by Kim Linwood
“Told you so,” Liz teases.
I shoot her a glare. “Shut up.”
“Children!” Amanda splashes both of us, nearly ending up on her back in the process.
With a dull clunk, the side door is pulled open and a helmeted face pokes out. He waves, then ducks back in, but returns quickly, throwing out a harness attached to a rope. It drops most of the way, stopping suddenly, just out of reach, before it’s lowered slowly the last couple feet.
Liz reaches up to grab it.
“Amanda first,” I suggest.
“Of course. I’m just holding it.” Liz looks at me like I’m an idiot.
Amanda beams like she was just crowned prom queen.
We help her into the harness, fingers clumsy with cold. Liz avoids looking at me, which is tricky given our current situation.
She quirks her lips to the side as Amanda rises into the air. “You do realize she’s going to think this means you’ll marry her. She’s going to lord this over the rest of us for as long as she’s here.”
“True, but you could always remind her that it gave you a little private time with me.”
The harness comes back down.
“Ah yes, what a prize.” She looks up, avoiding me again.
Curious. “Don’t you want to win... Sarah?”
She freezes and looks away. “Of course.”
How can she possibly believe I don’t recognize her? Maybe I didn’t at first glance, but she could wear a clown suit and I’d still see through it.
I help her into the harness, enjoying the contact. Probably a little too much given the way she bats my hands away from the lower straps.
When it’s my turn, I slip the straps on and enjoy the ride. Water pours out of my flight suit, and my bare feet swing in the cool air. Someone reaches out to grab me, and I roll onto the deck as soon as I’m up. The slam of the door being shut behind me is almost as sweet as the sound of the rotors.
When I look up, Danny’s grinning right back at me. He slaps me on the arm. “About fucking time you guys got with the program. The rest are already at home waiting for you!”
I muster the energy to give him the finger before I drag myself up into a seat next to Liz. She’s wrapped up in a thick blanket, just like Amanda who’s in front of us. Our eyes meet.
“I like the brown.”
She blinks.
“Your eyes. I like the brown.”
Color splashes her cold, pale cheeks. Her hand reaches up to her face. “Shit.”
“Is also brown.” I lean back and close my eyes.
Amanda, close enough to hear, snorts a laugh. “Well, at least I know I don’t have to worry about Sarah.”
“Hey!” Liz snaps. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Yeah. I want to know too, but wisely keep my mouth shut.
“Oh please. He treats you like a sister.”
Liz
The jolt of the helicopter landing wakes me. The flight can’t have been longer than a couple of minutes, but somehow I dozed off anyway. I blink myself awake. God, I’m exhausted.
Hunter stretches. His blanket falls to the side, and since his flight suit is unzipped to his waist, the thin t-shirt he has on underneath doesn’t do much to hide the way his muscles flex as he moves. In front of us, Amanda snores softly, curled up in her blanket next to the guy who helped pull us up.
I reach between the seats and poke her in the arm. “Amanda?”
“Mmmhmm?”
“You okay?”
She yawns and cranes her head to look at me. “I have salt in places salt should never go, and this shirt will never be the same, but I’m surrounded by handsome men so I can’t complain.”
Hunter chuckles, and the other guy flushes red, right up to the roots of his fiery hair.
“Ugh, tell me about it.” I squirm in my seat. Underwires are not intended for use as aquatic sports bras. “Once I shower and get dry, I don’t think I want to see water again for a while.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Hunter watching me. Has he figured out who I am? He called me Sarah, but if he knew, I’m sure he’d say something. Have me arrested. Kick me off the show. Something.
Instead, I think he’s trying to use x-ray vision to see through the top of my dress.
I let out a tense breath. The simplest explanation is probably the correct one. It’s cold in here, and he’s a perv. I pull up my blanket and he turns away.
Amanda chews her lip. “Um... Listen. I know in the next few weeks, this show will probably make us do and say all sorts of crazy things, but I wanna say that no matter what, thank you.”
