“Yes. Please send in Brodie.”
I bolted out of the chair so fast that I nearly ran into the wall. Good lord, I had not been prepared for that line of questioning.
As soon as I re-entered the living room, I crossed into the kitchen. Brodie was there, getting a cup of coffee. It was still early and the others weren’t up. He was the only one in the room.
“Morning,” Brodie said, and his eyes roamed over my tight workout clothing appreciatively. He moved forward to greet me, head bending as if he wanted to kiss me. “You okay? You didn’t wake me up.”
I tilted, avoiding the kiss, and slid under his arm, heading for the toaster. “They want you in the confessional booth.”
“Gotcha.”
I shoved two pieces of toast into the toaster and stared at it, waiting. When I was sure the room was empty, I glanced behind me. No Brodie. I exhaled and then tapped my foot as I waited on the toast, thinking.
Last night had probably been a huge mistake. Brodie had just tried to kiss me again, out in the open. It was a good thing there was no one else in the room, because starting a romance was quite possibly the worst strategic move you could make. It was a one-way ticket out the door, especially when we had been busy splitting up other couples to keep the Power to ourselves.
Jendan entered the kitchen as my toast popped, and I snatched it up. “Morning, Kandis.” He rubbed his face.
“Morning.”
“Uh…you okay?”
I took an angry bite of dry toast and began to chew. “Honestly, why does everyone keep asking me that?”
He stared at me for a moment. “You look like you want to hit something. That’s why.”
“Oh.” So much for hiding my emotions. “It’s nothing. Just a little unsettled this morning.”
“Something wrong?”
I slid backwards, lifting up onto the counter and perching there while I ate my toast. “It’s Sunnie,” I lied between bites. “You know she’s gunning for me.”
“Well, yeah.” Jendan headed to the fridge and pulled out the orange juice. “She’s not a dumb girl. She can put two and two together. She knows it was you that caused Casper to go out of the game.”
I chewed thoughtfully. “Doesn’t she know that he was planning on booting her, too?”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re an easier target to blame.” He eyed me for a long moment. “And she’s jealous.”
The dry toast stuck to the roof of my mouth, and I had to pry it free with my tongue. When I could speak, I looked over at Jendan, surprised. “Why on Earth is she jealous? She’s a gorgeous socialite who shows up in every tabloid from here to eternity.”
“She’s jealous because you didn’t drop out of the Power Play before she did,” he told me, pouring himself a glass of orange juice. “Says you made her look vain because she wouldn’t get the haircut.”
I ran my hand over the shaved sides of my head and then touched the long, floppy portion that kept sliding into my face. “I wish I’d dropped out. Now I have bad hair, and I had to drink that awful milkshake. You were smart when you didn’t even try.”
He grinned. “I figured if that was the opener, every round would just get worse. I’m glad I bailed. I would have been puking everywhere if I’d even tried it. I was getting sick just hearing that ingredient list.”
“I think that was the point,” I told him wryly. I put down my dry toast. “And can we not talk about it over breakfast? I swear, just thinking about it makes my stomach ache.”
Jendan hopped up on the counter opposite of me and leaned forward. “There’s also Brodie, you know. She’s jealous over him. You got Brodie for a partner, and he seems totally into you. She got Casper for a partner, and he treated her like she was an ignorant two-year-old. And she likes Brodie. That much is obvious.”
“Everyone likes Brodie.” Oh damn, I could feel my face heating up all over again.
“No, I mean she really likes Brodie. Which brings me to a good question—who do you see in your final two? I know on day one we promised each other that we’d go to the end. I just want to make sure that hasn’t changed.”
I had made a deal with Jendan on day one. But that was before I’d started to have feelings for Brodie. And if Jendan knew about that, he’d make sure my butt went to the curb next.
Romance on a reality TV show was the worst kind of idea. So I lied. “Nothing’s changed. I’m just flirting with Brodie for strategic purposes. I’m here to win the money, just like you. Don’t worry about that. You and I are solid to the end. Final two.”
