Love Elimination Read online

Luke dragged a hand through his hair as she continued to stare out, away from him. It was an Australian habit, the refusal to look into another person’s eyes. After years of travel and living overseas, it also became one of his biggest pet peeves. He wanted to take her chin in his fingers and turn her head towards his. Perhaps tilting it towards his lips. He wondered what she would do. Would she part them, anticipating his kiss? Would he kiss her?

  ‘How can you even think about leaving? What about the spark between us?’ he teased.

  ‘Pretend the spark has died.’ She grinned at him.

  ‘What about the social media stuff?’

  ‘My café is just a hollowed-out shop at the moment. It’s not ready for customers, so what use is good PR?’

  Taking her answer as a cue to stop asking questions, Luke joined her in the water. The first cool wave washed goose bumps over his bare feet. With each subsequent wave, the water warmed.

  ‘Do you want to go for a swim with me?’ It wasn’t quite teasing. A large part of him wanted to watch her slip out of that cocktail dress and into the water. He wanted to know whether she’d opt for wet underwear or whether she’d prefer skinny dipping under the bright light of the Milky Way above them.

  ‘What? No!’

  He chuckled. ‘Okay, another time.’

  This time she stepped towards him, putting her face close to his. ‘Seriously, Luke. Stop playing around. What am I doing here? When are you going to send me home? I don’t want to be here.’

  ‘I know,’ he replied and an idea occurred to him. A way to avoid getting stuck with one of the other women. A way for him and his father to get through this sham with their reputations intact. Without letting it simmer in his mind, he blurted it out: ‘What if you agreed to stay? And we just dated—had fun, relaxed—like your sister said?’

  ‘Why? You have eight other girls to have fun with. You don’t need me.’

  ‘I like you.’ He held up his hands as he saw Anna’s reaction. ‘Don’t worry. I’m not falling in love with you. But you’re the one person I don’t have to worry about hurting.’

  ‘You don’t need me. Just pick someone else who’s happy to date casually.’

  ‘They all want a fairytale ending, Anna. I need you!’

  Anna scoffed but Luke continued speaking with greater urgency. ‘Listen, I don’t want to be here either. I’m just repaying a favour. My life doesn’t have room for a wife and two-point-five kids.’ He kept a distance between them, letting her think it over. ‘There’s a $50,000 budget for a wedding ring at the end of the season. So what if you just rode it out? Then I have one less heart to break.’

  Only because he was watching her face so closely did he see her muscles twitch at the mention of the ring.

  ‘I’m not getting engaged to you!’ she gasped a second later.

  Luke laughed again, enjoying the mask of horror on her face. ‘Calm down, I’m not asking you to marry me. Just hang around. The producers will organise some epic dates. And then I don’t have to go and make some other poor innocent fall in love with me.’

  ‘That’s sad, really. But what’s in it for me? I’m still stuck here.’

  ‘You get the ring, which you can sell for a small fortune as soon as the show is over.’

  ‘Not good enough.’

  No, of course she wouldn’t fall for that. The woman shied away from every hint of romance or flirting, of which a ring is the ultimate symbol.

  ‘Think about it, Anna.’ Luke couldn’t resist.

  ‘No!’

  ‘Fine, then I’ll have to go with an IOU until I find a way to repay the debt.’ Before she could interrupt, he powered on: ‘Trust me. I’ve got a lot to give. I’m pretty resourceful, you know. I can help you and your café when the time comes.’

  She didn’t look entirely appeased. Of course not. The only thing the woman appeared willing to accept was an eviction.

  ‘The producers don’t want to send you home just yet, Anna. I don’t want to send you home. And you just promised your sister that you wouldn’t get yourself evicted—although you already kind of broke that promise by begging me to send you home tonight.’

  Anna let out a puff of air. ‘There’s no way I can convince you, is there?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why me? Why did you take me on the first single date and why do you want me around?’

  Luke thought for a second. ‘Because you’re interesting, gorgeous, and not desperate to tack my name to the end of yours.’

  Anna smiled and her beauty made him want to reach out and run his hands through her hair and over her body.

  ‘So we start tomorrow. Lots of flirting and fun. Okay?’ he said.

