Unscripted Love: The Complete Reality TV Romance Collection

by Heather Thurmeier

  He wove his hands around her waist and buried his head in her neck. She stroked her hands up and down his back, comforting him and fighting back her own tears.

  “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she whispered in his ear. “The accident wasn’t your fault. Ben is a grown man who makes his own choices. He chose to go up to the summit with you that day.”

  Miles didn’t reply so she took his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her. “You are one of the kindest and most caring men I’ve ever met. I may not have known you for very long, but I’m certain you would never do anything on purpose knowing it would hurt someone else.”

  She didn’t wait for him to respond. She pressed her lips to his, kissing him tenderly as if doing so might somehow ease away his pain. The tension in his arms around her waist disappeared.

  She pulled back to look him in the eyes again. “You’ve carried this around too long already. It’s time to let your guilt over an accident go. I’m sure Ben would want that too if he knew.”

  Miles brushed his fingers along her cheek. “I’ll try. But only if you agree not to put me in the position of having to get over another accident. Agree not to attempt that cache.”

  Paige thought about his request. Could she convince Zoe not to go for the cache?

  If Zoe knew why, then maybe she’d agree. “I’ll talk to Zoe about it and see what she says, but we’ll still have to consider what’s best for our team. If your mind is set, then you’re going to have to tell Ben the reason your team can’t do it. And ‘because I said so’ isn’t going to cut it. You need to tell him how you feel.

  Miles smiled for the first time since Paige walked into his room. “You want me to talk to another guy about my feelings?”

  She nodded, smiling back. “It would do you both some good.”

  “I can think of something else that would do me some good right about now.” He shifted her in his lap, the evidence of his intensions pressing into her. “You’re an amazing woman, Paige. I’m lucky to have you here tonight.”

  Paige wiggled in his lap, teasing him while he gripped her hips in his hands. “I think a little stress relief is just what the doctor ordered.”

  • • •

  Sun streamed in the through the window, casting the room into a bright yellow glow. Paige squinted against the offending light and peered at the bedside table clock. Time to get up and ready if she wanted to eat before the race day started at eight.

  Under her cheek, Miles shifted. “Time to get up already?”

  “Looks that way,” she said with a yawn, carefully turning away so she wouldn’t accidentally blow her dragon breath on him. Morning breath was so not sexy. But it also wasn’t correctable at the moment considering she wasn’t in her own room and didn’t have her own toothbrush handy.

  After spending another few hours with Miles last night, making sure all of him felt better, they’d passed out from exhaustion. She couldn’t remember a better night. Ever.

  “I should go,” she said, crawling over Miles to get out of bed. “I need to get back to my room before anyone sees me do the walk of shame.”

  “Nothing shameful about what we did last night.” Miles stretched and walked Paige to the door. He bent, giving her a quick kiss on the lips. “I’ll see you at breakfast and we’ll talk to Zoe and Ben together about the cache, okay?”

  Paige groaned. “Great. Just what I need to go with my breakfast — a splash of bitchy Zoe. She’s never going to listen to us if her mind’s already made up.”

  “Don’t worry. Zoe will listen to me. She never wants to, but she always does.”

  Odd comment to make when they’d only known each other a few weeks.

  “Why do you always make it sound like you’ve known Zoe for years when you only met when the show started?” Paige asked. A sinking in her stomach warned her that she didn’t really want to know the answer.

  “I’ve been waiting for the right moment to tell you — to explain about my past with Zoe.” He sighed and wrung his hands together as if he was suddenly nervous about something. “I didn’t tell you at first because I was worried you’d look at me differently once you knew, but I didn’t mean to keep it a secret this long.”

  Nervousness made Paige’s voice shake. “Tell me what exactly?”

  “Zoe’s my sister.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Paige closed her door and leaned her head against it, letting her eyes flutter shut. She’d walked down the hall in a daze, not caring if any of the other teams saw her leave Miles’s room in the same clothes she’d been wearing yesterday.

  Zoe and Miles were siblings.

  Holy shitballs.

  Well that explained how they were both so damned good-looking. And why they spoke to each other and about each other as if they’d known the other for years. Because they had.

  How? How was that even possible? He was Jack Miles. She was Zoe Oliver. They didn’t even share a last name. Maybe he’d been joking.

  “Look what the cat dragged in,” Zoe said, walking out of the bathroom with her hair and body wrapped in a towel as if she’d just gotten out of the shower — her makeup perfectly applied already as always. She flopped down on her bed and started massaging moisturizer onto her legs. “Someone had a good night.”

  “I, just … ”

  “Don’t bother. I noticed you weren’t here when I got up to shower.” Zoe walked to the closet and pulled out her outfit for the day. “No sense in trying to deny your walk of shame.”

  Paige didn’t bother. She had no idea what to say to Zoe.

  “Your brother just rocked my world,” didn’t seem entirely appropriate. “I can’t believe you’re from the same family” seemed rude. Her initial reaction of “Holy fuck!” seemed really hard to explain in other, more eloquent words.

  “Miles is your brother.”

  “Oh good. He finally manned up and told you.”

