“You should be careful,” Kirk said, offering Josh a little advice. “New relationships have ended for less.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ve been staring at Zola since she walked through the front door.”
“And you haven’t?”
“That’s different,” Kirk said, glancing at Michelle. She met his gaze, and he suddenly shut up. Maybe their relationship wasn’t as different as Gunner had assumed it was.
The new girl came back outside a few minutes later, but instead of rejoining them, she went over to the bar and bent low to get a cold bottle of water out of the mini fridge. Both Josh and Kirk were trying hard not to look, but it was hard not to look at that tight little ass peeking out of the high cut of her shorts.
Gunner ignored them and got up, strolling casually over to the bar to help himself to a bottle of juice.
“You okay?” he asked.
The new girl shrugged, wiping the lid of her water on the front of her blouse, the moisture leaving a little line of transparency from the liquid on the thin material. He had to look away even as his body began to respond in a way he’d been fighting since the moment she walked into the house.
He waited a moment, taking a long swallow from his juice. “You want to talk about it?”
“Wow, that was, what, five words?”
“Six.”
She smiled, but the smile didn’t last long. “I was . . . I kind of walked in on Brian and that Lesley girl in one of the water closets.”
Gunner nodded. Each bathroom had two walled in stalls where the toilets sat, traditional water closets that most Americans only saw on home improvement shows. Those were the only places in the entire house where there were no cameras. Brian and Lesley snuck into them at least twice a day, trying to keep the producers and viewers from knowing that their relationship had gotten more intense in the past few weeks.
“Everyone knows about them. Someone should have warned you.”
“Isn’t she your partner?”
“She is.”
“And isn’t the point of the game to become romantically involved with your partner?”
Gunner tilted his head a little to one side as he considered the question. “The point of the game is to create a lasting relationship. And, yes, I suppose the producers want romance. I know the viewers definitely want it because they’ve refused to break up teams that indulge in that sort of thing.” He gestured with his head toward Jessica and Josh where they were talking by the pool, their arms around each other, and their foreheads pressed together. “But it’s not necessary to win the first prize.”
“Only the second.”
“You’ve got it.”
“What if you and Lesley win, but she ends up with Brian on the outside? Does she get to compete with him?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know.”
The new girl looked up at the cameras that were focused on them from the corner of the house. “This whole thing is going to take a lot of getting used to.”
“It is. But you’ll get the hang of it.”
“I hope so.”
She tugged at the lid of her water, but couldn’t get it open. Gunner set down his juice, twisted it open for her, and handed it back.
“Thanks,” she said, her eyes moving up to his for a long moment. He returned her gaze, warning bells sounding in his head. He needed to win this game and take home his half of the million-dollar prize. He couldn’t afford to get distracted. But those eyes . . .
She turned and walked away, her hips moving more gracefully than Jessica’s, a hint of the full, fleshy mound of her ass peeking out above each thigh. His palms itched, and it took him a second to realize why. They wanted that flesh against them, wanted to feel the full roundness of that perfection.
Pull it together, Gunner!
He needed to win this money. Nothing else mattered, not even a gorgeous, seductive, innocent girl. God help him.
Chapter 6
Chicago, Illinois
The Set of Stranger’s Retreat
“If the houseguests would please gather in the living room!”
Susan’s voice filled the house and yard late in the afternoon, just as discussion had begun about what to have for dinner. Zola got up and followed Michelle; the tall redhead had decided to make Zola her new best friend. They walked side by side, and Michelle quietly explained that Susan was about to explain the rules of the next comp. Brian and Lesley were in the living room already, curled up on the couches across from one another, looking incredibly innocent. But Zola couldn’t get the image of Brian’s naked ass working a quick rhythm between Lesley’s thighs out of her head.
Why hadn’t the fools locked the damn door?
She certainly wished they had.
“Houseguests, it is time for another relationship quiz!” Susan announced as they all took seats around the room. A few groans went up. Brian looked sharply in Zola’s direction, and she tried to look concerned, but she wasn’t worried. She’d studied his bio. She’d get her side of it all correct.
“And the winner of the quiz will be given a candlelit dinner to share with one other couple.”
That set tongues wagging. Zola couldn’t help but look in Gunner’s direction, wondering how he and Lesley would do on the quiz. Did it bother him that his partner was sleeping with someone else? When she’d asked him about it outside, he hadn’t seemed surprised. But a lack of surprise wasn’t the same as acceptance.
“We’ll begin with Jessica and Josh.”
The couple stood up, Jessica slapping her hand against Josh’s butt. “The rest of you better be prepared because we’re going to kick ass on this one!”
Brian came over to where Zola was sitting. “Do you remember everything I told you earlier?” he demanded. “Because I need to win this thing. I haven’t had a decent meal since I got here!”
“I remember.”
And she did. Zola answered all her questions correctly, but she couldn’t say the same for Brian. At least he got a good half right.
All four pairs had returned to the living room to wait for the results. Gunner sat alone on a low love seat while Lesley sat boldly beside Brian. Zola thought that they must have assumed that because they weren’t touching and weren’t really looking at each other that they were fooling everyone. They weren’t.
