Benedict and Nash had a close call with a bear while they were sleeping one night. Apparently Nash hadn’t put away the trash from their MRE very well and they’d heard a bear around their site. They panicked and didn’t know what to do, but Taylor had taken one of his camera lights and shone it at the bear. Luckily, the bright light scared it enough, that it ambled away. Of course Taylor hadn’t gotten that part on film, much to Eddie’s chagrin, but he did manage to get some footage of the bear walking away into the woods surrounding the lake. It was a good shot, just enough drama to use as a teaser for the show.
The contestants were all loaded up into one boat with Shannel, Eddie, and Carl, and the rest of the crew climbed into another. They headed off to Trent and Ian’s campsite and raft first.
Jeff couldn’t control himself and just had to act like an ass, while they were headed away from the dock.
“So…you two have a good time out in the wilderness?”
Jonathan didn’t answer, trying to control himself for Kina’s sake, but glared at Jeff instead. Kina could’ve told him that wouldn’t shut the other man up.
“Seriously, did you use body heat to keep warm? Wish I was paired up with you, baby, I would’ve found some creative ways to keep you warm a-l-l night long.”
Before Kina could put a hand on Jonathan to keep him calm, he’d taken Jeff by the collar and was holding him over the side of the fast-moving boat. Crap!
“If you ever lay a hand on her, you’ll regret it. Hear me?”
Kina quickly put her camera down and instead of pulling on Jonathan, she knew that wouldn’t do any good, she leaned over Jonathan, putting her hand on the small of his back to steady herself and put her face right up next to Jeff’s.
“As if I’d let you anywhere near me Jeff. Stick with your groupie chicks, you’ll never get any of this!”
Jonathan realized what he’d done the second he felt Kina’s hand on his back.Ah, crap. Oh well, it was too late to take it back. It was the third time he’d acted without thinking when someone had spoken crap to Kina. She’d forgiven him twice; he wasn’t sure how long his luck would hold out if he kept it up. He was shocked to hear Kina’s scowled words at Jeff. Although he supposed he shouldn’t be. She could hold her own, he knew it, but there was no way he’d leave her to fight her own battles. She was his. He’d protect her no matter who or what was threatening her. And Jeff’s words were definitely a threat.
He pulled back, bringing Jeff upright with him, and Jonathan could still feel Kina’s hand on his back. She was lightly rubbing in little circles, as if to calm him down. And surprisingly, it was working. Just her touch alone could ground him.
As soon as he had his balance, Jeff shrugged off Jonathan’s hold. “I was just kidding man, jeez!”
They all knew he hadn’t been joking, but in order to let it drop, they all backed off. Kina picked her camera off the bottom of the boat and waited for them to arrive at the campsite. She wasn’t sure why she wasn’t more pissed. If it had been any other man, or even if this had happened before she and Jonathan had spent those two days and nights talking and sharing emotional experiences, she would’ve gone off. She was perfectly able to speak for herself and put Jeff in his place. But now, knowing Jonathan the way she did, she felt warm inside. It was obvious he was trying to tone down any he-man tendencies he might have, but to have someone so willing to stick up for her was a heady feeling. One she was very afraid she could get used to.
* * *
It was decided the camera operators for each pair of contestants would film their portion of the raft contest, so Kina and Jonathan could just watch from a distance as Benedict and Nash tried to paddle the six hundred yards on their raft. Kina thought they just might have a chance. Their raft seemed to be very sturdy and at first, they were doing great. They’d made it three hundred yards out and had started back toward the shore when it started tipping.
Nash tried to compensate for Benedict’s weight sliding toward the water but couldn’t quite recover the raft. It made for an excellently framed shot. Benedict fell into the water with a huge splash and the raft tipped all the way up. This, consequently, literally threw Nash from the tallest point on the raft, head-over-heels into the water. The raft flipped completely upside down. If the contest was being held in Florida this wouldn’t have been a big deal, but because it was Alaska, in late September, it was a serious situation.
