But then the sounds of crunching footsteps on loose rock sounded close, and suddenly white-hot fear curdled deep in her stomach. She snatched her shorts up from the ground and barely registered the wild pheasant picking its way through the underbrush. It wasn’t a person. It was a bird. But still, it was too late. Whatever bubble she’d been floating in a second ago had burst.
“This can’t happen again,” Valerie muttered, shrugging on her shorts.
Adrienne already had her bikini fastened behind her neck and was staring at Valerie with those denim eyes. “Why not?” she asked, tilting her head cockily to the side. And Valerie wondered why not too, because what if she wanted this to happen again? No. No, she didn’t. It was only lust talking, and lust wasn’t here to win the million dollars.
“Because I came here to win,” Valerie said. “Now let’s get back before someone actually comes looking.”
VALERIE HAD HOPED THEYcould just slip back onto the beach unnoticed, praying they could blend into the background before anyone noticed they’d been gone for hours.
Had they been gone for hours? Or had it only felt that long?
But nope. Wishful thinking. Everyone except for Isla and Eden, who were still out enjoying the feast, was huddled around the fire pit. The smell of burning driftwood hung thick in the clearing. Sienna was talking, saying something about a bloody forehead when she’d first met Vivian, and Niko was scraping a machete against a flat stone. The metallic shhhk, shhhk sound was grating on Valerie’s already frayed nerves.
She looked up first. Then frowned. Her bushy eyebrows pulled so tightly together that they formed one continuous line. “Where the hell have you two been?”
Seven other heads looked their way. Valerie opened her mouth, hoping an excuse would miraculously pop into her head, but then Adrienne answered without missing a beat. “Got stuck on the other side of the island looking for wild mint and thyme.” In fact, she said it with such conviction, Valerie was surprised neither of them was holding sprigs of the green bounty. “The tide came up and we couldn’t get back over the rocks.”
Niko turned toward the ocean and, wondrously, the tide had crept higher up the beach. The waves were now crashing closer to the fire pit than they had been earlier. “How did you manage then?” she asked, and suddenly Valerie found Niko to be the most annoying woman in the entire universe. Which was big, considering that an hour ago Adrienne had held that title. “I mean, I’m just trying to paint a picture here. You two have been gone for ages.”
“Nearly two hours,” Hallie said, picking at a blister on her heel.
Sienna, who had just poked a charred stick into a few embers, frowned. “That long?”
“Valerie,” Adrienne said, tilting her head toward her. But instead of giving an explanation as to how Valerie had managed to get them out of the situation, Adrienne walked right past thefire, sat down on an overturned log, and then glanced up at Valerie with a tilt of her head. Worse than that, she was smiling. And a smug smile at that.
Valerie considered giving Adrienne her title of most annoying person on the island back but couldn’t. Not after what Adrienne had done with her tongue.
“Umm...,” Valerie muttered, buying time. “It wasn’t anything drastic. I just found a higher ledge that we managed to scramble onto and over.”
“She pulled me up by my waist,” Adrienne chirped. Were her eyes flirty, or was Valerie just imagining it? Did it matter? “She’s basically Iron Woman.”
There was a moment of pause, followed by an even bigger moment of panic. What if Niko didn’t believe them? Was Valerie hauling Adrienne up by her waist even plausible? Did she have enough upper-body strength? Would Niko make her do push-ups to demonstrate?
And why the hell was Adrienne making things worse?
Or, more importantly, why was Adrienne’s smug face such a turn-on?
But then Niko gave one accepting nod before gesturing toward the other side of the beach. “Well, you’re just in time. Eden and Isla are back from their reward. The boat dropped them off a minute ago.” It quickly became apparent that while Eden, Valerie, and Adrienne were gone, Niko had taken the place of alpha female.
Valerie followed her finger and spotted Eden and Isla walking toward them.
Judging by the dreamy, complacent looks on their faces, they’d both clearly stuffed themselves full of food. Valerie would expect nothing less. To this very day she could remember her first-ever reward, consisting of tire-sized margaritas and the way the tequila had hit her bloodstream after days of rice and beans.Her brain had turned into a fuzzy, floating soap bubble. And the shower where Valerie had caked herself in bergamot oil and stood with her face in the spray, wishing it would never end.
“How was the feast?” Sienna asked when both Isla and Eden had taken up an empty space around the circle. It appeared none of them had any chores to do, and everyone was starved for details. The camera crew included. There were three in total, with shoulder-mounted cameras directed straight at the circle.
“Amazing,” Eden sang. Valerie was sure this was a mirage of sorts, but even Eden’s tattoos looked brighter and more radiant. “The boat dropped us at this hidden cove with a waterfall. We both stood under it for ages before the food arrived.”
“How was the food?” Niko asked, half drooling. Her shaggy wolf cut looked more like a sad, wet dog than anything else. “And do not spare any details.”
Eden laughed a singsong laugh. “Let’s just say I’ve never eaten so well in my life.” She inhaled, dragging out the details. “The fish was swimming in lemon juice, with skin so crispy I’m sure I’m going to hear the crackle in my dreams tonight. And the saganaki... I love cheese, but that took cheese to a whole new level. And they kept bringing us warm pita baskets.”
A collective, physically pained ache ripped right through camp. Valerie felt it deep in her gut. It appeared Adrienne had too. She was chewing on her lip as if it were freshly baked bread.
Valerie tried to catch her eye, but Adrienne was staring at the fire, at the flames licking the blackened rice pot. Valerie willed Adrienne to look her way, but then caught herself. This wasn’t a love story. Hooking up didn’t magically turn Adrienne into someone Valerie liked. Or at least it shouldn’t have.
Did it?
“There was too much food,” Isla said dreamily. She leaned back against a stump and patted her stomach, which once upon a time was as flat as a pancake. “We got through half.”
