Outback Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 1)

by Stoker, Susan

  “Why do you care?” Sam bit back. “I’m fine. I said I’m fine, I’ll change later.” And with that, she got up and walked back into the clearing. She didn’t know why it bothered her so much. Probably because she didn’t like to admit to anyone any kind of discomfort or pain. She hated being sick. Always had. Hated relying on others to help her. She was an independent person, one that didn’t like to be catered to. When she was little she saw girls all the time faking illnesses or injuries to get sympathy or to get out of doing different jobs. She swore she’d never be like that, and she hadn’t. She only went to the doctor when she had to and she never liked to admit that she was in need of help.

  But another part of her was angry at herself. Sam was attracted to Al. He was handsome. He was everything she’d ever dreamed about when she lay in bed at night thinking about finding someone to spend her life with. She had no idea why she’d been so ugly to him. There was nothing she wanted more than to snuggle into his arms and have him warm her up. But she wasn’t the kind of woman men wanted to snuggle up to. She knew it. Her history had proven it time and time again. She convinced herself the only reason Al wanted to get close to her was because of the damn show and so he’d look better on camera. She sighed as she walked toward the other women. She was confused and hurting. Al confused her. Her reaction to Al confused her.

  “Done already?” Nikki sneered when Sam reentered the clearing.

  “Yup,” was all Sam could get out.

  She felt Al come up behind her. She was tempted to lean back against him for a moment, but common sense prevailed and she ignored him as she headed to sit back on the log with her knees drawn up, her arms looping around them.

  The rest of the time seemed to drag by for Sam. She watched as the other women went through a dance with each other of trying to manipulate Al’s time and attention. He did his best to try to talk evenly with everyone. Sam noticed every now and then that his eyes would meet hers, but she’d quickly look away, blushing. She didn’t feel that she was on an even playing field with him and it made her feel vulnerable, which she hated. He was so obviously out of her league it wasn’t funny. He owned his own ranch and was probably richer than she could imagine. Why would he look twice at her when there were all these other beautiful women to choose from? Sam wasn’t feeling sorry for herself, she was just being realistic.

  Finally, Robert and Eddie came back into the clearing and announced it was time to go. Alex could tell the women wanted to say goodbye individually to him, so he stood a bit away from the group and allowed each of the women to come up, make small talk, say how much they couldn’t wait to see him again, and kiss him briefly. Some kissed him on the lips and others kissed him on the cheek. He was amazed because it was obvious the women felt as if it was okay to kiss him so intimately even after knowing him for sure a short time.

  Once again, Sammi was last in line. She walked up to him, held out her hand and quickly, before he could say anything, told him, “Look, I’m sorry about walking away earlier. I’m not having a good day. I know I didn’t make a good impression and I’m sorry about that. I’m tired, wet, and yes, cold, and all I want to do is go back and get into some warm clothes. I promise to be on my best behavior the next time we meet.” Finally, she looked up and meeting Al’s eyes, gave him a shy smile. God, he was gorgeous. What she would do to start over with him. Hell, what she would do to have met him in a normal situation and not on this stupid reality show.

  Alex grasped Sammi’s hand with both of his and tried to infuse some of his warmth into it. “It’s okay, I didn’t have any right to pry and I was out of line. How about if I promise to only talk about the weather and other non-threatening topics next time?” Alex asked with a smile.

  Sam smiled back and said, “Deal.”

  Alex slowly raised her hand, kissed the back of it and let her go. He watched as she blushed a fiery red and turned away to climb into the bus.

  He couldn’t help but notice that she had the sexiest back-end he’d ever seen as she stepped up into the bus. She filled out her jeans in all the right ways. He’d never really thought about what “type” of woman he was interested in, but seeing Sammi step up into the bus did something to him. Alex felt himself get hard as she rounded the corner and sat down in the front seat of the bus. He took a deep breath to try to calm himself down. He’d forgotten about her penchant to sit in the front seat and wished he could tease her later about it, but he wasn’t supposed to have seen that part of the tape she’d made. He thought it was interesting that she was the only one who hadn’t kissed him. She wasn’t even trying to catch his attention, but ironically she had by being herself. He wanted to watch the day’s tape more than ever now. He wanted to know what had happened that day to make Sammi’s jeans soaking wet.

