“Besides,” he whispered against my forehead, pressing a kiss to my eyebrow, “if we don’t get up now, we don’t get to eat our breakfast.”
I jumped at that, wriggling out from underneath him and straightening my sarong. It had fallen apart on me, and I rewrapped it as I moved toward the door. “Breakfast?”
Dean laughed behind me. “Thrown over for pancakes and bacon. Figures.”
“Oh my god, they have bacon?” I squealed, running forward. “Bacon and showers. I’m the luckiest girl ever.”
“And a hot guy in your bed,” Dean prompted, moving to pick a sausage link up off the table and closing his eyes with delight at the taste. “Okay, never mind—the food is better than sex.”
I laughed, grabbing one of the pancakes—no syrup—and waving it at him. “You’re just saying that because you want me to stuff a couple of pancakes down my bra.”
His eyes lit up at the same time mine did.
***
After one more quick shower and a hasty re-dressing, the production crew knocked on our door. I moved slowly after Dean as they led us back to the helicopter, my bra stuffed with pancakes and a makeshift napkin-padded baggy of cold sausage and cheeses down the front of my bikini bottom. It was kind of disgusting if you sat and thought about it, but when you were starving, you did what you had to do—and that included sneaking food back to the island in your panties. Luckily, my sarong was heavily wrinkled and voluminous and hid everything.
I felt a keen sense of disappointment when the boat pulled up to shore and our camp came into view. I didn’t want to go back—back to biting bugs and sand in everything and no showers and starving. But Dean squeezed my hand as we got off the boat, and I followed behind him because I wasn’t quite ready to leave him just yet, either. No matter how much of a knee-jerk reaction I had to returning to the island.
A cameraman circled nearby as we trudged back to our beach, me with my arm crossed over my chest to keep my pancakes in place, my other hand still firmly latched into Dean’s. To my surprise, two people sat at our camp on our chairs (well, logs that passed as chairs). “Are they filming?” I asked Dean, squinting my eyes. I couldn’t see cameras with them. The sun was high in the sky, nearly blinding me, but I couldn’t raise my arm to shield my eyes or I’d risk losing my pancakes.
His steps slowed in front of me, to the point that I almost ran into his back. “It’s Lana… and Leon, judging by the tattoos.”
Lana and… Leon? I felt a surge of disappointment, though I kept it out of my voice. “Oh? What about Will?”
“I don’t see him.” Dean didn’t sound thrilled either, but his voice remained even, and he raised a hand to wave at them, even as he spoke to me. “Did you hide the peanut butter before we left?”
“Yeah—I buried it. Just in case.”
He glanced back at me and touched my cheek. “Good girl.” He seemed as if he wanted to do more, but then Dean released my hand and put his hands on my shoulders, his gaze flicking to my sarong. “Still got the food?”
I nodded.
“Still trust me?” He searched my face, a little anxious. “Because you’re not going to like my suggestion.”
I gave him a faint smile. “This involves our pancakes, doesn’t it?”
Dean winked at me, and my heart sank when he said, “If we share with Lana, it’ll cement our alliance. I’ll buy you pancakes every morning if one of us wins the millions.”
Yeah, but only one of us could win and it wasn’t going to be me. Still, I was full from dinner and the breakfast this morning, and Lana was starting to look downright bony. I wouldn’t have been able to eat in front of her anyhow. So I just gave Dean’s hand a squeeze and nodded.
We approached the others and Lana gave a happy squeal of delight at the sight of us, extending her arms out and crossing the beach to hug us. “Dean! Abby! Look at you both! You’re so clean!”
Leon followed a few steps behind her, clearly not as comfortable, but willing to fake it. He held a hand out to Dean and they shook, clapping each other on the shoulder in a warm greeting. Lana hugged me and when Leon moved forward to do the same, I took a step backward and began to fish the pancakes out of my top.
“Abby brought food back for you,” Dean explained, glancing over at me. “She smuggled it in.”
Lana’s hands flew to her head. “Oh my god.” Her eyes went wide. “You’re kidding me. Food?”
I pulled out the pancakes and handed two to her, the other two to Leon. It was a little bizarre, since the pancakes were still warm from being cradled against my skin. “This is the only way we could think to smuggle them out,” I said, but my words fell on deaf ears. Both Lana and Leon had crammed their mouths full before I could even finish the sentence.
Of course, if I’d been in their position, I’d probably have done the same thing. What was a little body rubbing when you were starving?
I thought their eyes were going to roll out of their heads when I reached under my sarong and pulled out the second package—sausage links and cold bacon, quadruple-wrapped in fabric napkins from the table.
“Was that where I think it was?” Leon asked in-between bites of pancake.
“I wrapped it nice and tight, so it’s not like it really touched me,” I said, pulling the fabric layers away to demonstrate.
