Love Elimination Read online

  Anna pulled out a stool and leaned her elbows on the marble, trying to pretend she was alone until her sister returned. Her head dropped into her hands, stifling a yawn. Without the presence of clocks—not even on the kitchen appliances—there was no way to tell when the evening would end. She would have to rely on the first signs of sunrise in the sky.

  ‘What have I done?’ she whispered to herself, cursing silently a moment later when she remembered the microphone she wore. Her brain felt like it had short circuited and her feet were about to fall off altogether.

  ‘I don’t know. What have you done?’ that low male voice asked, sending hot tingles down Anna’s spine. She lifted her eyes to his sculpted figure, not bothering to move her hands from her forehead.

  ‘Nothing. I’m just taking a moment. It’s a little overwhelming.’ She dragged her head up and took another gulp, forgetting the bubbles that tickled the back of her throat. A whole legion of cameras had followed Luke inside and were focused on their interaction. Plus the guy by the plant had snapped to attention. What did they think was going to happen?

  Anna drained the glass of its contents. ‘I’d better get back out there, huh?’

  ‘You’ve got time.’ He placed a hand on her upper arm. If it was supposed to be comforting, it had the opposite effect: every nerve ending came alive. Anna shuffled away and his hand fell. She was still trapped against the bench. Her eyes avoided his. I’m not interested, she wanted to tell him. Go flirt with the women who actually want you.

  ‘Luke, we’re set up at the side of the house. Jessica is waiting near the door. Go grab her and lead her around for a one-on-one,’ Joe called from behind the camera. Although only, Anna noticed, after the conversation had stalled and it was clear they would not suddenly succumb to desire built up over the brief time they’d known of each other’s existence.

  ‘Just a sec.’ Luke leaned across the counter and grabbed the last bottle of champagne. As he did so, his shirt rode up to reveal the top of his hips and a hint of his abs.

  Anna took the brief respite from his attention to slip off the seat. But she’d underestimated the distance between them, and landed well within his personal space before pitching forward. Damn those wedge heels. Luke grabbed her waist, pulling her to him. His jaw was so close that his breath unfurled on her cheek. He smelled like pine trees.

  ‘Sorry!’ she gasped, rushing to put a safe amount of space between them.

  ‘You’re okay. Anna, was it?’ He elongated each syllable of her name uncertainly.

  ‘That’s right.’ She needed to move away. The bottom of her stomach tightened with each minute she spent in his presence. She turned and made to leave the room. But Luke followed, placing his hand on her lower back and guiding her around the furniture. His touch melted her composure. Anna bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood. Clutching her glass, she hurried across the courtyard.

  An arm darted out and grabbed her. ‘Anna,’ Kate hissed. ‘Are you trying to get me fired? Stop running away from Luke Westwood.’

  ‘How else am I supposed to get evicted?’

  ‘By trusting me! All you have to do is play along. I’ll get you out of here as soon as possible.’

  ‘I want to be evicted tonight, Kate. Not as soon as possible.’

  ‘And how is playing hard to get going to help? Now he’s intrigued by you.’

  ‘It’s not hard to get. It’s disinterested.’

  Kate shook her head and laughed. ‘You have no idea about men …’ She wandered off again and Anna was left staring blankly into the space where her sister had been standing.

  Around her, the party had deteriorated into yawning. Only the women with cameras trained on them and a producer hovering nearby were animated. Anna joined the two women farthest from the double doors of the villa and the cameras. They reintroduced themselves as Liu Kun and Christina. If only they’d all been given name tags. But, of course, that would look ghastly for the audience and the producers could just edit out all the repeated introductions and mutterings of ‘Sorry, what’s your name again?’

  ‘What did you find out about him?’ Christina asked.

  Liu Kun looked towards the double doors. ‘That he loves snowboarding—’

  ‘Duh.’

  ‘He mostly coaches the Australian snowboarding team. He’s an only child. And he doesn’t much like champagne.’

