Chapter 19 #2
He shrugged. “I said what I wanted to say. I like your boobs. And your hands and your eyes. Your lips. I like your nose, too. Pretty much everything. I just want there to be a bit more of everything. So I’m going to make us both a big breakfast before we head over to the set.
But first, I’m going to put my face between your legs until you’re screaming enough that there better not be a cameraman in the kitchen, and then I’m gonna suck my way back up to your lips so I can really make you scream. ”
Candace giggled and said, “That’s much better man talk.”
He kissed the corner of her lips and said, “I really like your cunt, too.”
She gave him the most baleful look, but soon enough, her head was tilted back and she was screaming too much to care.
Candace’s whole body buzzed. There was no way word wouldn’t have spread by now. The crew loved to gossip about the talent. But even if the cameraman had kept quiet, everyone would have known by looking at her.
“Stop blushing,” Laurin murmured under his breath as they walked through the pavilion, but he was the one who was standing too close to her and puffing his chest too proudly and shooting daggers at anyone who looked at her funny. He was still his casual self, but there was a new edge to him.
Not new, Candace thought. He’d grown protective of her in their time together, even before last night.
It had bothered her, but for the wrong reasons.
She’d concocted all these wild theories of wicked intentions.
Actually, he was genuine but a touch territorial, and he’d been easing into his claim over her for a while now.
She wasn’t sure if she was okay with that.
But that wasn’t the problem at hand. Neither was the creeping unease that grew as the other, more pleasant feelings for Laurin grew.
She’d spent her entire life feeling like a ship without an anchor, searching for the next harbor.
The problem with harbors was that the ship could only ever travel to the harbor.
They would never meet in the middle. And when the storms came, the ship was the one destroyed against the harbor’s sea walls.
What was a problem now was the way he kept looking at her, and the way it made her toes curl and her cheeks flush. He wasn’t touching her, but he would be holding her hand when the cameras were rolling. He had all season. It would be weirder if he didn’t, especially after their victory.
“Stop looking at me, and I’ll stop blushing,” she muttered.
He leaned in too close and said, “Stop blushing, and I’ll stop looking,” with a wink.
He got close enough to end any lingering doubts from anyone looking their way to whisper in her ear, “And try not to walk like you had the best fuck of your entire life last night. Mike’s going to be mad at us for giving him extra editing work, trying to hide those bowed legs of yours. ”
“Oh my god!” she cried out, unable to hold her laughter back. “Why are you so annoying?”
He flashed some serious white and pearlies. “Because it makes you laugh. What do you think today’s challenge is going to be?”
“Oh, uhh . . .” Candace scanned the work area, noticing that she didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing how cozy she and Laurin had gotten because there wasn’t anyone here.
All the worker bees were gone. There were only two big camera rigs and one hand cam being tinkered with, plus a drone being assembled.
They were used occasionally, but Candace could only recall them at outdoor shoots.
None of the light crew or the service crew was here.
“The flashiest thing will be the final challenge,” she said as she looked around for Jannie, but the hosts were also absent.
Same with the photography director. “We don’t have proof boxes, so it’s not going to be bread.
Could be cupcakes? Or pies? Or—oh.” She pointed to the sugar-blowing equipment Laurin favored.
It was no longer tucked in a corner but on full display in an open area.
Most of the wall decorations were the same as the last time they were here, when the dinner challenge was announced, but the sugar blowing station and the displays had been embellished with giant gumdrops and ribbon candies.
Laurin’s eyes lit up, and no wonder. If it was candy making, he was going to get another win, for sure. But then his lips twisted into something devious. “I’m going to make caramels today.”
“Okay?” Candace replied in a high, confused tone.
“And I’m going to take some home.”
“Yeah?” They would likely be going home tomorrow, so that made sense. Weird, though, when caramel was cheap and easy enough to make.
“And tonight, you and I are going to have some fun with caramel sauce.”
Candace’s eyes went wide as those dang toes of hers curled. The caramel wasn’t for his family, it was for her.
Well, for him, too, she supposed.
They joined Zara and Patty, who didn’t know anything either.
They watched in silence as the few crew members did their thing, but the silence was creepy.
She told herself not to lean into Laurin, but she couldn’t help it.
He probably also told himself not to put his hand on her ass, but somehow it kept brushing against her rear, anyway.
He was having a casual conversation with Zara, talking about cats, of all things, and the whole time, his fingertips swept lightly back and forth, ensuring that there was not a single second where Candace’s thoughts did not call back to the night before and speculate on tonight.