  Chapter Seven

  Alex pushed play on the tape that Eddie gave him of that morning’s contest. He knew there were several different cameras taping the women at any given time, but the tape he had in his hand was from the camera that had been on the path. He could see most of the competition because of the angle of the camera. He watched as Kathi, Nikki, and Missy raced down the lane. Missy was the first one back on the path. He had to laugh at his first glimpse of the women after their encounter with the barrel. They were dripping from head to toe, looking like bedraggled little kids. Missy raced back and forth and was obviously determined to have the most fish.

  The next two heats were much of the same. He could just see the barrel the women were diving head first into and he could barely see the clearing where they were putting the fish into pails. The camera was right on the curve in the path.

  The next heat was Sammi’s heat. Alex watched as Jennie, Courtnee, and Sammi raced up the path. He laughed at the look on Jennie’s and Courtnee’s faces as they raced by. They looked determined, to say the least. Sammi was running, but it seemed to Alex that she wasn’t trying very hard. The tapes were actually getting pretty boring just watching the women run back and forth. Most of the way through the fourth heat Alex finally saw why Sammi had been so cold and wet. The camera was focused on Jennie and Courtnee running back up the path. They were jostling each other to get to the barrel first. Alex couldn’t see exactly what happened because the camera suddenly pointed toward the sky, but the next thing he saw was Sammi looking up at the camera from the river. He could put together the pieces and he assumed that the two running women had knocked Sammi off the path and into the river.

  Sammi was standing in water that was up around her chest. She was looking up at the camera as if to ask for help, but knew none would be forthcoming. Alex’s hands clenched at his side. Damn it, the other two women didn’t even stop! Soon he saw Sammi make one attempt to climb up the side of the riverbank only to slide back down again in the mud. She then started to make her way upstream. Every now and then she’d look up at the camera. He chuckled at the words that were coming out of her mouth. Oh, she was muttering to herself, but some of what she was saying was loud enough to carry to the camera.

  Alex heard Jennie and Courtnee run past the camera, screeching as they headed toward the clearing, but they didn’t stop to help Sammi. The camera stayed focused on Sammi as she struggled to get upstream and to the clearing. Obviously, the camera operator knew where the real “money shot” was. Alex watched Sammi finally reach the clearing and get to a point where the water was only at her knees. He watched her climb out of the water, go toward one of the pails, grab it and go back to the river only to dump out the fish. He laughed then. She wasn’t kidding when she’d told him she liked animals on her video tape.

  Alex continued to watch and learned how the “losers” came to be the ones to meet him that day. He thought it was pretty clever of the producers, but he also made a mental note to make sure he didn’t underestimate them in any way because he knew they could always turn around and do the same sort of thing to him. What he couldn’t believe was that not one person offered Sammi a towel or gave her any sympathy for falling into the river. He wou
ld’ve thought—no, hoped, that at least some of the other women would have been sympathetic enough to care about Sammi and what had happened. Unfortunately, not one of them offered an ear, a hand, or any type of assistance.

  The camera operator seemed to know that Sammi was cold because she kept panning in very close to Sammi’s chattering teeth and shaking body. Alex sighed. There was nothing he could do. He wasn’t even supposed to be watching the tapes for God’s sake, but he wasn’t the kind of man who usually let a woman suffer, even if it was only something as small as her being chilly.

  Alex suddenly had to know if Sammi had managed to warm herself up and if she was all right. He was also curious to see what the other women had talked about when the ladies he met today went back to camp. He knew he’d be meeting them the next day and he wanted to have some idea of what to expect from them. Alex wandered out of his tent and over to the production tent. Eddie was still there and Alex told him, “I’d like to see a tape of what went on when the women got back to camp.” Eddie didn’t seem to mind and asked one of the editors for the tape.

