Grump’s City Girl (Boots and Heels #2)

13. Beau

Chapter 13

Beau

J ust when I thought I’d get a chance to relax, there came the whopper. There was no way I was going to survive this round without making an enemy or four. Perhaps this was the time to vote for myself—and I did.

When the boards spun, I burst out laughing. Everyone else had done the same thing, and surprise, surprise, or really no surprise, the hosts had not expected anything else.

“Hive mind here, I suppose, Ariana,” Sutton grinned. “Two votes each for each pair. Why did I suppose anything else?”

“We’re in it to win,” Ryker said. “Who in their right mind would vote for someone else?”

“And with that in mind, we shall take a break,” Sutton said to the cameras. “Anyone else need a coffee?”

“Three… two …one, cut!” Liliana called, and Sutton nodded to us and stalked off straight to the refreshment table, I was sure.

Come to think of it, I would like one too, so as I headed that way—Liliana stopped me.

“We need you in the confessional booth,” she said, then nodded to the chair I had sat in. “And after that admission about Cassie, we need you to elaborate.”

“Elaborate?” I echoed. “You want me to…”

“Spill your guts and give the viewers some more context on what exactly this breakup with Cassie entailed,” she said, herding me to a room down the corridor.

“Jesus, can’t a man get a cup of joe first?” I complained as I ducked under the low doorway before I was handed my ‘confession clothes’ and told to change. After that, I sat on the stool. “What the hell do I say?”

“Whatever comes to mind about your breakup with Cassie,” Liliana said, stressing the breakup because she knew it was all a ruse. “Make it good.”

Bloody fuck. How did I make it good for them? I wasn’t an actor; hell, the only way I was getting away with me and Cassie’s ruse was because I was mirroring her—and fooling myself that we’d had a… thing.

Hunching over, I rubbed the back of my neck, then let out a long sigh. “Me and Cassie… we had a thing a while ago… but I-I fucked up. I-I’m not perfect, and back then, I was even more of a cocky bastard.

"When I got with Cassie, I’d pretended to be someone I wasn’t, and now… now I regret it. I have a tip for guys… or girls: whoever you are, don’t try to be someone you aren’t to impress the person you want. It never ends well.”

After a moment, I looked up. “Is that enough? I can’t give you much more than that.”

The seconds ticked by like hours until Liliana came inside and nodded. “That should be enough for now.”

“Well, thank fuck for that,” I said, standing and leaving the room as fast as I could.

I needed to get a cup of the strongest coffee and get into the fresh air as fast as I could. As I went back to the room where the tables were stocked with food and drink, I got a lidded cup and filled it with coffee, then contemplated dropping some whisky in it. For that, I needed to head to my office.

A familiar giggle had me looking up, and I spotted Cassie through a window, talking with Nelly and Rome. Her face was as beautiful and captivating as when I first saw her from across the room, white-faced, staring at Liliana, during what I thought to be the worst day of my life.

But now that I knew her inner beauty matched that on the outside, she was even more beautiful, more captivating. I turned away, staring at the dark depths of the coffee vacantly, trying to ignore the sudden thump in my ears, telling myself it meant nothing.

Come on, Beau. You know this can’t go anywhere.

I had to keep in mind that we were playing a game, playing people we never truly could be. So what, I was insanely attracted to her? I had to remain detached because I wouldn’t get emotionally invested.

But… I already had.

Regardless of what I wanted myself to believe, I knew I’d already gotten attached.

It’s just lust, plain and simple. All this time, I’ve been focusing on one part of my life and ignoring my wants and needs. I haven’t fallen in love with her, I haven’t pledged my life or loyalty to her, or none of that other mumbo-jumbo bullshit popular books and movies sold us.

Once we fuck it out of our system, we’ll part ways with no regrets.

At least, that was what I hoped, but no one could anticipate what these demented producers would throw at us. When I got to the office, I sank my head into the books, ordered feed and medicine for the animals, checked in with the guys on how the new fields were coming along, sat back, and twiddled my pen.

“What do I do to get us kicked off in the next challenge?” I rolled my neck. “Hell, where did we fit in the last one?”

A rapid knock on my door had me turning to it. “Come in.”

The door creaked open, and Cassie’s head curved around it. “Knock, knock. May I come in?”

She’d changed again and was now in an oversized sweater that came to the top of her slender thighs and short boots, with her hair wisping around her face. “You doing okay, hotshot?”

“As best as I can,” I replied, feeling my gut tighten with arousal. “How did you find me?”

“A guy named Ron pointed me in the right direction,” she said, looking around. “I never took you for an office and chair kinda guy.”

“I’m not,” I shrugged. “But since there was no one to step up, I had to do it. I don’t like to do it, honestly. If I could hire some accountant or manager to take this off my plate, I would, but until then, it’s the best I can do.”

“Oh,” she wrapped her hands around her middle. “If you would like, I know people who know people. I could get you a ranch manager or a foreman or a couple of accountants.”

Why was I not surprised—but still surprised? She had money… but how far did those pockets go? It didn’t matter anyway; I was not banking on her help at all.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” I replied. “I’m a big boy; I’ll figure it out. Is that what you came to do? Tell me about the rankings?”

“No,” she said. “It's about the next challenges. I have a sneaky feeling they’ll ask us to do something risqué.”

“Like what?” I laughed. “Strip poker where we’re forced to admit more secrets?”

She braced both hands on the edge of my old desk and lifted herself onto it, inches away from me, the hem of her shirt dress riding up an inch. “They’ve probably hedged a bet that some of us have gotten frisky with each other, so they might ask us to kiss or undress each other with our teeth or some shit… I dunno.”