  The two women laughed, but Anna’s nerves were twisted into knots that kept her from hitting the right responses. She couldn’t forget the microphone on her dress. Her only hope was that the conversation was too mundane to make it onto the screen. The cameras trained on her would be getting every inglorious moment of her stiff posture and the trembling hands that were damp with spilled ‘champagne’.

  ‘I wonder if the producers will offer a different drink in future, now that he’s said that on camera?’ Anna suggested.

  ‘I hope not. This is delicious!’ Christina took another sip of the bubbly liquid and gave an exaggerated sigh of contentment.

  ‘And, of course, there’s his father!’

  ‘Who’s his father?’ Anna glanced between the giggling women.

  ‘Tyson Westwood. That’s how they got him on the show,’ Liu Kun said.

  ‘Who’s Tyson Westwood?’

  ‘He’s the founder and managing director of WestMedia.’ When a kink appeared in Anna’s eyebrow, Liu Kun continued teasingly, ‘You know, the network that created Love Elimination—and just about every other popular show on Australian television.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Christina continued. ‘You’d have to be living under a rock to not know Tyson Westwood. He started the company at twenty-five years old and he’s been heralded as the next Rupert Murdoch. Except now he’s far more successful than Murdoch ever was.’

  The name was familiar now, but only because Kate worked in the media. Perhaps Anna did need to watch the news more often. She lived in a bubble where only food-related current affairs seemed to seep through.

  After that, Liu Kun and Christina moved on to other topics and Anna breathed a sigh of relief. Until that point the conversation had felt like high school, talking about the cutest boy in class. The trio talked for what felt like hours, with most of the other contestants joining them for stretches of time, before running off to spy on Luke again. Their only indication of time passing was the growing frequency of long pauses as they fought against the overwhelming urge to sleep. Each of the contestants had a chance to steal Luke away for a one-on-one, except Anna, who was ignored or whose time in the kitchen seemed to count. The producers ran around in the background, playing the cast like puppet masters.

  Finally, a dramatic sound effect played across the space and several more lights strung in the palm trees came to life. Mason Lockier reappeared like a magician ready for his final act of the night—to make one of the women disappear.

  ‘Gooooood evening!’ he announced, his voice projecting over the whispers of the girls. ‘Tonight, our handsome Luke is going to be sending home one pretty lady. Now, you would have noticed me pull him aside earlier in the night. He’s given me his verdict, but I am going to let him tell you all anyway, because I’m a mean bastard and it makes for good television.’

  Anna laughed.

  ‘Don’t worry. They’ll edit that part out later,’ he said. ‘So, Luke, over to you!’

  Luke moved through the women to stand by Mason at the centre of everyone’s attention. He had a relaxed look about him. Either he wasn’t the least bit stressed by the attention and the camera coverage, or the fact that he could potentially hurt one of the women here, or he was perpetually chilled out. Given the whole snowboarder thing, Anna hoped it was the latter. It wasn’t a trait she considered attractive. So why was she so mixed up inside? She crossed her arms over her chest and clenched the hand not holding her glass into a fist.

  ‘I’m not going to put you through any more pomp or ceremony. This show is all about making a connection.’ He looked around the room, his pauses slight
and his words fast. The crew behind the camera were making gestures like they were running their fingers along a piece of string from the middle outwards. Luke ignored them. ‘Tonight I just wasn’t feeling it with Dee. I’m sorry Dee.’

  Who? The woman hadn’t even made it onto Anna’s radar and yet, in this moment, Anna wanted to run forwards and push her into a bush so she could take her place. Her skin flushed and she trembled in her fight between yelling out at the injustice or delivering a glare capable of making a small child cry.

  This was Anna’s eviction. She should’ve been the one to go home. But she’d screwed it up. She hadn’t done enough to make him think they would be a bad match. It shouldn’t have been hard. The man lived wherever there was snow, and there was no way she’d be leaving her café. If only she’d dropped a hint about hating long-distance relationships or that she hated the cold, even if the latter wasn’t true. Anna wanted to pound the sand with her feet and curse until time wound back and she could do the night all over again, avoid Luke Westwood entirely, maybe shoot him a disappointed look every so often, as if he’d failed to meet her expectations.

