Dean thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers. “Camp counselor. And I think I remember someone said that Will was a teacher.”
“I guess they sound okay,” I said, caving in. “I just worry that someone’s going to mess this up for us when we’ve got things going so well.”
Dean gave me a greasy hug, rubbing my arm. “Don’t you worry about a thing.” His hot, oiled skin slid against mine as he pulled me close. “I’ll handle them.”
To my vast shame, it felt marvelous to have Dean hold me close to him, feeling his sun-warmed skin against my own. The urge to sink against him was consuming. Lana was giving us an interested look, and too late, I remembered that we were supposed to be at each other’s throats. I jerked away and followed Dean back over to Team Nine, trying to remain as nonchalant as possible, despite Lana’s gloating grin.
“Fire for food sounds like a good deal to me,” Dean said, stepping forward. Lana clapped her hands happily, and Will burst into a smile, and I realized just how much they’d needed fire. They were probably desperate for something to drink that didn’t come out of a coconut.
Will handed the fruit over to Dean, who handed me a banana. I immediately began to peel it and eat it—the fruit inside was a little green and hard, but it was still one of the best things I’d eaten in a long time. I noticed Dean was eating his as well, and we made no pretense of trying to have a conversation as we scarfed the food down.
When I’d eaten the last bites of the banana and sighed, I pondered what to do with the peel. Maybe we could boil something in it later. Or… something.
“Fire?” Lana said expectantly.
Dean glanced over at me and nodded. He put his arm around Will’s shoulders and gestured at the heavy thick of palms in the distance. “Why don’t I have Will show me where the food is, and you show Lana the fire?”
I nodded and we split up, us girls heading back to our camp while the guys tromped into the heavy underbrush. Lana gave me a scrutinizing look as soon as they were out of sight. “So how are things with Dean?”
“Fine,” I said slowly, not sure how much to reveal or how much she’d already guessed. “How are things with Will?”
“Very platonic,” she said with a faint half smile. “He’s g*y.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure how to take that. Will was the only black man on the show, well-built and utterly gorgeous to look at. “So I guess you two aren’t an item?”
Lana snorted, the sound overly loud out of the petite Asian woman. “He’s been talking about your partner, Dean, for days now. No, I’m afraid that boy likes dick.”
I laughed at that. “Well, Dean’s the biggest dick on this island, so he came to the right place.”
She grinned but the shrewd look returned. “Really? You two seemed cozy earlier. I noticed you were holding back in the reward challenge, too.”
She had noticed all of that? Crap, Lana was far more observant than I liked. “I thought it might be a little obvious if we placed in first.”
“It’s a genius plan,” Lana admitted. “When I saw you hesitating with that puzzle and then yelling at Dean, I thought you were pretty smart.”
“I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to anyone else,” I said hesitantly. That she’d pegged both Dean and me so fast made me nervous.
“Say anything?” Her face broadened into a smile, and I realized for the millionth time how beautiful every single woman on this island was. “I’m not going to say a word. I think the four of us would work better as allies.”
I squatted next to the fire, poking the giant log we’d thrown over it before the challenge to keep it smoldering. Sure enough, the flames had died down but the coals at the bottom were still red. It wouldn’t take much to get them hot again. “How are you going to carry this back?”
“Good question,” Lana said. “I don’t think we thought that far ahead. We were just desperate enough to try anything.”
I held out our boiling pot. “Dean and I haven’t had a chance to use this yet. We can put some coals into this to carry over to your camp.”
“That sounds good,” she said, and Lana paced around our small camp, as if taking notes. “Your shelter is amazing,” she gushed, leaning over it and examining where I’d woven the palm leaves together. “How did you get everything to hold together? I tried to build something but it fell apart the first night because of the wind.”
I gestured at the shelter and tried not to feel too smug. “I used my string bikini to hold it together.”
Lana gave me a startled look, then laughed again. “They are a little revealing,” she agreed, though I noticed she was currently wearing hers. “And a blanket, too. Nice. Will got fishhooks and I have some spices. What did you get?”
“I…” Oh lord, I really didn’t want to tell her about my peanut butter. “I got a jar of some sort of food, but I dropped it in the water before I even hit shore,” I said, making up the lie as I went along. “Pretty disappointing.”
She made sympathetic noises. “I’ll bet.”
Once she’d finished boiling the water, we filled the pot up with hot coals and carried it down the beach to their campsite, adding tinder to keep the fire going. Team Nine’s beach was situated a mile or so away and across a small inlet. Not too long, really. A quick check of their camp revealed what I’d suspected—it really sucked. No fire pit, no shelter, nothing. With Lana’s help, I set out creating a new fire for them, building the wood into a small pyramid and sending Lana to get tinder and other bits.
Dean and Will returned while we were building the fire, their arms full of fruit, and discussed where they’d found the fruit and the best places to find more. They seemed friendly enough, and when Will showed Dean the hooks, the men were determined to try to catch a fish. They spent most of the afternoon in the water while I helped Lana try and build a shelter similar to ours, though slightly bigger.
“It’s not as cozy as yours, but I don’t want to sleep snuggled up to Will unless it’s cold,” she said with a teasing note in her voice.
My throat froze at that. I wanted to point out that I’d originally built my shelter for me alone, but then that would reveal that the dislike Dean and I had affected wasn’t always pretend. So I changed topics. “Do you want to tear strips from your shirt to lash the frame together or should we use your bikini too?”