Andy didn't remember much of the conversation she had with her parents about her voyage across the Atlantic. Truth be told, everything that happened after her mother’s descent into manic sobbing and her father’s rare display of disappointment after hearing the news had now become a blur to her. Considering that she was their miracle baby after years of struggling to conceive, she didn’t quite blame them for their reaction. She just wished she had a sibling who could check in on them in her absence.
Alas, here she was, aboard The Victorian and hundreds of kilometers away from home at this point, watching the wealthy don elaborate masks for evening entertainment. Miranda gave her no clear instructions about the dinner party, other than to show up in a mask that was at least tolerable, which meant absolutely nothing to Andy. Despite the short notice, she made it happen. As she always did. But that didn’t mean that she wasn’t annoyed with Miranda. As she tended to be, when she tasked her with the near impossible.
“Not a terrible choice of a mask.”
A woman came to stand next to Andy. Dior. Miranda’s go-to scent. Andy’s mouth nearly dropped open at the sight of Miranda, who was nothing short of breathtaking in a silver dress that had no business hugging her body in so many places.
“I-well.”
“Stop gaping. It’s unbecoming.”
Andy blushed profusely and tried to cover it up by taking a sip of her champaign. Even behind the glass, she felt Miranda’s gaze on her.
“Come. I want to show you something,” Miranda said.
Show her something? That almost sounded like an invitation instead of a command. Andy followed Miranda past the throng of people, through several doors until it became clear that they were traveling to the lower part of the ship. “Uh, Miranda. Do you know where you’re going?”
“Do I look like I’m an idiot?”
“No, but we’re heading to the—“ Andy read the sign. “The cargo hold?”
“Yes, it seems I have become a little land-sick being stuck on this ship for so long.”
“And going to the cargo hold will cure you of that?”
Miranda didn’t bother to dignify her question with an answer. They continued walking in silence until they reached the door to, no surprise, the cargo hold, and Miranda looked back at Andy expectantly.
Wow, was this some kind of joke? Andy pulled on the latch and pushed the heavy door open. “They need better security on this thing.”
“Mm.” Miranda said, her side accidentally brushing against Andy’s breast as she slipped through the door first. The contact made Andy gasp and she tried to hide it behind a cough.
“Andrea, let’s try not to alert the whole ship to our presence here, shall we?”
Like a dimwit, she nodded and stepped through, closing the door behind them. The cargo hold was as spacious as she thought it would be for a ship this size. Boxes stacked on top of each other were lined up against the wall to leave room for a walkway.
“We’re here for that beauty.” Miranda pointed to a Renault Coupe de Ville stationed in the far corner.
“Miranda, I’m confused,” she said as she followed Miranda to the car. “What exactly are we going to do with this Coupe de Ville in the middle of the ocean?”
They stopped right next to the car and Miranda cleared her throat. Right. Andy dutifully opened the door for Miranda to step in. She guessed sitting in a car would somehow cure Miranda of being land-sick. Andy shook her head in disbelief before hopping in the front seat to play along to another one of Miranda’s crazy whims. She grabbed the steering wheel and pretended to tip her cap. “To where, madame?”
And just like that, something in the air shifted between them. Andy felt a faint breath on the side of her neck, making the hairs there stand up.
“Actually, I like you riding in the back with me.”
Slender arms hooked under hers to pull her backwards into the car. And suddenly, the sight of Miranda sitting on leather seats was her favorite thing in the world. The engine dulled in the background.
“Andrea, tell me, have you ever been with a woman before?” Miranda’s voice dipped to a low, sensual whisper, and dimly, Andy shook her head, mesmerized.
With a manicured finger, Miranda traced the line of sweat from Andy’s throat down to the decent cut of the front of her dress. Squeezing her eyes shut, Andy tried to savor the feeling. In case she were to wake up from this dream.
“Open your eyes, Andrea,” Miranda commanded. “One would imagine you like looking at me with the number of times I caught you staring at my lips.”
Mortified that she’d been caught, Andy opened her eyes to deny Miranda’s claim and oh-. Her breath caught in her throat the second she saw the hungry look on Miranda's face.
Instinctively, as if she felt the collision of their two worlds, Andy reached for Miranda’s mask and pulled it off. She closed the distance between them and brushed her lips against Miranda’s. Her breath hitched softly, and Andy felt something deep within -- visceral -- urge her to press her body closer. Miranda grabbed at the backside of Andy’s dress like she knew exactly what her thoughts were and opened her legs to allow Andy into her space intimately. She felt the warmth of Miranda’s core through her dress and purposely rolled her hips against it. Miranda’s nails dug into her skin as she threw her head back in ecstasy, exposing that delicate neck that she longed to taste.
