Page 13 of Insta Bride

Don’t ask me how many women I’d kissed before Flower. None of them mattered. In the stakes of first kisses, this was my first real kiss since Shonda in second grade.

It didn’t matter that in minutes, she’d be going home, and I was hopefully still in the show. I’d get her name and contact deets off Bree. I’d catch up with her at the reunion show and then we’d take this kiss on a journey to hell, then heaven, then wherever the fuck she wanted to go.

Only when I dropped my hands from her face to cup her gorgeous ass did she moan and break free. Eyes wide open. A deer caught in the headlights had more comprehension of their surroundings.

“What was that?”

Suddenly conscious of a million potential eyes, I regained my swag, “If you don’t know, I obviously wasn’t doing it right, but I’m happy to practice with you until I do.”

Her tiny, balled fists pushed at my chest as she stepped back. “I mean, what the hell?” Her fury was misplaced. I’d felt her kiss me back. What woman kissed like that and then blamed me for her reaction.

A woman who’d been hurt.

A woman who had genuinely signed up to find love, not more followers or fame.

Damn. I never went after women who wanted a relationship.

“Ahem,” JP, the attention seeking whore that he was, wanted our attention.

“This isn’t over,” I muttered, gripping her wrist before she could flee.

“Ouch.” A soft whimper, but she didn’t pull away when I loosened my grip.

Progress? Maybe. I’d file her under unfinished business.

“Normally, we like to make formal announcements and watch the shock and awe of the contestants as they are bought face to face with the future love of their lives. However, I think Kye and Elena have just proven why they are our last couple to join Lovers Island. Cue tape.”

Elena.

Flower had a name. Soft, pretty, elegant, and as graceful as flower petals.

Elena.

Wearing the white on beige from after the mixer, I watched the producers show me Elena’s photo and heard my standard answer to all the women, “Gorgeous girl. I like how she turned up without pretence. She seems natural and real. Can’t wait to get to know her.”

At the time, we hadn’t even spoken.

“And if you were alone with her, what would be the first question you’d ask?”

“Have you ever fallen in love with a bad boy?”

The camera then cut to Elena. Wearing a simple blue short-sleeved blouse over beige jeans. She’d worn overalls at the mixer. This must have been from an earlier interview.

“So, Elena, tell me why you applied to the show?” asked the interviewer who remained off camera.

A shy laugh, before she dipped her head down and then to the side. Classically cute and totally real. Not an ounce of emotional manipulation in this girl. No. She was damn near perfect.

“I haven’t dated in a couple of years. My friends think it’s time I dive back into the dating pool.”

“You’re young, got a good career as a financial consultant and gorgeous. Why not try a dating app?”

“I guess I’m gun shy. My last boyfriend cheated on me too many times to count. By the time I’d walked away, I wanted time to pull myself together, get to know me outside the mess of what we were.”

Shit. Got. Real.

I might be an asshole, but I never went after women who weren’t up for the game.

I’d kissed Elena.

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