Outback Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 1) (5 page)

Once again, Sammi was last in line. She walked up to him, held out her hand and quickly, before he could say anything, told him, “Look, I’m sorry about walking away earlier. I’m not having a good day. I know I didn’t make a good impression and I’m sorry about that. I’m tired, wet, and yes, cold, and all I want to do is go back and get into some warm clothes. I promise to be on my best behavior the next time we meet.” Finally, she looked up and meeting Al’s eyes, gave him a shy smile. God, he was gorgeous. What she would do to start over with him. Hell, what she would do to have met him in a normal situation and not on this stupid reality show.

Alex grasped Sammi’s hand with both of his and tried to infuse some of his warmth into it. “It’s okay, I didn’t have any right to pry and I was out of line. How about if I promise to only talk about the weather and other non-threatening topics next time?” Alex asked with a smile.

Sam smiled back and said, “Deal.”

Alex slowly raised her hand, kissed the back of it and let her go. He watched as she blushed a fiery red and turned away to climb into the bus.

He couldn’t help but notice that she had the sexiest back-end he’d ever seen as she stepped up into the bus. She filled out her jeans in all the right ways. He’d never really thought about what “type” of woman he was interested in, but seeing Sammi step up into the bus did something to him. Alex felt himself get hard as she rounded the corner and sat down in the front seat of the bus. He took a deep breath to try to calm himself down. He’d forgotten about her penchant to sit in the front seat and wished he could tease her later about it, but he wasn’t supposed to have seen that part of the tape she’d made. He thought it was interesting that she was the only one who hadn’t kissed him. She wasn’t even trying to catch his attention, but ironically she had by being herself. He wanted to watch the day’s tape more than ever now. He wanted to know what had happened that day to make Sammi’s jeans soaking wet.

Alex pushed play on the tape that Eddie gave him of that morning’s contest. He knew there were several different cameras taping the women at any given time, but the tape he had in his hand was from the camera that had been on the path. He could see most of the competition because of the angle of the camera. He watched as Kathi, Nikki, and Missy raced down the lane. Missy was the first one back on the path. He had to laugh at his first glimpse of the women after their encounter with the barrel. They were dripping from head to toe, looking like bedraggled little kids. Missy raced back and forth and was obviously determined to have the most fish.

The next two heats were much of the same. He could just see the barrel the women were diving head first into and he could barely see the clearing where they were putting the fish into pails. The camera was right on the curve in the path.

The next heat was Sammi’s heat. Alex watched as Jennie, Courtnee, and Sammi raced up the path. He laughed at the look on Jennie’s and Courtnee’s faces as they raced by. They looked determined, to say the least. Sammi was running, but it seemed to Alex that she wasn’t trying very hard. The tapes were actually getting pretty boring just watching the women run back and forth. Most of the way through the fourth heat Alex finally saw why Sammi had been so cold and wet. The camera was focused on Jennie and Courtnee running back up the path. They were jostling each other to get to the barrel first. Alex couldn’t see exactly what happened because the camera suddenly pointed toward the sky, but the next thing he saw was Sammi looking up at the camera from the river. He could put together the pieces and he assumed that the two running women had knocked Sammi off the path and into the river.

Sammi was standing in water that was up around her chest. She was looking up at the camera as if to ask for help, but knew none would be forthcoming. Alex’s hands clenched at his side. Damn it, the other two women didn’t even stop! Soon he saw Sammi make one attempt to climb up the side of the riverbank only to slide back down again in the mud. She then started to make her way upstream. Every now and then she’d look up at the camera. He chuckled at the words that were coming out of her mouth. Oh, she was muttering to herself, but some of what she was saying was loud enough to carry to the camera.

Alex heard Jennie and Courtnee run past the camera, screeching as they headed toward the clearing, but they didn’t stop to help Sammi. The camera stayed focused on Sammi as she struggled to get upstream and to the clearing. Obviously, the camera operator knew where the real “money shot” was. Alex watched Sammi finally reach the clearing and get to a point where the water was only at her knees. He watched her climb out of the water, go toward one of the pails, grab it and go back to the river only to dump out the fish. He laughed then. She wasn’t kidding when she’d told him she liked animals on her video tape.

Alex continued to watch and learned how the “losers” came to be the ones to meet him that day. He thought it was pretty clever of the producers, but he also made a mental note to make sure he didn’t underestimate them in any way because he knew they could always turn around and do the same sort of thing to him. What he couldn’t believe was that not one person offered Sammi a towel or gave her any sympathy for falling into the river. He would’ve thought—no, hoped, that at least some of the other women would have been sympathetic enough to care about Sammi and what had happened. Unfortunately, not one of them offered an ear, a hand, or any type of assistance.

