“If she wins, I’m assuming the fans would still vote for us.”
I nod in agreement with his thinking. At least he’s looking at this from a positive viewpoint.
But the match is over before we know it, with Millie on her back and Rebekah sitting on top of her.
“That woman is deadly,” Joey says, earning a glare from Rebekah. “See what I’m saying!”
“Congratulations, Gary and Rebekah,” Patrick says enthusiastically through the loud speaker. We all clap, mostly thankful that this beast of a show is over.
“Get some rest, newlyweds. Master suite competition begins at midnight.”
Gary and Amanda start arguing before any of us can really comprehend that in a few short hours we’ll be back to competing. The thought of sleeping in the master suite tonight does excite me, though, and I start to mentally make plans for Joey and I in the tub.
I grab Joey’s hand and drag her through the house and into our room, pulling the sliding door behind us.
“Joey, I—”
She holds up her hand, stopping me before I can tell her how I feel. “I want to finish what I was telling you earlier. Last night I read for a little bit because I wasn’t feeling very well.”
“You slept with sweatpants on,” I blurt out, having lost my filter.
She starts to laugh, but covers her mouth. Joey looks at me with a straight face. “Because Rebekah gave this Holy Roller speech about the amount of skin she was seeing already so I put them on, hoping she’d shut up. When I came to bed, I was so tired I just lied down. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
“So you’re not mad at me?” I need to know because all afternoon I’ve been worried that I’ve screwed up any chance of us being a couple outside the show.
“You’re cute, you know that?” she says, leaning up on her tippy toes to meet my lips.
“Wanna make out or sleep?”
“Shower?” she questions.
“They taken, we have to wait our turn, so back to my original question. Wanna make out or sleep?” Please say make out because making out can and will definitely lead to touching and I want to touch her.
“Oh, I’m all for a bit of tonsil hockey.”
I thank the heavens above when she jumps into my arms. I hold her for a moment before I let my lips do all the work. It’s only a matter of seconds before I’m aroused. I maneuver us under the comforter, cloaking in a little bit of dark. As I lay her down and her hair fans out over the comforter, I know that in this moment that yes, she’s definitely worth it.
I just have to find the words to tell her, and make her believe it’s me Joshua Michael Wilson who is falling for her and not Joshua Freaking Wilson, the guy on her hall pass list.
Waking up in Josh’s arms, his legs tangled in mine, is the best feeling ever, except I need a shower. Waking up to the sound of Linda telling us we have ten minutes until competition is not my cup of tea, especially since we fell asleep and missed our chance to wash the grim off from earlier. It’s 11:50 p.m. and I feel like I can conquer anything. Hopefully, this holds true as we have the master suite competition in a few minutes. Why it has to start at midnight is beyond me. I’m tired, happy to be with Josh, and could sleep throughout the night without any problems.
Right now, I feel like we’ve turned a corner in our relationship. I want to be brave and sit him down—discuss what happens after the show—but I’m afraid. I’m so terrified to see the look in his eyes when he tells me nothing has changed and that he’ll still be pursuing the annulment. Only it won’t be because we hadn’t consummated our relationship. I don’t think that excuse can even hold up. Neither of us was intoxicated or mentally unstable. I could say I was coerced, but one look at my bedroom would prove me a fool. I think Josh is out of luck. If he wants out, it’ll be a divorce.
One I’d give him if he asked because I’ve known since day one it’d happen.
Josh stirs in my arms, pulling me closer to his naked body. After the sumo competition we came in here to talk, which lead to kissing, which lead to getting under the covers. From there fingers worked the strings of my bikini and somehow toes were able to shimmy down his shorts. Sadly, for the freaks watching the twenty-four feed we didn’t have sex on camera. We did, however, fool around. Josh and I are getting to know each other. We’re just doing it a bit backwards.
“We have about five minutes,” I say as I snuggle into his chest. Right here is where I want to be. I could die here in his arms and be happy.
“These producers are freaking evil. After the luxury comp from hell, why can’t they let us sleep?”
I shrug in his arms, knowing that he’s really not looking for an answer, he’s just complaining. On the inside, I’m complaining, too.
“Two minutes, newlyweds.”
“Linda’s so annoying,” I mumble as I sit up, careful to hold the sheets to my body. The last thing I want is for my tatas to be all over social media. Josh slips his T-shirt over my head before getting out of bed. As soon as his back is to me, I pull his shirt to my nose and breathe in deeply. His scent is something I’m never going to forget.
Getting out of bed, I rush to get dressed so we can meet everyone for the competition. With my hair piled in a messy bun and Josh sporting a ball cap we walk out together, ready for this midnight competition.