The water was not warm. Everyone standing around knew the men didn’t have a lot of time, before they’d start freezing, literally. The motorized boat was there, ready to fish the contestants out of the water if needed, but first it was obvious they wanted to try to get back on their raft and finish the competition. After a few attempts, everyone standing on the bank watching knew it wasn’t going to be possible. Every time Benedict tried to get back on, the raft tipped almost vertically so he couldn’t manage it. They got smart and Nash tried to balance it out on the other side, but as soon as Benedict got halfway on and Nash tried to get on as well, it would tip.
After about five minutes of the men gallantly trying to board their craft, the medic on the boat called it quits. The two men were fished out of the lake and their sad little raft was towed back to shore.
Kina wasn’t one to laugh at anyone’s misfortune, but they had looked pretty funny. She was just glad it wasn’t her in the cold water. While everyone else was warm and dry on the bank, Ian said just loud enough for those standing around to hear, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”
Kina almost lost it when Jonathan leaned toward her and whispered for her ears only, “Except for bears, bears will kill you.” It was especially funny since they were all currently standing in prime bear territory. It was funny, but not funny at the same time. Kina mock-glared at Jonathan and said primly, “Shhhh, behave!”
They shared a smile at the joke.
When the men got back to shore, everyone could see the medic had provided them with emergency blankets to warm their core body temperature. The men were fine health-wise. Wet, cold, and upset they couldn’t make it back to shore on the raft, but fine.
Everyone re-boarded the boats to make their way to Roger and Darius’ camp so those two could try out their home-made raft. Apparently, making a raft from scratch was harder than it looked. Roger and Darius started out well, just as Benedict and Nash had, but they had issues even before they’d made it to the three hundred yard mark. There wasn’t anything dramatic about the failure of their raft, they just suddenly started sinking. One minute they were there on the lake paddling hard, the next they were up to their waists in water, then everyone saw logs floating all around them and all that could be seen of them was their heads bobbing above the waterline.
They were quickly hauled into the safety boat as well. Benedict and Nash high-fived each other. Because they’d gone further than Roger and Darius, they’d be staying on the show. It was up to Trent and Ian to beat the benchmark that had just been set by Roger and Darius.
Shortly after everyone arrived at their campsite, it was pretty obvious that Trent and Ian would be going home. Their raft looked like it had been built by a bunch of kids. There were large spaces between the logs they’d tried to lash together, which by itself wouldn’t necessarily mean the raft wouldn’t float, but the lashings were unevenly spaced and the knots didn’t look right. Kina figured if she, someone who knew nothing about what a knot on a homemade raft was supposed to look like, thought they looked weird, then the duo was doomed.
Kina was amazed the raft actually made it about forty yards offshore before suddenly coming apart. Much like Roger and Darius’ raft, one moment Trent and Ian were sitting on the logs paddling and the next, there were logs floating all around them and the men were treading water. Unlike Roger and Darius, the two men immediately started yelling at each other and blaming the other for their failure.
Because they were so close to shore they weren’t picked up by the emergency boat, but they simply swam back to where everyone was standing
instead. The second they could stand, Ian threw a punch at Trent. Apparently, Trent saw it coming and ducked, but instead of taking the higher road and ignoring his partner, he swung right back at Ian. The fight was definitely on.
Kina didn’t bother picking up her camera to film; she figured Jeff and Carl had it under control. She noticed that Jonathan subtly took a step to his side and was half-standing in front of her. Again, if someone had done that even a month ago, she would’ve blown up and gotten pissed. She could take care of herself and made sure everyone knew it. But Jonathan protecting her? She was all over that. She actually liked it.
When Ian and Trent’s fight brought them closer to where they were standing, Jonathan took hold of Kina’s elbow and backed her up, while somehow still staying in front of her.
Jonathan wanted nothing more than to break up the fight, but since he wasn’t a part of the show he couldn’t. He knew Eddie would be beyond pissed if any of the staff cut in. Fighting was classic reality TV and usually brought huge audiences. Jonathan knew this wasn’t cool and the men could really hurt each other. He caught Roger’s eye. Roger was a teacher and probably had some experience in breaking up fights before. Jonathan gave him a chin-lift toward the two men.
