Cam goes bright red and is the very picture of guilt.
‘We discussed a few things,’ I say in an innocent tone, while scrapping about in my sex-fuzzled brain for something concrete to give him.
There was very little discussion going on last night. Very little. I may have asked if Cam needed some water one time when he emerged from beneath the sheets looking utterly exhausted. Apparently, I am one of those women who can have multiple orgasms, one after the other. But I am also one of those women, he said, who becomes wildly insatiable when not fully serviced. Who knew?
‘Great. What’s our next step?’ Ty says, switching to efficient lawyer mode.
Now it’s my turn to go bright red.
‘We established a good solid foundation for going forward,’ Cam says diplomatically. ‘Okay. Let’s see what is going on inside the villa.’
He has executed a perfect deflection to spare my blushes.
We watch Lois interacting with all the Islanders. Cam rewinds footage of last night and he and Ty listen to me ooh and aah about how gorgeous my sister looks, and how friendly and open she is being with all the cast. She’s an expert at flirting, that’s for sure. Then we watch Lois perform her much-talked-of party piece.
Tyrone groans as we watch Lois undress one of the fellas with such speed and efficiency that, when she steps back to reveal him wearing a mankini made entirely of bandages, everybody gasps as though she is a real magician. She’s even had time to fold his clothes and places them carefully in his outstretched arms.
The Islanders love it, and Lois gets lots of claps and praise.
I’m in no hurry to go back to the villa. I could stay in bed with Cam instead, doing all manner of exotic things for days on end.
‘Lois is enjoying herself way too much for my liking,’ says Tyrone. We watch her being pulled for a chat by a very hot muscle-mountain who is clearly impressed with her skill set. ‘How fast can we airlift her out of there?’
‘Cam can smuggle me back in during one of the next outings,’ I reluctantly say. ‘But how do we get Porscha to change her mind about me being on the show?’
‘Simple,’ says Tyrone. ‘She’s jealous of Cam with other women, right?’
We listen to Ty outline a perfectly plausible yet quite ridiculous plan that involves Cam spending too much time alone with Porscha in order to deflect the attention away from me.
‘No. He shouldn’t be doing that,’ I say. ‘It’s too haphazard. Too reliant on external variables.’
I have developed a sudden jealous streak.
‘Well, the alternative is you do it,’ says Tyrone. ‘Make sure you couple up with one of the guys in the villa to take the heat off Cam instead.’
‘No,’ says Cam. ‘Too obvious.’
Maybe he has suddenly developed a jealous streak too.
‘Are you going to veto any suggestion that involves you not being with each other?’ Tyrone asks. He’s gone full barrister mode.
‘No.’ And yes.
‘Is there something going on that I should be aware of?’ he probes, his shoulders starting to shake.
‘No. Of course not,’ I say.
‘Are you sure?’ He’s finding himself increasingly hilarious. ‘You two are behaving like loved-up teenagers,’ he adds, sounding like a father figure.
Cam is studying the keyboard while I am studying my lovely, pedicured toenails.
‘We do need to agree on something,’ says Tyrone. ‘I would like my fiancée back so that we can enjoy our holiday together, rather than me watching her enjoy the holiday on her own.’
He’s right.
* * *
Cam has engineered it so that Lois is going on a date with one of the new guys. The date is a romantic candlelit picnic on the beach at sunset. When Lois needs to go to the nearby makeshift toilet cabin, I will be waiting inside, ready to switch clothes. I’ve had to study what hair and make-up she is doing and, thanks to Cam, she is bringing the lipstick with her in her purse. It should work.
