by Jill Myles
I sucked in a breath so loudly that the others turned to look at me. I didn’t care.
Twenty-five thousand dollars would go a really long way towards helping Mom. It meant that even if I didn’t win, I’d have a little bit of security for a time. Maybe we could figure out what to do about her mortgages and her gambling issues.
I needed to win this. I trembled at the thought of twenty five grand. Twenty-five grand would pay off the most pressing credit card debt and allow my mom to catch up on her two mortgages. It’d be gone in a flash, but it was a start, and one I desperately needed.
“Does everyone understand the rules?” Brodie looked down the line, and his gaze seemed to linger on me for a moment. “Ready? Go!”
We raced across the challenge area and stumbled our way into the pool. The challenge pool was only about three feet deep, but the balls—and the goo covering everything—made it hard to move around. I settled for slowly mucking through, grabbing at each ball. They were all the size of a fist, and upon closer inspection, not all of them were regularly shaped. Some were footballs, some were shaped like eggs, and some just looked as if they’d been half-deflated and shoved into the water. More balls—weighted ones—smacked against my legs in the syrupy goo. Trying to find a ‘brain’ in this was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.
At my side, Sunnie squealed and held something aloft and then began to slowly trudge her way out of the pool. Well, shit. If she could find one, surely I could. I began to grab at the shifting, squirming balls under the water, looking for ridges or irregular shapes. A brain would have something like that, right?
I spotted one a few feet from me by sheer chance, and I dove for it. I plowed into the muck face-first but was successful in grabbing it. As I dripped my way out of the pool, I thumped into a seat with a whoop, soaked from head to toe in red goop.
A few moments later, Jendan was out of the pool and slamming into a seat. Fido and Jayme were next, and Marla was still in the pool. She threw her hands up in disgust as the buzzer sounded.
“Marla is out,” Brodie announced. “Everybody stand up again.”
We did, and he took one of the chairs away. When we deposited the ‘brain’ balls in a bucket at his feet, we headed back to the starting area. At his call, we dove in for the next round.
This time, I was the first one to slosh out of the pit with my prize. One by one, the others emerged until only Fido was left. He wiped goop off his cheek and shook his head as he moved to go sit next to Marla.
Jendan won the next round, and the two after it. I hung with him, though, and when the final round began, it was just Jendan and me. I practically danced with excitement. I was nervous, of course, and exhausted from slogging through the muck back and forth, but I wanted that money so bad I could taste it at this point. I’d endure for a bit longer if it meant I’d get that safety net of twenty-five thousand dollars.
The other girls cheered for me when I got in place for the final round. “You just give up now, Jendan,” I called out. “That money’s mine.”
“Kandis wants that money bad,” Sunnie called. “Better not get in her way.”
Jendan just looked over at me and grinned, his face smeared with red. His teeth seemed unnaturally white in his face. “That so? You need the money?”
“More than you know,” I said, and I gave a small laugh to take the seriousness out of my words.
“Final round,” Brodie called from his place at the sidelines, where the final chair remained. “Ready? Go!”
Jendan and I tore back into the pool, splashing through the thick, murky red water and dragging our hands through the myriad balls. My breathing was shallow with anxiety. I had to find one before he did. Had to. Minutes passed and I couldn’t find one on the surface, so I dragged my hands through the water, looking for the ones that bobbed below. My stomach was in hard knots—I needed this so bad. Just one brain! Just one! Surely I could find one. At my side, Jendan dragged his hands through the water, having no more luck than me.
“Come on,” I muttered. “I need this. Come on.”
“You need it bad, huh?” Jendan was at my side, pushing through the sea of sliding, gooey pink and green balls.
“I do,” I said, pushing aside a pile that was off to my left. “You have no idea how badly.”
“Mmm,” was all he said. He pushed through a nearby pile.
I turned to look at him. As soon as I did, I spotted one. It lay atop a pile of its siblings, drippy lines of red coating it.
It was also right next to Jendan’s hand. As I watched, he looked at me, down at it, and then deliberately, slowly turned away.
He was letting me win.
I could have kissed the man. I lunged for the brain and grasped it in my hand, feeling a surge of success that mingled with my guilt. He was letting me win…because I needed it more than a stuntman, maybe? Whatever the reason, Jendan had my thanks. Hauling ass (well, as much as one could in a pool of clinging goo), I headed to the final chair and slid into it. I raised the brain into the air and gave a victorious cheer.
“Winner!” Brodie grabbed my messy, sticky arm and raised it above my head. “Kandis gets the twenty-five grand!”
I whooped again and immediately burst into tears, emotional. Twenty-five grand would help so much. It meant digging Mom out of the hole, even if it was only a little. It meant I wouldn’t have to get a second—or third—job to keep her above water.
And Jendan let me win it.
“Aw, she’s so emotional,” Sunnie said.
Brodie and I high-fived each other, reluctant to hug and get our clothing stuck to each other. When Jendan came to my side, though, I threw my arms around his neck and hugged the heck out of him. “You are the best man ever,” I told him in a low voice.
He laughed and gave me a tight hug back. “Nah. I just know what it’s like to need the money.”
