The Contestant. Stephanie Doyle

as a headrest. His arms were crossed over his chest, his eyes were closed. He was clearly done talking for the night.

      Everyone else made their way onto the mat, also, people shifting and struggling to get comfortable, using their T-shirts and packs as cushions and blankets. Talia stared down at the small space left to her and considered how bad the sand mites really could be.

      Then Reuben’s eyes opened, peering through the darkness directly at her. He uncrossed his arms and patted the space next to him in a blatant invitation.

      Lying down with bugs or a snake?

      It was definitely a tough call. But she rationalized her decision with the knowledge that she had no fear of snakes. At least one she was pretty sure wouldn’t bite her in front of the group.

      Stepping over his body, Talia settled down between him and Gus and heard what could only be described as a sigh of deep satisfaction. It hadn’t come from Gus.

      Bastard.

      Chapter 3

      She was warm. Toasty warm. So comfortable that it forced her from a sound sleep because her subconscious knew that she wasn’t supposed to be quite this comfortable.

      Why?

      That’s right, she was on an island. Camping. Outside. Her back should be stiff, her limbs cold from exposure despite the moderate temperature. Instead she was…mmm.

      Talia opened her eyes and found herself staring into the face of a sleeping Reuben. He had one hand under his cheek, the other wrapped snuggly around her waist. Her shirt-covered hands were tucked up between them, gently resting on his chest. And one of his legs was draped casually over her thigh, while her leg had slipped in between his.

      Against her back she felt nothing and when she turned her head to glance over her shoulder, she could see Gus on his side, facing Iris. Except that he wasn’t covering Iris like a candy wrapper. No, only Talia and Reuben were tucked together like a couple used to sleeping together.

      She pushed against his chest gently to create some space, but the instant she did his grip tightened.

      “Closer,” he muttered, pulling her toward him more tightly.

      She felt his strong frame pressed against her body from her toes to her shoulders and willfully denied the tingle throughout her body as a result of his morning erection pressed into her belly.

      Okay, the tingle was getting a little too hot to ignore. Not good.

      Fortunately, another tingling sensation, the feeling that she was being watched—a far worse sensation—brought her immediately to the present. Turning her head and raising it a little bit, she spotted the camera staring at her. It looked like an alien Peeping Tom with arms and legs and one eye.

      “Hmm,” Reuben growled, then moved his hips in a suggestive invitation against hers.

      “Okay, that does it. Show’s over.” With a firm thump against his chest, Talia sent an unsuspecting Reuben rolling off the makeshift mattress onto the sand.

      His eyes popped open. “Hey!”

      But he quieted immediately once he saw the camera. Then, as if realizing what had just happened, and the state he was currently in, he had at least enough shame to blush slightly.

      “Joe, you might want to keep that camera pointed away from me. I understand this is supposed to be a family show.”

      Talia watched Joe’s shoulders shake, then he moved on to his next target, Iris, who was up and had a troubled expression on her face. It was barely dawn—far too early for the bad news Iris was about to impart. Talia wasn’t sure what could have gone wrong between the time they had fallen asleep and the time they woke, but she needed to find out.

      Her first concern, however, was her hands and making sure they had healed enough not to be a nuisance for the duration of her stay. Of course, if there was a problem she only had herself to blame.

      In hindsight she could admit that she’d pushed herself deliberately to prove to Reuben that she could do it. It wasn’t dissimilar to the response she’d always had whenever her diving coach had told her there was something she couldn’t do. She was going to have to work on that. Accountants made sensible decisions, not stubborn ones.

      She gingerly removed the cotton T-shirts from around her hands. Studying them, she saw a few patches of missing skin, but no bleeding and nothing so red that she was worried about infection.

      Tossing the shirts at Reuben’s face, she said, “Thanks for them. And for the record, I’m not playing the role of your stuffed teddy bear for the duration of this game.”

      Reuben pulled the shirts off his head and smirked. “Funny, my stuffed teddy bear never gave me a hard-on in the morning.”

      Since she knew he was baiting her, she did the only thing a respectable woman could do in this situation and ignored him. The goal of this adventure was very clear. Stay long enough to win enough cash to bail her father out and give herself a little breathing room to find a job. Period. Getting involved with the other players, in any way, should be the furthest thing from her mind.

      Not that she was buying Reuben’s crude attempt at seduction. It was no doubt nothing more than a strategy for him to win. He probably thought that by seducing her he could control her. That wasn’t going to happen. He might be wielding his blatant sexual allure like some kind of sword, but she had no intention of being skewered. Not when she wasn’t sure she even liked him.

      Making her way over to Iris, she braced herself for whatever bad news the woman had to report. She got a pretty good indication when she saw that the bucket they had used to collect fresh water yesterday was empty.

      “What happened?” Talia asked even as the others were sitting up, some looking in their direction, others going through their individual morning rituals.

      “There’s a hole in the bucket.”

      Talia took the metal bucket from the older woman’s hand and stared down at the tiny but visible hole smack-dab in the center of the pail.

      Dino and Joe were both at camp this morning filming, but Evan was missing.

      “Hey, Joe,” Talia said, calling him over. “Is this supposed to be some kind of warped challenge?”

      The older man looked at the bucket, but shrugged his shoulders.

      “Got me. Evan didn’t say anything. He dropped us off early to film and took the boat back to work on getting the game set up for today.”

      “What are we going to do without water?” Iris wanted to know.

      At this point, most of the group had been alerted to the fact that they had a problem. Talia wasn’t convinced that this was the result of faulty equipment. It seemed too staged. Probably a gimmick to garner a reaction from the group. But why there was a hole in the bucket didn’t matter as much as what they were going to do now. How were they going to carry and boil water?

      “Let me see.” Reuben sauntered over and took the pail from Talia. He frowned when he saw the hole. “It was full last night, right?”

      “It was when we brought it back from the stream,” Marlie added. “I remember. It was heavy.”

      “We must not have noticed the hole,” Iris suggested. “It must have been dripping all night and gotten bigger.”