The (Right) Confession

The cat was out of the bag now. And from the look on Kristina’s face, Jules thought he might have broken her.

Admittedly, that had been the plan he’d worked out with Diane. To have the hometown visit go well enough that the two could be in the same room without cameras or microphones. That way, he could tell her the truth without anyone running interference.

“W-What?”

Jules had to admit the penthouse was a lot nicer than that mansion they’d been trapped in. It was a beautiful view from the window.

He got shook back into the room by Kristina’s hands grabbing his shirt. “Why would you tell me that now?!”

“Would you rather find out after trying to sleep with me?” deadpanned Jules. “Whatever monster you think I am, I ain’t gonna lie to get you into bed.” That seemed like a good way to die, anyway.

But Kristina seemed to be having a problem understanding. What the hell part did she not understand? The core concept?! Why was this so frustrating for her? “You… you! I was ready to take you to the end! You could’ve lied and gotten a million dollars for it! Now I have to take freaking Parker!”

The gravedigger with the goatee? The guy who members of the production staff took bets on whether they could get him to say more than three words in a sentence, and lost when he told them, “You lose.”?

That pissed him off and he couldn’t explain why.

“Parker?!” Jules shot back before collecting himself. “Look, that’s the other thing I needed to talk to you about. You suck at picking out potential boyfriends.”

That got her back into a place Jules knew. Angry. “I suck? You suck at trying to be a potential boyfriend! Buddy, you’re lucky I kept you around!”

It was time to plunge a knife into the belly of this show. “Yeah, you kept me and everyone else who’s here for the money! Christian, Parker, Zach, doesn’t matter who you pick now, they’re all here for the million.” He turned towards the door, putting his hand on the handle. “I just, I didn’t want you to learn you screwed up on TV and have people laugh at you. No one deserves that. Not even you.”

He couldn’t take another step. Not when Kristina’s hand had a firm grip on his shoulder.

“Where do you think you’re going.” It wasn’t a question.

“Leaving. I did what I set out to do. You’re not going to want me to stay, anyway.”

Kristina’s hand grabbed the handle in front on Jules and crushed it like a piece of trash. Then she said something that under no circumstances would he have ever expected.

“Did I ask you to leave?”

---

Over the course of the next two hours, Kristina and Jules availed themselves of the room service menu to bring up beers and wines that they’d never have ordered otherwise and trying foods they’d never heard of. They’d also ordered pizza delivery from a bunch of places – Kristina had feared that they’d close soon, but Jules pointed out they were in New York City. That was never going to be a problem.

Kristina had changed into something more casual, something with a v-cut that showed off her cleavage. It was something that Jules knew was intended to tease him. The worst part? It was working.

The two were getting tipsy as they stared at the television screen, controllers in hand, as the latest round of their game raced towards its end. And in the end, there could be only one winner.

Kristina flung her controller onto the couch and chopped her crotch. “Uhn! Suck it!”

Jules couldn’t believe it. “I freaking had you! Stupid freaking mole!”

“Had me? I never gave you that pleasure!” She laughed as she started shoving another New York slice into her mouth.

Maybe it was some bits of tomato sauce dripping on her chest. Or maybe it was the alcohol talking. But this was forcing that time he saw Kristina in her bathing suit loop in his head over and over again and he was not having it.

Especially because his part in this should be done. He was going to be off the show soon. Why was he choosing now to lean in?

He must have been obvious about it because Kristina was laughing in between sips of her latest glass of wine. “I knew it! You think I’m pretty. No wonder you kept finding ways to fall onto my chest!”

Jules’s brain shorted out. “I kept finding ways?” In his drunken state, he didn’t think twice about poking that chest. “Those things have their own gravitational pull! I just happen to fall into their orbit!”

“Because you think I’m pretty!”

“No!” He was fully off his game now and nothing but honesty came gushing out. “You are hot! You’re a non-traditional ten out of ten who’s out of my league! You could crush a watermelon between your thighs and I would lose my mind. I had to dump an entire cooler of ice down my bathing suit after our little beach encounter to calm down! Somehow, in defiance of God and all things good in this world, I find this towering hunk of muscle haunting my dreams. And it’s pissing me off that I’m the only one left in this godforsaken game who can see it!”

Kristina stared at him in disbelief. Frankly, some sane part of Jules couldn’t believe he’d said that either. But the widening grin on her face let him know that he’d sealed his fate.

“Ooooh, he thinks I’m sexy~”

Jules’s fingers went stiff and he punched at the heavens. There was no backing down now. “Fine. Yes. I think you’re sexy. But nothing can happen, because I – I…”

It was only then that he realized Kristina had drawn close to him. His words failed him and all he could think of was how fast his heart was racing. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him in.

Her lips came to meet his, almost desperate to prove a point. His lips were parted by Kristina, her tongue sparring with his in a fight that left them both breathless. It was only when the two parted, when his brown eyes met her emerald green, that he realized he’d been holding onto her tight.

That desperation was still there in Kristina’s eyes. Jules felt himself be lifted into the air and thrown over her shoulder. Like cavepeople of old, Kristina carried her chosen mate back to the bedroom and threw him onto the waiting bed.

Jules rolled onto his back in a daze. When he looked up he saw Kristina looming over him at the foot of the bed. With a single hand, he watched Kristina rip the shirt off her body. A shredded mess was thrown to the ground as Jules took in what had been left – a frilly black bra that stood out against her taut abs, her biceps rippling with every movement.

He wheezed in shock.

She grinned.

After a moment to catch her breath, Kristina launched herself onto the bed.