Chapter 2

Cas's arse was going to be stuck to this leather seat. Probably permanently.

It was (arguably) her fault for deciding to wear bikini bottoms that covered absolutely nothing, but she'd also been asked to take off her shorts the moment she'd gotten into the car.

As though her denim shorts were going to be visible to the audience while she was sitting in the back seat.

The driver currently navigating along the steep, gravel-strewn road that wound up to the Cypriot villa where Cas and at least nine other strangers would be living this summer had spent the last ten minutes ignoring Cas's pointed questions about the decision to have her half-naked in the back of the Jeep (unprotected, as she'd last put it, from the stray pebbles flying in through the open top). She was starting to think he was hoping she would just stop asking.

"My arse is going to be so red," Cas said, the words almost a threat. She tipped her hips to one side, the sticky sound of her skin separating from the hot leather filling the silence.

The driver sighed, his hands skimming over the wheel as he guided them into another turn. Cas waited for a minute, two, but the driver remained silent.

He should consider a job for MI6. He was probably very good at keeping secrets.

The car began to slow as it crested the hill, a few hundred meters away from the enormous modern villa that was Cas's new home. The front of the villa was lined with windows that reflected bright blue sky, and the winding tan gravel path gave way to a low-lying wooden walkway lined with fairy lights. Cas had just opened her mouth to ask why they were stopping when the front passenger door opened and Chloe, the show's main producer, climbed in.

Chloe's long blond hair was pulled up into a ponytail that rivaled Ariana Grande's. She was wearing a slightly too dark shock of blush across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, and her lips were shiny and plump with gloss. She reminded Cas of the girls she'd picked up off the floor of the Spoons bathroom at her final Friday event last week before jetting off.

"Okay." Chloe popped her gum, eyes scanning her clipboard. "Cassandra, right?"

"Cas," Cas said automatically.

"Right." Chloe scratched out Cassandra on her clipboard and wrote Cas in large loopy letters. "In a few minutes, we're going to film the first few shots—you'll be walking in with Ada"—Chloe pointed with her pen out the back window—"in the Jeep behind us."

Cas turned quickly in her seat, eyes straining as though she would reasonably get a glimpse of this "Ada" in the Jeep still trundling up the road.

"Are we first in?"

She hadn't seen any cars ahead of them, but it was always a good few minutes between the arrivals. Though, if Cas's memory was correct, only the first two lovers walked in together.

"First in," Chloe confirmed.

Cas barely held back her celebration—this was exactly what she'd been hoping for when she'd gotten into the car this morning, the only thought that kept her going at half past five, jet-lagged, eyes barely open.

She'd spent the better part of the last few weeks thinking through every possible step of her strategy to meet Robert's demand of making the finals, but she'd known that so much of her actual experience once she got to the villa would be out of her hands, down to luck. Cas could have made it work no matter what order she came in—if she was coming in last, she'd have to command more attention, make sure she got a few good comments in—but this made everything significantly easier.

The girls in first, on average, had a much deeper connection with the audience, especially early in the summer.

Even with her attempts to suppress her joy, the smile was evident in Cas's voice. "Great."

Chloe looked at Cas for a long moment, her expression shrewd, before her gaze flicked down to scan over Cas's outfit. Cas had gone a bit over the top with the bikini she'd chosen for today, but if she wanted to make an impression, this bikini was the one.

The bottoms were nothing to write home about—simple, tie-waist bottoms that weren't quite a thong but still left most of her arse exposed—but the top?

The top was the stuff of Cas's dreams.

It followed the same shape of a typical triangle bikini, but the fabric itself was barely large enough to cover her. There was a thin line of black that ran underneath her breasts and tied behind her back, and there were more thin black strips of fabric straining up across her chest and tying behind her neck. It almost looked like a harness, but an incredibly fragile one, like the tiniest slip of the finger could send the entire thing tumbling to the floor. The top also left every single one of her tattoos visible, which she loved. The full sleeve, to be fair, was hard to hide, but she even got to show off the words on her ribs—prophet of lies in serif font—and those almost never saw the light of day.