I stiffened and pulled away from him, our shirts peeling apart with a wet noise. Shame filled me. “Oh god. Did you need the money—”
He shook his head. “No, I’m fine. I was speaking in past tense. It’s your win.”
I hugged him again, tears streaking down my face.
“All right, all right,” Marla said in a sour voice. “You two get a room.”
I giggled through my tears and pulled away from Jendan. “Ugh. Speaking of rooms, I need a shower.” I glanced over at Brodie, grinning.
He wasn’t smiling. In fact, he’d left entirely and headed into the house.
~~ * ~~
There was one good thing about having wickedly short hair — it took no time at all to clean it. I took a quick shower to clean off after the challenge and raked a comb through my wet locks, and then I dressed in my favorite yoga pants and an off-the-shoulder tee before heading back into the Power room.
Brodie was there, sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for me.
I tossed my towel in the laundry basket and headed to the bed, sitting on the edge next to him. “What’s bothering you?”
He regarded me for a long moment and then leaned backward and propped his head up on one hand, laying on his side. His fingers traced a pattern on the blanket that reminded me of the touches he’d given my inner thighs last night, and I clamped my legs shut in memory.
And he still said nothing. I nudged him with my hand. “Something’s bothering you. It’s not like the infamous Brodie Short to be silent and pensive.”
I was hoping he’d laugh at my joke, but his mouth only cocked in a half smile and he continued to trace patterns on the blanket with his other hand. “I saw Jendan throw the challenge. He picked that ball up, looked at you, and then tossed it down. Two seconds later, you grabbed it.”
So he’d noticed that? I nodded. “I know. He let me win.”
“You want to tell me why Jendan would throw away twenty-five grand?”
“Because he doesn’t need it? I imagine stuntmen are paid pretty well,” I said, and ran a hand through my wet hair again, oddly nervous. I fe
lt like a kid that had been caught with a hand in the cookie jar.
“Yeah, but I don’t think that’s it. Is there something going on between you two that I should know about?”
I gaped. “Are you kidding me?”
He shrugged, trying to seem all casual. “I know you and I are pretty cozy. I know you’re also cozy with him. I’m just wondering if it’s the same kind of cozy.”
I sucked in a breath. How dare he? I shoved him and began to push off the bed. “Fuck you—”
Brodie’s arms grabbed me and hauled me back down on the bed. “Oh no you don’t.”
“Let me go!”
“Not until we talk.” He wriggled over my flailing body until his weight pinned me onto the bed. Brodie looked down at me. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“Nothing’s going on, you suspicious turd,” I told him, glaring up at him over me. “You’re the only one I’m fooling around with in this house, and I question the wisdom of doing that as it is.”
“Do you, now.” A slow, wicked smile curved his mouth. “You find hooking up with me unwise?”
“Horribly unwise,” I said, my voice breathy. I was still angry, but that anger was giving way to desire faster than my brain could process his nearness. I was so close that I could reach out and lick his perfect chin. Not that I wanted to do that, of course. Not that licking Brodie was wise. In fact, it was downright stupid.
And stupid was going to end up costing me in this game. I just knew it.
He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “Wanna do some unwise stuff right now?”
I shoved at him. “No.”
“That’s cool,” he said, and his hands tightened on my pinned wrists. “That just means you can tell me all about why Jendan just gave you twenty-five grand instead of trying to get it for himself. You homeless outside of here or something?”
To my horror, tears welled in my eyes. Man, he hit the nail on the head pretty close there. “Not exactly.”
The look on Brodie’s face turned from calculating to concerned. He rolled off of me and then hauled me up until I was sitting upright. “What is it? Talk to me, Kandis. We’re partners.”
I swiped at the tears running down my face. “It’s stupid. I mean, everyone has their reasons for being here, don’t they? Mine are no more important than everyone else’s.”
“You let me be the judge of that,” Brodie said, and he reached out and brushed a stray tear off my jaw. “Now, spit it out.”
“It’s my mom,” I said in an anxious rush. “She’s a gambling addict. She goes to the casinos every weekend and spends every dollar she has. I don’t know how long it’s been going on, but I do know that at this time, she has two mortgages on her house and is behind on both of them. She’s about to lose her house. Her credit card debt is insane, her car was just repossessed, she has no grocery money, and she still somehow finds money to go to the casino. I don’t make enough at my job to help take care of her. I’ve been trying to, but it’s not working.” The stress of it all just made my eyes brim all over again.
“And what is it you do outside of this house? You said you were a student, but I’m guessing that’s a lie.”
A wry smile curved my mouth. “I’m a Zumba instructor at a fitness club.”
His eyes widened with appreciation, and he gave me one of those heart-melting grins. “That explains why you have an ass that won’t quit, then. Damn. That’s hot.”
I sniffed. Why was it that Brodie’s commentary could always bring a smile out of me no matter how sad I was? “So what do you do outside of here? Other than show up on reality TV, of course.”
“I wait tables.” He grinned. “Actually, I wanted to use the shows to springboard my way into Hollywood.”
I blanched at the thought. Mactor. And proud of it, too.
