Page 58 of Insta Bride

Finally, we were called back to recommence filming. I didn’t care, Elena hadn’t left my side and I didn’t give a flying fuck what Benjamin and Harris were saying about us. Tony and Staci were the only ones who understood, and Staci had been the first to come over and give Elena a hug.

“Kye, do you want to change your mind?” JP asked, as if the coin had just been tossed.

“No, sir.” I kept my tone professional and calm. “Either we swap and I answer the questions, or I’ll accept the Ultimate Consequence.”

“Elena, how do you feel about Kye offering himself as the ultimate sacrifice?”

I’d never felt more love from Elena than when she looked up at me. Then again, I’d never felt pure emotion before. Yes, I’d felt lust and desire and all that crap. But I’d never felt a deep connection with anyone other than my parents. This. This was different.

“The one thing I know to expect with Kye, is the unexpected. He’ll make me laugh when I want to cry. He’ll make me want to kill him when all I wanted was a hot coffee.” She delivered her lines so innocently that even the power couples laughed. Georgia wanted to be Australia’s Sweetheart, but no one could hold a candle to my Elena. Especially not me.

“How do you think you would have gone in the challenge?”

“I don’t know. Kye is a fairly private person. I mean, everyone sees what he wants you to see, but once you start pulling away the layers, he’s a private person.”

“How do you feel about the man under the layers?”

“I guess, he needs to trust me enough to let me see.”

Shit.

Elena had summed me up without breaking a sweat.

“How do you feel about Kye having to do the ultimate consequence?”

“Is there a way I can share it?”

JP laughed, “Oh, you can’t share it, but you can make it feel a whole lot better.”

Within minutes, I was being led to a makeshift bed, outside. At first, it seemed the ultimate in romance. Being tied to a bed in the middle of paradise.

Except, there were sandflies, mosquitos. It was hot and after they tied my hands and legs to the bed posts, I couldn’t even sit up to drink or eat. The only person who could tend to me for the twenty-four hours of my punishment, was Elena. And if she left me other than for a toilet break, or if she fell asleep, we would be eliminated.

The only good news was that the relationship experts had declared my sacrifice the most romantic gesture of the island experience. As soon as Seb and Sami were eliminated, my twenty-four hours began.

Elena

Any time I felt tired or bored. Any time I wanted to go and join the beach volleyball or take a break from Kye, I remembered what he’d done for me.

He’d saved me from embarrassing myself on national TV. If I’d had to put my hand in the tank of worms or snakes, I would have hyperventilated, thrown up, run screaming from the island, or all three.

If the producers had wanted great footage of me making a fool of myself, they would have gotten it.

I’d have spent the rest of my life trying to live down my fears.

“How are you doing?” I asked Kye, returning with more ice chips. He’d been stuck on the bed for almost seven hours in the heat of the day.

“Wishing you were lying here with me.”

“I am.”

“Naked.”

“Not gonna happen with the cameras around.”

“Does that mean I’m in with a chance for later?” Kye couldn’t resist pushing his luck, not that I minded. It felt good having someone like Kye interested in someone like me.

It felt good having Kye interested in me.

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