by Ashton Johns
As he walked past us, following his butler, the words also strutted closer and I couldn’t not see them. My breakfast started to regurgitate in anger. The possessiveness I experienced was something I’d never felt before. Before I could let him see what all this was really doing to me, I spun over to lie on my front, hoping the world would just disappear while I got my head straight. I told myself I was waiting until I was in the right mindset to go and get ready, but I wasn’t. I was waiting for Kade. I was desperately hoping he’d come back to the poolside, minus the body inscription, and tell me it was all going to be okay.
He never did, and after waiting as long as I could, I wandered back inside to get my game face on.
I dressed in a simple black maxi dress. It was long, floaty and completely different to the dresses everyone else was wearing. They’d all gone for maximum flesh exposure and I hated the pressure to comply and compete with them. I was feeling so far out of alignment with myself that I just needed something that would help me feel like the old Daisy Ingles. This dress was the closest thing I could find to me. I left my hair down and hadn’t dried it after my shower. It was now wavy and wispy and moving in the breeze the same way my dress did. I over-accessorized, adding lots and lots of leather bracelets and a few around my neck. Lydia had chosen them, and they were longer than I normally wore and hung suggestively between my cleavage. When I walked out into the pick area, the rest of the girls all looked at me with no regard. Dressed like I was, I was no threat.
The costume department had been busy. The theme of tonight’s date appeared to be video games. The pool had some inflatable characters from games past and present floating around, and Kade’s chair seemed to be constructed out of blocks like it was something from Minecraft. The garden was littered with video game machines from an arcade and it looked cool. It was nothing, though, compared to the lawn behind the pool that was littered with characters from Super Mario and a makeshift racetrack had been constructed. At the start line were two little go karts, all set and ready for Kade and his date.
I was looking forward to kicking his ass on those video game machines and then beating him on the Mario Kart circuit. Maybe the long dress hadn’t been such a good idea. Never mind, a little bit of fun might help take my mind off all the lipstick antics from the pool.
Like every other time, we lined up. Things had changed slightly though we were still standing in our allotted social circles, and some of the girls, like Jess, Natalie and I, held hands in solidarity. Brody trotted along the line first, and in a change of pace, he actually stopped this time and sat in front of me. His tail was wagging, and it was so cute. Tonight, I was going to tell Kade he could spend the night with us—well, maybe some of it. If Brody didn’t want to see his owner intimate with me, he could retreat to the bathroom. That was as long as the public had voted for me. I was hoping that our hot kiss last night had piqued their interest and they wanted to see if things between us got even hotter. And if they didn’t…well, Kade had promised he’d fix it, whatever the result, and I trusted him to do that.
I let go of the other girls’ hands and squatted down to pet him. His tongue lolled out to the side. “Hey, buddy, you ready for this?” I mumbled.
“Brody!” Kade growled sharply. “Keep it moving.”
The sharpness of his tone made me jump and stand up. The last time I’d heard that undertone from him had been during his negotiations with Meredith. As Brody carried on, Kade followed without so much as glancing at any of us, including me. He was wearing jeans and a collared polo shirt with white Converse. The material of the pants clung to the shape of his butt and it brought back memories from last night, of watching him walk naked to the bathroom after we’d made love and admiring the strength in his frame.
As he sat on the throne, Brody trotted off and left him. He clearly wasn’t happy about being barked at and showed his contempt with his absence.
“Ladies, once again we’ve arrived at the part of this experience that brings both pleasure and sadness.” Kade seemed to take a huge deep breath in as he continued. “I will call three names. Two of you have been chosen by the viewers as worthy of my singular attention and one of you will be asked to collect your belongings and leave my mansion immediately.”
My knees began to tremble in anticipation of sex and a repeat performance, although I thought we should probably get some more sleep tonight.
“Jess, please step forward.” I watched as my friend rushed to stand ahead of the line and began to feel nervous that I would be facing a past conquest in this pick. “Honey, your personal tattoo services from earlier seem to have won you a space,” he said, smiling for the first time that evening. I was suddenly glad I’d worn the long dress as my knees had moved from trembling to definite knocking.
“And Daisy.”
On a sigh of relief, I took my place, knowing that when Kade had to choose between my roomie and me it would probably affect our friendship.
There was no music man tonight, no drum or piped tunes to create atmosphere, which meant the production team would be overlaying it during the editing process. You could hear everything so clearly—crickets rubbing their legs together in the grassy lawns, birds chirping before they settled down for the night and the girls shuffling impatiently.
“The girl leaving the mansion this evening, the girl who needs to gather her belongings and make her way outside to my personal driver is…”
Honey looked at Jess and I, and we returned her glance with slight smiles. Jess and I may have been about to suffer the consequences of being separated by selection, but without a doubt both of us would be glad to see the back of that troll.
“Daisy.”
On hearing Kade say my name, I felt Jess squeezing my hand.
“Fuck, Daisy, I’m so sorry,” she whispered, and before I had the chance to register the enormity of what had just happened, she was wrapping her arms around me.
