Well hello again. It's been a while, but it was the end of the festival and there was partying to be done. And we all know how Hypes loves to party. Brilliant old friends, fabulous new ones… ladies with Scottish accents, what's a girl to do?

Medical progress continues apace, SJ is doing better, and Cat is now a tube-free crouching tiger of energy waiting to run amok in the outside world. Fingers crossed it will be very soon. Go Cat, you awesome devil. This chapter may feature on the blushometer, so watch out for those nurses and get stuck in. For the rest of you, standard warning applies.

Enjoy.

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14. An Element Of Risk

Emily

I was stuffing my face at Rita's café, when I saw her. Rita's breakfasts are second only to Katie's on the whole peninsula, and it takes a lot to distract me from one. But when I saw Naomi walking past on her way down to Effy's boat, I had to fight my natural urge to run to her. I had been up all night and I was exhausted. Far too exhausted to face the bevy of questions I knew she would have for me. I hated having to conceal things from her, but the fact of the matter was I had only known her a couple of weeks, and the less people who knew about this shit the better. All the locals knew well enough to leave me and Effy alone, but Naomi was a scientist. It was her job to ask questions. So I skulked like a coward behind a menu, and let her go past unhindered.

Effy was taking them out in the boat again today, but when I left her she just took some drugs to stay awake and I had no doubt she would be fine the way she always is. Naomi would get nothing out of her. Effy never bothered to make up lies. If she didn't want to answer a question she would just smirk silently in that way of hers, until the inquisitor gave up. Effy never capitulated. She was always stronger than anyone who challenged her, even me on occasion. I suspect the only person who could get the better of her was my sister, but Katie was smart enough to realise that some things were better left unknown.

I would need the day to recover before I was strong enough to face Naomi. Some sleep and then some time in the waves, and I would be myself again, ready to flirt and divert my way out of trouble. At least I hoped I would be. It was nerve-wracking how quickly Naomi had gotten in so deep. Could I really look into those mesmerising blue eyes and bullshit her? Even if it was to protect her as much as us? The fact of the matter was I didn't want her to know what we had done. It wasn't as if I didn't think I could trust her, in fact all my deepest instincts were telling me that I could. But I didn't want to implicate her. Effy and I had nothing to lose really. My Dad would carry on employing me whatever, and I'd probably become some kind of hero amongst my peers. And Effy? Well it wasn't like she'd exactly be disappointing her family, was it? But Naomi had a bright future ahead of her, an important one, and I didn't want to fuck that up for her by making her into an accessory. I know we had been careful, but there was always going to be an element of risk.

I had texted Naomi later in the day asking her if she wanted to come out for a drink. I figured neutral ground with lots of other people around would be the best way to ease myself back into this. In fact I then had the bright idea of making it into a group night out, and started ringing round everyone else too, reducing my chances of being cornered by my girl. I was walking through the village towards the pub congratulating myself on my cunning plan when I found myself outsmarted by Naomi again. She was lying in wait for me in the little alley down the side of the old post office, and grabbed me as I sauntered past.

"Hey gorgeous," she said, pulling me into a deep searching kiss.

"Hi babe," I said breathlessly, once she had released me for air.

My cunning plan lay in tatters. I was unfocussed and unguarded, and all I could think about was getting her mouth crashed against mine again as quickly as possible. It was ridiculous how easily she could undo me, but right that second it didn't matter. It didn't fucking matter at all.

"I missed you," she said, pushing me up against the wall of the alley. Her leg went straight between my thighs and she started grinding up against me and attacking my neck with her lips and teeth. I couldn't help a moan of appreciation escaping my throat, and I felt her hands sliding upwards towards my chest.

"Ooohh, go on Blondie, touch her boobs," said a painfully young voice from the roadway.

Naomi pulled back and shot the scruffy boy the look of a thousand daggers, but I had to stifle a laugh. Fourteen year old Billy was my biggest fan, and was desperate to see me getting down and dirty with some hot girl on girl action.

"If you don't fuck off right now, Billy McAllister, I'm going to tell your mum where you hide your spliff."

"You wouldn't," the dark-haired boy said with a look of horror on his face.

"Wouldn't I?" I replied, arching an eyebrow at him.

"Sorry, Emily," he said, backing off and running away down the street.

"I guess his mum doesn't approve of him smoking then," said Naomi, her pupils still wide and dark and hungry.

"Oh no, his mum's a massive stoner," I laughed. "She would nick his stash and smoke it herself."

