Kissed by Reality by Carrie Aarons Read Free Book Online Page B

people I could actually see myself being friends with. But I would not let that get in the way of winning Finn’s heart. And sadly, neither would they.
    “What do you think they’re doing on the date?” Erin changed subjects, sensing my distaste in her last statement.
    I glanced at her as she picked at her emerald bikini top.
    “I think it has to be like a drag racing thing from what the date card said.” Monica plopped down next to Erin, her feet disrupting the water as they splatted into the pool.
    She was drunk, and noticeably so. That’s what girls did here. They dated Finn, or sat at the castle giving each other facials and consuming their weight in Pinot Grigio.
    Monica drawled on. “You know, it said, ‘Let’s take to the track and race for my heart.’”
    Erin rolled her eyes and hopped into the pool, her wine splashing over the edge of the glass as she tried to escape from Monica.
    “We all heard it when Kennedy read it, stupido.” Eva, the Latino woman Finn had talked to on the patio on that first night, turned over on her lounger, the red thong bottoms riding even further up her incredible backside.
    “What do you think he’s going to do on his one-on-one with Alexandra?” Monica slurred, a camera-man catching every drunken motion, each tipsy giggle. Poor girl, but I wasn’t nice enough to stop her. If it meant America seeing me in a better light, if it meant getting Finn back, I was going to sacrifice whoever or whatever it took.
    “Probably took her on some cliché hot air balloon ride or something. She’s in sales, so boring.” Eva yawned and examined her cuticle, the mansion’s turret towers rising up in all of their glory behind her.
    This girl’s idea of fun probably involved liquor and something illegal.
    Erin swam over to me, resting her arms on my float. “Have you heard from your mom?”
    Since we couldn’t talk about one of the most common topics women usually conversed about, our love lives, we talked about everything else. My mother’s illness was one of them.
    “They let me talk to her almost everyday.”
    Thankfully Chuck and Mitchell hadn’t objected to my terms when I’d signed on. Unlike the other girls here, I was earning a salary, which I sent home to pay for someone to run the coffee shop in my absence. And to cover whatever medical bills I could.
    I was also allowed to access the outside world. The other women had to go without cellphones, television and internet for two months. I was allowed a 20 to 30 minute call with mom every day to check up on how she was doing.
    I swore I could feel an ulcer of guilt forming in my gut for being here instead of with her. But she’d pulled the it’s-my-dying-wish-to-see-you-with-Finn card, and so here I was.
    Floating in a pool with women I refused to get to know, waiting on a man who could either fulfill my wildest dreams, or shatter the organ in my chest into a million tiny pieces.

Chapter Nine
Finn
    T he girl kept snorting when she laughed.
    That was all I could focus on, even though she’d had her hand practically jerking my dick for the last 10 minutes of the gondola ride. I removed it from the seam of my jeans for the third time as I tried to remember her name.
    Alyssa? Alicia? Jesus, Mitchell had already refreshed my memory twice on this date…ALEXANDRA! That was it.
    Not that Alexandra seemed to care to get to know my name, or anything about me, either. Some women thought the key to “winning” this show was to get down on their knees and say AHHH. Or to get on their backs and spread it wide.
    And although my eager dick liked the sentiment very much — I was a man after all — I was looking for a wife, not a winner.
    This cliché date was already grating on my nerves and we were only half an hour into it. We were taking a gondola ride at Gondola Amor’e Romantic Dinner Cruises in Redondo Beach, and it couldn’t be further from the perfect evening.
    Alexandra was hot, a stunning redhead who was also smart and