Bedroom Games (19 page)

Everyone was silent for a moment.

“Sunnie seems like an obvious target,” Marla
finally said.

“I’d like to keep Sunnie,” Brodie said.

I frowned into the dark. “Why?”

“Well, for starters, she sucks in
challenges,” Brodie said with a chuckle, and I felt his hand reach
out and caress my knee in the darkness. A hot flush rippled through
my body, and I wanted to push his hand away so he wouldn’t distract
me.

But…I didn’t.

“And Sunnie’s easily influenced,” Brodie
said. “She was furious at Kandis earlier because she thought she
engineered Casper’s vote out, but by this evening, Sunnie was
smiling and painting Kandis’s nails. We can control her. We just
need to make her feel safe.”

“Except for the fact that she’s decided I
should be the next to go,” I pointed out. “She more or less said
during the challenge that if she got Power? She was putting me up
for eviction.”

“It’s true,” Marla agreed. “I saw the looks
she was giving Kandis. I think you’re wrong about Sunnie being
tractable. I think it’s an act.”

Hearing her confirm my suspicions made me a
little nervous. We were all trying to play so hard that I wondered
who in this house was real and who was fake.

And I wondered if I was seeing real Brodie or
fake Brodie. Which one was in bed with me each night? Strategic
Brodie who was ensuring my vote? Or the real Brodie, who maybe
liked to kiss me? I didn’t know. The thumb casually caressing my
knee felt real. Was I simply reading too much into flirting?

I didn’t trust anyone or anything
anymore.

“Frankly, I’d rather get out someone that’s a
threat to Kandis than keep someone that might be a vote in your
pocket. No offense, Brodie,” Jendan said.

“None taken,” Brodie replied, but I felt his
hand tighten on my knee. “We’ll keep Sunnie on the table.”

“So that leaves Fido and Jayme,” I said.
“Brodie, what do you think?”

“Jayme’s dangerous,” Marla said before Brodie
could answer. “She won Power before, remember?”

“You have a point,” Brodie said. “But Fido’s
trying to lay low. He’s more athletic than he’s pretending to be,
and I worry that if we keep him around, he’s going to be serious
competition for the next few challenges when it’s crucial to make
sure that we keep Power.”

“Both good arguments,” Jendan said. “How do
you feel, Kandis?”

I considered for a long moment. Was this
answer some sort of test from Jendan, too? If I aligned my answer
with Brodie, would Jendan start to worry about our alliance? We
needed to stay four strong until we got out the other three. It
would be too easy for a pair to flip and screw everyone else’s
plans. But Fido was stronger than Jayme, and Jayme would vote with
Brodie, which meant she was a vote in my corner, too.

Plus, the fact that Fido was trying to lay
low didn’t sit well with me. That was my strategy, darn it. “I vote
Fido. I don’t trust him. Any guy that calls himself Fido
automatically makes me suspicious.”

Marla laughed. “You do realize that it’s a
nickname because he owns a dog-walking service?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” I said. “I think
it’s to throw us off guard and make him seem more friendly and
amiable than he really is. I mean, if his name were Jake, we’d have
a different view of him, wouldn’t we? Jake’s totally a playboy
name.”

Marla snorted. “You mean like ‘Brodie?’”

Just like that, actually. I didn’t want to
agree with her aloud because I felt Brodie stiffen next to me,
clearly irritated at Marla’s words. I changed the subject back to
the vote. “I just don’t feel like we can trust Fido.”

“I do see him whispering in the corners with
Jayme a lot.” Marla sighed. “I thought it was because he liked her
at first, but now I wonder if there’s more to it than that.”

“So we put up Sunnie and Fido,” Brodie said.
“We either split up a strong duo or we get rid of someone who’s
gunning for Kandis. I think that seems solid. Do you guys have a
preference for who?”

I sure did, but I let the rest of them vote.
After an hour of intense arguing back and forth in low whispers, it
was decided: Fido would be going home.

I didn’t know how I felt about that since
we’d be keeping the person that wanted my head on a platter,
considering she’d been nominated a second time and was bound to be
even more pissed off. But I trusted Fido to win a challenge more
than I trusted Sunnie to win. Heck, at the thought of messing up a
lock of her long red extensions, Sunnie had bailed. I ran a hand
through my floppy mohawk in memory.

