by Cora Seton
“How many times do I have to tell you I don’t need help?” She knew her voice was rising with each word and knew the cameras were focused on her, too, catching all the drama, but she couldn’t stop herself. “I’m a capable, grown woman and I don’t need anybody interfering in my life—especially you. Just leave me alone!”
“Cut!” Madelyn stalked around a bend in the trail, followed as usual by Ellis and several other crew members, and Bella had the horrible sensation that the woman might have seen more than just the drama. Had she seen them kiss? She hoped not.
The director faced them. “I’m glad you guys are salvaging something from this travesty. You two have got to be the lamest excuses for contestants that I’ve ever had on this show. Evan, you realize Bella wants to walk away with five million dollars and leave you hanging? And Bella, you realize that Evan wants to make you his wife,” she emphasized the word like it was dirty, “for a full year? You two are contestants. You are mortal enemies. Your job is to win. So why are the two of you behaving like losers?”
Bella stood absolutely still, afraid to catch Madelyn’s attention by the slightest hitch of breath or dart of eyes. If the director got too angry at them, she’d dig deep into her bag of tricks to punish them. That meant she’d find a way to throw horses into the mix if she somehow knew about Bella’s phobia.
Madelyn shook her clipboard at them. “Lucky for you guys I have two more GPS units. It’s well past noon and the two of you bozos have managed to find less than half of your geocaches. Less than half.” She pointed first at Bella, then at Evan. “I know you two can barely find your way out of a paper bag, but as an added incentive to try to complete this course, I’ll give the first one of you who locates all ten caches dinner at the Little River restaurant, the finest in Jasper. Dinner and a hot shower, not necessarily in that order.”
Bella did glance at Evan this time, at his dripping hair and clothing. The path was turning into a slick river of mud under their feet and in his eyes she saw reflected her own greedy desire to win this prize. Real food? She was there. After the ups and downs of the last few days she needed a dose of normalcy.
Madelyn fished two new GPS units out of her pockets. “Here you go.” She handed one to each of them, along with replacement cards for their directions to the next cache. “May the best contestant win.”
This time Evan didn’t try to help her program her coordinates into her GPS. With a glance at Madelyn Bella couldn’t decipher, he only hesitated a moment before he punched some buttons on his own gadget and jogged off along the trail. Bella didn’t waste time analyzing the disappointment she felt as she watched his receding back. Instead, she focused on her own GPS, programming her set of coordinates into the little machine and hurrying off in the direction it indicated. She thought she had the hang of it now.
At least she hoped so.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
When the headlights of an SUV heralded Bella’s arrival at their campsite, Evan’s shoulders slumped with relief. He had managed to finish the course by midafternoon, and had been whisked off to a motel for a hot shower—actually a hot shower, followed by a long, hot bath, followed by a nap in the luxurious comfort of a king-sized bed—after which he joined Madelyn for a steak supper with several glasses of wine, and returned to their campsite feeling clean, refreshed, and more rested than he’d been in days.
Only to find Bella still hadn’t finished the GPS course. While the afternoon’s rain had tapered off, and the setting sun appeared in between long streamers of scudding clouds, apparently she and her increasingly furious camera crew were still stomping around the wilds of Jasper.
The base crew was tracking their movements and Madelyn had just decided to send in a rescue team when Bella changed course and made a bee-line toward camp.
“Bet Paul finally wrestled that thing out of her hands,” Evan said to Madelyn, standing next to the portable table she’d set up as a workstation.
“She’s stubborn, all right.” Madelyn cocked an eyebrow. “Stubborn enough to win this thing if you don’t watch out. Ellis, send someone to pick them up.”
The contented feeling drained right out of him. Damn it, Bella was supposed to win—and he was supposed to be helping her—so why had he rushed off to find the geocaches like a hound of hell was chasing him all the way?
Madelyn smiled, and the good feeling deserted him all together.
She knew.
