Body Games (A Games Novel) (9 page)

But if I didn’t fill his canteen, he’d follow me into the jungle, and I wanted to be alone in the jungle, because I needed to find that forked tree.

The moment I had whatever was in Pandora’s Box, I’d feel safer. Chip had mentioned it when the team had been voted off, which told me that it had something to do with whoever lost Judgment. If it was some sort of ‘get out of jail free,’ I wanted to have it before I started throwing challenges to get rid of Kip.

Because I
definitely
intended on getting rid of Kip.

Heading to the well, I filled the canteens, and then put the lid back on again and sat down on top of it. The carved lid was bumpy and hard, but there weren’t any sand crabs on it, so I didn’t mind. Sitting here gave me a chance to think, and I tried to consider anywhere that the forked tree might have been that I’d missed.

Plus, there was no Kip at the well. Bonus.

As I relaxed, I had a thought. Maybe I hadn’t gone out far enough? I’d assumed the clue meant that the tree was near the well. What if there was other water on the island and I simply hadn’t explored far enough? With that thought in mind, I tucked the canteens under my arm, hopped off the lid, and headed deeper into the trees. I supposed if there was a reward challenge, they’d just have to wait for me to come back.

I hadn’t done much island exploring, mostly because it was frowned on by the production crew, who had to follow us, toting cameras, and because the island was hot, the interior stifling. Within the trees, there was no breeze coming off the water, and I constantly sweated…which meant I needed more water to drink, which meant that I needed to boil more water. It was an ugly, never-ending cycle.

But if the Pandora’s Box clue was further out…it wouldn’t hurt to do a little exploring.

I walked slowly through the dense growth, studying each tree. A cameraman had tailed me, filming a short distance away. I figured he’d have stopped me if I wasn’t supposed to head in this direction, so I continued on. The island wasn’t that big from what I could tell. The beach went around for a fair distance, but I could see bigger islands in the distance. Considering this was someone’s private island, my guess was that it was teeny tiny and just looked bigger because I happened to be living on the beach at the moment. Still, I bet I could cross even a small island and see what was on the other side.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, I heard a rustling noise. Curious, I paused and looked back at the camera man, but he was standing in place and the rustling continued. I tilted my head to hear better and…gasped. It sounded like water.

I pushed through the ferns, heading for the source of the water-sounds. Past a couple more trees, I got a glimpse of a rocky outcropping and what looked like a tiny waterfall. That might have been the island version of a shower, and it sounded awesome to me.

When I pushed into the small clearing where the water was, though, another sight awaited me.

Jendan was there, naked, muscles flexed as he raised his hands and dragged his fingers through his hair. His stomach was taut and tanned, and everything was perfect and, um, protruding.

I froze in place. Oh…oh dear. Heat curled through my body at the sight of him, and I felt my pulse start to slam conspicuously between my legs. Nothing like the sight of a gorgeous man to get the libido racing. It wasn't that Jendan was naked. I'd seen him naked several times at this point. It was that he was incredibly sensual in his enjoyment of the water. His head was thrown back, face lined with ecstasy as water dribbled over his head.

I should have announced my presence, but I only licked my lips and watched as he ran a big hand down one tanned arm, sluicing water off. The more I vowed to play this game celibate, the more this game made me regret it. Sigh. I cleared my throat. "Um, hi?"

He didn't jerk around like he'd been doing something wrong. Instead, Jendan opened his eyes - those dreamy gray eyes - and gave me a lazy smile that made my ovaries do a flip. "I didn't think anyone was out here."

"I didn't either," I told him. "This your camp?"

"No, I don't know that it's anyone's. Mine is a nice long hike that way." He thumbed behind him, and then wiped a bit more water from his face. "I guess we're on the same island?"

"I guess we are," I said, trying to make my voice light and nonchalant, all the while my loins were crying out like that plant in Little Shop of Horrors. FEED ME, SEYMOUR. "So, um,
Endurance Island
shower?"

"Yep. I told Sunnie about it but she doesn't like to hike." He shrugged and stepped out of the water. "Not that there's anything else to do all day."

I watched his buttocks flex as he turned away and climbed out of the small pool, and my mouth went dry. Man, I sure was thirsty all of a sudden. "Can you, uh, drink it?"

"Don’t know, but it still makes a decent shower, right?" He grinned at me then raised his chin at the cameraman following me. "Are we going to be in trouble if we talk?"

"I don't know." I glanced back at him, but he was still filming. "I know people accidentally ran into each other on earlier seasons, and nobody got booted out of the game. I think we're okay."

"Well, in that case, hi, I'm your neighbor, Jendan." He approached me and stuck his big hand out.

I clasped it and swallowed the girlish titter that rose in my throat. "Annabelle."

"I remember," he said, his smile warm.

“Oh, right.” I grimaced. “The lousy lay.” I wanted to strangle Kip with my bare hands for writing that on my back. I still hadn’t come up with the appropriate revenge yet. Just writing ‘Shrimp Dick’ on his back would be satisfying for all of two seconds, but then it’d be blurred out when the shows aired on television. I needed something better. Something lasting. Something underhanded that he’d never see coming. My mind percolated with possibilities.

Jendan’s smile faded. “You know I don’t think that about you.”

“Of course not,” I said lightly. “We haven’t had sex yet.” Then, my face grew scalding hot.
Yet? Yet???? Oh sweet Jesus, Annabelle, don’t talk about sex!
“You know what I mean,” I said quickly, recovering. “And Kip’s just pissed because I won’t let him grope me on the beach.”

“He’s trying to grope you?” Jendan stiffened. “Do you want me to say something to the producers?”

“What? No, no,” I said quickly. That might have been a bit of an exaggeration on my part. “I have it handled.” I didn’t want Kip disqualified from the game.

