And, okay, starting to get turned on.
For one, he had big thigh muscles. Big, rock-hard thighs, and I felt them flex every time he shifted in his seat. His arm occasionally moved, and my breast would brush up against it. My nipples were aching with the need to be touched, but I closed my eyes and tried not to think about those sorts of things. Instead, I put my cheek on his shoulder and tried to think about sleep.
“I like being here with you, you know,” he murmured, and his voice was so husky and deep that a shiver rippled through me.
“You do?”
“Yeah. You always give one hundred percent. And you’re willing to help me out even though I haven’t done much to help you.”
“It’s because you have a blanket,” I teased, though I felt a little shaky at his soft words.
“You’ve been helping me since before that,” he said with a nudge, and I opened my eyes to see him staring down at me. “I feel like we’re in this together, even though we’re on different teams.”
And his mouth crooked into that little half smile that sent my hormones racing.
And although it was a terrible idea, I was going to kiss him. I kind of had to. I wanted to know what I was missing out on. The moment was impossible to resist. I leaned in, and as I did, he leaned closer to me. His nose brushed against my cheek, then the tip of my own nose. His mouth was so close to mine that I could smell a hint of coconut on his breath, could see the stubble along his strong jaw, and—
Something crashed through the underbrush nearby.
We immediately broke apart, and I jerked to my feet. “What was that?”
Jendan stood and pushed the blanket into my hands. “Hold onto this. I’ll check it out.”
Before he could step forward, though, someone pushed through the bushes and stepped into the trees near us. Someone with curly, shoulder length hair and cussed when he stepped on a rock.
Kip. My partner.
I sighed in annoyance, tucking the blanket around my body. Was there no escaping the jerk? “Kip, what are you doing here?”
“I should be asking that, Annabelle. After all, I’m the one you abandoned to come snuggle with the enemy.”
I said nothing. I had abandoned him to come and snuggle with the enemy. But the enemy was just so darn sexy.
“Hey man,” Jendan said, his tone of voice easy. “Annabelle said she was cold at night so I offered to share my blanket with her. It’s no big deal.”
But Kip ignored him, stomping over to my side. “I can’t believe you,” he hissed. “There are other people on this island and you didn’t tell me?”
I refused to be guilted by my partner. “You might have noticed if you ever set foot from camp.”
“I might have known if you’d have said something,” Kip snarled. “Did you ever think I was tired of just talking with you?”
I ignored the stab of guilt I felt. It hadn’t occurred to me that Kip wanted to meet Sunnie and Jendan, mostly because Kip was so unpleasant I couldn’t wait to get away from him. Maybe he’d have been more pleasant if he was around other people. I supposed we could have pooled our resources…
“Or did you decide to whore your way into a few more allies? Is that why I wasn’t invited to hang out?” Kip snarled.
“Hey,” growled an angry male voice, and I was shocked to see Jendan step in front of Kip and push him away from me before he could grab my arm and shake me again. “Watch what you fucking say,” Jendan told Kip. “Annabelle’s done nothing wrong.”
“Oh, trust me, I know what I’m talking about. I’ve fucked her,” Kip said with a sneer. “I know how shitty she is in bed.”
Annnnd my humiliation was now complete. I wanted to shrink into the trees and disappear.
“You need to turn around and leave,” Jendan said in a soft voice to Kip. He didn’t look back at me cowering behind him. “If you keep saying that shit, I’m going to mess your face up with my fists. Understand?”
“Fine, fine, whatever. Just tell my partner,” he sneered the word, “that I’d like to have a nice talk with her on the beach when she gets done here twisting you around her finger so you can do her bidding.” With one final look of disgust at me, Kip turned and stalked back into the trees, heading for our camp.
Silence fell. I bit my lip, feeling awkward. Jendan continued to stand in front of me, practically vibrating tension, until we could no longer hear Kip’s footsteps in the jungle. Then, he turned and looked at me. I was unable to read his expression in the darkness, but it worried me.