  “We’re partners and you knew but you didn’t tell me.”

  “Of course I knew. Brother. Sister. That’s not something I could un-know.”

  Paige felt her annoyance with Zoe rising exponentially with this conversation. Perfect timing for the shower she needed to have anyways. As she ducked into the bathroom, she heard Zoe chuckle from behind her. She shivered as she stepped into the shower.

  Zoe and Miles — family.

  And she really liked Miles.

  And she really didn’t care for Zoe so much. Not that she was as terrible as Paige had originally believed. If being forced to be together for the last few weeks did anything, it was show that maybe there was a teeny tiny real person inside of Zoe buried under the giant, sarcastic bitchy outer shell.

  Hoping for a relationship with Miles outside of the show also meant accepting a relationship with Zoe as his sibling. Could she sign up for that? Was Miles worth it?

  An image of him from the night before flashed through her mind.

  Maybe he was worth the annoyance of Zoe.

  Paige stepped out of the shower and toweled off, sad that she couldn’t smell Miles’s cologne lingering on her skin anymore. Maybe she’d have to stop by his room to check on him later for another quick dose of his cologne to take with her for the day. She could already imagine his lips trailing along her neck as he kissed her in the spot behind her ear that tickled.

  Tonight couldn’t come soon enough.

  But then Ben would most likely be back in the room with Miles. That could make fooling around awfully tricky. Maybe she could plead with Chip for a spare room of her own … claim Zoe was driving her crazy. That would be believable. Then she could spend another amazing night in his arms.

  Of course that would also mean she would fall a little harder for him and risk getting closer to Zoe by proxy. The question popped into her mind again as she dug through her close
t for something cute to wear. Was Miles worth it, knowing he was forever attached to Zoe?

  Yes.

  Maybe.

  Zoe couldn’t possibly be that bad once they got to know each other better. Already they were getting along better on this show than they had on The One. Surely, if they were connected because of Miles, they could figure out a way to be around each other without fighting or constant sarcasm, couldn’t they?

  “Apparently screwing my brother leads to an inability to hold conversations,” Zoe said, sarcasm at full throttle. “If I’d known how quiet it would be, I would have gotten you two to hook up sooner. I wonder if there’s a way to accomplish this level of speechlessness without having to make you squeal with ecstasy? I’m not sure I like you that much.”

  Paige’s mouth dropped open. She needed to say something back but what could she say to that? The longer she sat there thinking, the more Zoe’s comment rang true. “I. He.”

  “Bumped uglies last night? Yep, old news.”

  “I’m not quiet because of sleeping with Miles, which is none of your business by the way. I’m quiet because I can’t believe that you and he share the same genetic beginning. You’re so completely different from each other.”

  “We’re really not that different actually.”

  She bit the inside of her cheek thinking about Zoe’s comment. If they weren’t so different, then how exactly were they the same? And could she live with Miles’s similarities to Zoe?

  Damn it. How the hell out of all the people in the whole world, had she ended up in bed with Zoe’s brother? Fate was a cruel, cruel bitch.

  “How exactly are you like him?”

  Zoe shrugged. “We’re both determined and driven. We’re both independent. We’re both hot.”

  “At least he doesn’t share your amazing modesty,” Paige mumbled. “How are you guys siblings when you don’t even share the same last name? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Not all of us grew up with the perfect mother and father who loved each other with a white picket fence, two point five children, and a dog. Our parents split when we were little. He stayed with dad, and I went with mom. We changed our last names after my mom remarried. It just made things easier. People asked fewer questions.”

  Paige hadn’t thought Zoe had grown up in anything less than perfection. To hear her life hadn’t been all luxury and extravagance like she’d made it sound made Zoe somehow more real. Almost as if she could have been someone Paige might be friends with if they hadn’t met under such difficult circumstances during filming of The One. Almost.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Miles was your brother right away? Why did you two keep it hidden, especially after Miles and I started getting more interested in each other?”

  Zoe smiled. “And miss the chance to see this moment of horror when you realize you’ve slept with my brother? Not a chance. If he wasn’t going to tell you, there was no reason for me to ruin the surprise. Besides, I knew sooner or later you’d figure out our connection.”

  And that was why they’d never be real friends — Paige didn’t take pleasure in other people’s embarrassment or discomfort.

  Realization about Miles’s motives for not telling her about Zoe sank in fully. Of course he wouldn’t tell her they were related when Zoe behaved the way she did. Who would want to be related to her when she acted so awful to other people?

  And he was right. As much as she hated to admit it, Miles had been right. Paige probably would have judged him unfairly based on Zoe’s actions.

  She slipped into her heels, cringing a little as the familiar pain stung her feet again. Damn. How long did it take to break in stilettos? Hopefully not much longer or her feet might stop working altogether.

  “You don’t need to bother with those if they’re hurting you. You’ve already succeeded in snagging Miles. I doubt he’ll even notice if you wear your boots again.” Zoe tied her sneakers, after a long jealous glance toward Paige’s heels.