Also, she could still feel his handprint back there.
Her head was not in the game, and that was a problem.
She stepped away nonchalantly, hooking Patty’s arm to lead her away with the intention of finding something interesting to show her, thus justifying the move.
As she found it in the extra candy thermometers on the station in front of them, she glanced back, expecting to see irritation on Laurin’s face.
Instead, she felt very much the mouse to his cat.
Hunted, for both sustenance and pleasure.
The contract stated that every contestant would need to be in attendance on Christmas Eve for the live finale.
The contestants who worked in bakeries were used to limited family time on holidays, so that wasn’t as tragic as she imagined it would sound to most people, but it also meant that if there was an elimination today — and there would be — this would be the final challenge before they went home.
There was every chance that during judging, the contestants would go to their cabins and pack, and everyone would be taken to the airport as soon as the final elimination was announced.
It was not a forgone conclusion that the cat would catch the mouse this time, and Candace got the feeling that this made the mouse all the more enticing.
“Was there a cameraman in your cabin this morning?” Patty asked suddenly, distracting Candace from Laurin’s intense gaze but bringing her right back to what they’d done last night.
And this morning. Laurin’s proclamation that they were alone had made her a touch more verbose than usual, and he’d occasionally been very convincing with his urgings that she tell him how he made her feel.
The idea that one of the camera crew not only knew but heard her — clearly — was sobering, but Patty had a point.
“No, only a note and a golf cart for us to drive ourselves here. Which seems irresponsible. What if neither of us knew how to drive it and, like, crashed it into the freezer or rolled it off a cliff or something?”
Patty’s lips tightened and swished back and forth thoughtfully.
Patty really was perfect most of the time.
Not only were her bakes, on average, perfect, but she was also perfectly pleasant overall.
Candace didn’t doubt Zara’s claims about the tension between them or that Patty was the source.
It was a major problem, one that Candace knew would make her sick when she was back in her life and had time to process everything that had happened here.
But Patty was also incredibly smart and perceptive, so she paid attention to Patty’s scowl and waited patiently to hear the assessment Patty was making.
“Were you on Taste of Tropics?” Patty finally asked with a stitch in her brows.
Candace shook her head. “That season was before my time.” She barely even remembered it.
They’d tried a new format, cut it down to four episodes from the typical six to ten they did now.
There were still five contestants on the last episode and two were declared co-winners.
What stood out the most was it was the most poorly rated season by a wide margin.
“I wasn’t on it either,” Patty said, “but Felix was. He told me what really happened there.”
Candace canted her head. She’d only once worked with Felix En Fuego, but he’d been a regular for a while, and she knew he and Patty had a thing going for much of that time.
He also only had one win under his belt: Taste of Tropics.
It was the only season he’d survived without burning something to a cinder, and many people speculated it was because the shorter Taste of Tropics season hadn’t given him enough time to ruin anything.
She’d never thought anything suspicious about Taste of Tropics, only that it was poorly conceived and three episodes shorter than the others.
Then again, the world thought she and Lucas had been lovers.
Her stomach churned at what the world would think if they found out there was something between her and Laurin.
It was rare for on-set flings to get any publicity — no one knew about Patty and Felix, for instance — but Candace was different now after Lucas.
This would get out. Candace would be branded a slut.
Laurin would be her flavor of the month.
The look Patty gave Candace told her she wasn’t hiding her thoughts very well, so she cleared them as well as she could and asked Patty to explain about the Taste of Tropics season.
“They filmed that one in Puerto Rico, you know. Had that nice open-air set, really beautiful resort they were at. Those of us who weren’t invited got really jealous.
But then this big tropical storm popped up.
They were hoping to ride it out at first, but it kept building and building.
They were forced to evacuate, and they still planned to return once the storm passed, but they made the decision to film that one episode that would wrap it up, just in case they couldn’t go back.
And it turned out they were smart to do that because the set was destroyed in the storm.
Felix thought he won because he was the only contestant not shaken by the fact that they’d already evacuated everyone but the essentials.
He’s a bit camera-shy, you know? And it was just the active contestants, the hosts, and two cameramen.
The work station cameras were on tripods.
The guest judges weren’t even the scheduled judges.
They were just some high-ups from the resort.
Without the usual audience, Felix nailed his bake. ”
Before she could ask Laurin if something like that could happen here, if there was an imminent weather emergency, Mike called for positions on the set.