She'd spent a long time looking at herself in the bathroom mirror that morning before she left the holding hotel, partially to come to terms with what she was about to experience, but largely because she couldn't get over her reflection. Her short brown hair, sleek and skimming her shoulders that shimmered with body highlighter, the shock of her tattoos and bikini against her pale skin, and fuck. Cas was turning herself on so much, she didn't think any of the people in this villa stood a goddamn chance. She'd spent weeks spiraling out, coming up with a plan to meet Robert's ridiculous expectations, but maybe this summer wouldn't be as tough as she thought.

Chloe briefly met Cas's gaze again before returning to her clipboard.

"Once you're inside the villa, you and Ada are to go straight through the house and immediately out into the back garden. The other women are going to arrive and then our host, Mila, will be there to start the matching process."

Cas nodded blankly. "Will we be getting phones like in previous years?"

The phones didn't seem that useful—they were basically jail-broken iPhones with, like, four apps, none of which were the internet—but she needed all the information she could get.

Chloe was scribbling something on her clipboard. "Your phones will be on your bedside tables after you're partnered up. It'll have a case with your name on it, but there are obviously limitations. You can take pictures, receive texts, but that's about it."

Chloe finished writing, and after a quick scan over her notes, she looked up at Cas. "When I get out of the car, Joe is going to lock the doors, but that's to serve as a signal for when you should get out of the car at the top of the hill. We'll have you standing up through the open top, so hold there"—Chloe pointed her pen at the roll bars above them—"and we'll be filming as you approach, so make sure your face is right."

That comment felt more barbed than necessary.

"Once we're set up to film your exit, Joe will unlock the car doors. The moment you hear it unlock, open your door and step out. There will be a camera right there, and it will follow you as you turn back toward Ada's car to greet her. You have to collect Ada before you make your way into the villa.

"The drive up will have a voice-over from your initial interview, but if you want to shout excitedly or something, we can cut that in." Chloe said it like she thought the last thing Cas would do was shout excitedly while she was sticking out of the roof of a car, and while she wasn't wrong, Cas wanted to prove the point now.

"Hmm." Cas tilted her head to the side, reveling in the feeling of her hair skirting across her shoulders.

"Okay." Chloe's voice was short, clearly getting tired of what must be her first of many of these conversations. "Now, unless you have questions, I need to go run Ada through this."

"No questions," Cas said, though her confirmation didn't appear to matter because Chloe had already opened the car door before Cas could even finish.

The silence hung heavy in the car for a beat before Joe locked the doors, the mechanical clicking so loud that Cas almost physically startled. They sat in silence for fifteen minutes before Joe finally glanced back at her.

"Here." Joe smacked his palm against the back of the center console. "Stand right up against the front seats."

It took a bit of maneuvering, but Cas managed to slot herself through the roof, her palms curling over the roll bars as she scanned around. There were people dotted along the road, all of them currently pointing massive cameras in her direction. Her grip tightened on the bar, her knuckles going white.

Cas was just about to slap on her best camera smile when she felt fingers skate across her skin to the mic pack on a belt around her middle. She jolted and found Joe's hand in the air in a whoa gesture.

"Just turning your mic on," Joe said.

Cas glared at him. "You could have asked."

"I'm sorry," Joe said, and he genuinely looked it. "Normally the contestants don't mind it."

"Well, I do."

The surprise touch was way too reminiscent of the bad Friday nights, the ones that left her feeling a little slimy in her own skin and with a mountain of paperwork to complete to make sure that person was never invited back again. The bad nights were less frequent these days, but someone still tried to put their hands on her every few months, thinking her laughing and talking and smiling was some kind of invitation.

It was a major part of why she needed to get the hell out of events.

Cas exhaled softly as she cast her gaze back out to the scene in front of her. She rolled her shoulders discreetly before tilting her head to the left, then the right, a repeat of the little ritual she did before every one of her Friday hosting nights back home. She'd long since lost her actual nerves before these things, but there was something to the practice that helped her feel that much more grounded and ready for whatever was going to come.

The car started slowly up the drive, enough that Cas's hair began gently flowing in the wind. As they drove, the camera crew along the road took swift steps backward, careful to keep pace with the car without tripping. In the final edit, Cas knew they'd be playing her interview with a bright pop backing track, and the contrast with her reality, the crunch of the gravel and muffled conversation from the crew and the wind in her ears, made Cas laugh out loud.

It was natural and unexpected and, god, she knew it would look glorious in the final cut.

