Page 105 of Alice Chen's Reality Check

“Everything good?” he asks.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just peachy keen. The bee’s knees. Absolutely nothing wrong here.” I’m babbling now, and I have to stop. “Let’s go, everyone’s waiting for us.”

We’re headed down the corridor leading to the kitchen when Daniel says, “Hang on.” He tugs me to a stop, then pulls me into a storage closet and closes the door behind him.

He leans in toward me, and like clockwork, my heartbeat starts picking up. Is he about to kiss me? He’s so close, and I tip my head back just a bit to meet his lips, but then he says, “Alice, are you okay?Dawn’s little pep talk back at the hot tub…”

“Yeah, that was weird,” I agree, though my mind isn’t on Dawn Taylor. It’s dark in the storage closet, and I’m being crowded into Daniel by a mop and a stack of buckets. “I think she’s just annoyed with me for, you know, accusing one of her producers of murder.”

Daniel sighs, and I feel his breath in my hair. “I don’t like that there was a snake in your helmet. Our names were on the boxes, Alice, and the equipment looked brand-new,” he says. “And you’d just said in the challenge that you were afraid of snakes. This feels personal.”

“It might’ve been an accident. We are right next to a jungle,” I say. “Or maybe it was a dumb prank from one of the producers to stir up drama.”

“I think it’s more than that, Alice,” Daniel says somberly. “I think someone sees you getting too close to the truth, and they’re trying to threaten you.”

I shiver. From the way he’s speaking, I can tell Daniel’s dead serious about this. It’s one thing to chase down a murderer. It’s another thing to consider that a murderer has you in their sights. My blood runs cold at the thought of what might happen next.

“Well? I’m waiting for you to have three to four objections to my reasoning,” he says. “I’m ready, bring on the bullet points.”

I laugh at that, and the laughter eases the tight feeling in my chest. I swat at Daniel. “I don’t disagree with you just for the sake of disagreeing with you!”

“You’re disagreeing with me right now,” he points out. Given how dark it is, he can’t see me stick my tongue out at him, but I do it anyway. And almost end up licking him.

“So that’s what this was all about?” I ask. “You pull me into a storage closet to issue dire warnings?”

“Just adding a little spice to our relationship.” Daniel chuckles, then sobers. “But seriously, Alice, be careful.”

“Okay, well, if we want to becareful, we’d better come up with a good reason why we’re late to dinner, especially if someone catches usstepping out of a storage closet.”

“Come on, Slayer. That’s easy. You know why we’re in here.” His voice is quiet and teasing, and I immediately get the message. My whole body flushes hot at the thought, and I’m already reaching for him. The memory of how he felt beneath me in the hot tub is still fresh, and I want more.

“Hurry up, Midas. We don’t have all day,” I say, and his lips find mine.

I know we’re only supposed to make itlooklike we’ve been going at it in here, but then he nips at my lower lip, and my tongue darts out to soothe it, and just like that, all logic goes out the window as his tongue tangles with mine. I rise on my toes to arch into him as the kiss turns slick and heated, every move sending sparks skittering down my body and back again. When his mouth leaves mine, I let out a sound of protest, but then he’s kissing down the column of my neck, the hot press of his lips sending a jolt of pleasure through me.

When we break apart, he’s breathing harder, and I’m almost certain there’s a hickey on my collarbone. My lips are tingling in a way that just makes me want to kiss him again.

Instead, I ruffle his hair. “Shall we?”

We throw the door open—and nearly slam into Freya.

“Watch it!” she says, and scurries off. I feel a twinge of sympathy for her. There’s likely no love lost among the other production assistants, but coping with the death of someone you worked with can’t be easy.

In the kitchen, Ava looks us over, her gaze catching on Daniel’s ruffled hair and the hickey on my neck. “Young love,” she snorts, as if she’s not basically our age.

Then the producers arrive, and we’re directed to crowd around the kitchen island like we’re all one big happy family.

“Okay, we need you all to react to what happened yesterday. Can you manage that?” Leah says.

One of the production assistants sets down several platters of fruit, baby carrots, and celery sticks for us to nibble on. By now we knowthat we won’t really get to eat dinner until filming’s over. Feeling just a tiny bit rebellious, I dunk a baby carrot into a tub of hummus and crunch into it.

“Selena, can you kick us off? Ask the others how they feel about Trevor and Mikayla imploding,” Bryan says.

Selena immediately shifts into her role, saying, “Guys, can you believe Trekayla’s meltdown? They were, like, my favorite Instagram couple. I’ve taken so much emotional damage. I feel terrible for them.”

“Mikayla’s cheating blew up in her face,” Ava says pointedly. “She was always relying way too much on Trevor to carry her anyway. A real partner steps up and shares the load.”

I scan the room, looking at all the contestants and crew members here, wondering if one of them is guilty of more than corny platitudes. When I get to Bryan, I realize he’s staring at me. There’s something about the way he’s looking at me that I don’t like. Chase’s friends are usually fun, good-natured guys, but Bryan might be different.

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