“Okay.” He smiled, clearly relieved by my answer. “Good.”
Truth was, when we got to that point, I’d make a decision. A hard one. And it wouldn’t necessarily involve taking Jendan.
Man, I sure was doing a lot of lying in this game. I hoped it didn’t come back to bite me in the end.
~~ * ~~
I avoided Brodie for most of the day.
Well, as much as you can avoid someone that you are living in a house with and sharing a room with. He seemed to understand my reluctance to broach what had happened last night, though, and didn’t attempt to get cozy with me again. I spent the afternoon with the girls in the kitchen as Jayme tried out recipes and Marla, Sunnie, and I drank coffee, did our nails, and gossiped. Sunnie wasn’t glaring at me any longer, so I considered that a small win, though I knew it was temporary.
She was going to hold a grudge. That was what you did in this game.
That evening, I chatted with Marla and Jendan. They wanted to make plans for the nomination ceremony, since it could happen at any time. The producers liked to switch dates up on us, so I understood the paranoia about being caught off guard. I invited Marla and Jendan back to our room after lights out and then let Brodie know when we were getting ready for bed.
If he looked disappointed, he didn’t say anything. He simply nodded and put on a pair of pajama bottoms over his boxers.
I wore flannel pajamas, too. Being all covered up around Brodie made things safer.
At close to midnight, there was a soft knock on our door. Brodie and I were sitting on the bed, discussing challenges and going over who had come in what place in case there was a memory recall challenge in the future. Brodie had mentioned he’d gotten burned on something like that on The World Races, so we’d been practicing nightly and making up catchy jingles to remind us of the order. He was determined not to lose again, and I didn’t blame him. To come that close to winning last time and walk away with nothing but a pat on the back? It had to be devastating.
Brodie hopped up from the bed and opened the door, and Marla and Jendan slipped in, both in their pajamas. They waved and Marla bounded onto the bed next to where I sat, cross legged, over the covers. Brodie quickly shut the door behind them again and flicked off the lights. “Sorry,” he whispered into the dark. “Just making sure nobody catches us.”
“No problem,” Marla whispered back. “I hope this isn’t a bad time?”
“Not at all,” I said, perhaps a bit more loudly than I should have. “We were just chatting about past challenges.”
“So,” Jendan said, and I felt his weight sink down on the bed. Now all four of us were seated in a circle on the big mattress. “Brodie has the Power, but if we have a final four, I think we should all have a say in who goes up on the block.”
“That’s fine with me,” Brodie said. “Any suggestions?”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
“Sunnie seems like an obvious target,” Marla finally said.
“I’d like to keep Sunnie,” Brodie said.
I frowned into the dark. “Why?”
“Well, for starters, she sucks in challenges,” Brodie said with a chuckle, and I felt his hand reach out and caress my knee in the darkness. A hot flush rippled through my body, and I wanted to push his hand away so he wouldn’t distract me.
But…I didn’t.
“And Sunnie’s easily influenced,” Brodie said. “She was furious at Kandis e
arlier because she thought she engineered Casper’s vote out, but by this evening, Sunnie was smiling and painting Kandis’s nails. We can control her. We just need to make her feel safe.”
“Except for the fact that she’s decided I should be the next to go,” I pointed out. “She more or less said during the challenge that if she got Power? She was putting me up for eviction.”
“It’s true,” Marla agreed. “I saw the looks she was giving Kandis. I think you’re wrong about Sunnie being tractable. I think it’s an act.”
Hearing her confirm my suspicions made me a little nervous. We were all trying to play so hard that I wondered who in this house was real and who was fake.
And I wondered if I was seeing real Brodie or fake Brodie. Which one was in bed with me each night? Strategic Brodie who was ensuring my vote? Or the real Brodie, who maybe liked to kiss me? I didn’t know. The thumb casually caressing my knee felt real. Was I simply reading too much into flirting?
I didn’t trust anyone or anything anymore.
