Chapter 11: Cora

She foundhim crouched against the exterior wall of the manor, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Cora stood over him, feeling a little absurd in the dress she'd put on. It had been her first opportunity to really dress up and she thought she'd nailed it with the burgundy velvet. Sure, it was a little warm for velvet this time of year but sensibility hadn't really been at the forefront of her mind. Looking hot had.

Of course, now, it felt like looking hot was the last thing that mattered. She wasn't on camera. She wasn't trying to show off for anyone or entice someone to choose her. Right now, she was just there to comfort a man who looked as though he'd had all his teeth punched out.

The problem was that she didn't know how to comfort him. It seemed too simple to ask if he was okay—clearly, he was not. Did she make a joke? Would she want someone to make a joke if she were in his position?

Should she distract him?

"Are you planning on hovering there all evening?"

Man, Cora loved it when someone took the indecision out of her hands. "Do you want me to?" she asked cheerily.

Carter finally dropped his hands from his head and blinked up at her. It occurred to her that he might be able to see more than she anticipated from that particular angle so she stepped forward to settle against the wall next to him.

Instead of answering her question, Carter said, "You shouldn't be out here."

"Says who?"

"Me."

She bumped his shoulder with hers. "And who put you in charge?"

"The network," he told her patiently.

"They sound like a bunch of schmucks."

"Do you still have your microphone on?" She shook her head and he swore. "You should."

"Would you be honest with me about what's going on if I did?"

His lips pursed and Cora tried not to think about them. It wouldn't be the first time she had but it was hardly appropriate to do it now. "Probably not," he admitted. "Not that I've decided to tell you anything, anyway."

She poked at his side. "Yes, you have."

"Oh?" His head canted towards hers. "I have?"

Having his eyes on her like that made Cora shiver. She'd never been shy. She knew that men looked at her sometimes. But how many men had looked at her like that? Like they were on the verge of something feral, seconds from breathing fire over her skin.

Maybe she was misinterpreting it. Maybe that was the look of a man who would never take what he wanted from her. She'd met so many that would and that was why it was unfamiliar. This man, the one beside her in the grass, would do nothing because he could do nothing.

She'd never learned the types of looks those men gave because she'd never been in a position to truly refuse one.

Cora realized she'd forgotten to give him a flirty response but he spoke anyway.

"I'm certain that was the most embarrassing specimen of television I've ever seen."

"I thought it went well," she told him.

"I had plans," he grumped. "I had a challenge set up. You guys were supposed to stick with your original couples. Well, everyone but you."

Cora nearly rolled her eyes. Sometimes, it seemed, men forgot to rub their brain cells together when they got their dicks involved in their thinking. If she'd swapped, another couple would have had to, as well. Whatever grand challenge he'd planned would have already had to be scaled back.

She thought she was being kind when she supplied, "Because you wanted me to keep my distance from Maxon?"

"Yes," he hissed.

"And what was this challenge I wasn't allowed to participate in?"

Carter crossed his arms, suddenly very interested in the stars. She hadn't appreciated, when she'd first walked outside, how blissfully dark it was beyond the manor. Without all the lighting necessary for the cameras, it felt peaceful to be away from it. Like she could uncoil herself.

"Carter?" she prompted.

Was that the first time she'd said his name? She liked how it felt.

"It's silly when you say it out loud."

Cora leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse of the face he kept turned from her. "This whole show is silly when you say it out loud."

Carter laughed and she wondered if he'd ever done it before, the way it tore from him. "And yet you're here."

"And yet you're running it," she shot back. Then she poked him again, just for an excuse to touch him. "Tell me what the challenge was."

"Have they offered you my salary without my knowledge or are you giving me orders just for the fuck of it?"

Cora fought a laugh and warned, "You better be nice to me or I'll go back in there and make up lies so no one takes you seriously."

"You wouldn't."

"I might." She shrugged. "It's not like you'd be able to prove me wrong."

"No," he allowed and Cora thought that was the end of it until he said, "but I could spank that arse so hard you wouldn't be able to sit for a week. We can see how seriously they take me after that."

Cora could handle standing, she was certain. How did she make him follow through on that, though? In an effort to be honest with herself about what she wanted, Cora silently admitted that she wanted his hands on her. She wanted him to turn her skin angry and red.

She wanted him to get a little mean and then kiss it better.

But maybe Carter was just caught up in flirting and he hadn't actually meant it. Sure, they'd had banter. She'd caught him staring at her ass. And then there was that thing in the diary room…

Did Carter actually want her?

Surely not as much as she'd decided she wanted him.

Well, if he did, he'd just have to tell her so.

"What was the challenge?" she asked. And maybe she fooled herself into thinking he deflated a bit.

"We were going to have you all blindfolded and then make you pick out your partner."

