Bedroom Games (3 page)

Unfortunately for me, the cute little
Southern blonde was currently clinging to his hand and following
him into the house. I guessed they were still together. That was
all right, really. Liam was hot, but with the blonde, he kind of
melted my heart a bit.

Katy gave us all a nervous smile, stepped a
little closer to Liam, and waved with her bright yellow #2
envelope. Then she stepped aside, and the third person moved
forward.

Everyone groaned.

Brodie Short was the third
person. I recognized him from
The World
Races
, too. He was handsome, of course.
Tall and blond and tanned. Good looking. He’d also sold his sister
out on the very first episode and spent the rest of the show either
playing tonsil hockey with Tesla Spooner (the lead singer
for
Finding Threnody
) or screwing over other contestants to claw his way to the
top of the heap.

In short, they’d given us celebrity lovebirds
with Katy and Liam and the villain in Brodie. Everyone loved Katy
and Liam. Everyone hated Brodie.

I didn’t want Brodie here, either. I was the
one planning on lying and scheming my way to the top this summer. I
didn’t want competition. So I couldn’t help the frown on my face as
the three of them sat in the stools in the front row next to me.
Blond, handsome Brodie sat next to me and flashed me a pearly white
grin.

I glared at him, stone-faced.

Liam, now seated, turned to the others. He’d
let go of Katy’s hand and held up his envelope. “We’re supposed to
read these to you guys in order. I’ve got number one.” He gave
everyone a faint smile as they cheered and clapped, and then he
tore the seal on his envelope and began to read. “To make this
summer more fun, we’ve brought in a few contestants you might
recognize from another reality TV show. Brodie, Liam, and Katy will
all be playing alongside you for the million dollars.”

We clapped politely, but in my mind, I was
sizing up the competition, and I knew the others were doing the
same. I glanced to the back row and my friend was smiling, but a
little less broadly. I knew what he was thinking. Brodie was a
tool, and Katy and Liam had already won a million. They didn’t need
another million dollars.

“All right,” Katy said, and her voice was a
soft, almost-shy drawl. “I guess I read mine next.” She tore open
her envelope, scanned it, and began to read. “House Guests, your
first task will be a competition to determine where everyone
sleeps. This summer, our House Guests will be staying in the most
haunted plantation in America.”

Everyone groaned.

I twirled my foot more rapidly, thinking
hard. Hauntings? Seriously? I didn’t believe in ghosts, but this
place was rather creepy. Was that the shtick that Jimmy had
mentioned? A haunted house?

Katy continued to read. “This plantation is
called The Magnolias. It was built in 1796, and since that time,
its history has been tragic. Every single family that has owned
this house has met a terrible death. From fire in 1803 to an
outbreak of the measles in 1840 to loss in the Civil War. After the
Civil War, it changed hands once more, and from there on out,
grisly rumors of hauntings and vengeful ghosts began.” Katy looked
up from her card and gave Liam a wide-eyed stare. Then she
continued reading. “The person that wins the Power Play will stay
in the Power Room, which you will find quite luxurious. After that,
contestants can either stay in the Mirror Room or the Queen Room.
Both rooms have their own particular charm. Contestants that do not
fare so well in the competition must stay in the Hanging Room in
the attic. No less than three different people have hung themselves
in the attic here in The Magnolias over the past century, and
rumors are that their ghosts remain still. And since we currently
have two extra contestants, those who come in last place this week
will sleep on the couches.”

“I think I’d rather sleep on the couches than
in the attic,” someone muttered behind me.

Katy flipped over the card. “That’s all mine
says.” She wrinkled her nose again. “I guess we’re living in a
haunted house.”

Oh great.

Katy nudged her brother. “Brodie, what does
yours say?”

He grinned and began to tear open his
envelope, reading. “Contestants will compete in the Power Play
right now. You will all proceed to the backyard of the plantation
once you have finished reading this card, and the first Power Play
competition will begin. The winner of the Power Play will not only
win Power for the week and his or her private room, but they will
also win the chance to choose their partner. That’s right,
everyone’s playing in partners this season.” He read the dramatic
words slowly, a grin spreading across his face. “The person in
Power will choose their partner; everyone else will be forced to
pair up randomly.” Brodie looked over at me and winked. “Maybe I’ll
get lucky and hook up with you, huh?”