“I’m sorry about that,” I told Jendan. “Maybe I should have told him I’d found you guys here. I just try not to talk to Kip unless I can help it. He doesn’t make things easy for me.”
“I see that,” Jendan said, tone deliberately bland - too bland. He took the blanket and began to settle it around my shoulders, and I realized I was shaking.
But…it wasn’t my blanket, and I knew just as much as Jendan did that those sorts of rewards were hard won, and if others found out Jendan was sharing with me, not only would I be resented, but Jendan would, too. Kip’s jealousy could ruin the game for both of us. So I peeled the (warm, delicious, heavenly) blanket off of my shoulders and gave it back to Jendan. “I should go back to camp and smooth things over with him.”
“You don’t have to,” Jendan said, his voice still that same, oddly stiff tone.
But…that wasn’t an invitation to stay.
“No, I should go. If I stay out here, it’s just going to add fuel to the fire.” Reluctantly, I pushed the blanket into his hands. “I’ll smooth things out with Kip.”
“It’s cold.”
“I know. I’ll be fine. I have a shelter.” For what it was worth. I gave Jendan a game smile that he probably couldn’t even see in the darkness. “Thanks for trying to share, though. It was a great thought.”
“Want me to walk you back to your camp?”
“No, I’ve got it. See you tomorrow.” I waved into the darkness and then began to head back to my end of the beach. I paused, then turned and added, “I’m not using you, you know.”
“I know,” he said softly.
“Bye.”
Jendan didn’t follow me, and I headed off into the darkness alone. Now I had to go and soothe the ruffled feathers of the partner I didn’t want until I could boot him off. The next challenge would be a Judgment challenge, at least, and I planned on throwing it. No playing around this time. I was going to do whatever it took to ensure that Kip and I ended up on the bottom. Then, all it would take would be a few innocent, veiled comments about how strong Kip was and everyone would vote for us, thinking my partner was a threat…and then he’d be gone.
I just needed to put my plan into action before Kip opened his big fat mouth. Again.
When I got back to camp, Kip was hogging my shelter. I sat on the edge of the woven mat I’d made and looked at him. “Kip, do you want to talk?”
“No,” he said, voice sulky.
I sighed. Time to stroke his ego. “You know you’re the strongest, most dangerous guy in this competition, Kip.” Gag me. “I was just chatting with Jendan to try and get information out of him and his partner.”
“That didn’t look like chatting to me. It looked like I interrupted make out point.”
Okay, so that wasn’t too far off the mark. I didn’t argue, just tried a different tactic. “It’s all strategy.”
“Did you ever think that maybe I wanted to spend time with that hot redhead? Snuggle under her blankets? But no, you’re selfish.”
My jaw dropped. So Kip wasn’t mad about anything other than he didn’t get to cozy up to Sunnie? I threw my hands up in disgust. Trying to talk to Kip was like hitting my head against a brick wall.
I just couldn’t please anyone tonight.
As if the island gods were watching, the skies opened up and began to pour, raining down on me.
Naturally. Everyone was crapping on Annabelle Tucker today.
Chapter Thirteen
“It took everything I had not to punch Kip straight up into his smug, shitty mouth. The only thing that stopped me was knowing that if I did, I’d be removed from the game and his ass would still be here, tormenting Annabelle. It’s rough when you can’t defend your girl.” — Jendan Abercrombie, Day 14, Endurance Island: Power Players
The next day, there was a tiny, red, rolled-up note in our team mailbox. Kip trotted over and showed it to me while I sat, curled up on a rock in the sun and tried to get warm.
It had rained buckets last night. Rained so hard and so long that what little we had was soaked, and the shelter had fallen apart. The temperature had dropped and this morning it still felt chilly. Our fire was nothing but an ashy puddle - it was the first time it had gone out since we’d gotten here. Our wood was soaked, so there would be no new fire until we could get dry tinder.
With no fire, no clothing, and no shelter, I couldn’t get warm. My teeth chattered and my skin felt like a million raised goose bumps. Over and over, I thought of Jendan and his thick wool blanket. God, why had I returned to camp with Kip? I must have been three kinds of stupid.