The camera operator seemed to know that Sammi was cold because she kept panning in very close to Sammi’s chattering teeth and shaking body. Alex sighed. There was nothing he could do. He wasn’t even supposed to be watching the tapes for God’s sake, but he wasn’t the kind of man who usually let a woman suffer, even if it was only something as small as her being chilly.

Alex suddenly had to know if Sammi had managed to warm herself up and if she was all right. He was also curious to see what the other women had talked about when the ladies he met today went back to camp. He knew he’d be meeting them the next day and he wanted to have some idea of what to expect from them. Alex wandered out of his tent and over to the production tent. Eddie was still there and Alex told him, “I’d like to see a tape of what went on when the women got back to camp.” Eddie didn’t seem to mind and asked one of the editors for the tape.

Alex wasn’t sure what to expect when he sat down to watch it. He figured the other women would be jealous, and he was right. There was a lot of interrogation that went on. The women that he didn’t get to meet today asked all sorts of questions about what he looked like, what he was wearing, what he said, if he kissed any of them. Alex was surprised when Nikki claimed they’d kissed during their one-on-one session. He just shook his head. It was definitely going to be interesting to see the dynamics unfold in the ladies’ camp.

The fact that he could watch these tapes was probably one of the only reasons he was still on the show. He couldn’t imagine trying to wade through what was real and what was fake if he didn’t have the tapes to watch. He counted himself lucky in that sense. The last thing he wanted to do was have feelings toward one of the women and then find out that it was all a lie. Eddie was a sneaky bastard and seemed to know how to push and just how far to go to make good TV.

Alex tried to catch of glimpse of Sammi on the tapes of the camp, but he didn’t see her anywhere. He watched as the camera in the bathhouse caught the ladies brushing their teeth over the sinks and washing off their makeup, generally doing what women did to get ready for bed. The cameras didn’t show the bathrooms at all, only the sink area, thank God. There was no way he wanted anything to do with any type of “peeping Tom” kind of thing. He still didn’t see Sammi anywhere in the group, and he found himself really looking for her.

Finally, the light went off in the bathroom camera. He knew that that camera was hooked up to the light. When the light went on, the camera started taping. Eddie and the other producers had purposely blocked all the natural light from the building so even in the middle of the day, the women had to turn the light on if they wanted to see in the small dark building. It was one more sneaky thing that had been orchestrated on the show. Alex knew he should never underestimate them. This camera was also one that Alex didn’t think the ladies knew about. If they had, he was sure they’d be playing to it and watching what they said to each other and about him. He sure had gotten an earful about what his butt looked like in his jeans and about their speculation about the size of his package.

He was about to call it a night when the bathroom camera suddenly came on again. The time stamp on the video said that it was about two hours after the other women had left. It was Sammi coming into the bathroom. She looked behind her as she shut the door. It looked like she was trying to see if she’d been followed or if there was a camera anywhere around. Alex found himself leaning toward the small TV, trying to get a better view of the woman. He didn’t even try to kid himself and say that he wasn’t interested in her. He was.

Sammi was carrying a small case. It looked like a cosmetic bag. Alex watched as Sammi went over to one of the sinks in front of the large mirror. She looked around furtively one more time, and finding no one, took a deep breath and lifted up her T-shirt on her left side. Alex gasped at the same time that Sammi said, “Damn.” There were giant scrapes down the entire length of her side. Alex watched as Sammi lowered her shirt and reached into her cosmetic bag. She brought out a tube of something and lifted her shirt again. Because of the camera angle, Alex could see everything she was doing. She started to smear what looked like a lotion on her side. Alex sucked in a breath at the same time that Sammi did. It had to hurt.
She must be putting antibiotic cream on it.
Alex thought to himself. Smart, but he was still mad that Eddie knew about this but hadn’t done anything. It was ridiculous and dangerous. Getting an infection while in the middle of the Outback wouldn’t be good.