“We were all in it together.” Hunter reaches forward and gives her shoulder a squeeze.
“No.” She shakes her head. “Without you two, things could’ve gone much worse. Y’all knew what to do, and kept me from losing it out there. I won’t forget that.”
Something about her words makes me feel like she’s saying more than she is. Does she know something about the show that I don’t? I smile and nod, letting it drop. There is definitely more to Amanda than giggles and charm, but I genuinely like her. Being suspicious makes me feel guilty.
The rotors slow down until they’re nearly stopped, their sound transforming from a high pitched whine down to a slow swoosh. Hunter and the other man get up, opening the door and helping us out.
My knees sway when my feet land on solid ground. I haven’t stood on something steady for hours, and by now it feels like a novelty. Ground, sweet solid ground.
The weather has always been a bit unpredictable around here, but now the rain has passed, and the sun is out again, warming my skin and turning my hair into a salt-encrusted mess.
Which is of course exactly what the cameras catch as we stagger out. Apparently word has gotten around about who the pilot was. All I want to do is find my room and lie down, but the other contestants mob us, shrieking and clapping. Well, they mob Hunter, anyway, effectively pushing Amanda and me away from him. We could’ve drowned, and I don’t think they would’ve noticed.
It makes me angry how they crowd around him. It’s not like any of them know him like I do. I want to throw myself back in and push them away, but I stand back and watch him smile and flirt like a returning hero. You’d think I was jealous or something.
Which I’m totally not.
Finally the crew steps in, forcing the girls back so Hunter has some room to breathe. Blaze throws his arms wide, and walks over.
Hunter pushes past me, gunning right for him. “What the fuck happened? Our boat was a fucking leaky sponge, and you stranded us out there!”
Blaze holds up his hands as he stops and backs up a step. His eyes dart nervously back and forth between the cameras. “Hey now! The rental service guaranteed the safety of all the kayaks, and it wasn’t my fault your girls were going for Olympic gold.”
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Campbell. One of the other groups had a problem with their paddle, and we got a call warning us to put off the competition because of incoming weather.” Blaze’s assistant steps in front of his boss, doing his best to mollify a furious Hunter. “They did try to get your attention, I swear, but you didn’t seem to notice. At that point we notified the estate, and the backup pilot flew us over.”
Hunter doesn’t take his eyes off Blaze, but his stance relaxes a little as the assistant babbles on. He smiles, but only an idiot would mistake it for a friendly expression. An idiot like Blaze, who claps him on the arm, ready to move on and start filming. Hunter’s hand shoots out, grips Blaze by the wrist and twists, just a little. Tension and the potential for violence radiate between them. Nobody moves.
“Are you aware of who’s financing this show?” Hunter bites out coldly.
Blaze nods, eyes wide.
“That’s good, because I was afraid that since my name isn’t officially on your paycheck, you might be confused. Make no mistake. I will be paying close attention to where my pennies are spent, and if I have any reason to believe that they aren�
��t being used wisely, I will put this operation down faster than a rabid dog. Are we clear?”
Blaze Molloy, king of the blinding smile, looks about as white as his commercials promised to make your teeth. He’s not happy, but he nods.
Hunter’s fingers squeeze, and Blaze winces.
Still, nobody steps in.
When we were younger, Hunter would get like this with his Dad, or anyone that he felt was manipulating him. As much as I’d love to see someone punch Blaze, I doubt he was really at fault for what happened to us. Not deliberately anyway.
“Hunter.” I step forward, putting a hand on his arm. He tenses, muscle moving under my fingers. As a teen he was lean and strong. As a man, his strength both frightens and thrills me. “We’re cold.”
He glances down, anger sliding darkly behind his blue eyes. He gives Blaze’s wrist another little twist. “Are. We. Clear?”
“Yes, Sir,” Blaze spits out.