Zola took a seat on the end of one couch, sitting with a decent amount of space from Michelle and Kirk. When Susan came on the screen, Michelle reached over to take Zola’s hand with her one free hand. She was clenching tight to Kirk’s hand, too.
“The winner of the couple’s quiz is . . .”
Susan hesitated, her face unreadable. Jessica grumbled under her breath, but not loud enough for anyone—or the cameras—to pick up her exact words.
“Brian and Zola!”
There were a lot of surprised gasps traveling around the room. Zola caught Gunner’s gaze and saw suspicion there. She wondered for a moment what that was about, but then Brian was pulling her off the couch and into his arms, squealing like a cheerleader at a high school football game.
“How the hell did you do that?” Lesley demanded even as Brian held Zola in his arms.
“Beginner’s luck,” Josh announced.
“Who will you be taking on your double date with you, Brian and Zola?” Susan asked.
“Gunner and Lesley,” Brian said without stopping to consult Zola. But it was the choice she would have made, so it wasn’t a problem.
“Perfect. If all four of you will be outside in an hour, your dinner will be waiting for you.”
The screen went dark, and everyone stood up. Zola was a little surprised to get hugs from all the other houseguests, even Gunner. He smelled like cedar, like a lumber yard on a warm afternoon. She liked it, preferred it over the spicy scents the other guys in the house wore. Being in this house was like living in a department store right between the perfume and cologne counters. But Gunner was subtler in his scent, and she appreciated t
hat.
Brian and Lesley were in the room Zola shared with Brian, so she gathered her stuff and went down the hall to one of the three bathrooms available in the house. Michelle was curled up on one of the chaise loungers when Zola came out of the shower, startling her a little. It was going to take a bit of getting used to to remember that the big bathroom was routinely shared with more than one or two other members of the house.
“Can I do your hair for you?”
Zola met her eyes in the mirror. She didn’t like strangers touching her. She was never that little girl who allowed all her friends to braid her hair in class. But Michelle made an overture of friendship, something Zola knew was important in this house. She forced a smile and nodded.
Michelle practically bounced off the lounger and came over, immediately running her fingers through Zola’s long, wet hair.
“You have great hair,” she said. “What products do you use?”
Zola shrugged. “Shampoo and conditioner.”
“Really? That’s all?”
“I don’t have much time in the mornings, so I just wash and go.”
“You’re lucky. I have to use a dozen products to get this look.”
Zola met her eye in the mirror. “You’re beautiful.” And she was. Michelle was a redhead with traditional green eyes and pale skin. She was the opposite of Zola and exactly what she’d always admired as a child. Her mother had been the same sort of pale, though she was blond, not a redhead. Zola had always felt like she and her mother looked nothing alike. Her mother always explained that her father had been a dark-skinned Italian, but Zola wouldn’t know. He’d been gone by the time she was old enough to form memories.
Michelle was blushing. “Thanks.”
She quickly combed out Zola’s hair and dried it, pulling the front back into a loose clip to keep it out of her face. Her hair fell into natural curls down her back nearly to her waist. When she was in the military, she’d often cursed her hair and threatened to cut it short, but she never did. She’d always had long hair. She wasn’t sure she could get used to her reflection without it.
Zola dressed in a black dress Felicity had picked out for her, a low cut, silky thing that made her curves seem more than they were. She stared at herself and didn’t recognize what she saw. She wondered what the guys in her unit would think if they could see her now. And then she realized they would see her very soon, the moment this episode aired on national television.
That thought made her want to run and hide.
“You look amazing,” Michelle said with a sigh.
“You’d look better in this dress.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head as she somehow continued to stare at Zola, “I don’t think anyone in this house would fill that out the way you do. Not even Jessica.”
It was a compliment, but it didn’t feel that way to Zola. She’d spent her entire adulthood trying to avoid looking feminine. She wanted to be one of the guys, wanted to be considered just as good as her male counterparts. This went against every instinct she’d ever had. But then she walked out of the bathroom and practically ran headlong into Gunner. The look in his eyes made her entire body vibrate like she’d touched her finger to an electrical outlet.
Maybe being feminine wasn’t such a bad thing in certain circumstances.
His eyes moved slowly down the length of her, his lips parting slightly as his eyes widened. He bit his lip, a sound like a low growl escaping his throat.
“Hi,” she said, at a loss for what else to say.
He nodded his head, his eyes glued to the front of her dress for a long second. Then he cleared his throat and backed up as if he was afraid of accidentally touching her, or something.
He looked pretty hot himself. He was dressed in jeans, a crisp blue button-down, and a dark gray sports coat. His hair was carefully combed, not that he had a lot to comb. He kept it cut in the military fashion, shaved around his ears and slightly longer on top. And he was freshly shaved, his face baby smooth. She wanted to touch his cheek, wanted to feel the heat of his skin and the moisture of the shave cream’s residue. She had to clasp her hands together to keep from indulging in that little desire.