Quickly, Andy swiped her tongue along Miranda’s skin. Her whole body rocked up against Miranda’s with the action, creating more friction between them. This time, Miranda moaned. Her hands reached out to find something, anything, to anchor herself.
“Miranda—” Andy muttered, almost unable to recognize the lust-filled voice that she was hearing. Miranda began chasing after Andy’s hips with hers, rocking them up and down wantonly. She’d never seen Miranda like this before, and she’s never felt such desire to tear off all their clothes so that she could have her in the dirtiest way possible. Her fingers fumbled with the strings of Miranda’s dress as their breaths swirled inside the warm car. She was sure that with a few more rightly placed grinds, she could undo them both. But she needed more from this than a quick fuck despite their bodies aching for that same release. She needed to feel Miranda’s skin on hers. She needed to see what Miranda looked like naked underneath her.
“I need you to move quicker.”
Even during sex, Miranda was demanding. “It’s your fault for wearing such complicated dresses.”
Andy fumbled with the fabric between them clumsily until Miranda huffed at her ineptitude and proceeded to undo them both with her deft fingers.
“You’re-,” Andy knew she was gawking at Miranda’s nakedness. But Miranda was glistening wet, and the muscles of her own sex squeezed hard at the sight. She reached out and slid an inquisitive finger along the wet strip of smooth skin. Miranda’s response was somewhere between a hiss and a moan. Andy knew Miranda liked it when her hips started moving on its own, but she refused to give Miranda more than that. She wanted her to beg for it despite her own wetness.
“Andrea, I need you to—”
“To what, Miranda?”
“I need more…”
With that, she spread her legs out wide, and Andy could not help but dip her head down for a taste of her. Miranda nearly yelped in surprise when she ran her tongue along her sensitive area. Wet. Sharp. Complicated. Andy looked up from between her thighs and met those clear blue eyes and proud chin. Miranda might just be the closest thing to the perfect woman, Andy thought. Something twinged deep in her chest.
“Why are you stopping?” Miranda growled when Andy’s tongue stopped working as she gawked at her. She pushed herself up again and stuck her tongue out and ran it slowly along her bottom lip, trying to capture the lingering taste of Miranda, who visibly swallowed from her end of the seat.
“Tell me what you want,” she said because she was prepared to give Miranda anything she asked for. The moon. The stars. Her heart. If Miranda wanted it, Andy would probably go to the end of the earth to retrieve it for her.
“I want you—” She ran her fingers along her own slickness, as if to guide Andy. And she nearly bowed over at the sight of Miranda touching herself so erotically. “Here.”
She pressed her body back against Miranda’s almost immediately and gasped at the lewd sound her slickness made against Andy’s skin. Right there. She felt the erratic pulse of Miranda’s clit against her abdomen. She sucked in a breath, wondering how in the world she’ll ever forget the thrum thrum thrum of Miranda’s arousal against her. The sweet scent of her perfume under her ear. Or the way her warm breath felt against her skin. A line of sweat glistened on Miranda’s forehead, and Andy ached to kiss her there despite the other areas of Miranda’s body begging for her attention.
“You are the sexiest woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.” Andy felt her heart leap out of my chest at her boldness because she still didn’t know if that was acceptable or not.
“I know,” Miranda said, obviously not minding.
Without warning, Andy reached between their bodies to slide two fingers inside of Miranda.
“Fu-Fuck,” Miranda faltered momentarily before pushing Andy back against the seat to ride her. Matching her rhythm, Andy began to pump her fingers in and out of her, relishing in the way Miranda’s inner muscles clenched around Andy’s fingers. Feeling even bolder now, she added a third finger the next time, and Miranda let out a guttural noise that felt too crass and too dirty for her. It sent a thrill through Andy’s entire body.
“I’ve wanted you to touch me for so long,” Miranda confessed, and it took nearly everything she had to not stop what they were doing to ask Miranda to explain. Perhaps she sensed Andy’s curiosity piquing or the desperation on Andy’s face at her comment because she continued with her thoughts unprompted. “I’ve wanted you to ruin me in terrible, filthy ways for so long.”
—
She lost track of the number of times she made Miranda come, but Andy was happy to get lost in her for the short amount of time they had in the backseat of the car. As they redressed, Andy still wearing her mask, she noticed Miranda avoiding her gaze with a determined look in the opposite direction. A blush crept up her cheeks when she noticed that all of the windows have fogged from the way their breaths intermingled inside the car for the past two hours.