"This place is all upside down," said Naomi suddenly. "Nothing's ever what I expect it to be."

I detected the overtones of deep thought in her words and decided I needed to get us out of there.

"Pub?" I suggested.

"Fuck the pub," growled Naomi.

She grabbed my hand and pulled me further down the alley, round the corner into the little garden at the back of the now defunct post office. Before I knew it I was pushed against the wall again with Naomi's tongue deep in my mouth and her hands pulling at the zip of my hoodie. She yanked it open and reached under my top, her fingers seeking out contact with the flesh of my belly. There was a ragged urgency to her actions, but I found myself getting turned on by how desperate she was to get at me. I felt the warmth of the moisture pooling in my knickers, as she squeezed my hardening nipples through the fabric of my bra and drank me in with her hungry kisses. Her hips were grinding furiously against me, and I knew I wasn't getting out of this garden before her hands had been down my pants. Not that I cared, I wanted her to fuck me up against this wall. All my earlier anxieties were lost in this fabulous bubble of lust. Once again, I abandoned myself to it. There was no outside fucking world. There was no pressure, no secrets and no bullshit. Only me and my honey in this crucible of furious muscular desire. She kept on kissing me as she fumbled impatiently with the buckle of my belt and the buttons on my baggy combats, effectively pinning me to the wall with her mouth.

"Right here, baby?" I questioned, as she tore away from me for a moment to look at her target.

I got my answer as she finally defeated my trousers and plunged her hand straight down my pants, swearing with delight at the wetness she found there.

"Right fucking here," she said, thrusting herself inside me. "Right fucking now."

"Oh fuck yes," I gasped as she grabbed my hair and began pushing in and out of me. She was using the full weight of her body to force herself deeper inside me. I was being taken without a shadow of a doubt. She was sucking and biting at my neck, and I knew she was marking me, but it felt fucking phenomenal. I bucked my hips hard against her, loving the feeling of her fingers in my cunt. It was rough and it was dirty, but I couldn't get enough. I had never let anyone fuck me like this before, but her aggression only made me want her more. I was moaning and swearing and offering protestations to God, little caring if any passers by could hear me. The only time I was silenced was when Naomi made me shut up with her filthy volatile kisses, and even then I had to groan into her mouth, which only made her fuck me harder, and me fall even more helplessly into her hands.

"Fucking hell, I want you," I cried, as I felt myself tipping towards climax. "Make me come."

She looked at me with pure fire in her eyes. Who would have known that my adorable little science geek was such a sex fiend? I even began to wonder if she was some kind of secret agent or superhero, and the mild mannered biologist was merely her secret identity, because the things she was doing to me were beyond my experience. This violent, carefree, animal sex was new and glorious, and I had only ever experienced this kind of rush on the wave. My fists balled up into the fabric of her clothes as I screamed my way through an orgasm of epic proportions, my body banging back and forth against the brick as my lover consumed me without mercy.

If you had seen us going at it like banshees, I guess you would never have described it as beautiful, but that's what it was. It was the most beautiful feeling on earth. We clung silently to each other for what seemed like an age after I had finally come down, clutching great grasping lungfuls of air to ourselves as we recovered. I loved the way she always stayed inside me, keeping the connection as though she was mentally recording the moment for posterity, cataloguing every last detail of the encounter with that rich photographic memory of hers. By the time she had finally pulled out of me, all trace of her aggression had gone, and she kissed me tenderly, and stroked my cheek. But when she looked into my eyes, the intensity remained. Much as though I had loved every minute of what she had done to me, I realised it hadn't come from nowhere. It hadn't been about loving and sharing, it had been about ownership. That wonderful aggression had been driven by something and I needed to find out what. Things were indeed upside down, and instead of being relieved that I had avoided her questions, she had only left me with questions of my own.

"So what was all that about?" I asked her.

"What was all what about?" she said, feigning innocence, but I could see the guilt in her eyes. I stared her out.

"I told you, I missed you," she said. "Do I need an excuse to make love to my girlfriend?"

"Naomi, that was not making love," I said gently, trying to keep any hint of accusation out of my voice. "That was fucking. That was you fucking me through the wall."

She blushed bright red, and lowered her eyes to the floor.

"I don't know what came over me," she mumbled.

I cupped her cheek and lifted her face up to meet my eyes.

"Yes you do," I prompted.

I was not expecting what came next.

"I love you," she said urgently. "I love you so fucking much."

Her ever-startling blue eyes were full of so much emotion I stopped breathing for a moment.

