Chapter 8: Maia

All Maia Hensonreally wanted to know was where these sickos got off. For fuck's sake, they were filming this show on an island—no one should wake up that early on an island unless there were plans for torture.

Although, wasn't this show exactly that?

She'd wanted to do terrible things to Mallory when she'd signed up in Maia's name. She'd threatened more than a few times to simply send Mallory in her place, newborn in tow.

"Some guys like the single mom thing,"Maia had insisted.

"Sure. But maybe not the recent college grads who've never even heard of a 401k."

"You're being judgemental."

"Maia…I know you didn't just say that to me."

She'd tried to tempt her sister with free babysitting for the first five years of her niece's life. She'd tried to pay out Mallory's legal fees. She'd even tried tattling on her to their mother, who hadn't cared in the slightest whether or not Maia found herself on television. In fact, Maia seemed to recall her mother preferring her to be seen on a reality show, rather than "those god-awful photos you post of yourself online."

The pleading had gotten Maia nowhere. And she may have just outright refused if her sister hadn't played her trump card. The one called "I've Been Unhappy for the Last Seven Years of My Life So Please Do This One Thing for Me."

And didn't that just make Maia a sucker?

She'd already earned the showrunner's wrath when they brought her in to shoot her introduction. And she wouldn't admit it out loud, but she'd sort of been hoping they might just kick her off the show and she could plead the fifth whenever her sister got in touch. Surely they had alternates lined up?

Well, she hadn't been kicked off the show. In fact, she would liken the experience to being followed around by a pet you were allergic to: annoyingly persistent and utterly inconvenient to her health.

And the same way she felt about the producers, she felt about her new roommate, who was trailing her as she followed Vixen Number One and her stupidly handsome accessory through the manor's backyard.

They landed on a long, curved bench, with Maia sandwiched in the middle of the two boys. She wanted to scowl, much as her mother had warned her against it on camera. But why were they crowding her when the stunner in a yellow bikini was sitting right there.

It wasn't that Maia didn't think she was attractive. She knew she was. She'd built a career off it. And she also knew that as much as some men liked to preach their love of…shapelier…assets, just as many liked women who looked like Maia. Longer. Sharper.

But if these guys were really into that, she didn't know why their attention wasn't also on Danica. She was smaller than Maia but the idea was the same.

The whole affair frustrated Maia so much that she didn't think to stop herself from blurting, "You're so gorgeous."

The other girl blinked at her before letting the corners of her lips turn up. Maia wondered if she'd practiced that face, that perfect, pouty smile. "You're so sweet. You're stunning, too…"

"Maia," she supplied.

The other girl stuck out her hand. "Willow."

"You're quite the looker yourself," her roommate—Leith—told the other boy.

He pretended to bat at his hair, pretended to flip it over his shoulder, before eyeing Leith up and down. "I wish I had your body."

"Funny," Maia groused. Although, she probably had had a variation of that exact conversation infinite times over the course of her life.

"Everyone deserves a compliment," he replied.

Maia gave her best flirty bitch-stare. "Are you asking me for one?"

"Yes." He grinned. "Go ahead, try."

She allowed herself to look—he'd invited her, after all—and found that she wasn't nearly as immune to the half-naked men as she'd originally believed. This guy was…well, he was hot. He was taller than average, which always got Maia's blood pumping, given her own above-average height. His hair was flopping and thick and blond, though it was a warmer tone than hers.

And his body.

He wasn't as bulky as Leith, wasn't as lean as the boy-next-door she'd seen when she'd walked out. Clearly, he didn't spend his life at the gym. But he was trim. Athletic. The perfect mix of hard and soft for Maia to lean into.

To put it plainly, he had the kind of body Maia wanted to lick.

But she wasn't about to tell him that.

"I imagine you got enough compliments last night from Willow," she told him.

Leith snickered beside her. "Yeah, those walls aren't soundproofed very well."

The other man cocked his head. "What exactly did you hear?"

"Oh you know. May have heard a line or two about easy access."

Leith wasn't lying, either, though she wasn't sure it was the wall's fault. They'd only heard those lines when they'd wandered onto their balcony to check out the view. Their neighbors had just happened to have their window open.

Maia had shoved Leith back into their room before they could hear the others getting frisky. Only, when they were safe back inside, Maia's hand had somehow ended up on Leith's chest and Leith had given her the classic dead-fish stare that every man got before going in for a kiss.

She'd shoved him away with a laugh and he hadn't tried again but, good God, did he lay it on a little thick. It was like he'd rehearsed every line in the mirror at least ten times before coming on the show. Like he'd given himself notes to imitate every smarmy salesman she'd ever met.

Is that really what he thought would get her going?

When they'd just been talking, he'd seemed like a decent guy. Family-oriented. Hardworking, even. But when he was actively grafting? It was like he doused her in freezing water.

In Leith's defense, she supposed, his lines may have worked on another girl. Someone who wanted all the things he clearly wanted to show off. A good job. A plan for the future. An easy smile and a full head of adorably curly hair. He probably didn't anticipate getting paired with a girl who was only in the market for something casual and not daydreaming about how their babies might look.