“I am leaving first,” Miranda said, a clear sign that she did not want to be caught sneaking out of the cargo hold with Andy. A rush of cold air filled the car when she pushed the door open, leaving Andy’s bare shoulder in goosebumps. She should have seen that one coming. Angrily, Andy pulled her attire together.
“He’s not good enough for you,” Andy found herself saying. Miranda was already at the exit by the time she stepped out of the car, mask back in place, expression unreadable. So much for post-coital bliss.
“And you think you are?” Ouch. Andy almost cried at the cruelness of Miranda’s words. Because everything she ever wished for sort of materialized within the past two hours and was now being yanked away from her by this awful woman.
“No, I don’t, and I think that’s the problem.”
“My, you’re bold today. A little special attention from me and the poor girl from Easton suddenly grows a spine.”
Andy laughed mockingly at her. “I didn’t see you complaining when my head was between your legs.”
Miranda stilled, and Andy knew she’s upset her because Miranda had that look on her face. Not the one she directed at waiters who didn’t get her order right. But the one she gave those she wanted absolutely nothing to do with anymore.
“Make your presence scarce to me from this point forward.”
Andy continued to watch the back of her head until it disappeared from behind the door. And she knew in that moment that it was time to get her own head out of the clouds.
—
She allowed five minutes after the time Miranda left to emerge from the cargo hold. Immediately, Andy knew something significant was afoot. Four crew members rushed past her with worrying looks lining their brows and the word ‘disaster’ slipping out from their hushed speak.
“Hey, what’s going on?” One of them turned back around to answer her.
“You’re not supposed to be down here.” He stepped forward as if to reprimand her further before another crew member intervened.
“We don’t have time for this. Let us go.”
“Hey, wait!”
They were barely out of sight before the ground below her began to vibrate. Andy stumbled forward and braced herself against a handle bar. Was it an earthquake? Back in England, they said earthquakes were common in the ocean. She wouldn’t have known as this was her first time on the water. Luckily, the vibrations didn’t last long, possibly the length of a long breath before she found her footing again. Brushing her dress down, she ascended the stairs to the after buzz from the disturbance.
“Do you think it would swallow us in?”
“That was my first time experiencing an earthquake.”
Despite everything that’s transpired within the last twenty minutes, her thoughts strayed to Miranda.
-
The Victorian was a different place by the time she emerged on deck. Panicked cries of small children filled the air as crew members packed passengers onto lifeboats.
“Women and children first!”
She tugged on the arm of a passing crew member. “What’s going on?”
He looked back at her, lips thinned, fear shooting through his eyes.
“We’re going down.” He cleared his throat. “The Victorian, she’s going to sink. Find a lifeboat and pray to God that we all live to see dawn.”
Andy released his arm and staggered back a few steps. Miranda. She had to find Miranda.
-
Andy yelled as she pushed her way through the throng of people. “Move!”
The crowd pushed her further back like a harsh current. “Move!”
Then a hand clasped around her wrist. She screamed. “Let me go!”
“Shut up!” The voice barked at her, and it was faintly familiar, like she’s heard it a thousand times before…just not in that decibel and pitch. Andy obliged and allowed the person to lead her out. As the crowd thinned, she caught a glimpse of the back of a head of snowy-white hair.
“You truly are impossible. Why were you heading the opposite way of the lifeboats?” Miranda asked her, face grim. They seemed to have both discard their masks at some point.
“I—“ Her cheeks burned in the night air. “I was trying to find…uh.”
“As eloquent as usual, I see.”
She rolled her eyes. “I could ask the same about you, Miranda.”
“I was looking for you.”
Miranda was exceedingly honest as usual. And if it weren’t for her memory of the last two hours and the way Miranda’s cheeks turned slightly pink when she looked away, Andy would have thought nothing more of her comment.
“This way. I’ve told Emily to procure us a lifeboat.”
“Are we really not going to talk about it?” She asked, unable to contain those stupid emotions she’d been suppressing for the last two years that just seemed to spill over because of two hours of hot sex in a car.
“No, we are not. We’re not doing that now while this mammoth of a ship is sinking.” Miranda’s voice was low, harsh. And normally, this was all it took to send Andy away. But that boldness from earlier seemed to have stuck around.
“What if I said this is what I want? What I wanted all along?” Andy’s heart nearly leaped out of her chest at her ill-timed love confession. Blame it on the adrenaline of being caught on a sinking ship or the great sex, but Andy wanted to show Miranda all of her cards. She wanted to turn her insides out and spell it out for her in big, bold letters.
“You are insufferable as usual.” Miranda pinched the bridge of her nose, which only made Andy want to kiss her there. “I can’t…do this here. Now. But if, God willing, you and I survive this freezing night in the Atlantic, maybe then, we can…talk about it.”