  Now she was stuck on a show with ten other women battling for one man and expecting her to do the same, for who knew how long. Dee, the forgettable woman, stepped forwards and hugged Luke. They turned together and he escorted her back through the villa. Compared to what Anna had come to expect from her short experience with filming a reality television show, it was brief, to the point, and unexaggerated. Quick. Painless. It was exactly the kind of exit Anna should have engineered for herself.

  ‘And that concludes episode one!’ Mason rubbed his hands together, scanning his eyes across the remaining contestants. ‘Now, off to bed for some beauty sleep.’

  In that moment, Anna found a tiny piece of her relieved that she hadn’t been evicted first—if only for the chance to experience Egyptian cotton sheets. She couldn’t imagine having to catch the red-eye home after hours of standing around and drinking. The very thought made her want to throw up.

  As she crawled into bed, Anna forced herself to think positive. It was her first holiday in a long time. She was in a paradise of golden sand and cloudless—she hoped—days. And if she was smart, she might be able to work in some time in the kitchen before she left. Because the first thing she’d be doing tomorrow was finding Kate and getting herself sent home at the next opportunity. If her sister could get her onto a hotly contested reality dating television show, she could certainly get her out of it.

  CHAPTER

  4

  Despite filming wrapping up at 5:30 am that morning, the producers called Luke into the boardroom of the mansion in the early afternoon. He sat at the mahogany table, yawning and thinking about the beautiful weather outside. With his career, he hadn’t spent a lot of time near white sand and warm oceans.

  There was a knock and a latecomer dressed in a tight skirt suit walked through the open door. Luke recognised her as a producer from the night before and the same air of familiarity hit him now. Joe seemed incapable of looking away from the woman.

  ‘Luke, this is Kate Hobbs. She’s one of the Love Elimination producers.’

  Kate nodded a hello, closed the door behind her and joined them, sitting gingerly beside Joe. She placed a folder on the table. Upon opening it, Luke saw headshots of all the contestants. Their names, ages and occupations were typed across a white space at the bottom of each photo. Once again, Luke found himself staring at a photo of Anna that didn’t match the others. Before he could ask about it, Kate and Joe spread the pictures across the table with deft movements.

  ‘Now, you’ve met all of the women. This first date will set the tone for the competition.’

  The word ‘competition’ seemed an odd choice for a dating show about falling in love. It implied that there would be a winner and looking at the faces before him, Luke couldn’t imagine leaving the show with any of them. Certainly not for more than three months. That was about how long these things usually lasted before the women ran from him, sometimes screaming and cursing as they left.

  ‘Are there any that stand out so far?’ Kate said.

  Luke shook his head, remembering the terms of his contract. He needed to stay with the ‘winner’ for six months. Many of the faces before him were clearly in it for the ring and bank account, just as Harrison had warned. They would be sorely disappointed when they saw just how much of Luke’s winnings had gone into partying in his twenties and just how little of Daddy’s money made its way into his possession.

  ‘Not really.’

  ‘Well, you’ll have to pick one for the first single date. Do you have anyone in mind for that?’

  ‘Perhaps her,’ he replied, pointing at Anna. If she was as disinterested in him as he suspected, at least she wouldn’t cling or interrogate him about the genetic quirks he’d be passing down to her children. Every single one of the women—except Anna—had thrown herself at him the previous night, asking the same questions about how many children he wanted. But Anna had seemed to be avoiding him, even when the cameras hadn’t yet swarmed on them, and it wasn’t in a ‘playing hard to get’ kind of way. Plus there was the photo; she looked so normal.

  Kate sucked in a loud breath and Joe shot a glance at her, as if warning her to keep her mouth shut.

  ‘Anyone else?’ Joe said.

  Luke pointed to three other women. Two he remembered making him laugh and a third who was shyer than all of the others.