“So…” I swiveled the office chair to bump my knee into hers. “What do you want to do? Research? What are my ticks? The sensitive places on my body?”

“Couldn’t hurt,” she shrugged. “We ranked middle in the scoring earlier, by the way. Like dead in the middle, not too shabby, huh? Rome and Ryker’s pairings are on top; we’re in the middle, Nelly is below us, while Jonas and Sissy and Micah and Amy are below them. I don’t think these ratings mean much anyhow; the next challenge will make a mark.”

Scoffing, I dropped the pen into the holder. “And pigs will fly. Everything they make us do makes a mark, probably not with brownie points but with the viewers.”

She hooked a boot between the spokes of my chair and rotated it so that I was between her legs. “Come here,” she said and reached for me.

I leaned forward and placed my arms around her hips. Smiling, Cassie wrapped her arms around me and pulled me closer to brush her lips across mine in a nice, simple kiss hello. It started that way, but the moment I felt her, I immediately became hard. She ran her hands up my shoulder and sunk her fingers into my hair.

I wanted to kiss her; I had imagined what it would be like from the moment she had agreed to this charade. I had thought it would be nice and enjoyable. I had not counted on it being mind-blowing and almost stopping my heart. Her lips were so soft and yielding when they pressed up against mine.

Her hands felt unsure at first and then stronger as the kiss intensified. I had thought to keep it simple, to touch my lips to hers, but as soon as her lips opened and I placed my lips on her… that plan went out the window.

The intensity of the kiss, the need, desire, and passion I felt for her almost overwhelmed me. I couldn’t hold back. I didn’t want to hold back. I was allowing my hands to roam over her body because I wanted to hear her moan again and again and again .

“Hey, bossma— Jesus !” Danny spun on his feet and slammed the door behind him.

Yanking my head back, I didn’t know if I wanted to be pissed or laugh. Scowling at the door, I heard Cassie’s muffled giggles before I turned to her and forced a ticked-off look. She grabbed my shoulders before letting the dam break and laughed with abandon, doubling over to grab at me, hysteric.

“It's not funny,” I scowled.

“N-no, it is,” she giggled. “But at least they know we’re not totally faking it.”

“But we should be faking it,” I said. “Or at least try to look like we don’t want to hook up with each other, y’know, how true bitter exes should be?”

Wheeling away from her, I let out a long breath. “But we’re not like any other set of exes, are we? It's pretty clear we still like and want each other. They don’t know if we will get together again or the real reason for that breakup. Wait, you didn’t admit that in the confessional, did you?”

“Nah,” I raked my hand through my hair, then stood. “I’ve got to go see what that pain in my ass wants. Are you going back to the group?”

“Yes,” she jumped off the table and headed to the door, pausing only to throw a kiss at me before skipping off.

Shaking my head, I went to find Danny, and I don’t know why I didn’t expect this—though I should have—but I found him within a semi-circle of the rest of the guys. “I swear to you, it was more than kissing. We might need to throw Bossman a bachelor party.”

“And I might need to throw you a going-away party,” I growled. “Could you not broadcast my business to everyone in the goddamn house?”

“No dice,” Danny replied, not an ounce of shame, regret, or fear in his voice. “They need to know.”

“All right, all right, calm down,” Ron stepped in. “Give the man a little space. We’re not here to butt in your business, Beau. I suppose we’re just glad that at least you’ve gotten some kind of reminder that it's not all business for you.”

I didn’t know how many times I had to tell these guys the same thing. “It’s a sham, Ron, it’s not going?—”

“Anywhere, we know,” he nodded. “But it's good to know your pipes ain’t rusty.”

What the hell did he mean by that? When it clicked, I wanted to dig a hole and die. I was sporting a boner, possibly visible from space. Slapping a hand over my eyes, I groaned. “Fucking hell, kill me now.”

“Nope,” Bran laughed, slapping me on the back before he walked past. “You need to make good use of that first.”

“We’ve asked you to know yourself, to know your other competitor, and now, we’re going to ask you to do a bit of teamwork,” Sutton said, brushing a wayward lock from his face. “And by teamwork, we mean conjoined-twins type of teamwork.”

Coming forward, Ariana held a length of rope between her hands and smiled innocently. “We have an obstacle course set up, and each team will be tied, two of your hands or two feet, and you will have to navigate each one of them as one."

“Oh, and remember when we said we would keep the prize close to the chest for now?” Sutton’s grin was diabolical. “Well, that chicken has come to roost. The two winners of the earlier game, Rome and Ryker, came out on top, but by managerial decision, it's decided that Ryker?—”

“Yes!” Ryker shouted. “Fucking finally.”

“—is the winner,” Sutton said, giving Ryker a quelling look that Ryker ignored. “And now he has two choices to make.”

“ But ,” Ariana chimed in, “since you are a team, Danielle gets the opportunity to help with the decision too, even though ultimately it is yours to make.”

Leaning on the wall behind him, Ryker crossed his arms and shrugged. “Like what, chicken or fish for dinner?”

“No,” Sutton said calmly, but I could see he was getting ticked off. “You can choose either immunity for this challenge, or you can choose to blindfold one of your competitors, hobbling them for the obstacle run.”

A silence rang through the room, and Cassie and I exchanged a look. Everyone in the room knew the best choice to maintain stability in this competition was to choose immunity, and the way Danielle’s eyes lit up, I knew she was going to ask for it, too.

“What do you choose?” Ariana asked.