Alex watched as Sammi finished spreading the cream on herself and put both her hands on the counter and leaned against them. She closed her eyes, dropped her head and took a deep breath. Again, Alex’s hands clenched into fists. She was in pain, and obviously trying to breathe through it. He wanted nothing more than to take her into his arms and hold her to help her work through that pain. Alex watched as Sammi stood as still as a gazelle in the sights of a hungry lion and remembered what her body looked like. He swallowed hard. He was supposed to be thinking about how hurt she was, but the only thing he could think of was how silky her skin looked. He thought about how Sammi was all woman. She wasn’t stick thin, he couldn’t see her ribs, but he knew she’d be soft, and he’d be able to hold on to her and feel the give in her body, as a woman should feel. He finally shook his head and willed Sammi to feel better.

Finally, he saw her take one last deep breath and look up at the mirror she was reflected in.

“Get a grip.” He heard her say out loud. Sammi then pawed through her cosmetic case and pulled out her toothbrush. She brushed her teeth, packed up her case, and left the room. As soon as the light turned off, so did the camera. Alex pushed eject and went back to the production tent.

“Why haven’t you helped her?” Alex demanded of Eddie after bursting into his tent.

“She didn’t ask for it,” he responded and went on, “besides, she signed the contract. She knew what the risks were when she agreed to be on the show, she can’t touch us.”

Alex left the tent. He couldn’t believe all Eddie was worried about was being sued. He’d surely seen the scrapes. Why didn’t he care and why didn’t he do anything about it? Alex figured there wasn’t much that he could do about the situation at this point. If he admitted to Sammi that he knew about her being hurt, she’d know that there not only was a camera in the bathroom, but he had access to watch. He didn’t want anyone’s behavior at the camp changing because they knew he was watching them. Besides, it was written in his contract that he couldn’t say a word about it to anyone. He would just have to deal. If Sammi was strong enough to grit her teeth and push through her pain, the least Alex could do would be to honor that strength and not bring attention to her pain. It might kill him, but he’d do it.

The next morning, the women’s camp was a hub of activity. The eight women who’d won the competition the day before were going to meet Al and were very excited. They were running around, trying to make sure they wore the correct outfit, their hair was just right and that the outfits they’d chosen were appropriate. Sammi once again retreated to the overlook up the hill. Her side didn’t hurt as much this morning, but she knew it’d be tough to do any sort of strenuous exercise without it being painful. She knew she wouldn’t get any sympathy from anyone, and besides, it wasn’t as if she was going to get any kind of tropical disease from the scratches…at least she hoped not. Sammi turned back toward the camp just in time to see the bus pull up and the eight giddy women climb aboard. She shrugged and turned back toward the amazing view of the Outback. She was sure she and the other women would hear all about the visit with Al when the ladies got back to camp later.

* * *

Alex watched as the bus pulled up and the women almost tumbled out in their haste to get to him. He braced himself as all eight women surrounded him. They were all almost talking at once. Finally, he laughed and said, “One at a time, ladies.”

One woman leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, closer to his lips than he was comfortable with, and said, “Hi, I’m Missy.”

One by one, the other women followed suit. Alex felt like he was going to suffocate with all the different perfumes the women were wearing. The smell of the perfume was overwhelming and completely out of place in the beauty that was the Outback. He heard their names as if he was in a box…“Lori, Jennie, Kiki, Candi…” He remembered the conversation the day before with Sammi about everyone’s name ending in “ie” and he almost laughed out loud. Alex wasn’t surprised that his thoughts turned to Sammi. He’d been thinking about her all night and wondering how she was doing. He forced himself back to the present and concentrated on the eight women around him.

After the initial introductions were over, Alex fell into the same routine as the day before. He met with each woman one at a time and then halfway through the meetings they had brunch. Then it was back to the conversations.

After lunch, Alex first met with Courtnee.

“Hello. Courtnee, isn’t it?” Alex said with a smile.

Courtnee was obviously happy that he’d remembered her name. “Yes, that’s right. Hi, Al. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here and to finally get time alone with you.”

Alex wondered if she knew how corny that sounded. “Where are you from again? I think you said in your video that you were from Florida?”

“Yes,” Courtnee gushed. “Pensacola. I just love it there, I have the cutest little house, it’s right on the beach, and…”

Alex tuned her out. Their conversation was much like the other women’s. They talked on and on about themselves and didn’t really once ask about him or about what he liked to do. Finally, he decided to see if she would talk about the incident yesterday.

“Uh, so, Courtnee…you must have gotten a lot of fish yesterday in order to be in the top eight, huh?” Alex asked, pretending interest.

“Yes, although I would have gotten more if Jennie hadn’t pushed me out of the way of the barrel at the last second!” Courtnee exclaimed. “It really wasn’t fair. I’d reached the barrel first!”

