Free Whose Bride Is She Anyway by Dakota Cassidy Page A

school? He sure as hell didn’t.
    Running a hand through his shaggy hair, August focused on the opposition as they sat at a long table, eating the “getting to know the competition” dinner. Platters of food, heaping with island specialties sat before them, but he wasn’t very hungry. The competition was undoubtedly stiff. There wasn’t an ounce of extra flesh to be found as he assessed each contestant. Plenty of easy monthly installment plans for the gym would be found in these parts.
    All told, there were twenty contestants. The first elimination round would ditch ten of them. Damn, he sure hoped they’d get rid of the guy whose teeth were so white against his bronzed skin it hurt August’s eyes to look at him.
    Shit. These guys were nothing short of perfection. Chiseled and lean, they epitomized the word “beefcake.” He couldn’t be this perfect if he spent his entire life in a plastic surgeons office.
    “Hey, dude.” Mr. Bulging Biceps leaned over him and whispered. “What’s that look for?”
    Dude. Did anyone still use that word?
Dude
… “Er, I was just thinking that the competition’s rather stiff and I’m still sorta reeling from being thrown on a plane to Hawaii in two seconds flat.”
    “Yeah, that it is and it was kinda freaky, but it wouldn’t be reality TV if they didn’t do something to rock your world, would it? I’m Aaron Caldwell, nice to meet ya.” Aaron licked his finger free of pineapple juice and stuck out a slender hand for him to shake.
    August squinted to get a better look at him. Lean, very tan and bleached blond. He was not the kind of guy who spent his time in an office.
    “August—August Guthrie, nice to meet you too. Whe re do you call home?”
No, wait lemme guess, pretty boy… Blond, tan, the lame usage of the word dude… California!
    Aaron smiled brightly, revealing dimples which deeply grooved either side of his perfect mouth. “California.”
    Go figure.
    Play nice
. He’d only just arrived and already he was making crude assumptions.
    Well, he
was
from California
… August …
his mental etiquette police warned.
    Oh, all right. He’d play nice. Jamming a finger in his ear, he shook it to shut up the advisory counsel in his head. “I’m from Colorado.”
    “Very cool, mountains and shit right?”
    August nodded affirmatively.
Yeah, mountains and shit.
    “So what made you decide to try out for the show?” Aaron asked.
    Kelsey Little’s ass and a bet from my stupid friend
…”I went to school with Kelsey. ” August assumed that information was okay to pass on. Henry Abernathy actually encouraged it in the acceptance letter he’d gotten in the parking lot.
    Aaron slapped him on the back with enthusiasm. “Oh, dude, the whole unrequited love thing?”
    Big word there, pretty boy.
Unrequited
… Um, love. No. Lust, oh yeah. “Nah, not love, but I liked her.”
    “Well, you’re one up on the rest of us, knowing her and all. So what was she like?” Aaron’s eyes were big and wide with interest now.
    August shrugged his shoulders. Wha t was she like? Did he actually know anything about Kelsey’s personality? Her likes and dislikes? Her
eye
color? He’d never looked at her eyes, just her ass.
    God, that was shallow.
    August hung his head. Yep, it was shallow all right, truthful, but shallow. He was hoping if he had the chance to get to know her, she’d be the woman he’d created in his mind. Warm, sensitive, loving … able to do the wild thing at a moment’s notice…
    When he took the compatibility test they’d given him just before the oral auditio n with Henry, he’d been a good match—at least that’s what the test guy said. Taking the test was another hurdle he’d passed with flying colors in order to get on this show. So he and Kelsey must have
something
in common.
    “She was … nice, very
nice.
”
    Aaron cocked his head inquisitively. “Nice? That’s it? I mean we all know she’s hot cuz we saw her picture. There was no way I was