Sweet Reality

Erin Dutton

©2008

“Here is your room key, Ms. Woods.”

“Thank you.” I palmed the plastic card the desk clerk slid across the counter, then turned and picked up my one suitcase, ignoring the man with a camera perched on his shoulder who followed me toward the bank of elevators.

After nearly two weeks traveling around the United States as a contestant on a reality television show, I had grown accustomed to being shadowed by the crew. We’d been informed that they would not interact with us, and at first their constant, silent presence felt strange. But eventually, they became another part of this adventure we were on.

As I approached the elevator and pushed the Up button, I didn’t expect to see another contestant. But there she was, holding her own luggage and wearing a smug grin—a smile that clearly said my comfortable lead was slipping away. It had been days since I’d seen another player, having pulled ahead of the pack within the first week. But if I had to go head-to-head with one of the other contestants I couldn’t have picked a more attractive one than Mia. She’d stood out in the crowd on that first day when we’d gathered together to be briefed by the host and the show’s creator. I’d had a difficult time concentrating on the rules as they were laid out. More than once I’d had to pull my eyes from her shapely figure.

And now I pretended not to notice the way her khaki shorts hugged her hips or the way her white safari-style button-down shirt glowed against her golden skin. A streak of black painted the front of her spiky blonde hair just to the left of center, giving a hint of wildness.

The doors opened and I gestured for her to go ahead, then stepped inside. The cameraman followed, pausing in front of the door to block anyone else from entering. We both leaned toward the row of buttons at the same time and our fingers clashed on the number four. She jerked back and looked at me then away quickly, but not before I saw the surprise flood her caramel-colored eyes.

I glanced at the cameraman but I couldn’t tell if he’d caught the moment on tape. It was so quick, I doubted anyone watching would notice it. Besides, I’d purposely kept my sexuality a secret and if Mia wasn’t as straight as I’d initially guessed, then she’d hid hers well, too.

“I didn’t think I’d ever catch you,” she said quietly from her side of the elevator car. Out of the corner of my eye I registered the camera swinging her way.

“Catch me?”

“Yes. I’ve just missed you in every location until now.”

“Missed me?” My fingers still tingled from touching hers. Stop repeating everything she says, you idiot. I managed to stop short of smacking myself in the forehead.

The elevator dinged to announce my floor and as the doors eased open I stepped forward, confident the cameraman would back up. Mia followed me into the hallway.

“Yes, you’ve been one step ahead of me for days,” she paused and smiled knowingly, a mesmerizing pull of her full lips that I couldn’t stop staring stupidly at, then she added, “in the game.”

“Yeah.” The reminder that we were competitors chased away some of the haze that clouded my brain. “I’ve gotten lucky a few times.”

“Really? Tell me about—getting lucky.” Her shoulder bumped lightly against mine as we walked side by side. Was that deliberate?

“Oh, no. We’ve still got ten days left and I’ll never get my lead back if I give away all my secrets.”

“What makes you think you’re getting your lead back?” She paused at the door to room 412. “This is me.”

I took a few more steps and gestured to the next door. “I’m here.”

“I guess I’ll see you in the morning.” She slipped her card key into the electronic lock and it disengaged with a click.

“Or in the next city,” I replied confident I would be up and gone before she left her room. I hadn’t slept much during the course of this game and never stayed in my hotel room more than the required six hours each night.

“Count on it.” She disappeared through the door.

The cameraman carefully placed his rig on the floor, then sat cross-legged and leaned his back against the wall. The agreement with the network had spelled out our availability. The cameras were not allowed in our hotel rooms, but they’d gotten around that by having them camped out in the hallway. The second we stepped outside the next morning, they were with us again.

“I’m going to order room service later. Do you want anything?” I asked, knowing he wouldn’t accept. He smiled and shook his head.

“Goodnight,” he said as I pushed through the door.

Inside, I placed my suitcase on the luggage stand at the end of the bed and glanced around only long enough to confirm that this was just another serviceable hotel room in an increasingly long string. In the beginning staying in a different city every night had been exciting. I’d had fun exploring the hotels, eating in various restaurants, and hitting the hot nightclubs. But that had soon become tiresome and the game got more serious. Now the nights were about grabbing a meal and a bit of sleep and strategizing for the next day.