Ugh. I thwacked his arm with one of my
now-heel-less shoes, unamused. “Not all of us consider that
luck.”

Brodie simply wiggled his eyebrows at me, as
if convinced I’d fall for his charm, and tore his card in half.
“That’s all it says. Shall we head to the backyard?”

“Let’s go!” A woman called behind me, and
then everyone was cheering again.

House Guests
had officially started for the summer.

CHAPTER TWO

“
Were the other guests
pleased to see me? That’s like asking a hard-partying rock star if
she’s pleased to have a hangover. And trust me, I already know the
answer to that.”
— Brodie Short, Day
1

The
backyard of The Magnolias seemed more like something from a war
compound than a TV show. There was a lovely yard, of course, with a
tree or two along the edges to give the house some sort of
ambiance. There was even a small pool and a hot tub off to one
side. I guessed that they still wanted us to wear bikinis despite
the haunted house theme. The far end of the yard, though, had been
cordoned off with a twenty-foot-high, solid wall topped with barbed
wire and cameras. Jeez. I curled my bare toes as we stepped onto
the grass and I realized it wasn’t real grass but
Astroturf.

The majority of the backyard had been
converted into a challenge area and roped off. A stop sign was
planted to one side, and it had a card dangling from a peg that had
READ ME FIRST written on the back. As I trailed behind the others,
I noticed that Brodie had sprinted toward the sign, and I tried not
to roll my eyes. Overachiever. I studied the roped-off challenge
area instead.

The grass had been covered with an enormous,
reddish mat, and I could see that stations had been set up in a
strategic circle. Big fake vampire heads sat across from each
station, mouths gaping open like muppets waiting to be fed. Each
station also had a block, and each block was encircled by what
looked like a bubbling pool of blood.

Cute. They were really going all out with
this whole ‘horror’ theme.

Brodie cleared his throat obnoxiously and
began to read. “Contestants! Get ready for your first challenge.
Your first task as a House Guest will be to feed a very hungry
vampire. And what do vampires eat? Blood, of course. Everyone will
proceed to a station and wait for the buzzer. Once the buzzer has
gone off, you can retrieve your special ‘vampire feeding’ hula hoop
from your pool of blood. These hula hoops are specially made so
that they fill up with blood when you dunk them. You must dunk your
hula hoop, and then hula. When you do, it will spray blood into
your waiting vampire’s mouth. Each vampire has a small bag at the
base of his throat. The first person to fill up their bag with
blood wins Power for the week and the right to choose their
partner. Does everyone understand the rules?”

One girl raised her hand, like we were in
class. “Um, is it real blood?” Her voice was high-pitched and
whiny.

Brodie gave her a devilish look that I
recognized as flirtation. “Guess we’ll find out soon enough, won’t
we?”

I had to hold back the urge to make a gagging
noise. We hadn’t been in the house for five minutes and already the
guy had tried to romance me and now this chick. He was so
obvious.

“Do you think they’re really going to have
this much real blood for a TV show? Really?” someone else
muttered.

“Why don’t we just head out to our stations
already?” Liam said. He grabbed Katy’s hand and pulled her forward,
and they went under the cordoned rope, moving out into the
challenge area. I followed them and noticed that everyone else did
as well.

I picked a station across from Katy and Liam
and stepped onto the platform, wiggling my bare feet. I glanced
down at the circle surrounding my small square platform. Sure
enough, it was full of some thick, viscous red fluid that I
suspected was more like dyed corn syrup than blood. Somewhere in
that circle was a hula hoop.

