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 br**sts ached, and the flesh between my legs grew slick from sheer anticipation.
Then, it finally ticked over.
“‘Bout f**king 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 a**holes 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 h*ps against my spread ones. I gasped at the sensation, as the pose allowed me to feel…everything, especially the hard ridge of his c*ck 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 h*ps 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.”
“Taste me?” I whispered, tantalized by the thought.
“Taste you everywhere.” He sucked on my lower lip and then gave it a nip with his teeth. “You want to know where I’d start?”
“Where?” I breathed. It seemed monumentally important that he tell me and seduce me with delicious words.
“I’ve tasted your mouth,” he said against my mouth, and his tongue stroked between my parted lips again. “You’re sweet as honey there, and have the most delicious little tongue, but it wouldn’t be enough for me. I’d have to go lower.”
And he thrust between my clothed legs again.
“Oh?” My voice trembled, my hands skimming his warm chest, gliding over his shoulders. Moving all over him, as if I could trace his entire body with just my fingertips.
“I’d have to stop at these pretty tits,” he said, and one hand went to the buttons of my flannel nightshirt, dragging it open. “Are you wearing a bra?”
“No, no bra.” I didn’t want to point out that most girls didn’t sleep in a bra. I was too into the moment and didn’t want to distract him. I needed to hear what was next.
“Good.” He slid lower, and I felt a pang of disappointment when his h*ps left the cradle of mine. I wanted his c*ck rubbing up against my sex, sliding there with delicious friction.
I promptly forgot about it when his mouth moved to my breastbone, kissing the now-exposed valley of my cl**vage, the strip of skin available for his caresses now that he’d pried the buttons open. “Been wanting to see these beauties for weeks now. You have no idea how badly I wanted to peek at you when we were in the shower, but I knew you’d kill me.”