Bedroom Games (31 page)

And over and over, I replied simply, “He
played the best game.”

He had, after all. He’d had me fooled even in
the eleventh hour. He knew just what to say to ensure my vote. I
couldn’t even be mad. Soul-crushingly disappointed? Yes. But mad?
Not really.

There was a stupid,
stupid
part of me that was
in love with Brodie Short. It didn’t matter that he’d used me and
booted me out of the game. I was in love with him, and as a result,
I wanted him to win.

I held it together for hours, and I waited,
hopeful that I’d turn around and see Brodie waiting to talk to me.
But every time I looked for him, he was sitting, doing interviews,
or talking to someone. He was always busy, always surrounded by
people, and laughing and having a great time.

Why wouldn’t he be? He’d just won a million
dollars.

But when Cassie showed up at my side just to
catch me up on the next day’s plans, I cornered her. “Can I leave
now?”

She looked surprised, gazing around at the
glitzy after-party, full of happy people with drinks in their
hands. “You want to leave?”

More than
anything
. “Yeah, I have a headache. Can we
go back to the hotel?”

“Well…okay.” She still looked surprised but
nodded. “I’ll drive you out.”

An hour later, I was in my bed at the hotel
room, face washed, pajamas on. A phone was now in my room, and I
picked it up and immediately called my mother despite the late
hour.

“Hello?” My mother’s familiar voice was
wonderful.

“Mama, it’s me.”

“Oh, Kandis!” She sobbed on the other end of
the phone. “Sweetie, I’m so sorry.”

I could feel my own tears rising. “I tried to
win, Mama. I really did. I—”

“I don’t care about that,” she said
tearfully. I heard her sniff loudly. “I didn’t realize how upset
you were until I saw you on TV talking about it with that awful
man. Do you really think I have a problem? I just like playing the
machines.”

She was actually asking me?
She hadn’t noticed until now? Really? “Yes, you
do
have a problem, Mama. You spend all
of your money there, and that’s not good,” I said wiping my eyes.
“And I want to help you.”

“I’m going to change,” she promised me.
“We’ll figure this out. Don’t you worry about your mama.”

I smiled through my tears. “I’m glad to hear
that.”

We talked for a little longer, but I started
to yawn, exhausted, and then we hung up.

I curled up in bed, hugging my pillow. It
felt weird to have a bed all to myself after two months of sharing
the sheets with Brodie. Of course, thinking about Brodie made fresh
tears come to my eyes.

He hadn’t even tried to see me tonight. Did
he really not care one bit?

I sniffed. Then, my sniffles became tears,
and I cried myself to sleep.

~~ * ~~

POUND POUND POUND.

I jerked upright in the darkness, rubbing my
face. My nerves were on high alert, and I shivered. Had one of the
ghosts decided to make themselves known after all?

Then, I realized I was no longer at The
Magnolias. I wasn’t on the show. I was in a hotel room. I glanced
over at the clock.

3:37 a.m.

POUND. POUND. POUND.
“Kandis! I know you’re in there!”

That was Brodie’s voice. Scrubbing my face
with one hand, I slid out of bed and headed to the hotel door. I
peered out of the peephole. Sure enough, there was Brodie in his
dark gray suit, collar loose. He was in the hallway, alone. As I
watched, he reached out to pound on the door again.

I hastily undid the chain latch and slid the
door open a crack. “Brodie? What the hell are you doing? It’s three
in the morning.”

To my surprise, he pushed his way into the
room. Before I had time to protest, his hands were cupping my face,
and he leaned down and began to kiss me, his tongue sliding into my
mouth.

I shoved at him, suddenly furious, and pushed
him away. “What the fuck, Brodie? No hello?”

He leaned against the wall, all gorgeousness,
and gave me a lazy, delicious smile. “Hello, Kandis. Can we kiss
now?”

“No, we can’t kiss.” I crossed my arms over
my sleep shirt and pointed at my cracked door. “Get out of
here.”

He straightened, looking surprised. “Are you
mad at me? Is this why you avoided me all night?”

“Me avoided you? Ha. You were too busy
glorying in the limelight to stop and say anything to me.” The
words came out bitter and angry. “I guess I don’t matter anymore,
now that you got your vote.”