  Paige shook her head. “No. I like them.” They make me feel confident. Not that she’d ever say that to Zoe, the girl who would surely ooze confidence even while wearing a garbage bag. Whether or not Miles liked her shoes was beside the point now. Every time she put them on, she felt not only taller, but physically, mentally, and emotionally stronger too.

  And she really liked feeling this way.

  What if she wore her stupid hiking boots or sneakers again and the feeling disappeared? Best not to risk it now while she really needed to keep feeling this way. After the show would be soon enough.

  So stilettos it was. She’d enjoy when Miles looked at her with that twinkle in his eyes that told her he couldn’t wait to be alone with her again.

  “We should go,” Paige said, standing from the bed. Her toes complained about being shoved into the tight shoes again, but otherwise she was getting more and more used to the heels every day. She walked to the door without wobbling once. Definitely getting better at the whole balance thing too. “The boys are probably already waiting for us in the common room. You and I need to decide if we want to go for that other cache or not.”

  Zoe shrugged. “I think we do. It will guarantee us some great points and maybe even a prize. How can we not go for the cache? If we don’t even try to get it, we may as well just concede to losing. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a loser.”

  Paige nodded. Funny how a few weeks together could make them start agreeing. “We should have just enough time to try and convince Miles to go for the cache while we eat breakfast.”

  Zoe smirked. “We can try, but I hate to break it to you … Miles can be pretty stubborn when he wants to be.”

  Paige felt confidence surge through her. “Nothing I can’t handle. Besides, we’re our own team and we can make our own decisions, regardless of our alliance with the boys.” She took out her lip balm but Zoe stopped her before she could even pull off the cap.

  “On behalf of every makeup person in the world, please use a lip gloss instead of that crappy wax.” She shoved the dark crimson tube of gloss toward Paige. “Real women wear gloss.”

  Paige eyed the tube, contemplating whether or not she should give in and take it. Zoe hadn’t steered her wrong yet, but she hated lip-gloss every time she’d worn it for a special occasion. She couldn’t imagine putting up with the feel of it on her lips for an entire day outside.

  But Paige did want to be confident like Zoe was, so didn’t that mean she should start standing up for herself even if it meant standing up to Zoe?

  “No thanks,” Paige said easily, feeling stronger and more confident. “I hate the sticky feel of it on my lips. And honestly, I can’t imagine Miles liking it either.”

  Zoe rolled her eyes. “Seriously, if you start telling me what he likes in the bedroom next, I’m going to hurl. It’s one thing to know you’re hooking up, but it’s another to find out what he likes and how he likes it.”

  “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on sharing any details about anything with you.” Paige had no desire to discuss her love life with Zoe … ugh, his sister. Besides, the more distance she could put between the fact that Zoe and Miles were siblings, the better. Not to mention, she didn’t need another reminder that she was totally falling for Miles and that meant being stuck with Zoe in her life forever.

  • • •

  Miles watched as the girls sat down at the table with Ben and began eating breakfast. This wasn’t going to be easy. He knew a fight waited for him at the table and all three of them would gang up on him. But it didn’t matter. He would do whatever he had to so they would all stay safe.

  And after being in the common room all morning, drinking way more coffee than any one human needed to consume, he was pretty sure he’d come up with the perfect argument. Now he had to convince them of it.

  He grabbed a bottle of water, unable to even conside
r drinking another sip of coffee, and headed for the table. He sat and tried to produce a confident yet understanding expression. It would be best if they decided this wasn’t a good idea for themselves versus him putting his foot down again like he’d tried, and failed, to do last night. Zoe never responded to that attitude and if Paige’s annoyance at him when she’d shown up at his room last night was any indication, she wouldn’t put up with an attitude like that from him again either.

  Apparently more of Zoe was rubbing off on her than she realized.

  Not that he minded a strong woman. As long as Paige didn’t also adopt the bitchy side of Zoe, they’d be fine. Bitchy and strong were totally different things and Zoe often didn’t seem to understand the difference between the two. Hopefully Paige would.

  “What’s our plan for today?” he said with an easy smile. He’d play it cautiously and see what happened.

  They glanced at each other, no one meeting his gaze.

  Not a great start.

  Paige looked at him. Her shoulders were high and full of tension even though her facial expression was laid back and casual. She probably thought she was fooling him. But years of teaching people how to climb had giving him an uncanny ability to read body language, even if they didn’t want to say what was really on their minds.

  “We’ve decided we’re going for the cache,” she said simply, not needing to explain what cache she meant. There was only one in question. “It’s the best thing to do for our teams despite the minor risk involved.”

  “You have? I see. And all of you are in agreement?” he asked.

  Ben and Zoe nodded.

  “And I’m only now finding out about this group decision that affects me as much as it affects you?” he asked.

  “Yep. Sort of like how I just found out that you and Zoe are siblings.” Paige crossed her arms, looking at him with a mix of annoyance and teasing.

  Oh yes, she definitely could be happier with him right now, but at least she didn’t seem angry. Annoyed, yes. Annoyed she could get over quickly and maybe she already had if the teasing tone was any indication. Sure, he’d kept the truth from her for a few weeks, but he’d done it for a good reason.