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She was tired of taking the backseat to a man and their ego. Still, she couldn’t help feeling a little nervous. Iris was Keaton’s niece, maybe she would know if he would be offended.
“I was going to choose Keaton but…”
Before she could even finish, Iris let out a small squeal of delight and was on the move and back on the walkie talkie. Avery held her breath as she watched Iris walk up to Keaton. She could see him listening and recognized the look of confusion on his face as he shook his head and put his hand on his chest.
Shit.She’d fucked up. He didn’t want to be rescued. Her first reaction to his reaction was to be upset at herself. This was why she was a rule follower.
But then she heard her mom’s voice in her head say, “Darlin’, if a man was gonna get his panties in a bunch over you wantin’ to slay your own dragon, don’t ya think it’s better to find out now instead of ten years and a baby later?”
Her inner-Blanche-Bardot-voice was right. Avery needed a man who wasn’t threatened by her, her success, her goals. And on the flipside, not embarrassed by her failures. She wanted a partner that she never had to walk on eggshells with and who gave her unconditional support.
Avery’s internal pep talk was just picking up speed when Ivy and Heather walked up to her.
“I need you to put your head through here,” Heather instructed as she held up the chest piece.
Shit, had Anton already gone. She looked at the digital clock that was recording the time and saw that it read four minutes fifteen seconds, putting him currently in second place. Avery had zoned out and missed his turn completely.
Heather lifted the chest piece up and Avery put her head through. When she straightened her head again, Keaton was gone and so was Iris. Had he left the set? Was he upset at her?
Her heart was pounding as Heather and Ivy finished getting her into the suit. She was waiting for Iris to walk over to her and tell her that she needed to choose another lord. But that never happened.
Heather had just finished putting the final strap on her side when her walkie talkie beeped and someone said something Avery couldn’t make out. She grabbed it, nodding as she replied, “Copy, we’re heading to her mark now.”
She clipped the walkie talkie back on her belt. “Okay, are you ready to go?”
“We’re doing it?” she asked.
“You’redoing it!” Heather enthused as she lifted her hand for a high five.
Avery gave her five but didn’t quite share her enthusiasm as she stepped on the black X that literally marked her spot. This plan had sounded so good a few minutes ago, but now that she stared at the course, she was worried that she wouldn’t have the upper body strength to make it up the wall. Although, she’d taken a pole fitness class the year before and the instructor told her, “Your upper body is made for the pole.” Avery assumed she’d been talking about her arms and core strength and not her boobs, but either way, she’d been flattered.
She took a deep breath as she waited for the air horn to go off. She tried to look up in the tower, to see if Keaton was upset about being there, but every time she lifted her head, the helmet, which was about three times too big for her, slid down covering her eyes.
I made a terrible mistake, she thought to herself a second before the air horn sounded.
After she heard the loud noise, signaling her start, something snapped in her. She wasn’t nervous, or scared, or self-conscious. She just wanted to get up to that tower as fast as she possibly could. Her plan had been to take the path Keaton had and cross the moat on the rocks, but in a split-second game-time decision she changed her mind.
She’d always been light on her feet, and she weighed considerably less than the lords did, which she hoped meant she wouldn’t sink as fast in the murky quicksand substance. She’d been right. She was across the mud in no time flat, not getting stuck or slowing down once.
Her hands were shaking as she reached up and grabbed the rope, not from nerves but from adrenaline. She used that energy to fuel her ascent. Halfway up, her arms were on fire, and she was hurting. But then her toe caught the edge of one of the stones in the wall and gave her just enough leverage to ascend. She managed to find three more footholds and reached the top.
Once she got to the dragon, she used her considerable height difference from the lords who all had over six inches on her, and ducked at the dragon's first swipe at her then rose up under its arms and hit the buzzer. After that, it was an easy climb up the steps and she reached Keaton.
Any worry that she had that he might be upset with her evaporated when she saw the pure joy and pride in his eyes as he lifted his hand in victory and cheered loudly. It was die-hard football fans whose underdog team won the Super Bowl level enthusiasm.
She smiled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her feet off the ground. Her arms wrapped around his arms as he hopped up and down shouting, “You did it! You did it! You did it!”
Tears pricked her eyes, but she sniffed back the emotion. She was overcome by his happiness for her. After about the tenth, “You did it!” she acted purely on instinct, leaned forward, and kissed him.
The kiss started out chaste, but when her lips parted slightly, his tongue slid inside her mouth and the kiss turned passionate. Her helmet slipped off and she heard it crash on the pavement below them. When it hit the floor, Keaton lowered her to the ground without breaking their kiss. As soon as her feet were on solid ground, his fingers cupped her face, tilting it to the side and the kiss intensified even more.
She completely forgot that there were cameras, or they were shooting a show, or that he was matched with someone else. In that moment she was transported into a world where only they existed. Where she needed this kiss more than oxygen. Where nothing else mattered.
It wasn’t until she heard a loud “CUT! I said, CUT!” come over the airhorn that she came back to her senses. Keaton must have had the same experience because his lips moved from her mouth to her nose to her forehead where he pressed soft kisses before his hands dropped to his side.
She looked up at him and they exchanged a look that silently communicated they both knew that kiss had just outed them to the rest of the cast, the crew, oh and about a million viewers. She had no clue what the repercussions of them getting carried away were going to be. Would Zara be upset? Would Sabrina? Keaton was supposed to be her meal ticket, her golden goose, her breakout star.
“Sorry,” she quietly whispered.