“What about Sammi?” Alex asked.

“What about her?” Courtnee responded. “She didn’t have nearly as many fish as we did, so it didn’t matter if she got that last fish or not. It wasn’t my fault that she fell in the river. If she wasn’t so clumsy she wouldn’t have.” It was obvious Courtnee knew exactly what he was asking about. If Alex wasn’t mistaken, he could detect a hint of defensiveness in her tone.

Alex couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. She honestly thought it wasn’t her fault, or at least felt no remorse at knocking Sammi into the water.

“Mmmm.” Alex couldn’t think of anything else to respond to Courtnee that wouldn’t come out as totally inappropriate.

That didn’t seem to matter to her. She just kept on talking. Finally it was time for Alex to have a one-on-one with another contestant. She leaned up to Alex’s ear and whispered, “I had a great time, and I think you’re really hot. I know we can be red hot together…see ya later, sweetheart.” With that Courtnee reached up and kissed Alex right on the lips.

As she walked away Alex ran the back of his hand across his lips. It was going to be a long afternoon.

* * *

There was a lot of speculation back at the camp. The women from the day before wanted to know what went on in the meet-and-greet and it seemed like everyone was trying to one-up everyone else in their stories about what went on in their individual meetings. Camp was actually quite boring. There wasn’t a lot to do, and it was hot during the day. It was really too hot to sit in the tents, but it was too hot to sit out in the sun as well. Finally, about three o’clock, Robert and Eddie sauntered into camp.

“Gather ‘round, ladies,” he said pompously. “It’s time to see who the next contestant going home will be.” And with that, Al was brought out from behind some trees. They were told they were going to be walking a bit to get to where the competition would be. So they all trudged along after Robert and Eddie. Nikki and Kathi did their best to monopolize Al’s attention. They were on either side of him and grabbed onto his arms. Sam followed along near the back of the pack. She wasn’t sure that she was up to much physical movement because her side felt like it was on fire. It started to hurt more as the day went on. She figured she’d play it by ear and see what happened when they got to wherever it was they were going.

They came upon a large clearing that had been set up to look like a rodeo circle. There was a little platform on one side with chairs set up. The circle was about a hundred feet in diameter, surrounded by large boulders. The women were instructed to stand in two lines in the middle of the circle while Al was seated on the podium.
This can’t be good.
Sam thought.

“Welcome to the first challenge where the loser will be saying goodbye to Al and goodbye to Australia,” Robert bellowed as if they were all standing on the other side of the circle rather than right in front of him.

“Today’s challenge involves your wits as well as speed and strength.” With that the producers freed two large pigs into the circle. Immediately Courtnee and Missy started screeching at the top of their lungs. The pigs ran around the outside of the circle, snorting and grunting. When Sam looked closer it looked as if they were drooling too. She suppressed a smile. Finally Robert got everyone’s attention again.

“There are now fifteen of you left. There will be fourteen pigs released into the circle. The object is to grab a pig and get it to the chute at the side of the circle. Once you’ve gotten a pig to the chute, you can’t go back into the circle. The lady left without a pig will be the one who has to go home. You have ten minutes to figure out a strategy before the pigs are released.”

With that, most of the women immediately started complaining. They didn’t know they would be pig wrestling today. Many wore totally inappropriate clothes and shoes. Katie was even wearing a pair of heels! Sam laughed to herself.
This ought to be good.
She wasn’t altogether sure that she’d be able to hold on to one of the pigs with her side hurting like it did, but she sure wasn’t going to let some of those other women make her look like a loser on national television!

Alex looked on from the platform. His thoughts were running along the same lines as Sam’s. He figured it’d make for great TV to see the women running around in their heels and fancy clothes, trying to corral a pig. While the pigs didn’t weigh much more than twenty pounds each, it’d be interesting to see their strategies for corralling them.

Alex looked at Sam. He once again noticed that she certainly wasn’t as model pretty as the other women, but she also wasn’t as “made up” as they were. She was wearing sensible shoes with jeans and a T-shirt. He watched as she stood in one place and surveyed the circle, the chute and even the two pigs that were still in the circle. She seemed stiff, but Alex knew it was because of the scrapes on her side. Not once did he see her talk to Eddie or Robert. Al knew this challenge would probably hurt her side, but he knew with one hundred percent certainty that she would suck it up and not say anything to anyone about how she was feeling. How he knew her so well when he really didn’t even know her, was baffling. Her penchant to keep her thoughts to herself concerned him because he didn’t want to see her lose. She was, so far, one of the main reasons this farce of a show was bearable.