  ‘I’m not agreeing to this.’

  ‘You aren’t ruthlessly turning me down again, either,’ he pointed out. ‘Now, while we’re thinking things, we may as well talk about that swim …’

  Her eyes widened. ‘No!’ Anna tossed her hair over her shoulder and strode back to her shoes, stumbling over them in the dark and dropping onto the sand. With a less than graceful motion, she swept the shoes into her hand, the sand off her arse, and her body down the beach and away from Luke.

  ‘I’m not sticking around until the end,’ she called softly over her shoulder. ‘Just a few more dates. Epic dates. And then you need to let me go.’

  With that, she strode away. He watched her, noticing the way she swayed as she walked. Kind of like she was drunk. Luke chuckled again. At least he would have some fun during the show. The company of the crew and his own lonely self had become extremely tiresome. Anna could even distract him from the distinct lack of snow in tropical North Queensland, or from how little he was missing his old life.

  CHAPTER

  9

  Ah crap. Anna’s pulse rushed and stammered in her veins. Her vision blurred and she realised her mistake: forgetting to breathe. She drew in a quick breath and choked on the sudden inhalation. Her irrational mind suddenly regretted baking and then eating that rhubarb tart the night before.

  ‘Please tell me this is not what I think it is …’ Hadie muttered, sidling up to Anna. They glanced around the three mirrored walls behind ten silver poles that reached from the wooden floor to the ceiling more than four metres above them. The fourth wall was emblazoned with a giant image of a woman hanging upside down by the underside of her knee.

  ‘If we get an instructor who looks like that, Luke will take one look and send us all home.’ Anna nodded at the woman’s abs.

  ‘You think he’s going to judge us on our looks? On our bodies?’ Hadie sounded worried.

  Anna didn’t get a chance to answer. The producers were making each of the contestants rip their clothes off and dump them outside of the shot. They had lacy panties and bras for the contestants wearing daggy, grandma underwear to put on. Anna watched as a cameraperson rushed over to whisper in Yvette’s ear. Without even an attempt at subtlety, Yvette pushed her breasts higher in her push-up bra. Anna shuddered. Luckily, Anna’s athletic-looking underwear passed the test. Despite wearing the same brand, Hadie’s did not; they didn’t fit the ‘yummy mummy’ box. Or maybe it was just because Hadie didn’t have a sister for a producer.

  After shivering in front of the cameras for a sufficient amount of time, Luke was allowed to emerge from the reception area behind them. Anna spun towards him and found his eyes focused on her body. Goose bumps erupted on her skin. A grin stretched across his face.

  He leaned over and strained to reach his toes. All the female eyes went to the reflection of his arse in the mirror. But when the instructor walked in, Luke’s arse had some competition.

  ‘Welcome. My name is Adam and this is Pole Perfect. Grab a mat, cloth and water bottle and we’ll get started.’

  * * *

  Pole dancing was hard. Like, impossible. Just keeping her hand around the steel surface was a major trial. Adam spent ten minutes running from pole to pole applying something called ‘dry hands’ to each woman and her pole. Even after it dried into a
white powder on her hands, Anna couldn’t figure out how to keep her body attached to the pole. It looked effortless when Adam demonstrated, but the only people able to actually look graceful were Luke (no surprises there) and Jessica, who, it transpired, took pole-dancing classes back home. Anna couldn’t imagine anyone willingly causing themself so much pain. She’d already stripped two layers of skin from the top of her feet trying to climb the pole. Plus she’d pulled a muscle in her arm and spotted a bruise forming on the soft skin above her knee.

  ‘You need to start closer to the pole,’ Luke advised, coming to stand a metre away from Anna and her new worst enemy.

  ‘I hate this,’ Anna grumbled, doing as she was told. She tucked her leg around the pole and pushed off, lifting her other leg into the air.

  ‘Good! Now bring your feet together—just your feet—and keep your upper body tall.’

  Anna followed Luke’s instructions, watching herself rotate in the mirror. Discovering that the poles spun had been like seeing behind the scenes of a theme park.

  ‘Chest up!’

  ‘I’m doing it!’ She grinned, ignoring the looks of the other women in the reflection of the mirrors.