We’d made the right strategic choice for the
group, even if it wasn’t best for me.

After things were decided, Marla and Jendan
headed off to bed, and Brodie closed the door to our bedroom. It
was just the two of us again. I crawled under the blankets,
determined not to feel awkward about last night. It had been
perfection, like we’d known each other for years and had finally
come together. I’d loved every second of it.

Which was a problem. I
didn’t want to love it. I
couldn’t
love it. A million dollars—and the opportunity to
save my mom—was riding on the line.

The bed creaked and I felt it sag under
Brodie’s weight. In the darkness, I couldn’t make out his
expression.

“So,” he said. “What are you thinking?”

“Well…” I reached up and toyed with the
fringe on the pillow under my head. “I’m a little concerned that
we’re keeping Sunnie when she’ll have double the reason to come
after me, but if that’s what the group wants, then I’ll go along
with it.”

One arm slid around my waist. “That wasn’t
what I was referring to.”

A hot flush swept through my body. “Oh?”

“Yeah.” He dragged me against him, and his
breath whispered against my ear. “I’m just curious why you were
giving me the icy treatment earlier today. Cold feet? Change your
mind about playing around with me?”

Playing around, huh? Was that all this
was?

After I got past the initial twinge of hurt
at his words, I realized…that was actually perfect. If we were just
playing around, things weren’t serious. No one’s feelings would get
hurt if we kept things hidden. And best of all, if it was all just
fun and games, my promise to take Jendan to the final two would
bother no one. So I said, “You know if they think we have a
romance, they’re going to come after us.”

“Yeah, but I flirt with everyone,” Brodie
said. “They’ll just think you’re finally responding.”

I snorted.

“And it might seem weird to the others if
you’re the only girl in the house I don’t flirt with.”

“You don’t flirt with Marla,” I pointed
out.

“I do,” he said, and his teeth grazed my ear,
sending shivers up my spine. “It’s just more subtle.” His hand slid
toward the waistband of my pajama pants. “But I can be subtle when
we’re around the others if you want.”

Right now, I was thinking anything but
subtle. My body had responded to his caresses, and I was thinking
that if he didn’t touch me right now, I was going to die of need.
But I bit my lip, fighting the feelings. “They’re watching us on
the cameras, you know. I got quizzed about it when I went into the
confessional.”

“And that bothers you?” he asked. “They can’t
see anything.”

Yeah, but they’d know what we were doing. And
that counted for more than visuals. “It does.”

“They asked me about it, too,” Brodie said,
and his tongue flicked into the shell of my ear, then lightly
traced it. “But they also gave me some very interesting
information.”

“Oh?”

“Yep. That they turn the cameras off in all
rooms between two and four in the morning, and they provided
condoms in all the bathrooms.”

I sucked in a breath. If
they turned off the cameras, that meant they wanted us to have sex.
Heck, they were all but saying
GO RIGHT
AHEAD WE WON’T LOOK
.

Then again…if the cameras didn’t see
anything… “I don’t know if I’m ready to jump into sex just yet,
Brodie,” I said. “I’m still worried it’ll mess up our game.”

“We could always just mess around, then,” he
said in a low, husky voice, and his hand slid over my stomach,
exploring it under my clothing. “It’s almost two right now.”

I looked over at the lava lamp clock in the
room. 1:58. “So two minutes. And then…?” I let the question trail
off.

“Then we can do whatever we want,” Brodie
murmured, and he bit my earlobe.

I bit back the shuddering cry that threatened
to escape my throat. My nails dug into his arm, and then I nodded.
“Two minutes.”

He leaned back, and we waited.

It was easily the longest two minutes of my
life. I stared at the alarm clock, waiting for the digits to tick
over. It seemed like an eternity passed in one hundred and twenty
seconds. An eternity in which my pulse raced, my breasts ached, and
the flesh between my legs grew slick from sheer anticipation.

Then, it finally ticked over.

“‘
Bout fucking time,” Brodie
growled low in his throat. His hand went to my chin, he turned my
face toward his, and his mouth swooped over mine in a delicious,
deep kiss. He licked at my mouth, tasting me as if he were starving
and I were a feast laid out before him. And when my tongue touched
his? He groaned low in his throat, the sound making my knees
weak.