The moment the car stopped at the top of the hill, Cas dropped through the sunroof, careful to avoid knocking the front seats with her elbows, and positioned herself at the back door. The windows were heavily tinted, but she could just see the rush of the camera crew along the pavement as they positioned themselves at their next marks.

"I'm going to unlock in five," Joe said, eyes trained forward on the producer he could see through the windscreen. "Remember, there's going to be a camera right in your face when you open the door."

"So make sure my face is right," Cas said, echoing Chloe from earlier.

"I'm sure your face will be right," Joe said absently before he flicked the locks and Cas immediately opened the door. Just as Joe promised, the camera was almost directly in front of her, but Cas smiled naturally, casting her gaze off to the trees in the distance. She stepped out carefully onto the gravel, positioning her foot just right so that her stiletto didn't slip over the irregular stones.

It was warm outside, but the soft breeze now blowing against Cas's skin was a welcome change to the stuffy heat inside the car. The wind was brushing her hair back across her shoulders, and as the camera very obviously scanned over the length of her—catching the bounce of her breasts as she stepped out, the tantalizing press of the ties across her body, the miles and miles of perfectly highlighted skin—Cas felt a knowing smile tug up at the corner of her lips.

It was tricky business, letting the camera consume her like this, but Cas would do anything if it meant she got through the next eight weeks unscathed.

Following Chloe's instruction, Cas started making her way toward the Jeep parked a few meters behind her own. The car door was opening as Cas approached, but then the woman—Ada—shut the door and Cas felt her heart stutter in her chest.

Ada was gorgeous.

Cas had known she would be—everyone on this fucking show was stunning—but Ada... Ada was exactly Cas's type of girl.

Her long red hair was shining with gold in the sun, the loose waves curling over her white, freckled shoulders and tickling the middle of her back. She was already smiling as she turned around, but it seemed genuine, not at all crafted for the cameras. Even at a distance, Cas could see the way the warmth reached her dark eyes. Her face was coated in freckles that Cas was sure would only darken as the summer progressed, and she had the softest dimple in her right cheek.

Automatically, Cas felt her gaze drag down over the rest of Ada's body. She had full, round hips and the bright red, high-cut bikini she was wearing was a brilliant shock of color against her pale skin. Her top was strapless, the cups gathered at the center around a gold heart-shaped ring that held the top together. It was the perfect bikini to premiere for this show.

As per the show's expectation, Ada was also wearing heels, though she seemed less comfortable in hers than Cas was. Ada had opted for a platform sandal-style heel in a soft cream that was just a shade lighter than her skin. The platform should have made them easier to walk in, but Ada's foot slipped slightly as she took a step toward Cas, and her left hand immediately shot out to brace herself against the car.

Cas's smile widened automatically and she took a few quick steps toward Ada.

"Hi," Cas said, injecting her voice with as much bubblegum warmth as possible. She was Friday Cas on steroids. "I'm Cas! It's so nice to meet you!" She almost said Welcome to Friday Date Night but caught herself at the last second.

Cas held out her arms as she approached, and Ada stepped into her embrace, rocking them both side to side.

"I'm Ada," she said into Cas's hair before she pulled away, her palms coming to rest on Cas's elbows. "I'm so happy to meet you, too!"

This close, Cas could see that her eyes were molten brown with flecks of gold and forest green in the center.

Cas swallowed. "Ready to go inside?"

"Only if I can hold your hand." Ada's cheeks were red, though from embarrassment or the heat, Cas wasn't sure. "I'm going to face-plant in this gravel otherwise."

Her smile was bright, her eyes shining with amusement at her predicament and a genuine warmth that matched the tone in her voice. It was one moment, but there was something just... real about her, and Cas knew Ada was, in all likelihood, going to be a public favorite. One to beat if she was going to make the finals.

Cas laughed and immediately took Ada's hand. "Of course. I need it, too, or I'm going to break an ankle in these."

She lifted up her shoe, turning her foot to the side so Ada could see the four-inch stiletto she'd paired with her bikini.

Ada's eyes went wide. "How the hell are you walking in those?"

Together, they started down the drive, the gravel crunching underfoot. Hand in hand with Ada, it was almost possible to ignore the camerapeople walking alongside them, Steadicams strapped to their chests.

Cas winked. "Lots and lots of practice."