  Then Anna felt the moisture pooling in her palms. Her arms shook at the effort it took to cling to the pole and her right hand dropped by about a centimetre. ‘Scratch that. I’m slipping!’

  ‘Just calmly and gracefully bring your feet to the ground,’ Luke said.

  Calmly Anna could do. Graceful was asking a bit much, but she managed to dismount. It was even a little easier than her experience with the horse. Luke raised his hand for a high five. Anna subtly wiped her hands on her pants and then slapped her hand against his.

  ‘How do you know how to pole dance?’ she asked. She hoped a conversation would mostly keep her eyes from straying to Luke’s bare chest. Anna had guessed that she, or some of the other contestants, would see Luke shirtless sooner or later. The man was an Olympic athlete. Even under a suit she could see the muscles in his arms. When he hugged her, she felt the firmness of his stomach for herself. Now she was seeing it. The man looked like a sex god without his shirt, even more so with beads of sweat on his skin. She had to squeeze her hands to her side or cling to the pole just to resist reaching out to touch him.

  ‘I had a practice run a few days ago.’ Luke answered the question Anna didn’t even remember asking. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his body.

  ‘So you’re a natural then? I wouldn’t be able to do it with months of lessons,’ she teased, trying to hide her lust. She finally yanked her gaze to his face, and was immediately struck by his handsomeness there too.

  ‘Maybe I am. It seems that I excel at anything remotely physical …’ His eyes trailed down Anna’s body, touching on every part of her. Anna felt her whole body flush hot under his stare. The desire she’d been feeling before multiplied by the thousands. All she could think about was his body and hers. The way he could make her feel, if not for the cameras.

  The cameras. Anna felt like a cold wave had hit her. Because to her, the moment felt just as clear as screaming, ‘Please take me!’ at the man standing in front of her. She looked around for the nearest and found it trained on the two of them. How could she forget? In her underwear and trying to heave herself on and around the pole, the microphone was more cumbersome than ever before.

  Luke winked and wandered to the other side of the room, throwing compliments at the other contestants as he went. Anna had a hard time tearing her eyes away. Even when the instructor had her back on the pole, she couldn’t help watching Luke.

  * * *

  ‘That date looked tough. Good work getting through. I’m sure you’ll all wake up with rock-hard abs tomorrow,’ Mason Lockier said.

  ‘I wish it worked that way,’ Anna muttered and Hadie giggled under her breath. Anna shifted her weight from foot to foot. A drip of sweat slid down her spine. She just needed Mason and Luke to hurry up and evict someone so she could get back to the beach house and have a shower. Or even better: jump on a plane, get back to her apartment, and have a shower there.

  ‘This next part is super relaxing. We’re going to drive you a few kilometres up the coast where there is a luxurious boat waiting for you. The catamaran will take you out onto the beautiful clear ocean and you’ll get the chance to swim with the dolphins, dive over the Great Barrier Reef and, if neither of those things take your fancy, hang out on the boat,’ Mason said. ‘And did I mention the catamaran is fully stocked with cocktails and a delicious lunch? Oh, and a spa.’

  The contestants oohed and aahed on cue. Even Anna had to admit the whole thing sounded perfect. Just what she needed after doing the most intense physical exercise of her life.

  ‘But only a handful of you will be going.’

  A few women looked genuinely crestfallen. For the first time, Anna was among them. She wanted to go on the date. With the state of global warming there was no telling what would happen to the Great Barrier Reef. Well actually, there were plenty of scientists warning what would occur. So if she didn’t see it now, she might never experience one of the world’s greatest wonders. She crossed her fingers behind her back.

  ‘Luke will read the names of the lucky ladies from this envelope. The rest of you will be heading back to base camp with me,’ Mason said. ‘Take it away, Luke.’

  ‘Coming with me on the yacht are …’ he said, opening the envelope like a singing show host. ‘Hadie, Jessica, Liu Kun, Yvette and—Anna!’

  A breath of air escaped her lips and she let her fingers relax. She was going. It was worth the death stares in her direction. She could even deal with Luke winking at her from the front of the group, as though no one was watching and interpreting it as favouritism.