Roger obviously got the gist of what Jonathan was trying to tell him. The staff of the show couldn’t break up the fight, but the other contestants could. Roger grabbed Darius by the shoulder and the two of them made their way over to Trent and Ian who were still trying to pulverize the other. Benedict and Nash saw what they were doing and went over to help as well.
“Yo! Enough!” He tried to reason with them first. When it didn’t even faze the two men slugging it out, Roger and Benedict grabbed Ian and Darius and Nash grabbed Trent. For a moment Kina couldn’t see anything but elbows and fists. When the dust settled Trent was on the ground on his stomach and Ian was being held back with a man holding each arm.
“You, dick!” Ian yelled at Trent. “We could’ve won if you’d have just listened to me!”
“Whatever, Ian!” Trent returned. “If we’d gone with your idea, we wouldn’t even have made it as far as we did!”
“Enough!” Nash said loudly. “Jeez. Just enough.” He couldn’t seem to come up with anything that would really convey his disgust with the other two men.
Kina looked at Eddie who was watching from the side with a look of glee in his eyes. An unplanned fight like this was reality show gold. Usually producers would have to ply their contestants with alcohol to get such a great fight. Not here. It was obvious he loved it. Kina shook her head. One more reason she didn’t want to work for him anymore. Eddie cared more about ratings than the people on his shows.
The trip back to the rendezvous point was quiet. When they pulled up to the shore everyone got out and went to their positions for the official ceremony. They all knew who’d be going home; it was just a matter of having it said officially for the show. After Shannel’s speech Trent and Ian had to climb into the same van to be driven off the impromptu set. Kina could only chuckle at that. Given how pissed they were at each other, it had to be an interesting drive back to the production house to pack!
The rest of the contestants and Shannel were quickly hustled into another van and all of the camera crew got into their SUV to head back to their own hotel. They were looking forward to having the next day off. After their long three-day outdoor adventure, it’d be great to be able to sleep in and be lazy.
Chapter Ten
Kina knew what she wanted to ask Jonathan, knew what she really wanted, but she was scared to death to actually ask. She knew it’d be up to her, he wouldn’t bring it up. As they all gathered their camera equipment from the back of the SUV, Kina thought about the best way to bring it up.
Ah hell, there was no good way. Jonathan had always been honest and up front with her, so there was no reason she shouldn’t be the same way with him. She lagged behind the others, knowing Jonathan would hang back with her. He was never far from her side nowadays and she liked knowing he had her back.
Softly, as they walked toward the hotel, Kina said, “Would you rather sleep by yourself, or in the warm arms of a friend?”
Jonathan stopped in his tracks and stared down at Kina.Holy crap, had she really just said that? “Ask me,” he demanded. He had to make sure she was serious and wasn’t just playing their game with him.
Kina looked him right in the eyes and asked, “Do you want to sleep over tonight?”
“Hell yes, honey. I wanted to ask. I’ve gotten used to having you in my arms, but I didn’t want to push. I told you that you’d be in charge and I was determined to make sure you knew I meant it. Thank you for wanting to be with me. Thank you for trusting me.”
Kina smiled at Jonathan. God, it was heady to have this strong alpha man thank her for something as simple as asking if he’d spend time with her.
“Let’s get cleaned up and meet the others downstairs for some good, hot food. See you in about forty minutes?”
Kina smiled and nodded. “Thank you for not making this any weirder for me than it already feels.”
He leaned down and kissed her temple. “Go get clean. I’ll see you in a bit.”
Jonathan smiled as he entered his room. He was thrilled Kina wanted to be with him. He hadn’t lied to her. He’d slept better with her in his arms than he had in the last couple of months since Becky had been hurt. Jonathan debated not shaving off his three day beard, but in the end decided he wanted to be able to feel Kina’s soft skin on his face rather than have his scruffy whiskers get in the way. Eventually, when he had his way, he didn’t want to scrape up her sensitive skin either.
