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“Hey,” Elliot says, coming up behind her in one of the bedrooms. “You did awesome out there today.” He plants a small kiss to the side of her neck, right along where the chain holding the key of power lays. “Proud of you.”
She turns into him, smiles, as she wraps her arms around him and pulls him close to her. “Thanks,” she says, softly. They’re quiet, hearing footsteps from somewhere nearby, before she continues, saying, “I know I needed that win.” A pause. “We needed that win.”
“You think the others have figured out yet that we’re working together?” he whispers, his breath hot against her neck, and she shivers with anticipation. Anyone could walk in at any time – but she knows Alex and Ayanna are out at the pool table, and Casey’s busy making cupcakes with Jet, and Amanda and Dominick are likely making out in the hammock or in one of their beds.
She gets along with everyone in the house, and that’s the problem.
It’s going to make it difficult to choose who to target, who to nominate this week; but it also means that everyone sees her as a potential threat to win.
Her number one alliance, her “partner for life” as they’d termed it over early morning cups of coffee and tea in the backyard a few weeks before, is the man standing with her now, grinning as wide as he had when Ayanna had given her the key a few hours before. Some may say it’s a “showmance,” but she knows better.
Whatever this is – whatever is between them – is unmatched.
“Not yet,” she says, breathing out. “Though if you keep looking at me like you want to devour me, someone is going to figure something out. Fin knows things, you know. He’s probably had us figured out from day one.”
He smirks, looking at her like he wants to devour her, and she gulps, because there’s an unmatched intensity in his blue eyes that she knows is a promise. If not now, then soon.
($750,000 can get them a very nice hotel room after the finale, after all.
And she knows that one of them will be the one to win.)