  Alex wasn’t sure what to expect when he sat down to watch it. He figured the other women would be jealous, and he was right. There was a lot of interrogation that went on. The women that he didn’t get to meet today asked all sorts of questions about what he looked like, what he was wearing, what he said, if he kissed any of them. Alex was surprised when Nikki claimed they’d kissed during their one-on-one session. He just shook his head. It was definitely going to be interesting to see the dynamics unfold in the ladies’ camp.

  The fact that he could watch these tapes was probably one of the only reasons he was still on the show. He couldn’t imagine trying to wade through what was real and what was fake if he didn’t have the tapes to watch. He counted himself lucky in that sense. The last thing he wanted to do was have feelings toward one of the women and then find out that it was all a lie. Eddie was a sneaky bastard and seemed to know how to push and just how far to go to make good TV.

  Alex tried to catch of glimpse of Sammi on the tapes of the camp, but he didn’t see her anywhere. He watched as the camera in the bathhouse caught the ladies brushing their teeth over the sinks and washing off their makeup, generally doing what women did to get ready for bed. The cameras didn’t show the bathrooms at all, only the sink area, thank God. There was no way he wanted anything to do with any type of “peeping Tom” kind of thing. He still didn’t see Sammi anywhere in the group, and he found himself really looking for her.

  Finally, the light went off in the bathroom camera. He knew that that camera was hooked up to the light. When the light went on, the camera started taping. Eddie and the other producers had purposely blocked all the natural light from the building so even in the middle of the day, the women had to turn the light on if they wanted to see in the small dark building. It was one more sneaky thing that had been orchestrated on the show. Alex knew he should never underestimate them. This camera was also one that Alex didn’t think the ladies knew about. If they had, he was sure they’d be playing to it and watching what they said to each other and about him. He sure had gotten an earful about what his butt looked like in his jeans and about their speculation about the size of his package.

  He was about to call it a night when the bathroom camera suddenly came on again. The time stamp on the video said that it was about two hours after the other women had left. It was Sammi coming into the bathroom. She looked behind her as she shut the door. It looked like she was trying to see if she’d been followed or if there was a camera anywhere around. Alex found himself leaning toward the small TV, trying to get a better view of the woman. He didn’t even try to kid himself and say that he wasn’t interested in her. He was.

  Sammi was carrying a small case. It looked like a cosmetic bag. Alex watched as Sammi went over to one of the sinks in front of the large mirror. She looked around furtively one more time, and finding no one, took a deep breath and lifted up her T-shirt on her left side. Alex gasped at the same time that Sammi said, “Damn.” There were giant scrapes down the entire length of her side. Alex watched as Sammi lowered her shirt and reached into her cosmetic bag. She brought out a tube of something and lifted her shirt again. Because of the camera angle, Alex could see everything she was doing. She started to smear what looked like a lotion on her side. Alex sucked in a breath at the same time that Sammi did. It had to hurt. She must be putting antibiotic cream on it. Alex thought to himself. Smart, but he was still mad that Eddie knew about this but hadn’t done anything. It was ridiculous and dangerous. Getting an infection while in the middle of the Outback wouldn’t be good.

  Alex watched as Sammi finished spreading the cream on herself and put both her hands on the counter and leaned against them. She closed her eyes, dropped her head and took a deep breath. Again, Alex’s hands clenched into fists. She was in pain, and obviously trying to breathe through it. He wanted nothing more than to take her into his arms and hold her to help her work through that pain. Alex watched as Sammi stood as still as a gazelle in the sights of a hungry lion and remembered what her body looked like. He swallowed hard. He was supposed to be thinking about how hurt she was, but the only thing he could think of was how silky her skin looked. He thought about how Sammi was all woman. She wasn’t stick thin, he couldn’t see her ribs, but he knew she’d be soft, and he’d be able to hold on to her and feel the give in her body, as a woman should feel. He finally shook his head and willed Sammi to feel better.