At least today would be a Judgment challenge. Then, it was goodbye to Kip.
My partner came and sat next to me on my rock, blocking out my sunlight. I glared at him, but he ignored it, focused on unrolling the red note.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Team mail,” he said, his eyes scanning the message.
“You going to read it aloud?” I tried - and failed - to keep the annoyance from my voice. “Seeing as how I’m part of this team?”
“Oh, are you? I wasn’t sure after last night’s little escapade.”
I rolled my eyes. Bitter, party of one. “I came back, didn’t I?”
“Not of your own volition.”
He had a point. “Just read the damn thing aloud, will you?”
Kip finally did. “It’s been two weeks, but you’re not done / Many teams will leave as we narrow down to one / Pack up all your things and wait for pick-up / Today’s not a challenge, but a mix-up.”
I looked at Kip in horror. “A mix-up?”
“Yeah. Sounds like they’re mixing up the teams?” He looked over at me and smirked. “I can’t say I’m sorry to be rid of your ass. You’ve sucked in the last few challenges.”
Because I’ve been trying to get rid of you, I wanted to retort, but bit my angry words back. A mix-up was not good news. My Pandora’s Box secret word only allowed me to vote off my partner, and I’d desperately wanted to use it on Kip.
If Kip wasn’t my partner, that was really going to mess up my game plan.
I was silent as we packed up what was left of our sad little camp. Most of our lean-to had washed away in the rain, but I’d woven a few mats and wanted to take those with me. I folded and tucked them under my arm as Kip grabbed his canteen and his sneakers. Other than that, we had nothing. We hadn’t won rewards to take home with us like some of the others had. Our cook pot and our machete stayed at camp for whoever came next.
Of course, with my lousy luck, I’d probably be the one coming back to nothing but a sludgy lean-to and Kip would get to go someplace with tons of goodies.
I tried not to think about that.
~~ *** ~~
A short time later, everyone was lined up on the challenge beach. Instead of our normal row line-up that we did, marked rectangle woven mats were labeled with our team numbers, and we had to go stand on ours. I looked down the line at who remained. Jendan and Sunnie were at the far end of the beach - Team two. Kissy and Rusty - Team four - were in the middle. Two loners - Saul of Team five and Alys of Team six - stood on their mats by themselves. To our left was Leslie and Emilio of Team seven, and Kip and I were at the end of the line on our Team Eight mat.
Ten people left.
Chip stood on a platform opposite us, clean and fresh-seeming despite the foul weather. He ignored the cameras circling around and adjusted the lid on a woven basket on a stool at his side. As I watched, production people put new, colored mats out in a line a short distance away. Five of them - that told me we were all still going to be on two man teams. We were still five men and five women, so I wondered if we’d be matched up randomly or if they’d assigned us again. Neither would surprise me.
People began to whisper as production crews then walked to the colored mats and began to place baskets on each mat. The red mat got a small basket. The yellow mat on the far end got an enormous basket. Green, purple and blue had baskets somewhere in the middle, and I wondered what those were for.
“Do you think that’s food?” Kip asked me, and my mouth watered at the thought.
I shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.” I hoped so. Our island was running low on taro and I was getting tired of coconut.
Chip clapped his hands together and then rubbed them, a sign he was about to begin speaking. A production assistant rushed forward, clipped his microphone to his collar, and then rushed away again. Chip ignored her. “Welcome to today’s mixer. I’m sure you’re all wondering what’s going on.” At our silence, he continued, the broad, toothy smile on his tanned face. “It’s time for a little change-up in how things are working. We’re going to be drawing for new partners.”
A muffled groan rose up from where we stood. I didn’t know who groaned, but I felt the same way. I should have been excited to get rid of Kip, but I was just annoyed that it was going to mess up my plans to get him booted.