After a quick shower, I wrapped myself in a plush robe and sat on the bed, legs stretched out in front of me. I had received the clue to my next destination after completing today’s challenge and had already deciphered the location and procured a bus ticket for the morning. So for now there was nothing to do except try to distract myself until the sun rose. Gardenias. The light floral scent that had teased my senses as I stood next to Mia in the elevator had been a surprise. I’d expected something more—aggressive, more powerful. She would certainly make a pleasant distraction.

Mia had made up a lot of ground. Three days ago, at the last checkpoint, I’d had a full day’s lead on my closest competitor, an anesthesiologist from Brooklyn and Mia had been eight hours behind him. And since the challenges had been getting increasingly harder, Mia’s progress was even more impressive. Sexy as hell and smart, a great combination. As a competitor, she was off-limits, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t think about her. The cameraman standing guard in the hall guaranteed I wouldn’t be sneaking to her door so I felt completely safe indulging in a little fantasy—only to pass the time of course.

I had just leaned back and closed my eyes when a knock made me jump guiltily. I crossed the room and looked out the peephole. The hall was empty except for the cameraman and he remained slumped against the opposite wall. The knock came again, softer this time, but not from the hallway. In my abbreviated scan of the room I hadn’t noticed the door on the wall to my left. Adjoining rooms. And Mia was on the other side of that door, knocking.

I opened the door in time to see her step away. She turned back and smiled.

“I figured you must be sleeping.” Her hair was wet and fanned around her face, easing the angles of her features.

“Not yet.” I couldn’t keep my eyes from traveling the length of her. The white camisole-type tank top and sinfully short pink cotton shorts were far removed from the androgynous cargos she’d worn earlier.

“I thought you might want to join me for dinner.” Over her shoulder, I could see the room service cart. Her eyes were imploring and soft as suede, increasing my hesitation. This game was just as much mental as physical. How could I spend time with this attractive, alluring woman and retain my competitive edge? “We have to eat, right? I’m tired of sitting alone in hotel rooms.”

“Ground rules.” I offered myself a compromise.

“Go ahead.”

“No talking about the game.”

“Of course not,” she agreed readily. “I wouldn’t want you to say I didn’t win fair and square.”

I laughed, charmed as much by her words as by the sweet smile that accompanied them.

She raised an arm and braced her hand against the doorframe. She narrowed her eyes in a challenge that made my heart race. “Any other rules I should know about.”

I shook my head, wondering if I should impose any restrictions upon myself. Surely I had a modicum of self-control. After all, she was only suggesting dinner.

“Come in.” She moved aside.

I looked down at my robe. “Let me just throw something on.”

“Oh, get in here. We may as well be comfortable.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me inside the room.

I stumbled forward, catching her around the waist in order to maintain my balance. The warmth of her skin seeped through the thin fabric of her shirt and the fruity scent of her damp hair infused my senses. Comfortable? As heat curled inside my stomach and, of their own volition, my fingers crept under her shirt, I was feeling anything but comfortable.

I exhaled slowly as if the pressure of my own breath could potentially fracture the connection.

“I don’t usually do this.” The thread between us trembled with her words.

“Do what?” She gave me a look that said she thought I knew exactly what she was talking about and was being purposely difficult. “Okay.” I slowly removed my hands and raised them in a gesture of surrender. “Nothing has to happen. We can be just two contestants sharing a meal. Two women chatting over—”

The brush of her lips chased away the rest of my words but the sweet pressure was gone too soon when she pulled back slightly. Her hands framed my face and her mouth hovered close to mine.

“I don’t want to be just two women,” she whispered and guided my hands back to her hips.

“Me either.” I slipped my thumbs beneath the waistband of her shorts and circled them over the hollow of her hipbones.

“We could be two women—kissing.” She leaned closer, her lips caressing mine as she spoke—teasing me with the promise of her words. A vow she fulfilled when her mouth moved over mine and her tongue traced inside.

It was quite possibly my best first-kiss. There was none of the initial awkwardness that sometimes comes with an unfamiliar embrace. She was the aggressor as she stroked her tongue into my mouth, then moaned in surrender when I closed my teeth on her lower lip.

I could kiss this woman all night. I could easily have gotten lost in the taste of her and been perfectly content had we not progressed past this kiss.

