Page 12 of Sensuous

“I love the idea of you as a forest ranger,” Maria says with a giggle. “You, Yogi Bear, and his little friend. What was his name again?”

Behind her, Sophia says, “Boo-Boo, I think.”

I nod, giving her a wink as she smiles at me. Maybe the possibility of being with her isn’t hopeless after all. We could hook up after this reality show thing has ended.

“Yes, Boo-Boo!” Maria says, throwing her head back and laughing. “He was the cute little bear. Okay, ready for the next question?”

Giving her another nod, I wait to hear what she wants to know about me now. I listen as she asks what I like to do to relax, and for a moment, I consider answering honestly.

Then again, mentioning how my favorite thing to do on my days off is lay around in bed with a woman fucking all day might not be what I want to put out there so early in the competition. So I go with something less focused on sex for now.

“What any other young, red-blooded man likes to do in his spare time. Just kick back with my friends having a couple cold ones. I rarely get time off, so when I do, I like to spend it as relaxed as possible.”

Not as great as saying I think my days off should be spent in bed between a woman’s legs, but knowing my family might end up seeing this interview, I feel like I need to at least pretend I’m an average guy and not someone who would enjoy living out my hedonistic fantasies whenever possible, if I could.

My benign answer charms Maria and everyone else in front of me, and I silently congratulate myself for making the right choice. I’ll leave the talk about how I really like to spend my days off until Sophia and I are alone.

The next few questions are about my work at CK, so those go well, except I shorten my answers since I know no one wants to have me talking about my job for the rest of the day. The final question Maria asks involves what I’ll do with the million-dollar prize if I win this competition, so I answer truthfully.

“I’ll open my own restaurant. It’s been my dream since I was a little boy, well, after my momentary interest in the great outdoors, but it’s been my dream nearly all my life to have my own restaurant.”

That makes Maria and Sophia smile, and then I’m done with this first interview. I assume there will be more since Cade and Cash have told me reality shows like this routinely rely on breakaway interviews with contestants to give the audience a better feel for who we are. Overall, I think it went well.

“Thank you, Alex. That was great.”

I smile and give Sophia another look to let her know I like what I see before getting up from the stool as Maria calls out the next person’s name for their interview. My fellow contestants give me nods of approval as I walk through the crowd, all except one.

What the hell is Kat’s problem with me?

Since I have to be around this woman for at least the next few weeks, I take the bull by the horns and walk up to her as she stands off to the side away from the group. Her surly expression deepens as I get closer to her, so by the time we’re face to face, she looks like she wants to spit in mine.

“I feel like I’ve offended you somehow, although I can’t imagine how,” I say, deciding not to go head on with her at first. Better to try the soft touch to begin with and hopefully get her to come around to at least being pleasant.

Tilting her head back to look up into my eyes, this woman with all her five-foot six body at most glares up at me and says, “What offends me is that you think you can charm your way in and out of anything. I bet you flirted with the producer’s assistant on your audition too.”

Her anger about the way I was acting toward Sophia makes me chuckle. “You think that was flirting? Not a chance. That wasjust me being me. If I really wanted to turn on the charm, you’d see how real flirting works. By the way, this isn’t it.”

She narrows her eyes in anger and shakes her head. “This isn’t what?” she asks, her words as sharp as her glare.

“Flirting,” I answer with a smile I know is pissing her off more than she can handle.

“I wouldn’t want it to be, Alex. That’s your problem. You think every woman is there to be a plaything for you. I’ve met your type before. You probably wanted to answer that how you really love to spend your free time is lounging around all day in bed with whatever bimbo crawled in behind you from the club the night before.”

Her comment stuns me for a moment, mostly because it’s like she’s reading my mind, which I know is impossible. When I regain my composure, I take a step toward her, crowding her space to make her uncomfortable.

Turnabout is fair play, isn’t it?

“I don’t have a problem. In fact, the only person in this building who seems to have a problem is you, Kat. As for my type, I doubt you’ve met many men like me.”

She doesn’t back down. Instead, she puts her hands on her hips and steels herself, staring up at me like she wishes daggers would fly out of her eyes and stab me in the face.

“Why? Because men like you are something special?” she asks, making the word special sound like it’s a curse she wants to expel from her mouth.

Jesus, what is this woman’s problem with me? We’re barely more than strangers, so what’s with all the anger?

My ego doesn’t give a fuck about the reason why this woman is being so rude. All it wants is to best her in this argument and then go on to best her in this competition.

Looking down at her, I twist my face into a scowl to show my disgust and answer her question. “No. I doubt you’ve met manymen like me because if they’re like me, they have no interest in talking to anyone who’s so fucking nasty all the time. I have no idea why the hell you’re so miserable, but whatever your problem is with me is exactly that. Your problem. So deal with it.”

---