“But,” he continued, and shrugged his tanned shoulders. “The longer I have a camera in my face, the more I think that this is fun but not what I’d want to do with my life. What exactly, I’m not sure.”
I knew that feeling. Being in the house was fun, but the sense of ‘un-reality’ in the reality TV show could drive you a little nutty at times. “It doesn’t have anything to do with being portrayed as a villain last year?”
He just grinned at me as if proud. “I didn’t mind that. Katy got pissy at me, but she’s my sister. You can pull stuff with your sister that you can’t with other people. I knew she wouldn’t stay mad at me for long. I’d just give her puppy dog eyes, and we’d be all better.” As if to prove this, he stuck his lower lip out and batted his lashes at me.
I groaned and swiped at him with one of the throw pillows on the bed. “Nice try, but if you screw me over, I’m not going to be as forgiving as Katy. I need that money.”
“We both need the money,” he agreed. “Trouble is, only one of us can win it.”
“Yeah, well, I think I need it more than you.”
“Hey now, didn’t I just tell you that I’m a waiter? At least you have a real job.”
“Yeah, but it doesn’t pay crazy money. I have enough to cover my own bills, but not my mom’s, too. And she’s got no one but me.” I sobered, the good mood fleeting. “I need a lot of money to help dig her out of the hole she’s gotten into and to get her some help. It…feels crushing at times.” Even now, I felt that familiar panic whenever I thought about my mom. How helpless I was to stop her. She was a grown woman. She could make her own decisions. And yet…I felt responsible. I sucked in a deep, calming breath. I was here on the show to help her.
Brodie nodded and dragged me closer to him until he’d pulled me against his chest. “We’ll figure something out. I’ve got your back.”
I cuddled against his chest, hating myself for how much I enjoyed being in his arms. “You promise you won’t say anything about my mom to the others? I don’t want them to know.” Just thinking about the others knowing my problems made me feel weirdly vulnerable, and it was a sensation I didn’t like.
“Well, it’s clear Jendan suspects something,” Brodie said, and his fingers scratched at the sides of my shaved head comfortingly. “But don’t worry. You can trust me.”
Trust Brodie Short. God, I was stupid if I did. And yet… “Just don’t burn me at the end, okay?”
“I won’t. I promise.”
And for some reason, I believed him.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“So yeah, for the first time in my life, I’m letting a woman drive the relationship. Kandis says no sex, so we don’t have sex. And I’m fine with that. Really. My balls might not be, but my brain is.” – Brodie Short, Day 40
The week had been an eventful one. It was like the house was a car that had gone from neutral into first gear. It seemed like every other day, someone was being voted out of the house. True to what we’d decided, Brodie put up Fido and Sunnie, and Fido was the one to go home. He looked stunned at his eviction, though he’d shook hands and hugged everyone as he left.
Two days later, Marla won the Power Play and put up Sunnie and Jayme. Neither one looked surprised, though they’d both shot dirty looks my way, as if I were some sort of mastermind that had schemed to get them all out of the house.
Heck, maybe I was, but I wasn’t the only one to blame here. And I didn’t care. I wasn’t here to make lifelong friends. I was here to make a million dollars. If I were here to make friends, I’d probably play more like Brodie.
The thought had crossed my mind that Brodie was using this house—and me—as a social network of connections he could play on to win the money. Everyone liked Brodie, even when they got voted out. He saw them off with a smile and a hug, and for the girls, a flirtatious wink.
When we voted Sunnie out a few days later, she’d been snotty and irritated toward Marla, Jendan, and I. But when it was time for her to go, Sunnie hugged Brodie for so long that Becky cleared her throat into the microphone.
That hadn’t sat so well with me.
Brodie and I had kept things to a playful simmer in regards to our pseudo-re
lationship. We were still partners in the game, but I wasn’t sure if we were more than that or if we’d ever be. Every night, we’d crawl into bed together and wait for two am to roll around.
As soon as it did? All bets were off. For the next two hours, we’d cuddle, make out, and generally do everything short of actual sex. It was like penetration was the next step, and we’d mutually decided not to go further…but that didn’t mean we couldn’t have fun in the meantime. However, outside of the bedroom, you’d never know that more was going on between Brodie and me than flirting. He gave me the same casual affection that he gave Marla and Jayme. If he hugged me? He made sure to hug the other women. If he tickled me or swam with me in the pool? I’d see him doing the same with Jayme not an hour later.
It messed with my head in a major way. What was my relationship with Brodie? Something simply to pass the time in a house where we had no TV? Or something more?
It was impossible to tell, and I’d been hoisted on my own petard because I was the one insisting that we keep it a secret. But now it was so secret that I wasn’t sure it was real. Of course, how stupid was it to fall for a guy that was known to be a lying flirt in a situation like this?
It was like I was just begging for my heart to be broken.
It was almost like Brodie had no qualms about doing it.
“There’s just Jayme left now,” Brodie announced to our small group when we had our next bedtime meeting. “That means one of us needs to be nominated alongside her this week for eviction. And I think Kandis needs to go up.”
I recoiled at the suggestion, hurt. “What?”
“Someone has to go up,” Brodie said. “Jayme needs someone she’s guaranteed not to win against.”