She swept her hands down my neck and over the vee at the front of my robe. She loosened the sash at my waist. When her fingers danced over my bare abdomen, I shivered in response. Okay, maybe not perfectly content. Progress was nice.

“I’d hoped you weren’t wearing anything under here.” She pushed the robe off my shoulders and smiled when it pooled at my feet.

“Now you have me at a disadvantage.” I played with the hem of her shirt.

“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” Her shirt landed on top of my robe.

“Much better,” I murmured, taking in her lean torso and full breasts. I trailed a finger up the center of her chest, then circled one nipple. It puckered quickly and an echo of pleasure rippled through me.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and backed me toward the bed. I didn’t protest when she pushed me onto it and followed me down. She straddled my lap, and pressed her mouth to the side of my neck. She licked a path to my breast, nipping with her teeth then soothing with her tongue.

As she worked her way down my stomach, I cupped the back of her neck, wanting to feel her under my hands. When her mouth touched the inside of my thigh, I clutched a fistful of her hair and she moaned at the sharp tug. In a fleeting second I registered her pleasure in my flash of aggression, but I only had time to file the observation away before her tongue drove all thought from my head. She circled and sucked, and I could do little more than writhe in response. Seeming to read my reactions, she led me closer and closer to the edge, only to pull back just before I could fling myself over. Her fingers slid inside me, while she continued to play her tongue over my clitoris, just shy of the pressure I needed.

“Pleasepleaseplease.” I bucked my hips, desperately begging her for more.

She complied so quickly, I was nearly caught off guard. She thrust deeper and faster, and sucked me hard. Sharp, hot pleasure rolled over me and I grasped her hand as if I could pull her along with me. When I was left gasping and weak, she laid her cheek against my trembling thigh.

***

I emerged from a delicious dream, only to turn and find that it hadn’t been a dream at all. Mia lay curled on her side facing away from me. The sheet was wrapped around her waist, the faint red lines I had carved in ecstasy still visible on her bare back.

I’d slept sporadically, my mind racing with thoughts of the woman beside me and of the game we were embroiled in. I traced my progress to this point, now focusing just a little more on those few times when my path had crossed Mia’s. My next destination was San Francisco and I speculated about what the coming days might hold.

Now, as I lay awake in the gray pre-dawn light, I wondered if those days would include more moments like this. Most likely not. We couldn’t count on getting adjoining rooms again. And it would be next to impossible to sneak past the cinematic sentries that occupied the hotel hallways at night.

Mia stirred and rolled toward me, throwing an arm across my midsection. I rested my hand over hers and was swamped with the desire to do whatever it took to make sure I woke up this way every morning. Still, I’d watched my share of reality television romances blow up under the intense media scrutiny. Hell, I was probably getting ahead of myself. Maybe Mia wasn’t thinking of this as anything more than a spontaneous hook-up.

Careful not to disturb her, I slipped away and sat up. The glowing numbers on the bedside clock cruelly reminded me that I needed to leave the hotel in a little more than an hour.

The mattress sank behind me moments before I felt her arms come around my shoulders.

“Going somewhere?” Her husky just-woke-up voice was enough to make me want to crawl back in bed.

“I have a bus ticket.”

She kissed my neck. “We have a sizeable lead. Let’s stay right here all day.”

I wanted to—right then probably more than I wanted to win the half-million dollar prize.

“Think the cameraman in the hall will alert anyone when we don’t come out?” I asked.

Her soft laugh vibrated against my skin. “We’d have a lot of explaining to do.” Her fingers traced my collarbone almost absently and she was quiet for a minute. “If we get the chance, I’d love to do this again.”

I nodded.

She grabbed my face, and kissed me soundly. “Good. I was worried you might be a sore loser when I kick your ass.” She jumped off the bed and away from my reaching hand.

“Have you got the next destination?” I asked as I followed her to the bathroom. I didn’t want to let her go just yet.

“No talking about the game. Your rule.”

“I know.”

“Yes. I’m on the eight o-clock bus.”

“Share a cab to the bus station?”

“Okay.” She took my hand. “But let’s share a shower first.”

I smiled as I let her lead me into the stall. This game had definitely gotten a lot more interesting.