Page 39 of House of Desire

“I just wanted someone to love me,” she cries.

“I know. Everyone does. But we can’t destroy property. Why don’t we get you dressed and then you can come with us and relax for the evening, okay?” he says, his voice low and even.

She swipes at her tears before moving into the pool house. Once she’s out of sight, I turn toward the other cops.

“What’s going to happen to her?” I ask.

“It’ll depend if the owners of the property want to press charges, but either way, she’s going to spend the night in a jail cell,” the officer says.

“I don’t want her to go to jail,” I say.

“That’s not up to you.”

Victoria comes out of the pool house, this time dressed in actual clothes. Thankfully, the cops don’t have her in handcuffs as they escort her from the property.

“I’m sorry for making a scene,” she apologizes as she stops in front of me.

“I’m sorry I made you feel neglected. You’ll find the right person for you.”

The other ladies part, allowing the cops and Victoria to move through the house, and as she leaves Anya locks eyes with me and I simply shrug, unsure what else to do.

There are only seven of us left. Isabella, Jasmine, and Bethany H.’s eliminations were all uneventful compared to Victoria’s meltdown in our third week of filming. Then Aisha decided to leave, tired of the entire competition. Apparently, she realized dating the same man as eight other women wasn’t something she wanted to do.

I couldn’t say I blamed her. It’s been a whirlwind of a month and we have an entire month to go. The whole situation is weird and pressure filled, but there’s something about Parker that keeps me coming back for more.

After our solo date almost two weeks ago, I thought he was going to kiss me, and when he didn’t, I figured I was going home. But he called my name, asking me to accept his flame, and gave me a smile that turned my insides to molten lava.

Sam the Butler comes into the game room with the silver serving platter and dome, while Zoey and I are playing pool.

“Anastasia, I have a note for you,” he says, removing the dome.

I drop my cue onto the table, disrupting Zoey’s shot and receiving a disgruntled “cheater”.

I rip through the thick envelope and read the words quickly.

“We’re going on a group date. We need to wear swimsuits and something we can hike in. I hate hiking. I want to be a hiking girl but I’m not,” I complain, but I’m still excited for a chance to see Parker.

And if swimsuits are needed for us, hopefully they are needed for him as well.

“Who else is going?” Zoey asks.

She’s only had one solo date with Parker, and while I don’t think she expects to make it until the end, I know she has a bit of a crush on him. How could you not? He’s beautiful.

“You, me, and Carmen. This should be fun,” I say, rolling my eyes.

When I got out of the shower after the cooking date I lost to Carmen, Zoey was waiting for me. We decided to take some tea outside and sat with our feet dangling in the pool. And then Carmen came home gushing about how great the date was. Zoey was outraged on my behalf, disliking Carmen in solidarity, and offered to ‘accidentally’ knee Parker in the dick. I reined her in on that one, but it was a nice offer all the same.

“Don’t worry. I’ll drown Carmen if I have to,” she says.

I laugh, hugging her to me, as I go to find Carmen and inform her about our date.

After two hours, I’m hot, sweaty, and bramble scratched, but as I look out over the valley with the sound of a waterfall behind me, I don’t care. The waterfall cascades over a hundred feet into a secluded lagoon that reminds me of the one in The Little Mermaid movie where Sebastian sings “Kiss the Girl” to Eric.

There’s two camera women with us this time. The much smaller cameras they have are almost small enough to ignore. They move off to the side to get their equipment set up while we all look at the lake.

“This is amazing,” Parker says, awe in his voice. We all stand there, enjoying the view for a moment before he claps his hands, the sound jarring. “Who wants to go swimming?”

“I didn’t come up here just to look at the scenery!” Zoey says, dropping her small backpack production had provided for us onto a large, flat rock. She pulls off her orange shirt, exposing the simple black bikini top she favors. As she shimmies from her shorts, I see she decided to go with her flowery bottoms.

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