  * * *

  The yacht was huge. Bigger than Anna and Kate’s apartment. The five women boarded it wearing the bikinis, dresses, shoes and accessories they’d been given. The producers had not only gotten everyone’s size, they’d also matched the clothes with each contestant’s style. Except Anna. Since Kate didn’t approve of Anna’s retro style, Anna’s dress was another high-fashion, short-hemline design. The bikini was ridiculously skimpy. Anna immediately ruled out getting into the ocean, or the spa, in front of the cameras.

  ‘This is fantastic!’ Hadie cried.

  A man wearing a sailor’s costume appeared, looking like a kid at a Halloween party. ‘Hello, hello! This beauty is the Go Fish, a twenty-nine-metre catamaran. Please come on board and I’ll let Luke take it from there.’

  The women rushed onto the deck of the catamaran and by the time they were taking their first bites of quiche and sushi, the boat was pushing through the water. It was the perfect day to be on the ocean: warm and without wind.

  ‘Do you want a drink?’ Luke asked, placing a flute of champagne in Anna’s hand when she nodded. Then he put his hand on her lower back and guided her towards the railing of the deck.

  ‘It’s beautiful. Thank you,’ Anna said. The water was a deep sapphire blue, its surface glittering like crystals. Anna scanned her eyes over the ocean. The sight of grey fins popping up through the waves would make it perfect. ‘Do you think we’ll see dolphins?’

  ‘Maybe. I was told there might even be all manner of creatures.’

  ‘Do you really choose all the dates?’ Anna asked, nudging his ribs with her elbow. ‘You don’t have a little help?’

  Luke let out a bark of laughter. ‘I chose this one. Does that count?’

  ‘Kind of.’

  ‘Well, I didn’t know any of you earlier during filming. Now I do. So I can actually plan dates that you might enjoy.’

  ‘So where would you take me now that you know me better?’

  ‘Oh, I have plans.’ He cocked an eyebrow and grinned down at her. ‘Just you wait.’

  His tone did weird things to her. There was a tingling under her chest and a fuzziness to her thoughts. Just as she told herself it was seasickness, he reached his hand across and traced figure eights on her pa
lm. His fingers were long and coarse. She took his hand and turned it over, examining the lines on his hand like she was a palm reader.

  ‘How do you get the blisters? Is it a snowboarding thing?’

  ‘Sort of. They’re from chin-ups and lifting weights.’ His finger ran up to her forearm. ‘Where’s this from?’

  He slid the pad of his thumb along the length of Anna’s scar. A burn. ‘Grabbing a tray from the oven when I was seven. I used a tea towel to protect my hands, but I forgot about my wrist.’

  ‘What were you cooking?’

  ‘Triple chocolate brownies.’

  ‘Do you hold a grudge?’ he asked.

  ‘No. Brownies will be on the menu of my café, for sure.’

  ‘And did the brownies survive that day?’

  ‘Most of them. And yes, they were delicious.’

  Apparently sick of watching from the sidelines, Yvette and Jessica slipped out of the catamaran’s cabin. Anna pulled her hand from Luke’s grasp and shuffled away from him. Neither woman missed the movement. Certainly not for the first time, Anna wished she could tell them she wasn’t any competition. That she wasn’t interested, but that they shouldn’t let themselves fall for him. Being that handsome and rich meant he would’ve had everything handed to him on a plate, including female attention. He wasn’t going to settle down and even if he did, no woman could keep his attention for long. He was a flirt.

  ‘Hey Anna, do you mind if we steal Luke for a bit?’ Yvette’s voice was sickly sweet. ‘You’ve already had so much time together …’

  ‘Of course.’ Anna ignored the tight feeling in her chest as Yvette draped her arm around Luke’s. ‘I’ll just go refill my champagne.’

  Luke gave Anna a pleading gaze, as though begging her not to leave. Anna couldn’t resist childish impulses and stuck out her tongue when the other women weren’t watching. She joined Hadie and Liu Kun inside the cabin, grabbing a plate and filling it with three different flavours of quiche and the last sushi roll.

  ‘May I interrupt?’ Anna asked.

  ‘Actually, we were speculating about what you and Luke were talking about,’ Liu Kun said. ‘Pretty boring and clichéd reality-show contestant of us, hey?’