“Frankly, I’d rather get out someone that’s a threat to Kandis than keep someone that might be a vote in your pocket. No offense, Brodie,” Jendan said.
“None taken,” Brodie replied, but I felt his hand tighten on my knee. “We’ll keep Sunnie on the table.”
“So that leaves Fido and Jayme,” I said. “Brodie, what do you think?”
“Jayme’s dangerous,” Marla said before Brodie could answer. “She won Power before, remember?”
“You have a point,” Brodie said. “But Fido’s trying to lay low. He’s more athletic than he’s pretending to be, and I worry that if we keep him around, he’s going to be serious competition for the next few challenges when it’s crucial to make sure that we keep Power.”
“Both good arguments,” Jendan said. “How do you feel, Kandis?”
I considered for a long moment. Was this answer some sort of test from Jendan, too? If I aligned my answer with Brodie, would Jendan start to worry about our alliance? We needed to stay four strong until we got out the other three. It would be too easy for a pair to flip and screw everyone else’s plans. But Fido was stronger than Jayme, and Jayme would vote with Brodie, which meant she was a vote in my corner, too.
Plus, the fact that Fido was trying to lay low didn’t sit well with me. That was my strategy, darn it. “I vote Fido. I don’t trust him. Any guy that calls himself Fido automatically makes me suspicious.”
Marla laughed. “You do realize that it’s a nickname because he owns a dog-walking service?”
“Don’t know, don’t care,” I said. “I think it’s to throw us off guard and make him seem more friendly and amiable than he really is. I mean, if his name were Jake, we’d have a different view of him, wouldn’t we? Jake’s totally a playboy name.”
Marla snorted. “You mean like ‘Brodie?’”
Just like that, actually. I didn’t want to agree with her aloud because I felt Brodie stiffen next to me, clearly irritated at Marla’s words. I changed the subject back to the vote. “I just don’t feel like we can trust Fido.”
“I do see him whispering in the corners with Jayme a lot.” Marla sighed. “I thought it was because he liked her at first, but now I wonder if there’s more to it than that.”
“So we put up Sunnie and Fido,” Brodie said. “We either split up a strong duo or we get rid of someone who’s gunning for Kandis. I think that seems solid. Do you guys have a preference for who?”
I sure did, but I let the rest of them vote. After an hour of intense arguing back and forth in low whispers, it was decided: Fido would be going home.
I didn’t know how I felt about that since we’d be keeping the person that wanted my head on a platter, considering she’d been nominated a second time and was bound to be even more pissed off. But I trusted Fido to win a challenge more than I trusted Sunnie to win. Heck, at the thought of messing up a lock of her long red extensions, Sunnie had bailed. I ran a hand through my floppy mohawk in memory.
We’d made the right strategic choice for the group, even if it wasn’t best for me.
After things were decided, Marla and Jendan headed off to bed, and Brodie closed the door to our bedroom. It was just the two of us again. I crawled under the blankets, determined not to feel awkward about last night. It had been perfection, like we’d known each other for years and had finally come together. I’d loved every second of it.
Which was a problem. I didn’t want to love it. I couldn’t love it. A million dollars—and the opportunity to save my mom—was riding on the line.
The bed creaked and I felt it sag under Brodie’s weight. In the darkness, I couldn’t make out his expression.
“So,” he said. “What are you thinking?”
“Well…” I reached up and toyed with the fringe on the pillow under my head. “I’m a little concerned that we’re keeping Sunnie when she’ll have double the reason to come after me, but if that’s what the group wants, then I’ll go along with it.”
One arm slid around my waist. “That wasn’t what I was referring to.”
A hot flush swept through my body. “Oh?”
“Yeah.” He dragged me against him, and his breath whispered against my ear. “I’m just curious why you were giving me the icy treatment earlier today. Cold feet? Change your mind about playing around with me?”
Playing around, huh? Was that all this was?