As we waited on the buzzer, I put my hands on
the hips of my tight dress and assessed the other contestants. Six
guys, six girls. For the guys, there was Brodie and Liam, the nice
guy I’d met when I’d tripped, an older man with gray hair, and two
others that were about my age. There was an older woman with wild
and crazy gray hair, another woman with a short pixie cut that
looked like a soccer mom, a gorgeous Hispanic woman, and a tall
girl with long, silky red hair that I was pretty sure I recognized
from somewhere. Another celebrity? At any rate, I looked like the
most athletic of the women, though a few of the men looked like
they could be powerhouses. If we had male versus female
competitions, I could physically dominate the other women.

Of course, that wasn’t going to be my
strategy at all. I was going to lay low and coast, hopefully hang
out somewhere in the middle for the first while. Suss people out,
see how things were falling, and then make my move.

The buzzer sounded.

We flew into action. I stepped off the
platform and sunk my hands into the blood, looking for the hula
hoop. Sure enough, the liquid was thick and sticky, and I could
hear a few disgusted squeals down the row as other people figured
this out. I grasped the hula hoop and hitched it around my hips. My
fingers ran along it and I felt a few widely-spaced holes that were
even now dribbling the liquid. Once we started ‘hula-ing,’ it’d
fling out of the hoop and hopefully into the vampire’s mouth.

And since I was a Zumba instructor? I could
totally rock this challenge. I could win the Power Play, get myself
a sweet room to sleep in, and decide who to vote out the first
week.

Annnnd that would paint a huge target on my
back from day one. Not my goal. So I pretended to fumble with my
hula hoop, and then I began to hula slowly, swinging the hoop
around my hips. Sticky ‘blood’ spattered and dribbled down my
clothing, and I realized there was a trick—if I hooped slow, the
blood didn’t sling out far enough. If you slung the hoop around
fast a few times, it would spray the blood far, which I realized
when Liam reached one tattooed arm out, slung his hoop around his
waist quickly, and then let it drop back to the ground.

Good, I thought. Let him win. I sure didn’t
want to.

Minutes ticked past, and I continued to
mock-fumble with my hula hoop, pretending I was having more trouble
than I actually was. Blood was spattered all over my clothing and
every ounce of skin, and my hair was now sticking to my head in a
nasty mess. I wasn’t the only one suffering—Katy’s stand was closer
to Liam’s than mine, and she looked like she’d been dipped in
blood. Nobody had won yet, either. I bent over, peering at the bag
in my now-gore-splattered vampire’s mouth, but it was less than
half full. Jeez, this was a long competition. Someone needed to
just win already so we could head to the showers.

Grimly, I picked up my hoop again and
continued to soldier on, ignoring the sticky gunk on my hands and
continuing to hoop faster. I stole a peek down the line to see how
everyone else was doing. The woman I’d pegged for a soccer mom was
holding a hand on her side and breathing heavy. The woman with the
crazy gray hair? Wasn’t even trying. The guys were trying harder
than most of the girls, with Liam in the lead and Brodie and two
others close on his heels. I looked back down at my hoop and got
back to it again, so no one noticed that I was watching the rest of
the contestants so closely.

Five minutes later, I heard the buzzer sound.
I looked up, wiping red gunk off of my face (I was pretty sure it
was in my nose and ears at this point) and looked at my vampire’s
bag. Still only half full. I glanced down the line and noticed
Liam’s stand had lit up underneath. He dropped his hoop with a
whoop and pumped a fist in the air. He’d won.

I clapped politely, letting my hoop fall to
the ground as I stepped off my stand. Katy flew past, throwing
herself into Liam’s arms. He grabbed her and swung her around,
laughing, and they shared a sticky kiss of excitement.

Yeah, I could guess who Liam’s partner was
going to be.

“Congratulations, Liam,” Becky Bradley’s
voice piped in over the intercom. “You have won the first Power
Play of the summer!”

We all clapped again and then waited for
instructions, studying each other warily.

“As the player with Power this week,” Becky
said, “you may now choose your partner.”

“I choose Katy,” he called out and let her
back down on the ground. She hugged his side, grinning, her smile
bright white in her red-stained face.

“There’s a shock,” Brodie called out, and I
laughed despite myself. Glad I wasn’t the only one thinking it.
Brodie glanced my way and winked, and my goodwill toward him went
right out the door again. Ugh. He was so cocky.