Page 33 of Forever is the Sweetest Con
He smiles at me shyly before turning away. I feel my cheeks reddening, heat flushing my whole body. I sink back down onto the bench. Harmony squeezes my arm.
“That was hot,” she whispers. She’s not wrong. There was a tenderness in that kiss, a longing that has me reeling. Thirty seconds ago, I had never thought of kissing Kei, but now I can think of nothing else.
The game carries on, getting rowdier and raunchier. I do a lap dance for Giovanni, and share a three-way kiss with Valeria and Garrett, and any other time I’d probably find it all fun and sexy, but I barely register any of it. All I can think of is Kei, the way he was looking at me with such intensity, the way his fingers warmed my face, the way his lips felt like they were built to fit mine.
The way it was so much better than any kiss I’d had with Isa.
Oh no. This is not good. I need to focus. I have been putting the work in with Isa, and I can’t let one hot kiss derail all my plans.
I’m grateful when Gabby declares the end of the challenge. We’ve got some free time, so I slip off for a swim. Maybe the cold water will jolt some sense into me.
The lake is a tonic. I dive under, slicing through the water, over and over again, testing how long I can hold my breath. I push myself to swim out further than I have yet.
Every day a little stronger.
I roll onto my back and stare at the sky. The clouds roll lazily by. If I unfocus my eyes in a certain way, it feels for a second that they’re hanging directly over me, before they right themselves and the world is normal again. I don’t know how long I’ve been playing with this trick of the eye when I hear a splash.
I pop up, scanning the water around me. Nothing. Then the surface of the water breaks. It’s Kei.
His curls have tightened up around his face and the sun glints off the droplets in his eyelashes. He swims toward me.
“You’ll never win with him,” he says, in a low voice.
“Excuse me?”
“Isaías. You won’t win with him.”
I shake my head. “I’m sorry, what?”
“He’s here for a good time. Sure, he likes you, but he also likes Sue-Ellen, and he’ll probably like the next blonde that arrives, too. He’s not here to win.” He’s perfectly calm, treading water with wide, languid strokes.
I glance across the water to the beach, the one I had told Garrett to look for as a touchstone of reality. It looks farther away than it ever has.
“Why do you think I care about winning?” I try to strike the balance between innocent and insulted.
Kei raises an eyebrow. “So you’re only here to find love?”
I make an incredulous face. “Aren’t you?”
“Come on, Cleo,” he says, gently. “Be real. No one can hear you. You’re not here for love, and neither am I.”
Of all the conversations I expected to have today, this is not one of them. “Then why are you here?”
He kicks his feet up and flexes his toes toward his face. “For the money.” He says it so matter-of-factly, and it’s so jarring coming from sweet, unassuming Kei. “I’m here to win. And I think I can. With you.”
“What?” I sputter. “Why?”
“Because I need the money. I need to move to LA and focus on my music.”
Then we’d both be in LA. “Okay. But why me?”
“Because I think you want it as badly as I do.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“But I see you,” he says, nodding. “I saw you at the bar that night.”
“What?”
