Page 76 of Vacation with the Ice Queen

The familiar surge of adrenaline hit her system, the Pavlovian response to professional crises that had served her so well for so long. Her fingers hovered over the screen, muscle memory ready to dive into problem-solving mode.

But instead of opening the messages, her gaze drifted back to Lila's sleeping form, her face holding a peaceful certaintythat made something twist in Serena's chest. So different from the calculated ambition that surrounded her in New York. So different from the women who wanted her for her power, her connections, her success.

Lila wanted her. Just her.

And that was precisely what made this so dangerous.

Serena set the phone down, a deliberate choice she would have found unthinkable just days ago. Whatever crisis Ashley was managing could wait until morning. Right now, she needed to get her racing thoughts under control.

What was she doing? Planning some kind of island romance with an expiration date? Pretending this connection could survive beyond these manufactured perfect days?

Rachel's voice echoed in her memory: "You live in your head, Serena. Always calculating, always planning. Even when we make love, you're somewhere else."

Was that what she was doing now? Already planning the ending before fully experiencing the middle?

Serena pressed her forehead against the cool glass of the window, trying to quiet the competing voices in her mind. The CEO reminding her of responsibilities waiting in New York. The strategist warning about emotional entanglements with no clear resolution. The wounded ex-wife remembering the pain of failure.

And beneath all of those, a newer, quieter voice suggesting that perhaps the very impermanence of this connection was what made it precious. That not everything valuable needed to last forever to matter.

Behind her, Lila stirred slightly, reaching across the empty space where Serena had been.

"Serena?" she murmured, voice thick with sleep.

Decision time. Return to bed, to warmth and connection despite the uncertainty? Or retreat to safer ground, to the controlled detachment that had defined her for so long?

Serena took a deep breath and turned from the window.

For once, the brilliant strategic mind of Serena Frost had no perfect solution, no clear path forward.

Only a choice, moment by moment, between fear and possibility.

10

LILA

Lila woke slowly, her hand reaching across empty sheets still warm from Serena's body. The disorienting moment of opening her eyes in an unfamiliar room was followed by the gradual awareness that she was alone. She blinked at the sunlight streaming through the villa's massive windows, casting everything in bright morning clarity.

The sounds of Serena moving quietly in another room drifted to her, deliberately soft as if trying not to wake her. Lila lay still, processing the emotions washing through her—joy from the night before, apprehension at the silence now. The familiar ache of uncertainty settled in her stomach.

When had intimacy become so complicated? With Sophie, Lila had always known where she stood—giving too much while receiving too little. But with Serena, the equation kept shifting. Last night had been... transcendent. Not just physically, but the way Serena had truly let her in, sharing vulnerabilities and desires with surprising openness.

And now? The quiet movements beyond the bedroom door felt measured and contained, as if Serena was already rebuilding the walls that had temporarily fallen.

Lila sat up, wrapping the silky sheet around herself, suddenly feeling exposed in ways that had nothing to do with her nakedness. Her clothes were neatly folded on a chair nearby, arranged with a precision she hadn't used when shedding them the night before. The small gesture spoke volumes. Serena had already been up, organizing, controlling her environment.

Her reflection caught in the wall mirror—honey-blonde hair tousled from sleep and lovemaking, a visible mark on her collarbone where Serena's mouth had been particularly enthusiastic. She looked like exactly what she was: a woman caught between desire and uncertainty.

Lila swung her legs over the edge of the bed, her toes curling against the cool tile floor. The grounding sensation helped center her spiraling thoughts. Whatever was happening with Serena, whatever shifts had occurred during the night, she would face it directly. No hiding, no pretending.

That's what had gone wrong with Sophie—too many unspoken truths between them, too many compromises made in silence. She wouldn't repeat that pattern, even if confrontation meant risking the fragile connection they'd built.

She reached for her clothes, the simple act of dressing grounding her further. Her fingers brushed against the small shell in her pocket—Tomasi's gift with its healed crack. A reminder that broken places could mend stronger than before.

Taking a deep breath, Lila moved toward the bedroom door, ready to face whatever awaited her on the other side—whether it was the open, passionate Serena from last night or the guarded CEO who kept everyone at a carefully calibrated distance.

The answer, she suspected, would determine everything that followed.

Lila stepped into the villa's main room, sunlight streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows that framed the ocean like a living painting. The space smelled faintly of coffee and thetropical flowers from last night's dinner, still arranged perfectly on the dining table.

---