There was some mistake. There had to be. He’d promised he would make sure we had more time together. He’d said he’d fix it. My confusion was multiplying by the second as my brain tried to figure out whether I’d missed who’d been evicted and he’d made me his pick for the night again, but that couldn’t be because Jess was consoling me.
Natalie, too, stepped forward and joined our hug. I couldn’t return the affection as I hadn’t even blinked yet. My heart was stuttering and stumbling in an unhealthy way, and if I’d had pains down one of my arms, I may have been convinced I was having a heart attack.
“Daisy, thank you for your time here,” Kade repeated, like he was slowly dragging a serrated knife out of my chest and sinking it back in, repeatedly. As I looked over at him, his face was like stone, emotionless, like he needed me out of the way so he could go back to the rest of his business.
Jess and Natalie released me from their hugs and resumed their places, Natalie in the line of faceless wannabes and Jess to go and stand next to Honey.
I urged my feet to move. I begged them to turn and walk away from this horror show, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Kade. He needed to see what he was doing to me. This was no longer an entertainment spectacle. This was him cutting me off at the knees and towering above me, sneering at me with an evil grin.
There was a commotion in the bushes and trees by the pool then Brody appeared. He sauntered over to his master, a rumbling whine, which quickly became a displeased growl leaving his four-legged frame.
Suddenly aware that the cameras and film crew were waiting for me to make my dramatic exit so he could get on with selecting Jess, I did the opposite. My world had just fallen apart and I would not give them the satisfaction of seeing just how much.
“Good luck, ladies,” I whispered bravely, forcing a small smile for Jess and Natalie before turning to Kade. “Thank you for the opportunity to get to know the real Kade,” I bit out, spearing him with my eyes. I needed him to know that he’d had me fooled. He had been the cute guy who needed support and a sandwich here and there, but this experie
nce had changed that. I’d seen someone who had embraced the luxury he’d missed out while he lived rough. I’d seen a guy who was doing all he could to earn a large paycheck and worse than that, I’d uncovered a guy who had missed out on the attention of women and sex, and now he was doing all he could to make up for it.
Kade’s face didn’t change apart from a split second where his eyes widened in hurt at my words, but I was hurting too much myself to care.
As I spun away from the others, I remembered my parents watching this show and tried to remain dignified. Within a minute or so, I looked down to my feet and saw Brody trotting beside me. In a break from his normal behavior, he’d come to make sure the evicted girl was okay.
“I’ll miss you, buddy,” I told him quietly, well aware that the camera crew would be following me right up until I climbed in the back of the limo.
The door to the main house came into view, and I heard Kade begin again. “Ladies, tonight’s date will be… Honey. It’s time to see if she’s really as sweet as that tempting name of hers.”
My feet stumbled and caught on my dress, and I rushed to put my hands out to brace my fall. The first few tears had already started to streak down my face. This felt like the ultimate betrayal. Kade had cut his teeth on Jess the night before, ticked me off his bucket list and now moved on to the real bedroom entertainment.
Brody nudging my arm reminded me that I was still on my hands and knees on the concrete just outside the house. Everyone was going to see what this experience had done to me and how broken I was. My parents would be distraught, and they didn’t need this with everything else they were dealing with. The production team would make the most of the footage, slowing it down and zooming in on my unhappiness. Clint would give some lame but accurate narration about how the heartbreak became too much and it brought to my knees. Meredith would oversee it personally, having the final say on just how awful this would be. It stuck in my throat that I could end up playing such a fundamental part in her tactless and degrading show, winning her the award she so desperately coveted.
I would never work for that horrible excuse for a human again.
Gathering some resolve, I stood up and robotically moved to my room, gathering up the luggage I’d never unpacked after the heartbreak of knowing he’d spent a night of passion with Jess.
No one helped me carry it down the stairs. Carson and Doug the camera guy followed on like bloodthirsty leeches, desperate for more heartbreak and despair. It was truly degrading. I knew these people. We’d worked together for a while now, but that didn’t stop them reveling in my sadness.
Clint was the only one who showed any compassion. As I arrived at the limo, Brody was still at my side, following me round like he could somehow stop me leaving. The guy who had shared his dinner with me came and took my belongings before helping me into the back of the car.
The last thing I heard was Kade’s voice coming towards the entrance, shouting in panic for Brody. Of the two of them, the animal and the human, the pet was the one with whom I could most associate. It had always been that way for me. Human nature always let me down; animals didn’t.
The last thing I saw before closing the limo door was Kade rushing forward and pushing the camera team to one side. My heart started to beat again, hoping and praying that he’d finally seen sense and decided to walk from the show and come with me, but that wasn’t the case.
He ignored the limo as Clint turned over the engine.
He ignored Doug the cameraman as he warred between following my departure or filming what Kade was up to.
And he ignored me, never once looking in my direction, only concentrating on his dog who was steadfast in his efforts to try to follow me out of this hellhole.
Thirty-Eight
Five Weeks Later
Kade Sutton
Well, this was it, my final day in that fucking hellhole of a prison. Luxurious it might have been, but it was still a prison and my cellmates weren’t murderers, thieves or rapists but a bunch of vacuous, materialistic women.
I hated it there.
I hated what the show had made me do.