After I got past the initial twinge of hurt at his words, I realized…that was actually perfect. If we were just playing around, things weren’t serious. No one’s feelings would get hurt if we kept things hidden. And best of all, if it was all just fun and games, my promise to take Jendan to the final two would bother no one. So I said, “You know if they think we have a romance, they’re going to come after us.”
“Yeah, but I flirt with everyone,” Brodie said. “They’ll just think you’re finally responding.”
I snorted.
“And it might seem weird to the others if you’re the only girl in the house I don’t flirt with.”
“You don’t flirt with Marla,” I pointed out.
“I do,” he said, and his teeth grazed my ear, sending shivers up my spine. “It’s just more subtle.” His hand slid toward the waistband of my pajama pants. “But I can be subtle when we’re around the others if you want.”
Right now, I was thinking anything but subtle. My body had responded to his caresses, and I was thinking that if he didn’t touch me right now, I was going to die of need. But I bit my lip, fighting the feelings. “They’re watching us on the cameras, you know. I got quizzed about it when I went into the confessional.”
“And that bothers you?” he asked. “They can’t see anything.”
Yeah, but they’d know what we were doing. And that counted for more than visuals. “It does.”
“They asked me about it, too,” Brodie said, and his tongue flicked into the shell of my ear, then lightly traced it. “But they also gave me some very interesting information.”
“Oh?”
“Yep. That they turn the cameras off in all rooms between two and four in the morning, and they provided condoms in all the bathrooms.”
I sucked in a breath. If they turned off the cameras, that meant they wanted us to have sex. Heck, they were all but saying GO RIGHT AHEAD WE WON’T LOOK.
Then again…if the cameras didn’t see anything… “I don’t know if I’m ready to jump into sex just yet, Brodie,” I said. “I’m still worried it’ll mess up our game.”
“We could always just mess around, then,” he said in a low, husky voice, and his hand slid over my stomach, exploring it under my clothing. “It’s almost two right now.”
I looked over at the lava lamp clock in the room. 1:58. “So two minutes. And then…?” I let the question trail off.
“Then we can do whatever we want,” Brodie murmured, and he bit my earlobe.
I bit back the shuddering cry that threatened to escape my throat. My nails dug into his arm, and then I
nodded. “Two minutes.”
He leaned back, and we waited.
It was easily the longest two minutes of my life. I stared at the alarm clock, waiting for the digits to tick over. It seemed like an eternity passed in one hundred and twenty seconds. An eternity in which my pulse raced, my breasts ached, and the flesh between my legs grew slick from sheer anticipation.
Then, it finally ticked over.
“‘Bout fucking time,” Brodie growled low in his throat. His hand went to my chin, he turned my face toward his, and his mouth swooped over mine in a delicious, deep kiss. He licked at my mouth, tasting me as if he were starving and I were a feast laid out before him. And when my tongue touched his? He groaned low in his throat, the sound making my knees weak.
I’d never heard anything so incredibly sexy.
“Kandis, this was the longest day in this stupid house because I couldn’t wait to get to bed.” His tongue traced my parted lips, his hand stole down my neck, over my collarbone, tracing my skin. “And I wanted to throw those two assholes out of here the moment they came in here. It took everything I had not to boot them and then throw you down on the bed and maul you.”
His heated words reminded me of the hand he’d placed on my knee. Suddenly, that hand seemed like the most erotic thing in the universe. I dragged the blankets over us and with the barrier in place, my hands began to skim along his flesh.
Brodie’s hand went to my thigh, and he hiked my knees up around his hips. He twisted in the bed and settled between my clothed legs, resting the weight of his hips against my spread ones. I gasped at the sensation, as the pose allowed me to feel…everything, especially the hard ridge of his cock between my legs.
He leaned in to kiss me again. “This okay?”
I nodded, and when his mouth moved over mine again, our tongues met and collided. I moaned, my nails digging into his back.
His hips lifted, pressing his length against the vee of my sex.
The movement sent pleasure shuddering through me, a tease of what real sex with him would be like.
“You fit me perfectly, Kandis,” he breathed against my mouth. “Can’t wait until I get to taste you.”