I’d never heard anything so incredibly
sexy.

“Kandis, this was the longest day in this
stupid house because I couldn’t wait to get to bed.” His tongue
traced my parted lips, his hand stole down my neck, over my
collarbone, tracing my skin. “And I wanted to throw those two
assholes out of here the moment they came in here. It took
everything I had not to boot them and then throw you down on the
bed and maul you.”

His heated words reminded me of the hand he’d
placed on my knee. Suddenly, that hand seemed like the most erotic
thing in the universe. I dragged the blankets over us and with the
barrier in place, my hands began to skim along his flesh.

Brodie’s hand went to my thigh, and he hiked
my knees up around his hips. He twisted in the bed and settled
between my clothed legs, resting the weight of his hips against my
spread ones. I gasped at the sensation, as the pose allowed me to
feel…everything, especially the hard ridge of his cock between my
legs.

He leaned in to kiss me again. “This
okay?”

I nodded, and when his mouth moved over mine
again, our tongues met and collided. I moaned, my nails digging
into his back.

His hips lifted, pressing his length against
the vee of my sex.

The movement sent pleasure shuddering through
me, a tease of what real sex with him would be like.

“You fit me perfectly, Kandis,” he breathed
against my mouth. “Can’t wait until I get to taste you.”

“Taste me?” I whispered, tantalized by the
thought.

“Taste you everywhere.” He sucked on my lower
lip and then gave it a nip with his teeth. “You want to know where
I’d start?”

“Where?” I breathed. It seemed monumentally
important that he tell me and seduce me with delicious words.

“I’ve tasted your mouth,” he said against my
mouth, and his tongue stroked between my parted lips again. “You’re
sweet as honey there, and have the most delicious little tongue,
but it wouldn’t be enough for me. I’d have to go lower.”

And he thrust between my clothed legs
again.

“Oh?” My voice trembled, my hands skimming
his warm chest, gliding over his shoulders. Moving all over him, as
if I could trace his entire body with just my fingertips.

“I’d have to stop at these pretty tits,” he
said, and one hand went to the buttons of my flannel nightshirt,
dragging it open. “Are you wearing a bra?”

“No, no bra.” I didn’t want to point out that
most girls didn’t sleep in a bra. I was too into the moment and
didn’t want to distract him. I needed to hear what was next.

“Good.” He slid lower, and I felt a pang of
disappointment when his hips left the cradle of mine. I wanted his
cock rubbing up against my sex, sliding there with delicious
friction.

I promptly forgot about it when his mouth
moved to my breastbone, kissing the now-exposed valley of my
cleavage, the strip of skin available for his caresses now that
he’d pried the buttons open. “Been wanting to see these beauties
for weeks now. You have no idea how badly I wanted to peek at you
when we were in the shower, but I knew you’d kill me.”

I chuckled. “I would have, yes.”

“Of course, I can’t really see anything in
the dark, but I can touch all this silky skin, can’t I? And damn,
have I wanted to touch you.”

I arched in anticipation, wanting his touch,
too. I’d daydreamed about that as well, his hands and mouth moving
over my skin, worshipping me.

He pulled the last of my flannel nightshirt
apart and the fabric fell to my sides. I felt the cool air on my
exposed torso, and then his big, warm hand skimmed down my front.
“I bet this is a beautiful sight,” he told me. “All pale skin and
soft curves.”

I had a bit of a tan now thanks to laying out
by the pool all day, but I didn’t interrupt his dreamy words. How
could I? Every syllable was making me wetter. I’d have an orgasm
from sheer conversation alone if this kept up.

“What color are your nipples?” Brodie asked.
“I can see them in the dark, so I know they’re small and perfect,
with the prettiest little tips. They look dark. Are they?”

“Yes.” My voice was trembling nearly as much
as the rest of me. “And I hear they taste pretty good.”

He groaned. “Do they? I have to know for
myself.” He leaned in and his mouth traced the slope of one breast,
and then he cupped the globe of it in his hand, pointing the nipple
toward his mouth.

And he licked.