That was what he'd been excited about? "Just like a blind intuition thing? Like, point somewhere and hope that's where your partner is standing?"

"Funny," he deadpanned, though she hadn't been joking. "No, we were going to have you kiss each other and then choose which kiss you thought was your partner's."

"Oh, so sexy intuition."

"You're a menace," he told her.

"So you needed as many people as possible to compete in that one?"

He nodded. "Yeah, it doesn't exactly work if only one couple is actually lipsing. We wanted to have the whole lot of you participating since it was so early on. We were also hoping it might kickstart that actual sex appeal since you're all such prudes."

Cora smacked a hand down on his thigh and turned her body to face his. "Did you just make a joke?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to say you're not a prude?"

"Are you trying to get me to prove I'm not?"

"Yes," he growled. "I was making a joke. But we haven't exactly got the content to deliver on the ‘sexy' aspect of this program yet."

"I can go back in and start making out with someone, if you need," Cora offered.

"Like fuck you will."

"Why not?" she squeezed his thigh—and hell, she wasn't expecting it to feel that muscled. "I'm just trying to give you some good content."

"You're trying to give me a heart attack."

"I can give you mouth-to-mouth."

"Are you certified, Gordon?"

"Are you going to threaten to spank me again if I say no?"

Carter groaned, throwing his head back against the siding. "I can't think straight with your hand on me like that."

"Want to test if you have the same effect on me?"

"Cora," he breathed.

"Yes?"

"Stop flirting with me."

Her heart did stutter then. She wasn't sure she'd be done flirting with him if the manor collapsed behind them. But was she making him uncomfortable?

She removed her hand from his thigh and he watched her do it, his brows shoved together. Before she could settle it in her own lap, though, he was gripping it. Dragging it back to him. Placing it back down, ever so slightly higher on his thigh.

"I didn't tell you to stop touching me."

And she'd thank him for that later. For now, though, she asked, "But you don't want me to flirt?"

"We're not allowed to flirt, Cora."

"That hasn't stopped us before now."

"Flirting doesn't usually stop at flirting."

"Flirting has never gotten me in as much trouble as touching has."

Carter's skull thudded against the wall, the same way her heart thudded in her chest. "Who have you been touching, Cora?"

She inched her hand up his thigh, dragged it over his waistband and up to his chest. Cora twisted herself onto her knees on the grass. "There's only one person I've been thinking about touching lately."

He didn't protest, so Cora kept going. Kept her hand traveling until it caressed his jaw. Until it grabbed at the hair at the nape of his neck. She didn't care about keeping herself steady anymore so she lifted her other hand, letting it caress his bottom lip. She wanted to bite it, just a little.

"Do you want to touch him like this?" Carter asked.

"Yes."

She teetered on her knees and she would swear it wasn't a ploy to get him to touch her back but she didn't complain when his hands landed on her waist to steady her.

"How else?"

Cora took his words for the invitation they were and situated herself on his lap. Straddled him, uncaring for how her dress hiked up. His hands remained on her waist. Her hands remained on his face.

"When I fantasize, it starts like this," she admitted.

Carter squeezed, his touch just a hair from bruising. "How often do you fantasize about him?"

She leaned forward, allowing her chest to rest against his. It put their mouths close enough to meet, if he would just dip his head.

She hoped he would.

"Every chance I get," she whispered.

"What is he like, Cora?" he demanded. But he was still careful. He didn't pull her closer. Didn't guide her hips to roll over his, though she wanted him to. Badly. He didn't dip his head like she wanted, either. "This man you fantasize about—what is he like?"

Was this still flirting?

"He's a real asshole. Serious."

"Hmm."

"But he's handsome. His jaw could probably cut me as deep as his words."

"I see."

"And he's older than me," she went on. "He's…someone—" Would she curse herself later for saying it out loud? "He's someone like you."

Carter smirked at her and Cora knew how he had found himself here. The power he'd been given was clearly because his face wasn't one to argue with, when he arranged it like that. And though she got the sense that this show was some kind of punishment for him, she understood that, too. Because this was the smirk of a man who intimidated. And what was there left to do with someone who intimidated you, other than exercise your power over them?

"No, Cora," Carter said, the richness of his voice bleeding into her ears. "He's not someone like me."

And that was true enough.

Cora pressed her lips to his cheek. Just close enough to make him wonder what it might be like if she were to kiss his mouth. And then she stood and his grip didn't stop her. No, his hands fell away and his head fell back, watching her as she dismounted and righted her dress to return to the manor.

Neither of them said a word of farewell as she started walking but Cora couldn't leave it like that. Couldn't keep them somewhere so heavy.

"Carter," she called without turning around. "Just use your challenge next week. And stop staring at my ass."

"I'll stare at it if I want. It's mine for now."

Cora supposed that was just fine.