess of my set. Go get clean.”
• • •
Charity and Linda took over one bathroom in the hall. Charity laid down a flat carpet of trash bags for them to lay their muddy clothes on.
Linda couldn’t help but smile as she removed her jacket. It clunked as it landed on the pile of discarded vestments, and she crouched to search its pockets. She pulled out the acorn she’d pocketed during her first walk in the woods with Charity. For some sentimental reason, she wanted to keep it. She placed the acorn on the counter top, and the two women stared at it as though it were a talisman of first connection. Then they looked back at one another. Linda struggled with her blouse. It caught halfway off her left arm. Charity stepped forward.
“Do you need some help?” she whispered.
Linda’s stomach flipped. “Please,” she said.
Charity placed both her hands on the edge of Linda’s shirt and lifted it, obscuring Linda’s vision with black fabric. She pulled until Linda came free.
“Thank you.” Linda let herself smile.
“You know that I’m attracted to you,” Charity said. “Even if it’s a terrible idea.”
Linda swallowed. “Even though I’m the villain?”
“You’re not,” Charity said. “That’s smoke and mirrors.” She hesitated. “You’re attracted to me too, right?”
“Yeah,” Linda said. “I am.”
Charity reached a hand to the rim of Linda’s jeans. “These look difficult, too.”
“So difficult,” Linda said. Charity smirked as she popped open the button. She slid down the zipper. She shimmied the jeans past Linda’s considerable hips, bending as she slipped them down farther to the knees. Linda was aware of the placement of Charity’s head, at level with her covered cunt, and Linda felt as though she might drown in the anticipation of pleasure that washed over her and left her wet between the legs.
“I’ve never—” she started to say, but Charity shook her head.
“You don’t have to set my expectations low,” Charity said. “Or confess like it’s a crime you’ve never loved a woman before.” Charity tugged at Linda’s jeans until Linda stepped one foot, then the other, out of the cuffs. Charity pressed her lips into the front of Linda’s underwear.
“But we haven’t even kissed,” Linda said.
Charity pulled back. “You’re right.” She laughed softly. “I forgot that part.” Charity stood. She grabbed hold of Linda’s hands and placed them at the first button of her nightshirt. “Do you want to undress me?” she said.
Linda nodded.
“Do you want to kiss me?” she asked.
Linda nodded.
“Take these off me. Let’s get in this shower.” Charity led Linda over each button, then shrugged the shirt off. She led Linda’s hand to the band of her shorts, then wiggled her way free. She turned, the globe of her ass lit by a single recessed light, and turned the knob. Thank God the manor had installed modern plumbing. As Charity stepped into the shower, Linda followed suit.
Charity washed Linda with a bar of soap left over from some earlier time. The bar was cracked down the middle, but it sudsed back to life as Charity stuck it under the water. She ran her hands over every part of Linda, pausing to touch between her legs. She knelt at Linda’s feet and soaped her knees, her calves, her ankles. Then she rubbed a finger against the soap and pressed it against first Linda’s then her mouth.
“Better get every crevice,” she said as she let the shower water run over their lips. When the soap had washed away, Charity pushed her mouth against Linda’s, and Linda’s body gave up its ghosts.
When Charity pulled away, Linda could do nothing but drag her back in again.
After, Linda washed Charity, marveling at how her curves felt when Linda traced them with her soapy hands. She paused at the space between Charity’s legs long enough to test slipping one unsoaped finger inside Charity’s fold. She felt as slick as Linda was sure she felt. Linda’s body trembled.
They traded washing one another’s hair with leftover shampoo and conditioner. They rushed through the cleaning of the hair, eager now more than ever to test one another’s tastes. But Linda found the experience of hands on her scalp more erotic than any sex she had yet experienced.
They climbed out of the shower and forwent the towels, dripping water all over the wooden bathroom floor. It felt, in a way, like letting all the day’s fuckeries trickle off of them, without the harshness of rubbing it away. “Sit on the edge of the bathtub,” Charity said, and as Linda settled her ass on the thin edge, she wondered at the fact that she hadn’t seen this coming from the moment she stepped foot inside The Groom Mansion. There, Charity had stood in that yellow suit, and Linda passed her over in favor of the milquetoast Tristan. As Charity pushed apart Linda’s legs, Linda realized she had been a fool to think, even for a moment, that he could have excited her the way Charity was exciting her now.
Charity’s face disappeared between Linda’s legs, and Linda struggled to hold onto nothing, for nothing was within the grasp of her shaking hands, as her body abandoned itself. Then they traded places, and Linda let herself dissolve into Charity’s sour-salt tang and the all-consuming sound of her moaning.
After they were both satisfied, their bodies covered in goosebumps and their muscles loosened, Linda grabbed a towel from the stack on the bathroom counter and bent to clean the mess of water they had made. She scowled as she came face to face with the floor.
