“Let’s move to your bedroom.” She kissed Jules’s throat. “I want to end this god-awful day on a high note.”

“You and me both,” she replied fervently.

Minutes later, they lay on Jules’s lumpy mattress, moving together while the springs creaked.

“Oh, please,” Jules moaned as they rocked on each other’s fingers, dipping down, driving higher. “Yes, Vivian.”

“Yes,” Vivian muttered, low and ardent, into Jules’s neck. “Yes. More.”

More. Always more, for the both of them. Could more ever turn into enough?

Doesn’t seem likely. Jules drew Vivian even more tightly into her arms.

Chapter 54

Chapter 54

By rights, the sex should have knocked them both out for hours. Jules’s rest was uneasy, though, and when she woke at six, she saw that Vivian was awake too, thumbs flying over her phone.

“Who’re you texting?” she mumbled.

“It’s an email.” Vivian put her phone down without further clarification.

“You can’t sleep either?”

“What do you expect? This mattress feels older than both of us combined.” She shifted and winced. “My back hurts.”

Jules sat up with a grunt. She pushed a lock of hair out of her face and looked at Vivian, at her blue eyes and messy blonde hair right here in Jules’s bed. And in spite of the complaints, Jules’s face split into a grin.

“Since we’re both up, I’ll make us some coffee,” she offered. “It’s not as good as La Colombe, but I can bring you a cup in bed.”

Vivian regarded her, and sudden hunger flashed in her eyes. She reached out, cupped Jules’s face, and pulled her in for a kiss.

Her mouth was soft and warm, and Jules hummed softly when they parted. “Good morning to you too.”

“Forget the coffee,” Vivian said. “We can get some on the way.”

“Huh?” Jules looked at the clock. Yep, it was 6:02 a.m., all right. “Where are we going?”

“I don’t know. You choose. I want to go somewhere, I want to move. I can’t keep still. I want to go somewhere with you.”

The way Vivian’s gaze kept darting around the bedroom told the story too. She didn’t look scared exactly, more like someone who was champing at the bit. Strange for someone who so often sat in icy stillness, letting the world orbit around her.

But Vivian’s mind never stopped moving, and today her body seemed to be following suit. If it weren’t six in the morning, Jules would be able to relate.

Her sluggish mind came up with exactly one solution, inspiration like a bolt from the blue: “What do you think of Domino Park?”

* * *

Plumes of fog curled up behind Jules, and the first rays of sunrise limned their edges. In the background rose the outline of the massive syrup tanks that belonged to the old Domino Sugar factory.