Page 55 of The Heartbreak Hotel

“Oh, yeah.” Ella poked her playfully. “I knew you liked me.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Who says I do?”

Ella dug her fingers into her ribs before remembering she wasn’t ticklish. “Dammit.” Her eyes brightened. “I know a different way of tickling you now, though.” She traced her fingertips down Riley’s sternum, stomach, and hips, rippling goosebumps everywhere.

Riley let out a small groan and caught the way Ella’s mouth parted.

“You’re right, though,” Riley said, mouth curling. “That was really hot.”

Ella hummed, wrapping an arm around Riley’s waist. “You like it when you hear me come?”

Riley’s clit twinged, sending a jolt through her body. “I do.”

“Maybe you can do it again sometime. If you’re lucky.”

Riley grinned, leaning forward to kiss her. “Maybe right now.”

Ella squealed as Riley rolled her onto her back. She kissed her again, savouring the taste, bathing in the happy feeling swelling in her chest. She didn’t want to lose this moment—or the new confidence firing through her system.

So she followed the tug of her heart, worshipping the woman in front of her, hoping that luck was on her side for once. Praying that the noises in her head wouldn’t come back and chase it away.

Chapter Fifteen

Ella

Life on the island fell into a beautiful rhythm. Ella woke with Bernardo’s crowing, stepped out into the sunshine, and breathed in the fresh air. Morning yoga settled her mind and body—and the eye-candy instructor was an extra bonus. Senhor Arenoso commented on her energy shift, Marco Marcos actually started making sense, and she still hadn’t hit herself in the nose with the surfboard.

Opening up to the island meant the island was opening up to her.

Evenings were her favourite, though. Spending one-on-one time with Riley in her cabin felt like being on another planet, an alternate universe where good things happened to her. She worried that one day she’d wake up in her own bed back home, and this would all have been a dream.

She found herself walking lighter, smiling more, carrying a happiness inside her that she hadn’t felt in a long time. Winnie would blame it on all the amazing sex she was having—which definitely helped—but it was more than that. It was the way Riley made her feel.

The only trouble? Ella’s time on the island was passing far too quickly.

And she didn’t want to think about what would happen when it ended.

“Come on, slowpoke,” Riley called, striding ahead and throwing a grin over her shoulder.

“How much further?”

Riley waited underneath the bow of a tree, its leaves shading her from the afternoon sun. She handed Ella a bottle of water, which she gulped hastily.

Though the sun wasn’t at its hottest today, and a cloud of mist hung over the valley, heat flushed Ella’s neck from the hike. Riley had insisted on showing her the neighbouring village, but so far, all they’d seen were endless trees and red and yellow wildflowers as the path cut through the mountains.

She handed Riley the bottle back, and she slotted it into her backpack. Ella adjusted her bikini strap as it was digging into her shoulder, then leaned into Riley. The scent of sea salt and lemongrass made her swoon as she wrapped her arm around her.

How did she always smell so good?

Riley kissed her forehead, then angled Ella’s body to face down the mountain. Her gaze combed the canopy of trees, the fog in the valley obstructing the view.

Unsure what she was supposed to be seeing, Ella asked, “What is it?”

Riley brushed her arms with her fingers, and she squeezed her. “Just wait.”

Frankly, Ella could use the rest. So she leaned into Riley’s shoulder, admiring how the woman always smelt like the fresh sea breeze, and waited. The fog slunk over the mountains, revealing what looked like steam rising into the sky at different points from down below. Ella peered closer, spotting slanted orange and brown roofs spaced among the trees.

“Is that the village?” she asked.