This was Madelyn’s way of telling him she wasn’t going to let him throw the contest. A shower and a good meal—a bribe guaranteed to make him forget all about his good intentions? What else did the old bat know?
That he was claustrophobic, for one thing. Why else shove him and Bella in a tiny tent together every night? Why else force him into the gondola up the mountain? Granted, he was sure Jasper National Park was one of the show’s sponsors, so of course they’d showcase the best the park had to offer, but he knew Madelyn relished the double purpose of that challenge.
She probably predicted her two contestants would develop a mutual lust, too. Why wouldn’t they? They were both young, single, easy on the eyes, stuck together for days on end battling fatigue, hunger and fear.
Was he even really attracted to Bella, or had he been cleverly coerced into feeling something for her?
That thought made him squirm. No, he decided, he hadn’t been coerced into anything where Bella was concerned. He found her to be beautiful in a fresh, sunshiny way, intelligent, caring, but spirited, too. When she rested her gaze on his face, it was like a beacon, drawing him in. Being her adversary in this contest heightened the rush when he snatched a kiss from her lips. She would fight him to the death—he knew that with utter certainty—and yet he knew, too, that given a chance she’d fall into bed with him just as fast as he’d fall into bed with her.
If he let her win, she would have the money she needed to run her clinic in high style, and once the show was over, maybe she’d consent to date him—to get to know the man, rather than the billionaire. Maybe they’d fall in love.
Maybe they’d get married someday.
Or maybe she’d turn her back on him and walk away for good, because if he lost he’d need to find another wife—a woman willing to marry him for a year in exchange for money.
Evan paced away from Madelyn’s table toward a fire one of the crew members built in the center of a ring of rocks. He shoved his hands in his pockets and nudged a stone with his foot. As a millionaire in her own right, beautiful Bella would be besieged by men, all wanting a piece of her pie in more ways than one.
Why would she cool her heels for a year and wait for him? So far he’d shown himself to be arrogant, self-absorbed, a lousy loser, and incapable of even sleeping in the same tent as her for an entire night.
But if he won, on the other hand, he could spend an entire year convincing her he was a stellar guy.
An SUV pulled into the campsite, and Bella exited the vehicle.
“You made it,” Madelyn said acerbically as Bella approached the fire.
“Yep.” Still damp from the rain and shivering, she huddled close to the flames’ warmth, not looking at either of them.
“Glad to see you’re safe,” Evan said.
“Sure.”
Her face looked strained in the firelight and Evan scanned the campsite for food. “Where’s her dinner?” he demanded.
Madelyn snapped her fingers and Ellis rushed up with a covered aluminum foil container. “Here—I tried to keep it warm,” he said.
Bella accepted the tin and a plastic fork from him without a word and crossed to sit on the far side of the campfire. The crew began to pack it in for the evening, loading their equipment into the SUV. Madelyn conferred with Ellis, both of them hunched over their little devices.
Evan went to set up the tent, taking extra care as he spread the sleeping bag and plumped the pillow. Bella deserved better than this tonight, but there was nothing he could do to change their accommodations. In a couple of days the show would end and
he would shower Bella—his new wife—with luxury.
Because he’d changed his mind again. He’d love to help Bella keep her clinic—hell, he’d do everything in his power to see that she did.
But he couldn’t take the chance that she might walk away from him.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“All right folks, gather up,” Madelyn called. A new SUV pulled into the campsite and Bella sighed when Jake stepped out. The crew hastened to put the finishing touches on his makeup, set up his easel, and light the tiki torches stuck in the ground at angles behind it until their light pushed away the gathering shadows. Natalie, the makeup woman, swooped in for a quick touch of powder on Bella and Evan’s faces, and swooped away again.
Bella stood up with a groan and handed the remains of her dinner to Ellis, who came to escort her to her position. She was sore and stiff after her day bushwhacking through the wilds of Jasper. She’d never felt so defeated.