“If you guys don’t want to eat it, I will. I certainly don’t mind where it’s been,” Dean offered.
For some reason, that made my face flare bright red, and I averted my eyes as Lana’s gaze widened on me, then flicked back to Dean, then back to me again.
The last of the food was divvied up, and Dean and I watched as Lana and Leon made short work of the remaining sausages and cheese. When the food was gone, Lana licked her fingertip and retrieved every crumb from the bag, and we laughed at the sight. Strangely enough, that small bit of food bonded us, and there were smiles on all of our faces by the time Lana finished up and gave one final sigh.
“Why don’t you guys go and grab some more water?” Lana suggested. “Abby and I will stoke up the fire.”
Leon gave Lana a meaningful look and then turned and clapped Dean on the back. “Sounds good to me. You want to show me where your well is, just in case?”
“Just in case of what?” I retorted, but Lana linked her arm in mine and began to drag me back to camp. I cast a helpless look at Dean, but he winked at me and clapped Leon on the back, and they left camp. They headed down the beach, their heads together in discussion. Dean’s hands waved as if he were measuring something, and I guessed that the conversation was all about food. Figured.
Lana seemed rather quiet as she prodded the fire, but that wasn’t so unusual. I slunk down on one of the logs that passed as a bench and sighed. Already I missed the beach house.
She cast a sly glance over at me. “So how was it?”
I propped my chin up on my fist and grinned. “The reward? It was really nice.”
“No, I meant sleeping with Dean. How was it?”
I sucked in a breath, not expecting that. Had we been so obvious? We weren’t holding hands when we got off the boat, and it’s not like we’d kissed each other. I thought we were being fairly normal in front of them. “I’m not sure what you mean,” I began.
Lana snorted at my hedging. “You blush every time you look at him now. And he looks at you like you’re his property. He didn’t look at you that way before. Wasn’t hard to guess.”
“Nothing happened,” I protested.
“Was there alcohol? I’d have guessed that the producers tried to set up a romantic interlude. Easy to do when you’re drunk.”
I clamped my jaws shut and refused to answer, staring hard at the sorry fire. Lana still couldn’t make a fire quite like I could. I took one of the sticks and adjusted the heavy log on top to allow more air to get to the coals beneath.
“Oh, Abby,” she said in a disappointed voice. “He’s playing for two million dollars, girlfriend. Don’t make more of this than it is. He’s just using you because you’re a vote for him.”
“That’s not what it was like,” I said stiffly. A small, angry part of me was horrified that she’d even think that I was stupid enough to fall for something like that. Or worse yet, that no one could possibly be interested in me for me, just for what I could do for him. She hadn’t been there. “You don’t know Dean like I do.”
Her smile was wry and a bit sad as she came to sit next to me on the log. She nudged me with her elbow. “So tell me, then. Tell me what you know about him that’s different from what I know.”
My mouth went dry. “He doesn’t have a girlfriend—”
“That he told you about,” she interjected smoothly. “Guys will say anything to get laid.”
I threw my hands up in the air. “Why am I bothering to explain anything to you? You’re determined to think he’s a sleazeball and I’m an idiot, right? So it doesn’t matter what I say at this point.”
She grabbed my hand and dragged it back down, then squeezed it to get my attention. “Hey, hey. I’m just trying to be the big sister looking out for you.”
“That’s ironic,” I said in a sulky tone. “I probably weigh double what you do.”
“And you’re about a foot taller,” she agreed.
A smile touched the edges of my mouth and I buried my head in my hands. “Oh god, I hope I didn’t make a stupid mistake. I really, really like him.”
“If he’s half the guy you say he is and you like him, go for it.” Her tiny hand patted me on the back. “I could be wrong about this kind of thing. You never know.”
I desperately hoped she was.
“Besides,” she continued. “Look at it this way. As long as you’re sucking his dick, you’ll have his vote if he makes it to the jury before you do.”
“Lana!”
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” She chuckled and gave me a hug. “Man, who’d have thought that your team would be the one to hook up? I totally did not call that.”
“Me either,” I agreed, shaking my head. “It just kind of happened, you know?”
“That’s usually how things go,” she agreed, digging her toes in the sand next to my own. “I’m not going to say anything to Leon, though.”
Relief shot through me. “Thanks.”
“Nothing to it. I’ve pulled him into our little alliance, but as far as he knows, Will isn’t part of it. It’s just you, me, and Dean. Now we’re four strong, but Will is with us. And when we get to the merge, we’ll have control.” Her eyes gleamed in a predatory way. “And we can pick them all off and waltz right to the millions.”
Chapter Ten
When we first got stranded, I kept thinking about my next meal. Now all I keep thinking about is when I get to touch Abby again. I’m starting to hate when the others come over to our campsite.—Dean Woodall, Day 18