"Oh," I eventually stuttered. "So, it's not just me then."

Her face was a picture of shock, and I could almost see the cogs whirring in that beautiful brain of hers and she worked out what I meant.

"You do?" she said incredulously.

"Yes," I said. "I love you too."

She flung her arms around me and held me tight. I did the same, breathing in her scent, and marvelling at the fact that we had both just admitted something I had suspected from day one. That we were already deeply in love.

"I'm sorry," she said, softly withdrawing to face me, clasping my hands gently in her own.

"For what?" I asked her.

"For being so… brutal," she said, her feet shifting uncomfortably.

"Naoms, I can't lie," I said, pulling her back into my arms. "I fucking loved every minute of it."

"Really?" she said.

"What can I say, babe? You're a sex goddess."

She giggled shyly, and there was my adorable geek back again, but I loved every aspect of her, and I wanted to know all of her.

"But I still want to know where it's coming from," I said.

Naomi took a deep breath as if steeling herself for some kind of confession, before fixing me with an unwaveringly honest glare.

"I get jealous," she admitted. "I am jealous of Effy."

"Sweetheart honestly," I assured her, kissing her forehead. "There is nothing going on between me and Effy."

"Oh I know it's not sexual," she said. "But there is definitely something going on between you and Effy."

Fuck. When I thought we had been distracting ourselves from the issue with sex, she had been showing me her fears.

"You disappear together," she continued. "No one knows where the fuck you are or what the fuck you're doing, and it hurts, Emily. I hate it that you have secrets with her. I hate it that you have this whole other life that I'm not allowed to be part of."

I didn't have an answer for her. It ripped me up that I was hurting the woman I loved, but what could I do? Then once again, she surprised me.

"But Katie told me that I had to learn to trust you," she said. "And she was right. Loving you means I should love the things that matter to you too. Which means I've got to learn to respect whatever it is that you and Effy need from each other. She's your best friend, and she's known you a lot longer than I have. I'm not saying that I'm never going to stuff it up, because I'm human, and foolishly paranoid, but I love you, and I'm going to try."

"God, you really are some kind of fucking amazing," I said, kissing her.

"Naw, I'm just some dumb blonde who got lucky," she shrugged. "And now I'm trying not to blow it. So how about a pint?"

"Why don't we just go home?" I suggested. "We can curl up on the sofa with some stupid movie."

"That sounds just about perfect," grinned Naomi.

My Dad was in the living room when we got back to the house, watching the news. His face lit up when he saw us.

"How's my two lovely ladies?" he grinned, drawing the pair of us into a mighty Fitch hug, somewhat to Naomi's alarm. "Fancy a cup of tea, or would you like something a little bit stronger?"

We both decided on tea, and Rob wandered out to make us a brew. I pulled Naomi down into the copious comfort of our settee and wrapped myself around her. She quickly became distracted by the stories on the TV, but the most important news in my life was that Naomi Campbell loved me, and I was happily replaying that story over and over again until my Dad returned with the tea. I got up to help him, and didn't notice that the programme had changed from national to local news as I did so.

"Holy fuck," I heard Naomi exclaim behind me, and in an instant the meaningless drone of the newsreader became a crystal clear series of words describing actions.

"Holy fuck," Naomi repeated. "Someone blew a chunk out of the pipeline."

"Good on 'em, I say," said Rob, setting down Naomi's tea in front of her. "Those companies are way too irresponsible with the future of the environment, eh Naomi? You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, well I went to the protest at the weekend," she said.

"Ha ha, well these guys went a little further than that, eh?" laughed Rob. "What do you think, Ems?"

My brain was racing at a thousand miles an hour. Say something light and meaningless, it commanded me. Or best of all say nothing. Say nothing. Say nothing at all. So what idiot part of me decided to sit down next to Naomi, and whisper cheekily in her ear?

"Looks like someone decided to do something about it."

The news report went on to say that responsibility for the action had been claimed by some mysterious group who named themselves The Sea Ninjas, that had been involved in direct action against pollution, whaling and over-fishing all across the world, but no one had ever been caught. Naomi was delighted. It seemed she knew all about The Sea Ninjas, and their activities, well as much as anyone on the outside could know.

"I fucking love those guys," she said excitedly. "They don't fuck about. They choose their targets wisely and efficiently for maximum effect. They're proper full on warriors."

"But what they do is illegal," I said.

"Sometimes that's what it takes," she said seriously. "They make sure they never hurt anyone. Environmental crisis isn't a fucking joke, Ems. I'm glad that someone has the balls to take it on."