“Good.” Hunter pushes him away, turning his back on him like he hasn’t just humiliated the shifty game host. “Daniel?” The guy from the helicopter comes over. “Take the girls to their rooms and make sure their things are there so they can get cleaned up and into dry clothes.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Friend? Butler? Butler friend? I’m not sure who Daniel is, but he seems to work for Hunter and when he says ‘Yes, Sir’, it doesn’t sound like ‘Fuck you’, unlike when Blaze said it. Daniel leads the way and we turn to follow.
“Oh,” Hunter raises a hand, raking his fingers through his messy hair. “Make sure Sarah is in the Rose room. Amanda can be next to her.”
Daniel cocks his head, watching Hunter curiously, but nods. “Of course.”
My heart drops into my stomach, and then pounds its way back up until the rapid thud is all I hear.
The Rose room.
It was my grandmother’s favorite room, decorated in soft colors and always full of fresh roses. It overlooks the ocean, and as a child I’d play in there for hours, pretending the formerly elegant sofa by the window was my ship, and gazing out the window watching for the Royal Navy.
Hunter missed those years—mostly—but even when I grew too old for that game, it was my favorite spot in the house to study, or just pass time where my mother wouldn’t come looking.
This is so confusing.
The room is important to me, but if he knew who I was, he’d put me in my old bedroom, right? That would be an obvious sign. The Rose room might just be him making sure someone who’d gone through a difficult experience got a nice place to sleep.
I look back, but he’s turned away.
Unlike the eight suspicious women who are glaring at me and Amanda like we asked for this to happen. Elena and a few of her crew are clearly furious, while Megan and some of the others just look curious and a little annoyed.
I hurry up to make sure I don’t fall behind. Right now, Hunter and Amanda are the only two people on the island I think I can trust. A woman I’m in direct competition with and a man I fully intend to take my birthright back from.
The irony of the situation isn’t lost on me.
Hunter
I toss again, rolling over onto my side so I can look out the window. I never closed the curtains, so the full moon, looking huge in the sky, cuts a slash of light into my bedroom. It’s so bright the stars right around it are hard to see, but they’re there. Not a cloud in the sky now. Man, what a day.
Fuck. Almost ten years. You’d think I’d have Liz worked out of my system by now. I thought I had. At least until she showed up. Now she’s the only thing on my mind.
What does she want?
Gone all that time, only to show up on a fucking reality show? That’s so unlikely it’s crazy. No way that’s a fucking coincidence.
After the way she and her mother were made to leave, I’m trying to picture Liz competing to marry me, and I laugh softly. Nah, the daggers in her eyes that day were lethal. I’d forced myself to stay when Dad told them, because it’d be my last chance to see her before he shipped me off to boarding school, but I think she’d have been just as happy if I hadn’t been there.
I turn over, trying to find a good sleeping position, but my mind won’t let go. I was sixteen, for Christ’s sake. What could I have done back then? Nothing.
What can I do now? I can get rid of her early. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Hell, my island’s crawling with hot babes. If I wanted to, I bet I could find some private time with at least some, and probably most of them, by the time the show’s done.
Each time I try to picture one of them under me, though, she immediately turns into a certain curvy redhead with one green and one brown eye. Obviously, that’s not even an option.
That brings me to the alternative, which is to figure out what she’s up to. To draw her out and find a way to force her to show her hand. I entertain the idea of seducing her, and my sheet tents at the thought, but I’m probably the last guy she’s going to want to screw.
So why is she here?
No, it’s not the light that’s keeping me awake.
It’s Liz.
And my fucking father’s idiotic show.
And my stomach, which rumbles like an earthquake.
One of those at least I can do something about.
Throwing the sheet aside, I get up and stretch my toes, before setting course for the kitchen. My foot bangs into something hard, and I hiss a soft “Fuck,” between my teeth. Even with the light from the moon, I still manage to trip over the cot we dragged into my room for Danny to sleep on. I try to catch my balance, but end up sprawled across his legs.
“Bloody hell! What’s going—” He sits up, eyes blurry, looking like he’s expecting to find us under attack. “For fucks sake, there’s a house full of women who want to jump your bones but you end up in my bed? I don’t know if I should be concerned or flattered.”