I wanted to beat him and grind his nose into his failure.

Not that I was bitter.

Jendan still looked unsure, so I decided to change the subject. “How’s Sunnie?”

“She’s…hanging in there as much as possible. Sick, though.”

“Why’s she sick?”

He scratched his head. “We haven’t been able to boil our water and she’s been drinking it.”

“Oh, yikes. You know it’s probably full of parasites?”

“I’m not going to tell her that. She’s still horrified there’s no toilet paper on the island.” He grimaced. “I don’t think this was her idea of roughing it.”

“Has she ever
seen
the show?”

“I’m not entirely sure.” He shrugged. “We’ll get fire eventually. It’s no big deal.”

“What are you drinking?” I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to look nonchalant, but I was concerned. Jendan was a big guy. Already he looked a little hollow around the eyes. If he expected to survive six weeks out here, he was going to have to eat more.

He gave me a rueful look. “Coconut juice?”

“Want me to show you how to make a fire?”

His gorgeous face lit up, doing terrible, naughty things to my hormones. God, that man had a gorgeous smile. But then he shook his head, slowly. “I wouldn’t want to impose on you, Annabelle. I know you’re playing to win, too. And you already bailed me out once, if I read things right.”

“You did,” I told him. “And I need allies in this game. You’re no good to me if you’re falling over on your feet.”

He considered it silently, rubbing the bristle on his jaw.

“Come on. Take what I’m offering. Being nice and fair in this game gets you nowhere.”

His gray eyes fixed on me. “So how come you’re being nice to me?”

I blushed. I couldn’t say that I was a nice girl, could I? And it was stupid of me to be nice to him, on some level. “Like I said, I need allies. My partner is useless.”

His mouth curved into a wry smile. “Sunnie’s not much better. Nice girl, but I wish she’d do something around camp.”

“Maybe we should be secret partners, then,” I suggested. “Work with each other to get to the end.”

He studied my face, then nodded slowly. “That sounds good to me. Shake on it?”

I spit on my hand and offered it to him.

Jendan eyed it. “Well, I wasn’t expecting
that
from you.”

“Spit makes everything more serious,” I told him, and then turned beet red again. Damn. Why was it everything I said to him sounded like innuendo?

But he ignored my blush, laughed, and spit in his own hand, then smacked it against mine.

We shook.

My first secret alliance. Excellent.

Something beeped. Both Jendan and I looked over to the cameraman. He picked up a walkie-talkie from his belt. “Yeah?”

“Reward challenge time and we’re missing two players,” came the tinny voice, followed by a beep.

The cameraman looked at us and spoke into his walkie-talkie. “I’ve got them.”

I looked back at Jendan and gave him a sheepish look. “Guess we’ll have to save the fire-making for another day. Television calls.”

“Come back here tomorrow?” His gaze was intense, his eyes the most stunning shade of gray I’d ever seen. “I want to see you again.”

Music to a girl’s ears. I was riveted despite myself, and nodded, trying not to smile like a loon and failing. “Yeah, okay.”

“See you then.” He waved as he turned around and left.

With a dopey grin on my face, I hustled back to my own beach. There’d be time enough tomorrow to take a dunk in the waterfall and go looking for my forked tree. Maybe Jendan could help me. The thought made me blush and giggle, and for a moment, I hated myself for having a crush on a guy while filming the show. A crush would do zero good. I couldn’t act on it, and if I had to, I’d still vote Jendan out to further my own game.

This time, I was
not
going home.

~~ *** ~~

“Welcome to today’s reward challenge!” Chip waved us in as we walked to our places in line. When everyone was settled in, he gestured at the set-up behind him. “As you can see, this challenge is a fun one.”

I stared up at the gigantic fake tree behind him. Big wooden palm fronds were painted bright green, and the ‘trunk’ of the tree was easily twice as big around as a normal coconut tree. Nestled in the branches of the fake tree were dozens and dozens of coconuts. Some littered the ground already.

“Your object in this challenge is to match coconuts. Each individual will have a chance to do one of two things - either throw a coconut to knock others down from the tree, or to pick up two coconuts on the ground. If you get a match, your team scores a point. The first three teams to ten points win a reward. All the other teams, I’ve got nothing for you.” He gazed at us. “And it’s an important reward.” He went to a nearby podium with a covered basket and pulled off a colored cloth, revealing the prize.

Fire-making implements. “Flint. Steel. Matches. Everything you need to make fire.”

A chorus of cheers went up from down the line. I guessed that less people had fire than they let on.

“This time, rewards are going to come with a twist. You can opt not to participate and eat instead.” He pulled the covering off of the other basket and showed us its contents - donuts and orange juice.

My mouth watered. I looked over at Kip to see if he was thinking the same thing I was, and he was wiping his mouth.

“But just be warned - if you opt not to participate, you’re sending a very clear message to the other participants. Now, is anyone confident enough in their fire to want to sit out of this challenge?”

I hesitated. Looked over at my partner.

Kip didn’t even have to think about it. He grabbed my hand and dragged me forward. “We do, Chip.”

“Us, too.” Leslie and Emilio moved forward.

“All right, that narrows the field for the remaining players. Those of you opting out, step aside so we can do the challenge.”

As I watched giddily, production set up a folding table and folding chairs off to one side and put the basket of donuts and orange juice bottles there. My mouth watered at the sight.

I glanced over at the other players. Some were looking at us longingly. Sunnie was frowning in our direction. Jendan stared straight ahead, not looking at the food.

I felt a twinge of dismay, but it disappeared when the others surged forward to sit down and eat. I pushed my way next to them, sat down in one of the chairs, grabbed a donut and orange juice, and began to feast. The sugar icing the donut melted on my lips and I moaned. It was the best thing I’d ever tasted, after five days of coconuts.