"So you approve then?" I asked her.

"Approve?" she said. "I'm fucking ecstatic. I felt so fucking useless, poncing about in the rain with a fucking bad samba band, but all the time the ninjas were taking advantage of the distraction to put their plans into action. It's awesome. I finally feel like I've done something useful, however indirectly. I mean Sea Ninjas right here in Wales, can you imagine?"

Naomi continued chatting animatedly to my Dad, until he started fishing brainless action movies out of the cabinet to entertain us with. I had to love him for that, for providing us with the perfect distraction to give me another few hours of respite to think my way out of this. But as I lost myself in the choreographed ballet of guns and explosions, I knew it was only going to be a temporary reprieve, before the consequences of a very real explosion would rear up their untamed heads.

I didn't even make it as far as sleep, before she slid herself on top of me and kissed me way more tenderly than she had before. The effect, however, was just as potent, and I felt myself being drawn under her spell again. This time the way she touched me was artful and delicate, but it soon had me craving her just as badly. She kissed her way skilfully across my torso, setting my nerves alight, before returning to my face and kissing me long and slow on the mouth. By the time she pulled away, I was ready to give her anything she wanted.

"Was it you?" she whispered.

"Huh?" I said, dragging myself reluctantly from my sex trance to find Naomi looking down at me with deathly serious eyes.

"Are you and Effy Sea Ninjas?" she asked.

I closed my eyes and sighed. She was clever. She had lured me into a vulnerable position and now she was taking advantage. I couldn't tell her the truth. Cause the truth was yes. Me and Effy weren't out at sea shagging or taking drugs as everyone else suspected. We were out there sabotaging a pipeline with explosives we'd acquired via contacts from Effy's dodgy family. Yes, it was for the cause, but we had inflicted major criminal damage, and I couldn't involve Naomi in it. She had been so excited by the thought of the Sea Ninjas, I could only imagine how much more thrilled she would be if she found out she was fucking one. But I had to keep my ego out of this. I was a soldier, and I had to protect the mission.

But I couldn't lie to her either. I couldn't look into those beautiful eyes and feed her some kind of crap, not when I loved her this much. So I said nothing.

"So I guess this is one of those 'best not to ask moments'," she smiled down at me.

"Naoms, I…"

"Ssshh," she said, stroking my hair. "It's ok, I get it. You could tell me, but then you'd have to kill me kind of thing."

"I wouldn't go that far," I smirked. "I might have to keep you prisoner though."

"Oh," she grinned back at me. "And would there be restraints of some kind?"

"Don't," I shot back at her before my mind started taking me to very bad places.

"Seriously, do you have any idea how fucking cool you are right now? You blew up a fucking pipeline."

"I never said that," I said firmly.

"You didn't have to," she whispered into my ear before nibbling at the lobe. Shit, this girl was going to get me in serious trouble.

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"You are in serious trouble, Missy," Effy glared at me.

"Why?" I protested. What have I done?"

"You told her," said Effy accusingly.

I opened my mouth to protest my innocence, but the words dried in my mouth under my best friend's penetrating stare. Effy always knew the truth.

"How do you do it?" I sighed melodramatically.

"She has spent the last week looking at me like she wants to rip my head from my shoulders, and yet today she is suddenly looking at me like she wants to give me a medal. Not hard."

"I didn't tell her," I insisted.

"But she worked it out, and you failed to come up with a convincing lie to cover your arse," said Effy, her voice softening slightly.

"I can't lie to her, Eff. I love her."

Effy scoffed at me derisively.

"Oh yeah?" I said challengingly. "What if it was Katie? Could you lie to her?"

"That's different," countered Effy. "You've only known Naomi two weeks. I've known Katie for three years."

"And exactly how long did it take you to fall in love with her?"

"About thirty seconds," admitted Effy, smiling the smile I only ever saw when her head was full of Katie. "But at least your sister knows when not to ask too many questions."

"Naomi has to ask questions," I replied. "It's in her nature."

"And that's what makes her dangerous."

"She won't say anything," I said soothingly. "We can trust her."

"I hope so," said Effy. "I wouldn't want to see your cute little arse in jail."

"Like your Mum wouldn't bribe the judges, or whisk us away to start a new life in Rio de Janeiro or some such place."

"Do you think Katie would like Rio?" mused Effy.

I shook my head and pushed her in the water, jumping straight in after.

"I don't know about badass eco-warriors," I laughed at her. "But we're certainly both idiots for love."