What the hell is the matter with me? He’s a suspect, for crying out loud!
“I was about to go look for Brian.”
He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “Living room.” He turned then and disappeared around a corner, pausing briefly to take one last look at her. As soon as he was gone, Michelle burst into giggles.
“Wow! I’ve never seen Gunner that flabbergasted before!”
“Really?”
She rested a hand on Zola’s shoulder. “You’ve got him wrapped around your little finger if you want him there, Zola. He thinks you’re hot!”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“Did you see the way he was looking at you? It was pretty obvious.” She brushed her shoulder against Zola’s. “He never looked at Lesley like that. Or Karen.”
“Who’s Karen?”
“His first partner. She left the house a couple of weeks ago.”
Zola nodded. She vaguely remembered that he’d had another partner, but it all ran together in her head. Maybe she should have paid more attention to the episodes of the show Felicity and Cillian had shown her and Durango.
Michelle prodded her forward. They found Brian and Lesley in the living room, just as Gunner had said. Brian looked up when she walked in and did something of a double take. His mouth fell open slightly until Lesley jabbed her elbow into his side and forced his attention back to her.
“A little overdressed, Zola,” Lesley said dismissively, which was funny because she was wearing a cocktail dress with plastic rhinestones all over it. Every time she moved, the stones made a little clicking sound that Zola was sure would grow annoying after a while. The dress was low cut, exposing more of her small breasts than anyone wanted to see, and it had cutouts around her belly button and along her sides. There was more skin exposed than there was dress. Compared to her, Zola was dressed quite conservatively.
“We should head out,” Brian announced, standing from the couch. “Where’s Gunner?”
“I’ll get him,” Michelle offered, rushing out of the room and leaving Zola alone with her partner and his lover.
“I think we got off on the wrong foot,” Zola said to Lesley. “Maybe if we started over?”
Lesley looked her over like the mother of a toddler checking out the mother of the other child who’d just given her child a bloody nose.
“We should head outside, Brian.”
Completely ignored, Zola dropped her eyes to the floor for a second, biting her tongue to keep back the words that jumped to be expressed. Then she stepped forward and slipped her arm through Brian’s even though Lesley was hanging off his other arm.
“Escort me out, partner?”
He was conflicted for exactly a second, then nodded. “Of course.”
Lesley could only stand there and watch as Brian and Zola stepped outside, arm in arm, and walked toward the small table that had been elegantly set for the evening’s meal. Brian led her to a chair on the right side of the table and pulled out a chair, every bit the gentleman now.
“Thank you.”
He brushed her hair away from her shoulder and squeezed. He moved closer to her, whispering in her ear, “You know how to play this game well, don’t you?”
She glanced up at him, but his attention had already been drawn by Lesley and Gunner as they came outside, also arm in arm. Zola found herself watching Gunner, admiring the way he looked in his drug store cowboy outfit. The only thing missing was a cowboy hat. He filled it out well, those jeans contoured around his body in a way that made her thighs a little weak. Again, she had to remind herself she was here to do a job, not to fall into heat with some cowboy who might be responsible for sabotaging the competitions in this game.
Brian gestured for Gunner to escort Lesley to the seat across from Zola, which he did, but wh
en Brian came around to sit beside Zola, Lesley made a noise that caused him to quickly cross around the table and take the seat beside her. That left Gunner to sit at Zola’s left, the table small enough that their thighs touched when one of them shifted in their seats.
This was going to be a long night.
The meal consisted of steaks, baked potatoes, and green beans sautéed with bacon and onions. The conversation was one sided at first, the three veterans of the game talking about the upcoming challenges and the break the change in players offered them. Brian glanced at Zola when he suggested that it was a good thing, a chance for everyone to recoup. But Gunner insisted that it just allowed weak players to regain a little strength, and that would throw the whole game off. Zola found herself watching him, not because he was hot—though he definitely was—but because she was seeing his deeply competitive side for the first time.
“What will you do if you win the money?” she asked him.
Gunner picked up his glass of wine and took a long swallow almost as if he hadn’t heard her. But then he looked at her, his blue eyes lingering on the front of her dress for a second before moving back to his plate.
“I have plans.”
“I’m sure everyone does.”
He inclined his head a little. “Jessica wants to pay off some debt and travel to Europe. Josh wants to help his parents out with their mortgage. Michelle has student loans, and Kirk simply wants to have the freedom not to work for a while.” He looked at Brian and Lesley who were deep in conversation themselves. “The two of them, I think they just want the fifteen minutes of fame that comes with being on the show.”
“What do you want?”
His eyes returned to her, staying on her face this time. “I want the freedom to live my life the way I want instead of being some corporate slave.”
“What do you do for a living?”
She already knew, thanks to the bios Felicity and Cillian had shown her, but she was curious what he was telling the other houseguests. What would they think if they knew that this man was just a step up from a mercenary, working for private security in places like Somalia and Afghanistan?
Mastiff Security: The Complete 5 Books Series Page 57