“What do you want?” Jendan asked, looking at me with those sharp gray eyes. “The bar’s an open one for anyone on the show.”
“Um…chocolate milk?” The look he gave me was so odd that I blushed. “I know, it’s stupid, but I’ve been fantasizing about chocolate milk instead of beer.”
He gave his head a small shake, but motioned for the bartender to come over. “A chocolate milk for my friend here.” When the bartender disappeared to fill my order, Jendan looked at me again. “You’re not eating?”
I considered the bowl of inevitable lactose intolerance in front of me, then decided I didn’t care if it made me sick. I shoveled a big spoonful into my mouth, then closed my eyes, savoring it. God, that was good.
“You look skinny,” Jendan told me. “And dirty. And you smell.”
“You prince charming, you,” I said between gulping bites of my food. “And here I was feeling guilty for voting you off.”
“Were you really, though?”
I thought for a moment, my mouth full of ice cream. Then, I swallowed and shook my head. “Not really. You had to go if I was going to win the million.”
He laughed. Threw back his head and laughed. “I’m glad it wasn’t personal.”
An enormous glass of chocolate milk was set in front of me, and I put my bowl down and clutched it with both hands, suddenly greedy for it. “None of it was personal.” I gulped down the milk and then added, “Well, except for Kip. That was personal. But I’d kind of planned on getting him out on day one, which was why it pissed me off when they did the partner switch and you got stuck with me. I didn’t want to have to use it on you.”
“I knew.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. I mean, when I was first voted off, I was a little mystified at how you could turn on me. But then a few things clicked into place. Like how come you looked as if you’d been sucking lemons when we got the partner switch. You did not look happy at all, and I couldn’t figure it out.”
I blushed. “I was happy about some aspects. A little too happy. And that was another problem.”
He just grinned.
I licked my spoon clean and then smacked him on the arm with it. “So what’s with the poker face at every Judgment? I thought you were furious at me!”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Thought I’d make you sweat a little for voting me out.”
“Evil,” I said with a shake of my head. “You are pure evil, Jendan Abercrombie.”
He leaned forward, a bit closer to me. “And you, Annabelle Tucker, have a milk mustache.”
I put a hand to my mouth, giving it a bit of a wipe. “Sorry.”
“Here, let me get that for you,” he murmured, and then leaned in.
His mouth grazed mine.
His tongue slid across my parted lips.
Stunned, I sat there and clutched my chocolate milk, staring at him.
He kissed my upper lip again, slowly, thoughtfully, and warmth began to spread through my limbs.
“Y-you’re not mad at me?”
“I’m trying to kiss you,” he murmured against my mouth. “That’s not what mad people usually do.”
“But you said I smell—“
“You do.” He pulled back a little and his gray eyes were twinkling, and oh, there were crinkles at the edges of his eyes that made my girl parts do flips. “I’m not going to lie, you smell pretty rank.”
“Then why kiss me?”
“Because I’ve wanted to for weeks and it’s made me crazy anticipating it?”
I licked my lips, wondering if I could still taste his mouth on mine. “How…how was it?”
He reached out and cupped my face. “Sweet. Like you.”
“Not…stinky?” I huffed a breath on my wrist and then sniffed it.
“Don’t worry. You can have a shower before we go to bed.” His eyes grew dark as he adjusted the collar of my bathrobe, sliding it shut where it gaped. “Together.”
Jiminy cricket. I crossed my legs so my sex would stop throbbing, and just stared at his mouth. God, he had a pretty mouth. All smiling and wonderful with beautiful teeth—
Jendan leaned in. “The faster you eat, the faster we can get to bed.”
I shoveled more ice cream into my mouth.
~~ *** ~~
It turned out that we didn’t get to bed anytime soon after that. The cast party went on for hours, and when someone decided they wanted late night fajitas, both Alys and I wolfed down every serving they put in front of us. We were starving, and everyone was content to sit by and let us eat while they picked at all the delicious food laid out for the cast and crew. Jendan nursed a beer or two and kept a hand at the waist of my bathrobe, letting everyone know I was taken.
God, it was a great feeling.
My eyelids began to close as exhaustion set in, and I nodded off once or twice mid-conversation, only to jerk awake again a moment later. Jendan retrieved me from face-planting into someone’s plate a moment later. “Annabelle’s tired. She needs to head to bed.”
We said our goodbyes, though it was mostly a blur to me. I struggled to stay awake, pinching my arms and widening my eyes to try and wake my body up. I couldn’t be tired. This was my last night on the island. I wanted to spend it talking to Jendan and then seeing if he was interested in kissing me more.
And then maybe doing more than kissing.
But I couldn’t stop yawning. By the time Jendan steered me to my room, I was too sleepy to appreciate the fact that my bag of clothing was in one corner. “A bed,” I said between yawns. “Look at that. A big fluffy bed.”
“I hear they have one of those in every room,” he teased.
“Oh God, a bed. I can’t wait to climb into it,” I said, running a hand across the crisp white duvet.
Jendan tugged me away from it. “You should shower first. You don’t want to get it all dirty.”
“Oh, that’s right.” I sniffed my arm. Couldn’t smell anything. After so many days of living in my own stink, I could no longer sense it. But judging from other people’s reactions, I was pretty sure I reeked. Okay, shower first. I stripped off my robe and tossed it to the floor, heading into the bathroom…and then paused. Should I have been concerned about stripping down in front of Jendan? I hadn’t given it a second thought. I’d been na**d in the game for the last six weeks.
But…we weren’t in the game any longer.