Finally, Robert climbed up the short set of stairs to stand on the platform with him. There were also several camera operators on the platform as well as roaming around the circle, filming the women from all angles. The women were all placed at one side of the circle. At Robert’s “
Go
” the rest of the pigs were released and the women were off and running…well, some were running. Some of the women immediately ran toward the pigs, screeching, and others just kinda stood still as if in shock and not knowing what they should do.

For a few minutes it didn’t look like anyone would be able to get any of the pigs into the “end zone,” but finally Jennie from Montana coaxed/pulled/pushed one into the zone. She let out a whoop of joy and was escorted to the outside of the circle. The race was on. Slowly, one by one, pigs were corralled. Ashley, Candi, Lori, and Brandi all corralled a pig. Alex’s attention turned to Sam. She was slowly walking toward a pig. She’d gotten it close to the chute when Courtnee came up next to her and “tripped,” shoving Sam to the ground. Courtnee then got behind the pig and pushed with all her might until the pig went running toward the chute, squealing the entire way. Courtnee had gotten her pig…at Sam’s expense.

Alex surged to his feet. He’d seen the whole thing and knew that Courtnee had definitely cheated. Of course, Eddie and Robert said nothing. Alex clenched his teeth and silently cheered Sammi on. He willed her to look at him, to see that he was rooting for her. To try to give her the strength to corral another one and stay in the game. He glared at Courtnee and didn’t care if she saw it.

Sam was furious. Her side hurt, she was dirty, had a horrible headache and now that bitch Courtnee had stolen her pig and was laughing,
laughing
, at her. She almost called it quits right there. This wasn’t worth it. Why did she want to fight over some guy who probably was laughing at her right this minute? Sam reluctantly looked toward the podium and at Al. He was no longer sitting, but standing and it looked like he was scowling at her. Sam did a double take, why was he mad at her? What did she do? Then she looked a bit closer and it seemed like Al wasn’t looking at her after all, but watching Courtnee greet the other women on the other side of the circle. Then he turned his eyes on her. Seeing that she was looking at him, he gave her a small smile and nod of his head. Sam sighed.
Shit, I guess I have to get one of these stupid pigs after all.
She wasn’t going to let Courtnee win and have the satisfaction of knowing she’d gotten her kicked off the show. So, ignoring the pain in her side, Sam set out to capture another stupid pig. She had no doubt she’d succeed. She had quite a bit of motivation.

With Sam’s success, finally it came down to one pig left in the circle, and two women. Kimmie and Kiki were fighting for all they were worth to try to make sure they weren’t the loser. It seemed to be an even match. Finally, it seemed as if the pig was getting tired of the game. He wanted to join his buddies on the other side of the circle. He took a sharp turn and started running right for the corral. Kiki was closer to the chute and managed to grab onto the pig as it ran past her and right into the corral. Kimmie was left without a pig.

“That’s not fair!” she screeched. “She didn’t capture it, it ran right by her!” Kiki was grinning like a ninny while Kimmie continued to complain.

Robert told all the women to line back up in their original spots. Al came down off the podium and stood next to Robert. He spared a quick glance at Sammi and managed to give her an inconspicuous head nod.

“It looks like you’re the only one without a pig, Kimmie,” Robert began, “you’re going to have to say goodbye to Al and the other women right here and now. Your belongings will be brought to you later. Do you have anything to say?” Darn right Kimmie had something to say…

“You’re all a bunch of losers. You’d cheat and lie to your own mother if it’d serve your purpose. If you were dying of thirst I wouldn’t give you a drink of water!” And with that she flounced away from the group toward the waiting car.

Sam couldn’t help it. She laughed, out loud. It was too much. It was too much like the first season of
Survivor
when the one contestant said practically the same thing to the finalist. What drama, what flair…but she also knew it’d make great television.

Robert seemed to finally come out of the trance that he was in after Kimmie’s departure.

“Okay, ladies, you’ve earned the right to stick around another day. It’s time to go back to camp, and you’ll meet with Al later today.”

With that, Al, Eddie, and Robert left, and the women walked back to their camp. Of course, once they got there it was a free-for-all as the women all tried to fight for the shower. It seemed they didn’t mind there wasn’t any hot water anymore. They all wanted to get the pig smell off and get ready for their meet-and-greet with Al later on that day.