  Finally, he saw her take one last deep breath and look up at the mirror she was reflected in.

  “Get a grip.” He heard her say out loud. Sammi then pawed through her cosmetic case and pulled out her toothbrush. She brushed her teeth, packed up her case, and left the room. As soon as the light turned off, so did the camera. Alex pushed eject and went back to the production tent.

  “Why haven’t you helped her?” Alex demanded of Eddie after bursting into his tent.

  “She didn’t ask for it,” he responded and went on, “besides, she signed the contract. She knew what the risks were when she agreed to be on the show, she can’t touch us.”

  Alex left the tent. He couldn’t believe all Eddie was worried about was being sued. He’d surely seen the scrapes. Why didn’t he care and why didn’t he do anything about it? Alex figured there wasn’t much that he could do about the situation at this point. If he admitted to Sammi that he knew about her being hurt, she’d know that there not only was a camera in the bathroom, but he had access to watch. He didn’t want anyone’s behavior at the camp changing because they knew he was watching them. Besides, it was written in his contract that he couldn’t say a word about it to anyone. He would just have to deal. If Sammi was strong enough to grit her teeth and push through her pain, the least Alex could do would be to honor that strength and not bring attention to her pain. It might kill him, but he’d do it.

  Chapter Eight

  The next morning, the women’s camp was a hub of activity. The eight women who’d won the competition the day before were going to meet Al and were very excited. They were running around, trying to make sure they wore the correct outfit, their hair was just right and that the outfits they’d chosen were appropriate. Sammi once again retreated to the overlook up the hill. Her side didn’t hurt as much this morning, but she knew it’d be tough to do any sort of strenuous exercise without it being painful. She knew she wouldn’t get any sympathy from anyone, and besides, it wasn’t as if she was going to get any kind of tropical disease from the scratches…at least she hoped not. Sammi turned back toward the camp just in time to see the bus pull up and the eight giddy women climb aboard. She shrugged and turned back toward the amazing view of the Outback. She was sure she and the other women would hear all about the visit with Al when the ladies got back to camp later.

  * * *

  Alex watched as the bus pulled up and the women almost tumbled out in their haste to get to him. He braced himself as all eight women surrounded him. They were all almo
st talking at once. Finally, he laughed and said, “One at a time, ladies.”

  One woman leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, closer to his lips than he was comfortable with, and said, “Hi, I’m Missy.”

  One by one, the other women followed suit. Alex felt like he was going to suffocate with all the different perfumes the women were wearing. The smell of the perfume was overwhelming and completely out of place in the beauty that was the Outback. He heard their names as if he was in a box…“Lori, Jennie, Kiki, Candi…” He remembered the conversation the day before with Sammi about everyone’s name ending in “ie” and he almost laughed out loud. Alex wasn’t surprised that his thoughts turned to Sammi. He’d been thinking about her all night and wondering how she was doing. He forced himself back to the present and concentrated on the eight women around him.

  After the initial introductions were over, Alex fell into the same routine as the day before. He met with each woman one at a time and then halfway through the meetings they had brunch. Then it was back to the conversations.

  After lunch, Alex first met with Courtnee.

  “Hello. Courtnee, isn’t it?” Alex said with a smile.

  Courtnee was obviously happy that he’d remembered her name. “Yes, that’s right. Hi, Al. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here and to finally get time alone with you.”

  Alex wondered if she knew how corny that sounded. “Where are you from again? I think you said in your video that you were from Florida?”

  “Yes,” Courtnee gushed. “Pensacola. I just love it there, I have the cutest little house, it’s right on the beach, and…”

  Alex tuned her out. Their conversation was much like the other women’s. They talked on and on about themselves and didn’t really once ask about him or about what he liked to do. Finally, he decided to see if she would talk about the incident yesterday.