Page 54 of Insta Bride
“Yeah, where she can’t run away.”
“Well, Kye, your instructions have been followed and we wish you luck with your date,” Bree finished in her on-camera voice.
“Thanks, I’m going to need it.”
“You want to what?” Elena spun around to me when our date destination was announced to the group. “You want to go on a boat with me—trapped with me all day?”
“That’s right, baby.” My hands snug around her waist, pulling her close enough to kiss, if she’d let me. “Just you and me, baby.”
“And a thousand—”
“Don’t say it.”
We’d already been warned about mentioning the cameras too many times.
“So, you’ve planned a romantic date for two.” At least she didn’t seem to think the whole idea revolting. Small wins. I’d take all the small wins until she became mine, again.
“Can you think the better way of spending a day together? Enjoying the sunshine, enjoying the view, enjoying us.”
“Enjoying us?”
I’d gone out of my way to prove to Elena this wasn’t just some fling, but it had gotten harder and harder to stop my frustration from boiling over. The wise crack she’d made about blue balls the other day was only half wrong. I mean, yes, we were living in the same villa. Yes, we’d had sex once—well, three times but in one night. Since that night, she’d kept to her side of the bed, I’d kept to mine, and then there was Iceland in the middle.
The most I could get was occasionally playing a foot war under the sheets, but try as I might, it never led to anything else.
For the rest of my life, I’d hate on tiger print pyjamas. Elena had three different sets. All satin that hug to her body like water down a waterfall. All her shorts stopped where her ass met her legs. Occasionally, I thought I could smell her arousal, but even if I still had an effect on her, she’d quickly close me down.
Hose me down.
Yep, cold showers had become a thing.
I wanted to rip the tiger print from her body, burn every piece of clothing, recreate them just to burn the lot again.
I’d never hated on fabric more. Even watching them dry outside on our private line filled me with an abnormal rage.
“You, me, and nature.”
“You mean, you and I on the water and talking?”
“Maybe that’s what the two of you are getting wrong,” Matt joked. “Too much conversation and not enough action.”
“Oh, I’m getting enough action,” I quickly replied, hoping Elena would back me up. We had to keep remembering these were the people who could vote us off for not being loved up enough. We were getting towards the end and the two power couples were picking the rest of us off, one by one. They wanted fame and fortune. I wanted more time to get Elena to give us a chance.
True story.
And no, I wouldn’t have believed it a month ago.
“Are you sure about that?” Matt mused.
“You only see what we want you to see.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Benjamin murmured. Seriously, he should look at the piranha sleeping in his own bed. Kenzie would eat his balls for breakfast if he sneezed wrong.
“We don’t need life jackets?” Elena asked as I helped her on board. It was only a small, seventeen metre run around. Large enough for us to be able to have our personal space, small enough for me to convince the producers I could handle it after an hour’s lesson.
Finally, Bree had stopped hating on me for not going forward with the skydiving—another one of her preferred dates. That had been eagerly taken up by Harris and Georgia. Yes, it would make for great television. Yes, they’d have first opportunity to negotiate with the sponsors for after-show gigs. But nothing would have been worth what going up in the sky would have done to Elena.
Ignoring the production crew who was setting up for tonight’s ceremony on the beach, I quickly started the engine and took off into the small bay. If we could just make it more than a couple of hundred metres away from the camera crew who hadn’t expected us to rush off, I could start our conversation in private.