“What are you talking about?” Brodie looked
genuinely confused. When I gestured at the door, indicating that he
should leave, he shut it instead and leaned on the back of it. “I
thought we were on the same page when you voted for me. That you
understood why I did it.”

“Why you voted me out? Hell no, I don’t
understand it.”

“Baby,” he said and reached out for me.

I slapped his hand away. “No ‘baby’ here.
Don’t touch me.”

His face hardened and he leaned back against
the door, subtly knocking the back of his head against the wood.
“Kandis. Think for a minute. Really stop and think.”

“About what, Brodie? About you dicking me
over?”

He shook his head and gave me a level-eyed
stare. “You weren’t going to win. There was zero chance of it. Did
you not see how bitter Marla was toward you?”

I laughed. “Marla was bitter because she knew
I was moving ahead.”

He gazed at me for a long moment, his heart
in his eyes. My own heart squeezed painfully in my chest. “You’re
mad at me because you think I voted you out so I could win.”

“Isn’t that exactly what you did?”

He shook his head. “You’re blinded by anger.
Stop and think for a moment.”

“About what?”

“Let’s count through the votes. If it was you
and Jendan in the final, tell me who’d vote for you.”

“Sunnie—”

“Nope.” He raised a finger, counting. “You
masterminded her partner out. She’d vote for Jendan.”

“Jayme and Fido—”

He raised two more fingers. “Fido voted for
Jendan tonight. I doubt that would change. And since they were
partners, if they didn’t vote together, Jayme would have voted for
Jendan. She was mad at you for the same reasons Marla was.”

She was? I frowned. “Marla wouldn’t have
voted for me.”

“Nope.” He wagged four fingers at me. “That
leaves four votes for Jendan and one vote for you—my vote. You
still would have lost. Now flip it. Let’s say I took you to the end
with me. Sunnie would have voted for me. Jayme and Fido would have
voted for me. Marla sure as shit wouldn’t have voted for you. That
leaves you with one vote again—Jendan’s. And that’s only if he kept
his word after you voted his ass out and lied to him.”

I stared at Brodie, shocked.

He was right.

There was no way I’d have won the game. I’d
played hard, and at times I’d played ugly, and I hadn’t cared as
long as it got me to the end. But I’d never stopped to consider
what I’d do when I got to the end and everyone was mad at me. “Oh,
shit.”

“That’s right, oh shit.” He looked a little
relieved.

I scowled and smacked him on the arm. “You
still didn’t have to vote me out, you son of a bitch!”

He grasped my wrist, capturing it and
dragging me closer to him. “Didn’t I? If I knew you were going to
lose, why would I send you up there for a bitter jury to
eviscerate?”

“They weren’t all that bitter to you—”

“Because they liked me. And they liked
Jendan. But because you played harder than both of us, they hated
you.” He leaned in and nuzzled my cheek. “And the last thing I
wanted to see was them attacking you on TV in front of everyone,
with no one to defend you.”

“So you voted me out and made it look like
brilliant gameplay for yourself, thus clinching your own win,” I
said bitterly. “Should I clap now?”

“You can be mad at me if you want,” he said,
still nuzzling my cheek. I felt his nose brush against my skin, and
a shiver moved down my spine despite my anger. My damn body was
reacting to him even though I was still furious. “But I wanted to
protect you. No one hurts my baby with me around. And this way, I
ensured I won the money for us. You said you trusted me,
right?”

“I did trust you!” I’d sat in my chair and
hoped and hoped for a sign, just one sign that he’d show me that it
wasn’t all just a showmance for him. But he hadn’t given me one.
“You ignored me at the finale.”

His tongue brushed along my jaw line, his
voice growing husky. “That’s because I couldn’t get away from the
cameras and Becky and all the stinking interviews. I’m blind from
all the damn lights.”

I softened a little at that. I’d been
blinded, too.

Brodie lightly bit my earlobe. “I missed you,
Kandis.”

Was this more of Brodie laying it on thick?
“It was only a day, Brodie.”