Because why the hell would someone come on a show themed around honeymoons if they were only looking for casual?

She kinda hoped the guy whose thigh was currently pressed against her was.

He waved off Leith's comment. "Just banter. Wills and I were getting to know each other."

"Wills…" Leith mused. "Wills and Kills. Willow and Killian. Hard to make a couple name out of that."

Willow laughed and wrapped her fingers around Killian's shoulder. "We thought the same thing. They just don't go very well together."

Maia wanted so badly to roll her eyes. Who cared what their couple name sounded like? If they were in this for everything they claimed to be in it for, whatever the public called them shouldn't matter. What good was a catchy hashtag if they were supposedly looking for love?

She could tell she was getting in a mood. She got like that, sometimes. Where everything around her just pissed her off and she said things she regretted, though it was never like she didn't mean them. She was mostly successful in playing it off like she was brutally honest.

But the truth was, Maia was just kind of a bitch.

Guys like Leith and Killian didn't go after bitches. Neither did fucking surfer boys or hometown heroes. Who did that even leave for Maia here? The absurdly tall one was a good starting point. She'd felt a kinship in his scowl. But he didn't get her heart racing.

Maia reminded herself that she wasn't here to find someone to get her heart racing. She wasn't here for a love match. She was here to take a vacation and make her sister happy. She certainly wasn't here for Killian.

Leith nudged her. "What would our couple name be? Math?"

Maia did not like the assumption that she was already taken. "Wouldn't that require us to be in an actual couple?"

"Last I checked," Leith said with a shrug, "our names are hanging together outside our door."

Killian smacked his thigh like the mention of the suite had reminded him of something. "Did you guys find the letter?"

Both Leith and Willow seemed to freeze and Maia got the sense Killian had just ruined wherever their morning was going. She just didn't know why.

"What letter?" she asked.

Leith had been in their room before she'd arrived but he hadn't said a word about a letter. Either they hadn't found it or Leith just hadn't told her about it.

"We found a letter in the nightstand," Killian explained. "If the day-one couples stay together until the end, they have an opportunity to win an extra ten-k."

Oh. Maia had been hoping for something a little more exciting, though the mention did give her pause. She wasn't overly attached to Leith and it wasn't like she was really hurting for the money herself. Did it make her a terrible person if she chose another contestant and ruined Leith's chance at the extra funds? Or was it worse to hold onto their coupling when she knew she didn't actually have any interest in the boy?

It occurred to her then that perhaps this letter was the reason he'd laid it on so thick. She didn't blame him for it, if so. Maybe she'd find a private moment with him and allow him to take the lead. Or maybe just ask if the money meant anything to him.

She couldn't say she'd ever had to navigate this kind of situation before.

When neither Leith nor Maia provided him a response, Killian kept talking. "I don't like it, personally. Why would they have us mingle like this at all if they wanted us to stick with the first person we saw."

Maia watched in real time as Willow deflated. She knew Killian hadn't meant the words as a blow to the other girl but they landed all the same.

"I think you got fucking lucky with the first girl you saw," Maia snapped.

Killian blanched. "No, yeah—obviously. Nothing against you, Wills. Stoked to be rooming with you." He ruffled his hands through his hair and Maia hated that she noticed how his muscles moved when he did. "I just mean that it doesn't make much sense with the premise. I mean, if I?—"

Willow clapped a familiar hand over Killian's mouth that he didn't seem to mind in the slightest. "Careful," she warned. "Say much more and you'll summon the scary British dude."

"Carter?" Killian asked through the gaps in her fingers. She dropped the hand. "Nah, we're buds."

Maia didn't doubt it. She had her suspicions he made fast friends with everyone he met. But she also highly doubted that Carter was as invested in their relationship as Killian was.

"He'd want us to be happy," Killian went on. "I'm just mostly confused why they put the letter in the sex drawer."

Leith laughed. "So let me get this straight: we overheard you guys calling each other hot and bragging about easy access and you went pawing through the sex drawer and you expect us to believe you weren't messing around?"

Hmm.

Leith made a decent point. A point that made Maia's skin feel tight over her bones. She didn't like the thought of them falling so instantly in lust with one another that they'd immediately sought out whatever was in this drawer. She told herself she didn't like it because of how Killian was acting towards her now, right in front of Willow.

It wasn't true, of course. She didn't normally give a shit about other people's sex lives and how they acted when they were done. She wasn't a part of it and, most times, she didn't want to be.

But had they really been so into each other that they…?

"We didn't mess around," Willow said. "We talked. That's all."

Maia wished they'd stop talking, really. She decided to put them all out of their misery.

She stood, brushing her hair back over her shoulder in the exact fashion Killian had mimicked earlier. "Well, this has been the most awkward conversation of my life," she announced, starting towards the outdoor kitchen. "I'm going to go find breakfast."

She didn't have to turn around to know that every one of them followed.