Okay, so everything I’d done, I’d done for Daisy, but I’d still allowed myself to be bullied and manipulated by Meredith. If I’d been any sort of man, I’d have stood up to the fucking bitch and supported Daisy through the shit storm, but I hadn’t. I’d gone with my heart’s reaction to her plan. I couldn’t let Daisy be hurt so had conceded to Meredith’s manipulations. In hindsight, I realized that if that film had got out, the studio would have been in huge trouble. We’d all signed contracts that agreed no sex scenes would be filmed, and they’d reneged on that.
They’d broken a legal binding contract.
There was no way she could leak that footage and she damn well knew it. Meredith had been at her manipulative best and fooled me because my heart, my feelings, and my love for Daisy were clouding my judgment.
It was almost a week after Daisy had left when I realized Meredith couldn’t show the film and demanded a meeting with her. I told her that I was leaving and where she could shove her damn show, but she had me again. She agreed that the studio couldn’t film the sex scenes, so she had no problem whatsoever with holding an ‘investigation’ and laying the blame firmly at Clint’s door. I laughed in her face, but then she told me what I’d already guessed—that he was part of the production company so would have had the necessary access. Meredith then told me that her ‘investigation’ would reveal that he’d sneaked a camera in because he wanted to make some extra cash, selling it to the highest bidder. Apparently, we had good viewing figures and were causing a stir with the press, so there’d be plenty of takers. The damn bitch even showed me footage of Clint entering my room with a black backpack that ‘obviously had the camera and equipment in it’. It didn’t matter that the backpack was mine and the footage was Clint bringing it to me because I’d left it in the limo on the first day. She’d even changed the date stamp on the footage. So, I was royally screwed. If I walked, two good people would be hurt by my actions and I couldn’t do that.
Today, though, I would finally be free. I had one last pick to make—who I would date for the next six months.
Thankfully, the public had taken a shine to Jess, so a lot of my nights over the last five weeks had been spent with her. Meredith didn’t dare risk rigging every vote. She wasn’t that stupid. Some of the nights I’d spent with other random girls who had done something during the day to catch the public’s eye, I needed to give them all a fair shot, but for the vast majority I’d had to choose between Jess and Honey. Meredith sent the message of who should be picked, like I needed to be told, I always knew she wanted me to go with Honey.
Now here we were, just me, Jess and Honey left in the house and it was empty and cold. Hell, it had been empty and cold since the day Daisy had walked out of it. That had been the second worst night of my life, after killing my friend, Cory. Telling her she was being evicted and seeing her trying to brave it out, while I knew she was breaking inside, had felt like my heart was being crushed by my own hand. I couldn’t look at her because I knew if I did, I’d break—I’d beg her to stay, tell her that I was falling in love with her and fuck the consequences. I knew my face was hard and emotionless, but that was the only way I could get through what I had to do.
If that hadn’t been bad enough, when Carson, the evil bastard, showed me the footage of her falling to the ground, it didn’t just crush my heart, it fucking obliterated it into tiny pieces that pierced every part of me.
“You ready?” Sam, one of the runners asked, poking his head around my bedroom door.
I blew out a deep breath and nodded. “Yep, as I’ll ever be,” I said, straightening the designer tie I was wearing with the crisp white shirt and perfectly cut midnight blue suit I’d been instructed to wear.
“Oh, and Meredith said you’ve to pick-”
“Honey, yeah, I know.”
“Actually, no,” Sam said, sounding a little shocked. �
��You’re to pick Jess.”
My stared at him, eyes wide, “Are you sure?”
“That’s what she said,” he replied with a shrug and a shake of the head. “I’ll see you down there.”
“Thanks, Sam,” I said distractedly, wondering what on earth Meredith’s game was. She’d been championing Honey all along, so why was she changing her allegiance now, at the final pick.
While I was glad it was Jess, I would be spending time with over the next six months, something didn’t feel right. My gut was screaming that this shit storm was far from over.
Tonight, the show was live, which considering Honey wasn’t going to be picked, was a brave decision. I wasn’t sure her reaction would be totally sane. It was Meredith’s funeral, though, and she’d evidently decided it was worth the risk. I personally would have been worried about tonight’s set, which they’d obviously shelled out some major cash on.
My seat for tonight looked like a real, honest to God, throne. It was gold and jeweled, with real thick red velvet cushioning, and next to it was a smaller version, evidently for my chosen one, and leading up to them was a lush red carpet. Fairy lights had been strung all around the place, along with huge, badass fire lanterns. The pool had hundreds of lit candles and lilies floating in it, and on the patio were red velvet high-backed chairs, for all the original contestants who were returning for tonight. Yeah, I’d already asked Clint if Daisy had been with the girls when they’d arrived earlier in the day, but he shook his head and walked away. Clint loved Daisy, and he was as fucked off with me as I was. He had no idea what hold Meredith had over me. All he could see was that I’d fucked Daisy over.
No matter, I thought. As soon as it was possible, I’d go and find her and tell her the truth. I’d tell her how I felt, that she was fucking mine and that I couldn’t be without her a minute longer. I just hoped that she was on board with that.
