“And with a woman I really care about.”
“Sam,” she chastened. “I can’t...you have to understand that I...” Her voice broke.
“Don’t want to count on me if I’m not going to be here,” he said, accurately filling in the blanks. “Who let you down, Meagan? Who did you count on who let you down?”
Her lashes lowered, the confessions on her tongue, unspoken—of a dream of dancing, of a family who’d said her injured knee was proof she’d been on the wrong path.
“You don’t have to tell me,” he said gently. “Not now, but I hope sometime soon you will. You’re right. The network isn’t for me long term.”
Her gaze lifted sharply, a knife jabbing her right in the chest. “I didn’t think so.”
“I have a plan. And that plan is probably why I’m okay with where I’m at now and will be in the future. I’ll be opening a private security business next year, when several of my former Special Force team opt out of re-enlistment. And my uncle, the one who works for the studio, is our primary investor. He fully intends to pull some of the Hollywood crowd as clientele and even move studio business.”
Relief washed through her. Sam wasn’t going to run off. Sam was invested in this world, in her world. Sam was Sam, and she liked everything that meant.
“Why are you smiling?”
“I don’t know,” she replied honestly, but she really couldn’t hold it back. She kissed him, and it was a good thing that the diner was open twenty-four-hours because they’d managed to undress again.
Meagan and Sam shifted comfortably on the mattress. “You’ve been so polite lately,” he said. “We haven’t fought at all. You’ve been full of thank-yous.”
“You complaining?” she challenged.
“Not at all,” he assured her. “In fact, I like the way you say thank you. So much so that I wonder if I can make you say it now?” He trailed kisses down her jaw, over her neck, until he suckled her nipples, teased them with his tongue and his teeth.
“No thank you yet?” he asked, lapping at a hard peak.
“Not yet,” she confirmed. “Right now, you’re just driving me crazy.”
“Hmm,” he said. He suckled again. “I like that.”
“I don’t.”
He raised his head. “No? I’ll see what else I can come up with.” He palmed her breasts and kissed a path down her stomach, until he was licking her, teasing her, in the most intimate of ways. And just before he pushed her over the blissful edge, before she happily said thank you, she made a vow.
“Just remember. One thank-you deserves another. Your time is coming.”
And the low masculine laughter that radiated against her clit, sent her tumbling into release. She’d never had a man bring her to orgasm in the midst of laughter, but then, there were a lot of firsts with Sam. And that made letting go feel a whole lot less scary.
* * *
AN HOUR LATER, SAM reluctantly allowed Meagan to dress, but only because of her threat that she’d collapse if he didn’t feed her. He had this nagging feeling that as soon as they exited the tent, she’d run from him emotionally. He’d pushed her tonight, taken her from “don’t talk so I won’t like you” to someplace much more intense, much more long term, and he could see that she was wrestling with that wall of hers—which meant he was wrestling with that wall of hers.
They were just stepping out of the tent, into the cool air rising off the ocean, a high moon overhead, and he was looking forward to the diner, when his cell beeped with a text.
Displeased with the news and knowing she would be too, Sam glanced from the message to Meagan.
“I’m not going to get any food, am I?” she asked.
“Depends,” he said. “How do you feel about contestants getting to know each other in, shall we say, an intimate fashion?”
Meagan’s eyes went wide and she started walking toward the house. Sam immediately caught up with her. “I take it the answer is, you don’t like it. So the good news is that Josh broke them up. They weren’t happy but he stopped things before they got too out of hand.”
“Jensen and Tabitha?”
He cleared his throat. “And Rena.”
“Oh my God,” Meagan said, stomping through the sand. “This is forbidden in their contracts. Rena has nothing to lose, but the other two do. And Kiki knows it, but I can bet you she’s counting on those cameras we have rolling to tell all. How can I convince her that some facade of good ratings based on scandal will plunge within a few episodes and is not security, without turning her against me? American Idol and Dancing with the Stars didn’t build ratings off of who slept with who and who was fighting who.”
“Meagan, sweetheart—”
“I believe so strongly that we can’t go in this direction, even if the ratings please the sponsors. I shouldn’t have been away. I—”
“Oh no.” He shackled her wrist and pulled her to face him. “I see where this is going. Don’t even start coming up with reasons to make us wrong. We are not wrong, Meagan. You are not wrong by taking a few hours off. And you didn’t count on Kiki. You counted on Josh—on me, Meagan. Josh contained the problem, and he called us the instant there was trouble.”
She let out a breath. “I know and I appreciate it. I do. I really, really do.” She tugged on him. “But please come on. We have to hurry. I don’t want to lose someone I don’t have to lose over this.”
They took off towards the contestant house and with the beach lights on, it was lit up well enough to rival the Christmas Vacation house. Soon it was easy to see Carrie sat on the porch with Josh by her side, and Mel in her lap.
“Where are they?” Meagan asked anxiously.
“Beach,” Josh said, pointing to the water. “They took off when I told them they couldn’t share a bedroom.”
Carrie nodded.
“I’ve got this,” Meagan told Sam, and she sprinted away.
Sam watched her depart, and leaned on the railing to the steps. He eyed Carrie. “Good thing you entertained yourself with Mel and not Jensen.”
“That’s what I told her, too,” Josh said. “Life is way too short to bury yourself in a popularity contest.”
“The show makes it feel like a popularity contest,” Carrie said.