  ‘Okay, and any you took an immediate disliking to …’

  This one was surprisingly easy. He didn’t usually have snap negative reactions to beautiful women, but whoever had cast the show made it easy to pinpoint the crazies, bitches and clingers. He pointed to one photo, then another, then two more. Joe grabbed them and stuck them on a whiteboard on the far wall, separated from the photos of the women Luke liked.

  ‘You know we’ll have to keep on some of these? We’ll need a couple of villains to drive the show.’

  ‘I know.’ Luke’s legs itched and the air in the room felt stagnant. He jogged his heels against the ground. Usually when he felt this way, he’d just throw on a jacket and hit the snow. All year round he made sure it was just outside his window. Right now, all he wanted was to throw his body into the sparkling surf.

  ‘I’m thinking we’ll put the spotlight on these women, and keep them in the show until at least top six.’ Kate shuffled a few of the photos to one side of the wall. ‘And these can be the villains, so they’ll also be hanging around.’ She moved a few more photos.

  Anna wasn’t in either pile. It lay untouched on the desk. ‘What about her?’ Luke asked, pointing at the photo.

  ‘We don’t think she’ll be great on camera,’ Kate replied quickly, cutting off whatever response Joe was about to give. Joe narrowed his eyes and his lips pressed together.

  ‘We’ll see how she goes.’ Joe shuffled the photos into a single pile and returned them to the manila folder. He handed the file to Kate and stood. ‘Now, take the next few hours to relax,’ he said to Luke. ‘We’ll start the dates tonight.’

  As soon as they saw themselves out, Luke turned and exited through the door at the opposite end of the room. Each step towards the beach eased the persistent tingling in his legs. When he reached it, the uneven sand felt like a massage. Luke stomped along, weaving through the palm trees towards the ocean, pulling his shirt and shorts off as he headed for the stinger net—the one downside of this tropical paradise.

  The yellow sun hovered high above the horizon. Those bright Australian rays were almost blinding. It was worth it for the beach, though. The water glittered like Swarovski crystals opposite a forest of palm trees. The white ocean swell rubbed against the sand. Luke swam backwards, watching the beach as it retreated. The jagged line of hills or mountains in the distance framed the tropical beach. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if a pod of bottleneck dolphins had appeared from beneath the flat surf.

  He stayed like that, gently paddling and looking
back at the sand, as he saw Anna emerge from the tree line. She hurried along the beach, dressed in gym clothes and clutching something small in her hands, coming to a stop about where the path from the ocean to Luke’s guest house behind the mansion was hidden. With only the occasional glance at the scenery around her, she dropped to the ground and drew her knees up to her chest.

  Luke didn’t deal well with upset women, but he couldn’t exactly leave her alone now he’d seen her. Plus there was something about her that didn’t add up and Luke wanted to know what it was. She acted differently from every other contestant. The producers and director didn’t seem to think of her as a contender. And now, surrounded by one of the most beautiful landscapes Luke had ever seen, she didn’t look up once.

  As he swam towards the shore, he saw that the object she held was a phone. A contraband phone that she clutched to her ear.

  He wasn’t trying to sneak up to her. There were splashes of water and the crunch of shells under his feet to alert her to his presence. But she didn’t notice, her attention fixed on the conversation at hand. He was a metre away when she looked up, and an involuntary gasp escaped her lips. Her eyes widened even more when he flopped onto the ground by her side, ignoring the way she watched the water drip from his body. He felt his shorts tighten as he noticed how her clothes clung to her thighs and the front of her singlet stretched across her breasts.

  ‘I have to go,’ she said into the mouthpiece, hanging up in a swift movement and pocketing the device.

  ‘Good morning,’ he said. He had needed to say something to distract her eyes from his body—to prevent them from creeping below his waistline. Whatever she expected from him, speaking clearly wasn’t it. At the sound of his voice, Anna jumped; quite clumsily, given that she was in a seated position.

  Luke held his hands up. ‘Woah, calm down. I’m not going to rat you out.’

  ‘You’re not?’ Her words came out breathy and sultry. She cleared her throat and tried again. ‘I mean, you’re not?’