“It’s been another exciting day on Can You Beat a Billionaire,” Jake said jovially, but she had the feeling he was stretching for his enthusiasm today. It hadn’t been very exciting at all—at least except for the steamy kiss she’d shared with her sworn adversary, and the camera crew hadn’t gotten that on film. The show made from today’s footage would feature lots of shots of her stumbling around lost in the woods. By the time Paul yanked her GPS away and showed her exactly where to go she’d lost all desire to fight him.
“Evan, you’ve obviously used a GPS before,” Jake said in his oily way.
“Yes, I do quite a bit of hiking and rock climbing, so I rely on GPS units often,” Evan said.
What a self-satisfied prick.
“Bella, I take it you’re not as familiar with GPS units?” Jake turned his thousand watt smile on her, and she fought to keep the greasy, cold food she’d just consumed from coming back up.
“No,” she said tightly. “I’ve never used one before.”
“Tough break.” Jake nodded sagely. “Evan, you found all ten geocaches handily, completing the course with plenty of daylight to spare. Bella, you had more difficulty. What happened after you found the fourth cache?”
“I got lost,” she ground out. Seriously, did he have to rub it in? It wasn’t like the audience wouldn’t just have watched an hour of footage of her scratching her head and walking in circles. She was tired. She was wet. She wanted nothing more than to crawl into her sleeping bag and forget this whole day.
Except that kiss.
“You got lost,” Jake repeated. “What a shame. Well, you did eventually manage to find six geocaches, and you did—eventually—make it back to camp. I’ll leave you two to get some shut-eye in a minute, but first let’s look at our totals. Evan, you currently have 21 points. Bella,” he drew the moment out and she was sure all the cameras were focused in tightly on her face, “you have 19.”
She blinked. Nineteen? And Evan only had 21? They were only two points apart!
“You are only two points behind Evan,” Jake said, as if he’d read her mind. “And you still have two days in which to take the lead. Four more contests.” He leaned forward, his face a mask of seriousness. “Four more chances to find out—Can You Beat a Billionaire!”
“Cut!” Madelyn called. “Okay, people, pack it up. Let’s go get some rest. We’ve got a fun day planned for the two of you tomorrow.” She smiled her vicious smile and Bella fought the urge to lash out at her. Obviously, that wouldn’t do any good.
Soon she and Evan were left alone with their usual skeleton crew of cameramen, and she was instantly all too aware of Evan standing only a few feet away.
“Ready to hit the hay?” he asked.
No—she thought with a shiver of anticipation. After that toe-curling kiss this afternoon she wasn’t sure what he’d try next. On the other hand, it wasn’t like he’d stay in the tent with her anyway—he never did. “Sure,” she said aloud. Still, as she made her way into the bush to brush her teeth and heed a call of nature before she slipped into the tent to change, excitement twirled her innards into knots.
Would he kiss her again?
She hoped so. No—she hoped not! Especially not with the stupid camera hanging down from the ceiling. Was there any way to cover the damn thing? The night time cameraman watched their every move on his monitors, probably hoping desperately for some action. It must be boring as anything watching two people sleep night after night.
Rather, one person sleep and the other make a break for the open air.
She snuggled down under the single sleeping bag, exhaustion aching in her limbs. Surely she’d clocked enough miles today to warrant a good night’s rest. Even as the thought crossed her mind, however, the tent shivered and Evan poked his head through the flap, shouldered his way inside and immediately swallowing up every speck of extra space. He crawled to the mat and got under the covers as well, but instead of lying down, he turned on his side, opened his overnight bag and pulled out shirts, jackets and even the rain slicker the show had provided each of them in case of inclement weather.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
He spread the clothes in layers over the top of them. “It’s cold tonight, what with all the rain today. I thought we could use some extra warmth. What’ve you got?”
Under cover of the sleeping bag he squeezed her hand. She didn’t exactly understand what he was trying to convey to her, but she slowly sat up and dug in her own pack. Together, they spread the remainder of the items, until they were covered in a mound of clothes. Evan was right—it was a little cold tonight, but it wasn’t that cold. They would be roasting under all these layers soon.