Chip pulled off the lid of the basket and pulled out two burlap baggies, one marked “MEN” and one marked “WOMEN”. “You’re each going to draw from these bags,” he said, holding them out. “The color rock that you pick will tell you what color mat to go to. The person on that mat with you will be your new partner. And since we’re not totally heartless —” he paused for a weak chuckle from us — “we’re giving you lunch. One of the mats has an amazing picnic lunch. One just has a coconut and some water. The others have something in between. You’ll take your lunch, your partner, and then go back to your new camp and I’ll see you again in a few days for the next challenge. Everyone understand?” At our nods, he jumped down from his platform and headed toward Jendan and Sunnie’s mat. They carried their prized blankets. Someone would be glad to have them on their team.
My stomach gave a nervous twist as I watched Jendan reach into the men’s bag. This could totally mess up my game.
Jendan pulled his hand out and showed us the blue rock he’d drawn. His gaze flicked to me and then he strolled across the sand to the blue mat and crossed his arms, waiting.
“Jendan’s our first new blue team member,” Chip said, then held the bag out to Sunnie. She drew and pulled out a yellow rock, and squealed with delight. “Sunnie’s our first yellow team member,” Chip said, continuing his recap.
She pranced over to the yellow mat and gave a wiggle of excitement, clearly enthused at being on the team with the biggest basket.
“You don’t seem upset to be losing your partner, Sunnie,” Chip commented as he moved down to Kissy and Rusty’s mat.
“Oh, I’m sad to lose Jendan, but I’m more excited that I’m going to eat,” she said, clapping her hands like a little girl.
“It’s okay,” Jendan called, a smile on his face. “My feelings aren’t hurt.” He looked over at Sunnie and winked.
I had to quell the surge of jealousy I felt at his affectionate glance at Sunnie. They were just friends. He looked at her as a lazy little sister.
Still, the jealous part of me didn’t like it.
Down the line Chip went. Kissy was the next to draw, and pulled a red rock. Her husband Rusty pulled a yellow rock. The pillows were split up between them, each of them taking one. Rusty looked thrilled to be on the yellow team - his wife and Sunnie, not so much. As he joined Sunnie on the yellow mat, he tried to hug her, and she nervously squirmed away. My guess was that her thrill at having the biggest basket was going to fade because now she had the least athletic male partner.
Sa
ul was the next to pull, and he got purple. Alys got purple as well, and she high-fived Saul as she stepped onto the mat next to him. I watched them thoughtfully. Both had been playing as singles and looked far too delighted to have a partner again. They were going to bond simply because they were now paired together, and that meant they needed to be watched closely.
Leslie drew the next rock - green. I was surprised when Emilio, her partner, also pulled green. “Looks like the two of you get to stay together,” Chip commented. Oddly enough, Emilio and Leslie didn’t look super pleased. They exchanged glances and headed on to the mat together. I wondered if there was some room to plant a bit of dissension between them…if I ever got a chance to talk to them alone. After all, if they weren’t working together, it was better for me.
“Well, shit,” Kip said under his breath.
I looked over at him, curious. Then I looked at Chip. He strolled over to us, in no hurry. “Well, since we only have one man and one woman left on the two teams that still need to be filled, it looks like there’s not much mystery in whose team you’ll be on, Kip and Annabelle.”
Oh. I hadn’t even noticed. I looked over at the mats, and then swallowed hard. Kissy stood on the red mat by herself, and Jendan was on blue…
Jendan was now my partner. My heart did a crazy little leap in my breast, and then dismay swept over me as I realized what that meant. If we lost a challenge, I might have to vote Jendan off to save myself.
Shit. I suddenly wanted Kip back.
Kip dragged the red rock out of the bag Chip held out for him, looking supremely unenthused. He sighed heavily at the red rock in his hand and then went to Kissy’s side, so much annoyance on his face that I was rather pleased to see it. Kissy crossed her arms over her sagging breasts. “Ain’t like I’m happy to be with you either, young man.”
Everyone laughed. Everyone, that is, except Kip. His face just purpled a bit under his tan, and he glared at the rest of us. Kip now had the smallest basket, and I’d have bet money that it contained a coconut and water.
I couldn’t help it. I smiled broadly.