Kina climbed into the shower and noticed in the bathroom mirror the goofy grin she was wearing as she stepped in. God, had she ever been this giddy around a guy before? She didn’t think so. There was something special about Jonathan, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. He was so different from any man she’d ever been around before. He was sensitive and not afraid to put his own feelings out there, but at the same time he was as alpha as anyone she’d ever met. Alpha in a good way, not an asshole way like Matt was. He was quick to protect her and make sure no one gave her any crap. But he’d also let her do her own thing, as long as he was sure she wasn’t in any danger. It was heady. Kina still had no idea where anything was going with them.
He was going back to Arizona in a few weeks and she had to decide what she was going to do. A part of her wanted nothing more than to drop everything and follow Jonathan, but the other, more independent part of her, didn’t want to be one of those women who blindly followed a man. It was so confusing.
Jonathan and Kina met outside their rooms about forty minutes later. They were both showered and cleaned up. Jonathan leaned down and kissed Kina on the cheek. He lingered a bit and nuzzled the side of her neck, breathing in deeply.
“God, you smell good, honey.”
“It’s just soap.”
“Yeah, but it’s soap on you, so it smells like nothing I’ve ever smelled before.”
Gah. See? He was awesome.
Jonathan grabbed her hand, as if he had no concerns about who’d see them holding hands, and led her down the hall to the small elevator. They were meeting the others in the hotel restaurant to have a hot meal.
Dinner was fun. They were all in great moods. The fight between Ian and Trent was interesting and everyone knew their camera work would make for great TV. Being warm and clean was also a big boost to everyone’s feeling of well-being.
Carl brought out his smart phone and started showing off pictures of his girls. Catherine was a very cute dark-haired five-year old. He related a story about Catherine getting home from her first day of all-day kindergarten a couple of months ago. When she arrived home she stood in the hallway with her hands on her hips and declared loudly, “You fooled me! School is hard!” Apparently, going from a part time day-care/preschool to an all-day kindergarten was tough for a little kid. Kina could almost picture the outrage on her little face.
Carl also told them all a story about a time when Celeste saw an old picture of John Lennon with colored eyeglasses and insisted she get a pair too. She was only six years old and the only kid in her elementary school to have blue-tinted glasses, and according to Carl, she rocked them!
Not to be left out, Taylor got in the action. He bragged about his girls and tried to outdo Carl’s stories. The funniest story was about Phyllis. They’d been hanging out at Taylor’s mom’s house and listening to old songs from the seventies. Phyllis was around six years old and loved singing and dancing. After a morning spent playing games and listening to music, Phyllis disappeared. When they found her, she was in the front yard of the little house, dancing all over and pretending she was on stage. She was belting out the words toShake Your Booty by KC and the Sunshine Gang, as loud as she could. Taylor recalled the neighbors standing on their porches laughing hysterically and clapping for his little girl. She’d misunderstood the words to the song and had been entertaining the entire neighborhood by singing “Shake Your Booby” over and over. They still hadn’t let her live it down.
Carl’s other daughter, Beth, was adorable. She was tall and skinny and apparently, sometimes clueless. He gave an example of how, once when she was young, they were in a public restroom and Beth repeatedly was running her hands under the faucet at the sink to wash her hands. She looked up at Carl with tears in her eyes and said, “It’s broken!” Carl leaned over and turned the knob. Beth had assumed it was an automatic faucet.
Kina laughed at the men’s stories. It was obvious they were madly in love with their kids. She’d never been sure she even wanted kids, but listening to the two men talk about their families with such devotion and love made her wonder if she should re-think her decision. She didn’t have a close-knit family growing up and never really knew families could be like this. Hell, she didn’t really know how to be a mother. She’d learned how to be a hard worker from her mom, but any maternal instincts she had were buried deep. Her dad, not being around, was also a factor. Kina wondered, for a moment, if her life would’ve been different if he’d been there. Would he have been protective of her, or only annoyed she was underfoot? She had no idea, but shrugged off the bad mood threatening. She couldn’t change the past and besides, Kina thought she’d turned out all right in the end.
Frozen Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 3) Page 9
