I paused my assault, surprised. “You…are?”
He laughed softly. “Kandis, don’t get me wrong. You’re smokin’ hot, but I’m here to win the money.”
That made me pause. “So what’s with all the flirting and cooing over Sunnie? Or Jayme?”
“Jealous?” he teased. “Seriously, though, it’s strategy. Both are pretty girls, but I need to win some cash this time around. I played with my dick last time, and look where it got me.”
“You played with your dick—”
“Figure of speech,” he corrected in a harsh whisper. “I wasn’t really playing with my dick on camera. I meant I played while thinking of my dick, and I came in second place. My sister’s a little bull in a china shop when she gets her feelings hurt. I didn’t think about that last time, and it cost me the money.”
“It was your own fault,” I chided him. “I seem to remember you playing a lot of suck-face with a rocker chick.”
“Yeah,” he sighed. “She was hot. But she was also terrible at all the crucial challenges and tended to be hung over when I needed her to be at her best. I’m going to play different this time.”
I pulled back a little, trying to study his face in the darkness. “Do tell.”
“Well,” Brodie said, and he turned on the narrow couch so he could prop his head up with one bent arm and face me. His face was inches from mine, and I shivered to myself at how close he was. Darn Brodie for being so good looking. Darn Brodie for being so completely untrustworthy and a horndog.
“This game’s about partnering up and making sure you’re not voted off. Last time, as long as I competed hard, I was safe. This time, it’s different.” He shifted and sidled even closer to me. “I already talked to Sunnie and she’s going to work with us. Katy and Liam will work with us because Katy always works with me. And I’m pretty sure I can get Jayme. We talked about it, but she said she wasn’t ready to commit on day one. Marla said the same thing. I promised each of them final four. We can decide who we want to take when we get closer to the end.”
Annoyance flashed through me, and I wanted to smack him, hard. “Are you freaking kidding me? You’ve already made a bunch of deals with people?”
He looked surprised at my anger. “Well, yeah. We don’t have to keep to them if we don’t want to.”
“Why would you make a bunch of deals on day one?” My whisper was so harsh it sounded more like a hiss. “What the f**k were you thinking?”
“Oh come on.” Brodie was starting to look as annoyed as I felt. “You mean to tell me that you don’t have an alliance with Mr. Stuntman? I saw you two getting cozy and making googly eyes at each other.”
“For starters, we were not making googly eyes at each other. And that is one person. One. You’ve talked to everyone in the house with boobs and made sure your ass is safe.”
And where, exactly, did that leave me?
He snorted and sat up. “I thought you wanted to play this game.”
“I do. I’m here to win, too. But your strategy sucks, Brodie. You ever heard of laying low?”
“There’s no need,” he said with a grin and got off the couch. His whisper as he moved back to his own bed carried to me in the darkness. “You only have to lay low if you’re not confident you can come out on top. And I know I can—that we can.”
Yeah, I didn’t miss that little slip of the tongue. I bit back my angry retort, not wanting to damage things further with Brodie, and thumped my pillow, trying to relax and go to sleep.
The house was eerily still, and my couch was facing that creepy, dark two-way mirror. I was exhausted, but I was also keyed up and not entirely sure I could sleep. Brodie didn’t seem to be having any trouble, though. I glanced over at his couch and noticed his handsome face was relaxed, his head propped up on his pillow as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
Near my head, a floorboard creaked.
I shot upright, skin prickling. “What was that?”
“Go to sleep, Kandis,” Brodie murmured.
“I heard something.” There was another creak, more ominous. “There. Did you hear that?”
“It’s an old house,” he said sleepily, not even opening his eyes. “They make noises.”
“An old haunted house,” I corrected, but laid down again after scanning the darkness. No shadows, at least. No unexpected shadows, that is. I wondered how the people in the attic room — the Hanging Room—were doing. If I was losing my shit in the wide open living room, I could only imagine how creeped out the others were.
When I heard a floorboard creak again, I pulled the blankets over my head.
CHAPTER THREE
“My god. Kandis is smokin’ hot, but she is the most paranoid chick I’ve ever met. She freaks out about everything. I spent half the night last night thinking she was going to climb into bed with me at every creak in the house…and the other half of the night disappointed she didn’t. I’m only human, after all.” – Brodie Short, Day 3
“How is your first week going, Kandis?”
It was day three, and I was back in the confessional. I rubbed my eyes, thinking. “Well, my partner’s determined to score with everything female, he’s made deals with half the house, Mickey keeps trying to give me massages I don’t want, and I’m pretty sure the living room is haunted. Other than that, just great.”
There was no reaction on the other end, and I felt suddenly awkward.
A moment later, the confessional booth voice spoke again. “Have you made any alliances?”
