He pulled me close and spooned me against him, my back against his front. “Actually I kind of liked you like this.”
“You sneak.”
But I wasn’t upset. I was actually kind of pleased.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“What Kandis doesn’t seem to realize is that every time I see that mohawk of hers, I get a boner. It’s true. A chick with grit is the sexiest thing possible.” – Brodie Short, Day 31
I rubbed my hands and smiled gleefully at the confessional TV monitor. “This is the first time that Brodie and I have been in Power this game.” I paused. “Well, I say it’s Brodie and me, but the truth is, he’s the one with Power. I’m just riding his coattails.”
“Any ideas of who you’ll put up this week?”
“We have a few ideas of who we want gone,” I said, and crossed my legs in the chair. “First and foremost is Sunnie, of course. Now that her partner’s gone, she’s been sulking all day. And she’s made a few pointed comments that indicate that she’s coming after me, so I’d like to put her up on the block, of course. And since someone else has to be nominated, Fido’s my other choice, I guess. He’s strong, and he’s a guy, and Brodie swears to me that, thanks to his maneuvering, he’s got the girl vote locked up. So as long as they’re all with us, they’re not against us.”
A pause.
I twiddled my thumbs for a moment, waiting for either the okay to leave or for another question.
It came after a long moment. “Our cameras show that you and Brodie put good use to the Power room last night. How is your relationship with him?”
My eyes widened in horror. That was…direct. And the last thing I wanted to talk about at the moment. “Um. We’re good. We’re good friends.”
“Do you go under the blankets with all your good friends?”
I could feel a blush creeping onto my face and grew irritated at the line of questioning. “If I feel like it. Just consider it affirming an alliance. Between friends. Can I go now?”
“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 earlier 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?