Evan lay down, and Bella followed suit. He nudged her, giving her a little push, and she went with it, turning to her side, her senses on high alert for what might happen next. Now she was staring at the wall of the tent, Evan’s bulk behind her. He turned, too, in the same direction, and she felt his breath stir the hair at the back of her neck.
For a few minutes, all she could hear was his steady breathing. He was so close to her, she could feel the rise and fall of his chest as well. He snuggled in, shrugging the covers higher up over their shoulders, then their faces, until she was afraid he planned to smother her. She was warm, all right. In fact, she was beginning to sweat.
Then he touched her.
He settled one hand on her hip and a blaze of heat suffused her, concentrated in the area between her legs. Her breathing hitched as he traced a path up toward her waist and down again. Even though a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt still separated their skin, she bit her lip at the sudden need his light caress stirred within her.
She leaned back, ready to turn toward him, but his hand stilled on her hip and he whispered, so quietly she barely heard him, “Don’t move. Let me do it.”
She stiffened. Let me do it. Like she would let him boss her around. But before she could push him away, he whispered, “You’ll get your turn. Can’t wait.”
He couldn’t wait? She released a shaky breath and her tension slid away at the thought of touching him wherever she wanted, knowing he was powerless to stop her—that he relished everything she did, but that she was in control.
She liked being in control. It was the only way she knew how to keep her inner voices in check—the ones that told her what a failure she was, that no amount of animal lives she saved could make up for Caramel, or Cyclone, or the loss of her family’s home.
Stop it.
She forced herself to breathe as Evan continued to stroke her lightly. Struggling to clear her mind of the guilt that had plagued her all her life, she focused on Evan’s hand, traveling up and down, up and down.
Why was feeling pleasure so hard for her? Why did she always fight it? Did she think that would help anyone—Caramel, her parents…?
She gasped as his hand traveled an inch higher and brushed the underside of her breast. It suddenly occurred to Bella that she was fighting all the time. Fighting her memories. Fighting her feelings of inadequacy. Fighting the thought that
she could never atone for her past failures.
But here and now the challenge was not to fight. The challenge was to simply accept the pleasure Evan brought her with each stroke of his hand.
What if she gave in? Truly gave in—just for tonight; she still planned to win this contest—and let him have his way with her body since she ached all over to be with him?
Well, why not find out?
She took a deep breath and let it out, holding perfectly still as Evan’s hand inched higher, cupped her breast for just an instant, and slid away again. This time he found the hem of her shirt and slid his fingers beneath it. His hand was warm—so warm—and his fingers felt so good against her bare skin. She wanted to groan out loud as he slipped up to cup her breast again, but she was all too aware of the camera dangling right above them, and bit it back. Evan squeezed her nipple and she felt warmth pooling between her thighs, the ache there building with each step of this sweet torment.
Now his motions were smoother, his explorations widening to include her other breast, her stomach, both her hips, and—just once—the place she wanted his touch the most. He inched closer to her until the length of him pressed against her. She felt his hardness and longed to turn over and do some explorations of her own.
Letting all conscious thought go, she reveled in feeling his touch. Her skin burned under each stroke. The heat inside her built until she wanted to writhe in bliss.
Underneath the covers, Evan lifted his hand to tuck her hair behind her ear and kissed the back of her neck. Each breath he expelled made her shiver until she wanted to laugh and gasp with pleasure at the same time. Keeping still, she moved her hips, the better to feel his hardness against the curve of her bottom. She was rewarded with a gasp and an almost-stifled moan.
“Slowly,” he murmured, barely audible. “Remember the camera.” He pushed her t-shirt high over her breasts to bare her from collarbone to waist, and carefully began to roll down her pants. She bit her lip as his hand began stroking her thighs, hips, and then touched her between her legs.