“Yeah, but it made me realize that bed wasn’t
the same without you. You think it didn’t tear me up to vote you
out, knowing how hurt you were going to be? I couldn’t sleep last
night, imagining how you felt. I wanted to say something, but I
just…couldn’t. I wasn’t sure until the last minute that I was going
to do it, but it was the only way I could think to win and not have
you come out of this trashed by everyone. You played hardcore the
entire time, all strategy. I was hoping you’d realize that if I
voted you out, I’d cinch this thing and win the money for me and
you.”

“Pretty words,” I told him, leaning away and
pulling out of his grasp. “But useless. Didn’t you read your
contract? You can’t share your prize-winnings with anyone on the
show even if you wanted to.”

“They can’t do anything about it if we’re
married,” Brodie said, looking at me with sad, soulful eyes.

I stilled. Time stilled. “Married?”

My heart thudded loud in my ears as he
reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box. He got
down on one knee and looked up at me, heart in his eyes. “I made
one of the assistants drive me around town after the interviews so
I could go get this. It’s not great, but it’ll do until we can get
you a real one. And the size is probably all wrong, but I wanted to
do this right, and I wanted to do this tonight, before you had a
chance to get away from me.”

He popped the lid of the box open and held it
out to me. “Kandis Thornton, I know I can be a total asshole at
times, but I love you and I feel like we were born to be a team—in
and out of the game. You’re the most beautiful, smart, intelligent,
clever, and devious woman I’ve ever met. Plus, you have a killer
ass. I love you, and I want you to marry me so I can share the
million dollars we won together.”

A knot formed in my throat, and an ache
burned in my heart. It was so incredibly sweet of him to offer.
“You don’t have to marry me just because you feel obligated to
share with me.”

He gave me an exasperated look and shook the
ring at me, still remaining on bended knee. “I want to marry you
because I love going to bed with you and waking up with you. I love
scheming with you. I love sex with you. I love the way you twitch
every time you get nervous. I love—”

“Okay, okay,” I said, putting my fingertips
to his mouth to silence him. But I was smiling now. I looked at the
ring in the box. It was a big, square-cut diamond surrounded by
lots of smaller ones on a platinum band. I gasped at the size of
it. “I thought you said this thing was a piece of crap.”

“Well, yeah. I don’t get my check until
tomorrow morning.” He smiled sheepishly. “I’ll buy you a real one
then, if you want. J-Lo big. So huge you knock people over with
it.”

“I want this one,” I said softly, and I
pulled it out of the box. Sure enough, it was too big, but I
slipped it over my finger and didn’t care one bit.

“Is that a yes?”

I nodded, and when he grinned and got to his
feet, he grabbed me by the hips and lifted me into the air, then he
thumped both of us down onto the nearby bed. We fell together,
tangled, and I laughed.

“Thank fucking god,” Brodie said. “I thought
you were seriously, seriously pissed at me.”

“I was,” I said, and I grabbed him by the
starchy collar of his dress shirt, pulling him closer for a kiss.
“Why the hell didn’t you say something sooner?”

“I wanted to get the ring,” he told me
between kisses. “And I wanted it to be real. I didn’t want to do it
on TV because then it’d always seem like it was for the show. I
wanted this to be just you and me.”

That was…the perfect thing to say. I gave him
an intense kiss and rolled over until I was on top of him,
straddling his hips. “You’re a devious man, Brodie Short.”

“It’s a good thing I found an even more
devious woman to keep me in line.” He grinned up at me and raised
his hips, pressing his arousal against me.

“Mmm, you make it sound like we’re the
perfect team.”

His fingertips brushed over
my cheek. “Are you kidding? I
know
we’re the perfect team.”

And that was why I was crazy about him.
Sneaky, yet incredibly optimistic. “You know I love you,
right?”

A huge grin covered his face. “Well, I’d
assumed you did, but it’s nice to hear it out loud.”

“I wasn’t sure if you were telling me the
truth when you told me you loved me,” I confessed. “I thought it
might have been more manipulation to get me to vote for you.”

“Jesus, Kandis. How dirty of a player do you
think I am?”

“You
did
screw over your own sister in the
last game you played.”

He grinned. “Yeah, but Katy
had gone on and on about how she didn’t want to play the game. I
honestly thought she wouldn’t care. And it turned out perfect
because she ended up with Liam.
And
the million dollars that should have been mine,
except I screwed myself because my partner sucked.”