Andy itched to reach out to touch Miranda, or just simply graze her hand against hers. Because that wasn’t a no. It was a maybe. And Andy knew that ‘maybe’ wasn’t easy for Miranda to admit.
“Darling!” Stephen waved at them. He was standing next to a lifeboat that looked to be procured for their exit.
“Hurry,” Miranda said and they started to make their way over. But the momentary relief Andy felt quickly dissipated like the smile on Stephen’s face as they got closer.
“What’s that on your neck?” Stephen pointed to the spot just under Miranda’s left ear, and all the blood just about drained from Andy’s face. She remembered paying special attention to that area because Miranda was particularly sensitive there. To her credit, Miranda kept her composure as Stephen stood there with his finger pointed at her.
“What do you mean?”
“That…that love bite on your neck.”
“Stephen, now’s not the time. We’ll talk after.”
“Go on and board,” he motioned to Andy. She looked at Miranda who gave her a nod of approval even though leaving her was the last thing Andy wanted.
“Alright, Stephen, if you want to have it out right here, right now in the middle of this sinking ship.”
Andy walked mechanically to the lifeboat as their argument played out behind her.
“This is way too much drama, even for me,” Emily said. “Stop. First assistant gets to board the life saving vessel first.”
Emily stuck her arm out in front of Andy and climbed in, the lifeboat shifting haphazardly at her ungraceful maneuver. And then somehow, some way, Andy found herself sitting in the lifeboat herself. She didn’t know how she ended up there. Because all she cared about was what was happening between Miranda and Stephen a few feet away.
“Do you know who gave Miranda that love bite?” Emily asked.
“I—“
“You’re not getting on this boat, Miranda.” Andy heard Stephen say before pulling out a pistol and pointing it at Miranda. Fuck. Andy felt her entire body stiffen in horror. Next to her, Emily choked on the cold night air.
“Stephen, don’t be foolish.” Miranda dismissed him with her usual flair of indifference, but her jaw worked in a way that Andy recognized as her being severely out of her element.
Stephen’s grip on the pistol tightened as he placed a finger on the trigger. “I’m not kidding. Step back.”
“Sir, let’s try to keep calm.” The sailor manning their lifeboat cautiously approached him. A bead of sweat lined his forehead despite the freezing temperature.
“Shut your trap hole!” For a brief moment, Stephen pointed the gun at the stoked man, and he jumped back so quickly that the boat rocked with his weight.
“Back away, Miranda!”
Miranda’s eyes found Andy’s as she staggered back from the lifeboat - her dark minx coat a harsh contrast against her paler than usual skin. Before Andy knew it, they were lowering the lifeboat down into the water. Her heart throbbed uncontrollably with every jerk that swung them from their seats. Around her, the women and men gasped.
“We can’t leave her,” Andy said as another distress signal flew across the sky.
“What are you going to do about it?” Stephen asked her with a self satisfied smirk on his face from the other end of the boat. His gun was pocketed away, and for a split second, Andy wondered if she would be able to wrestle the damn thing from him. And…and do what? Andy didn’t know. But there were ten other lives on the boat to consider, so she did the only reasonable thing she could think of - she launched herself back onto the sinking ship to be with Miranda.
“You stupid, stupid girl,” Emily muttered in disbelief.
Miranda looked at Andy like she just lifted the ship up from the sea with her bare hands.
“Why?” Miranda asked, but Andy had no doubt she already knew the answer.
She immediately looked away, unable to continue holding Miranda’s stare, as the thing in her chest threatened to leap out of its place. For a moment, her gaze went up to the stars in the sky. She wondered if her parents’ view from their home was as magnificent as her’s right now. She wondered how it was possible that she loved this woman so much that she would give up everything underneath this night sky for her.
In the background, the distinct sound of a cello and violin continued to play.
“Miranda?”
She met Andy’s gaze, and Andy released a shaky breath, unsure if it was from the cold or from her nerves. “I think I’ve always known it was you.“
Something struck the back of her head and fell to the ground.
“You two better survive!” Emily called out from the lifeboat. And it was the first time Andy had ever seen Emily look at her with an expression that was anything other than exasperation. Her gaze dropped to the item tossed at her head. It was Emily’s one and only life jacket.
“Foolish girl,” Miranda’s voice cracked as she grasped hold of Andy’s hand and pressed soft kisses against her knuckles. “Three marriages and — . It had to be you, the doe-eyed girl who didn’t know what an Hermes scarf was. I must be going crazy in my old age.”
“Shh.” Swiftly, Andy moved to cradle Miranda’s face in her hands, fighting to hide her affectionate smile. “You’re perfect.”