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“I don’t have a girlfriend, either,” she said, not missing a beat.
I turned to look at her, and when I saw a large snake coiled up about a foot from her left foot, I acted on instinct. Machete still in one hand, I wrapped my other arm around her waist and swept her from the ground.
“Archer!” She was indignant until she followed my line of sight to the snake. Then she clung to me like the ground was made of lava. Every inch of her was wrapped around me, and I liked it. I liked it a hell of a lot.
This wasn’t like when I met a woman and wondered what it would be like to have her. I already knew how Lauren and I were together; we were all heat and passion. No pretenses. We’d given each other every inch of our bodies many times, and I still remembered the depth of pleasure in our connection. No matter how many years it had been, there was no way I’d ever forget.
The snake didn’t move. I kept the machete poised, setting Lauren on the ground behind me. She stayed close, her heat making me want to drop the machete and claim her mouth in a deep kiss that would leave us both breathless.
Unfortunately, though, I had to deal with the snake.
“I don’t think it’s venomous.”
“You don’t think?” she shrieked. “Unless you’re one-hundred-percent sure, I’m going to need you to chop that thing into at least ten pieces.”
“No need to piss it off for no reason. Let’s keep going,” I said. “You go first.”
“No! What if it follows us?”
I glared. “It’s not going to follow us. And if it does, I promise I’ll chop it in half.”
She gave me an uncertain look, but then turned and resumed walking.
“This was a bad idea,” she said. “Unless we find a treasure chest full of gold, I’d rather be back at camp.”
She was freaking out, and obviously not so turned on she couldn’t think straight, like I was. If I hadn’t grabbed her, she wouldn’t have even known the snake was there.
“You’re okay,” I assured her. “There’s nothing out here I can’t kill with this machete.”
“This is insane,” she said softly. “It’s summer break. I should be reading late every night and sleeping in every morning. What am I even doing here?”
“You want a ride?” I asked. “Till you calm down a bit?”
She looked at me, her eyes round with shock.
“Do I what?”
I replayed my words and then a single note of laugher burst out of me.
“A piggyback ride, Lo. I wasn’t offering to fuck the fear out of you. But if you want me to—”
“No.” Her cheeks were bright red.
We walked in silence for few minutes, Lauren looking around on high alert. Finally, I said, “You never answered my question.”
“What question?”
I couldn’t make myself say the word “boyfriend” for some reason; it hit too close to what I’d been to her.
“Are you with someone?” I asked instead.
“Does it matter?”
I sighed, aggravated. “Lo, stop avoiding the question. Just tell me.”
“No. I wouldn’t have agreed to do the show if I was in a relationship.”
That surprised me. “Why not?”
She shrugged. “You never know how shocking they’re going to try to make these shows. How they’re going to edit things. They could be trying for an angle that we’re still into each other. I know, it’s ridiculous, eight years later.”
According to the boner in my shorts, it wasn’t ridiculous at all, but I grunted in pretend agreement.
“If I had a partner, I wouldn’t want him doing this,” she said.
“Yeah, I guess I’d feel the same way.”
Lauren laughed lightly. “From the women I got to know at the resort before the show started, there are a lot of hard feelings on all the teams. The producers will have a hard time editing things to make it look like any of these ex-couples are into each other.”
Her words stung. Apparently, I was the only one feeling anything. She planned to keep me cast as the villain in our story, even though there was something important she didn’t know.
And she never would.