I shifted in the confessional chair and then tucked my legs under so I wouldn’t twitch and give myself away. “Well, seeing as Brodie’s spoken ‘for’ me to everyone?” I made finger-quotes to show my annoyance. “I guess I also have alliances with half the house. But I’ve only really discussed strategy with Brodie and Jendan. Brodie because I have to, and Jendan because I actually trust him. He’s like a brother to me in here. We have each other’s backs.”
“Any romance there?”
I considered this carefully. Jendan was good looking, charming, and funny. But I didn’t feel anything for him. “Not really? Don’t get me wrong, I really like Jendan, but I think we came in here with the same objective—to claw ahead—and our friendship is strictly platonic. It’s almost like a job partnership. We’re both here to do business and that’s it.”
“And is it business with Brodie?”
I snorted and crossed my arms. “Brodie can go jump off a cliff.”
“Please extrapolate.”
I felt my foot jerk underneath my butt, just dying to twitch in irritation. Good thing I’d sat on it. “So here’s the thing. Brodie knows he’s cute and charming. He thinks that’s going to get him through life and that if someone doesn’t like him? He can just convince them otherwise with a few sweet words and a well-timed grin. It’s total manipulation. The sad thing is that he’s right, though. It’s been three days and he has all the girls here eating out of the palm of his hand. Marla made him breakfast the other day. Lenore loves him. Sunnie spends all her time out by the pool talking to him. He helps Jayme cook. And he’s busy trying to flirt with me on the down-low—not that I’m buying any of it. I think I’m the only one immune to his charm. I just worry that his mouth is going to write a check that he can’t cash, and then we’re really going to be in trouble.”
“How does this work into your plans?”
I rubbed my face, weary. I hadn’t gotten much sleep since we’d arrived at the house. Too many creaky noises and half-seen shadows keeping me up at night. The house was freaking me out, just a tad, and I was having bad dreams. Some of it was due to stress, I was sure, but not all of it.
“It doesn’t work into my plans at all,” I said, and could hear the irritation in my own voice. “My plan was to lay low. Make a key alliance and stick to it. Ride the middle. You know, hold back in challenges until about half the people here were gone. Then, when the odds are better, come out swinging. Dominate. But Brodie thinks the best way to play is guys versus girls, apparently. Or all other guys versus him and the girls.” I rolled my eyes. “So much for laying low.”
“Thanks, Kandis. You can go now.”
I flashed a quick peace sign at the screen, hauled myself out of the chair, and then padded out of the room. Since we were in the house, we’d been asked to wear either slippers or socks so the sound of shoes wouldn’t mess up the audio. Sunnie had a pair of huge fuzzy slippers. A few other people wore flip-flops. I liked bare feet. It was how I worked out.
As soon as I re-entered the living room, I saw Brodie sitting on my couch, waiting for me. The others were nowhere around, likely outside trying to get some sun at the pool or smoking in the designated area. Brodie had a box of cookies and was munching on it thoughtfully. As soon as I emerged, he made a small gesture with his hand, indicating that I should join him on the couch.
Oh, here we go. Another strategy talk.
I headed to Brodie’s side and snagged the box of cookies from him and then slid onto the couch next to him. I didn’t recognize the box of cookies—and the bored houseguests had gone through everything in the pantry yesterday out of boredom. “Where’d you get these?”
“Liam and Katy,” he said. “They got a basket of food up in the Power room.”
I snagged a cookie and handed the box back to him. “And let me guess, since you’re allied with them, they let you have your pick of goodies?”
“Actually, I didn’t ask.” He grinned. “I just went up there and snagged this. Katy won’t be too mad.”
I wanted to shove my cookie into his face until it crumbled. “Brodie Short,” I snapped. “We have to freaking live with these people all summer. It is day three. Don’t start a fight over cookies.”
He shrugged. “Like I said, they’re not going to care. Katy likes fresh-baked goods more than anything. She hates this packaged crap.” And he stuffed another whole cookie into his mouth and winked at me. “You’re free to eat.”
I hesitated, and then took a dainty nibble of my forbidden cookie. “It’s good,” I admitted sourly. “Still doesn’t make it right.”
“Relax, Kandis. You’re so uptight.”
“So what are you doing out here?” I took another bite of cookie, ignoring his ‘uptight’ comment.
“Waiting for you so we could talk.”
“Oh? What about?”
Marla strolled through the living room in her swimsuit and a towel, returning from the pool. As soon as she saw Brodie and me, Brodie immediately pulled me into his lap, pretending to tickle me.
I squealed, trying to jerk out of his embrace, but he held me tight, his fingers fluttering against my sensitive sides. “No! Don’t!”
His laughter echoed in the room, and he pulled me close against him, trapping me against his big body and sprawling me across his lap. His blue eyes were bright on me and he grinned. “Ask me nicely—”