I give him a shove and a kick for good measure as I get back up. “Oh, shut the fuck up.”
The house might have a ton of rooms, but between the girls and the TV crew, he’s had to give up his usual room to the camera guys. Not exactly what you might expect from a fancy butler, but the viewers at home won’t know, and it’s not like we didn’t share closer quarters during my stint at boarding school.
He yawns and lies back down. “Going out on a midnight search for love?”
“Midnight search for meat, more like.”
“Ah, then you did come to the right place.” Danny grabs his crotch suggestively and wiggles his eyebrows. “Except, I hate to disappoint, but I’m saving myself for the right girl.”
“However will I survive?”
“Life is full of disappointment, Sir. Better to learn the lesson young. Now get the hell out and let me sleep.”
He buries his face in his pillow, flipping me off as I slip out the door to see what’s left in my pantry. They brought in a shitload of food with the show, but they’ve been helping themselves to whatever they can find as well. Fucking scavengers.
I walk by Liz’s room, trailing my fingers over her door. It’s cracked open just a tiny bit, and I resist the urge to go in and shake her awake, demanding to know what she’s doing here.
Her room and the one her mother used before they left were the first to go when my father got it in his head to start renovating. Fortunately, for the sake of the house, he got bored with it just as fast, moving on to more exciting things like tennis courts.
We don’t even play tennis.
Thank fucking God the trust fund from my mother’s side doesn’t pay out in one lump sum. I would’ve come home to find a life-size model steam train puffing around the island like a tropical Sodor.
The next best thing I could give Liz was the Rose room. I have a lot of happy memories of us sitting in there together, her on the sofa and me sprawled across the floor as we worked on the assignments our tutor gave us.
It’s for the best that I don’t go in. I’m pretty sure confronting her while she’s in bed would be both
a completely brilliant and ultimately horrible idea. Whatever she’s up to, one crook of her finger, and I’d be more concerned with fucking her into the mattress than analyzing her motives.
I stop and remind myself again why that’s not a good idea.
Scheming women. My drama televised across the world. Plenty of no strings attached pussy elsewhere.
It’s still a close call.
Liz
My stomach growls like an angry lion. I cover it with my hand and stare up at the ceiling in frustration. God, I’m hungry.
The little alarm clock on the nightstand shines softly in the dark. 2:07 AM. I should be asleep, but I was more tired than hungry at dinner, and I didn’t eat much.
I roll over, but my eyes refuse to stay closed. My stomach gurgles and groans. Thanks to my nap after we got back, I’m not even tired.
It’s weird to be sleeping in my grandmother’s old room. I don’t remember her—she died before I was born—but I’ve heard so many stories and spent so much time with her things that I almost feel like I do. I’m surprised Hunter and his father didn’t burn the place to the ground and rebuild. If my room is the same, I’d love to see.
I smile to myself.
Hopefully whoever’s sleeping there likes purple and has a thing for the Jonas Brothers. I might have been a wild pirate princess, but I was still a teenage girl.
I’m not going to be sleeping any time soon, so I might as well take a trip down to the kitchen. I know the way, and the moon’s so bright there’s no need for a light. Should I put in my contacts? Nah. The one person I was wearing them for already knows the green is fake.
Hunter’s butler Daniel—who says to call him Danny—brought me one of the contestant care packages with my things earlier. Fancy soaps and shampoos, along with one of the fuzziest bathrobes I’ve ever worn. Way fancier than the old threadbare flannel one I’d packed.
I slip it on over my sleeping t-shirt, marveling at the feel of the fabric against my skin, and cinching it tight to keep from flashing anyone. My bare feet pad silently down the hall.
It’s like sneaking through a ghost house. In a couple hours the staff will get up, and it’ll come alive, but for now it’s just me. I bet with all his money, Hunter has more people working here than we used to. Crazy to think that this big old estate is packed to the gills with people. We used so little of it day to day.
