From Ex to Eternity (Newlywed Games 1)

The crowd hooted their approval and Mark fished around for a second set of questions.

Cara risked a glance at Keith, who was watching her with amusement. “What?” she asked defensively.

“Thought you weren’t interested in pretending to be a couple.”

“I’m not pretending. We’ve seen each other naked. Should be a snap to kick the behind of the—” Cara stuck two fingers of each hand in the air to make air quotes “—champions.”

“So you’re not going to be happy with me if we lose, are you?”

“No. So don’t lose,” she advised.

With a verbal drumroll, Mark asked the first question of the wives. “What’s your favorite position?”

Cara winced. Okay, she’d totally deserved that. She shook her head and wrote, “Missionary,” because it was true, thank God.

Mama would have heart palpitations if she knew her daughter was flaunting her sexual preferences for an audience, but at least Cara could maintain some dignity.

“Reveal!” Mark yelled.

Meredith and Cara flipped their boards. The crowd laughed and Cara craned her neck to see Meredith’s, which read “CEO.”

Cara bit back a smile. Meredith had enough ambition to decide what to eat for dinner that night, but definitely not enough to become CEO of anything. Her sister was letting her win, the big dolt, as a peace offering for bullying Cara into coming to the bar.

Keith flipped his board, and it thankfully read “Missionary.”

Paolo’s board read “All of them,” so Keith and Cara received the point.

Except she hardly noticed because she was picturing Keith poised over her, every inch of his delicious body bared. The things that man could do to her—

Keith cleared his throat and she blinked at him, fairly certain the wicked glint in his eye meant he knew exactly what she’d been fantasizing about. And he heartily approved.

Heat rolled over her and she squirmed against the hard chair as she envisioned what might happen if she agreed to test the honeymoon suite after the party. As a bonus, the suite might have another bottle of that awesome wine.

No. No naked after-party honeymoon suites. She was here to work, not waste time and energy on an island fling with a man who’d already had a chance to “fling” with her all he wanted and instead chose to let her watch his backside as it disappeared.

“Next question,” Mark said. “Few people know this about your husband, but he’s... Okay, wives, fill in the blank!”

Oh, God. What kind of question was that? Cara scoured her memory but came up with exactly nothing. Meredith had already scribbled down her answer, so Cara wrote the only thing that might work, and revealed her board.

It read: “A jogger.” At least it was true.

But Keith had written down “A microbrewer.”

“What does that even mean?” Cara demanded, too surprised to do it quietly. “A microbrewer? Of beer?”

Keith shrugged. “It’s been my hobby for ten years.”

Yeah, she got the not-so-subtle dig. Keith had been making his own beer throughout the period they’d been a couple. And she’d been totally oblivious.

This game was stupid. But that didn’t eliminate the panicky twinge in her midsection.

Their competition had both written “Third-degree black belt” for the point. Really? Cara eyed Paolo with new respect and squashed the odd feeling that her sister knew her Caribbean fling better than Cara knew the man she’d almost married.

The next question had Cara scouting for her wineglass. “My husband and I are complete opposites when it comes to ______.”

Somehow, she suspected marriage wouldn’t go over well as an answer to a newlywed game. The last of the amazing cab went down smoothly but didn’t jog her brain. What was with all these fill-in-the-blank questions? At least Mark could have supplied some choices. These questions were much harder than the ones he’d asked in the first round.

Harder, because she and Keith were virtually strangers now. Maybe they always had been. After all, she hadn’t even known about his aversion to commitment until recently. Before she’d planned a wedding might have been a better time to learn that.

When would it have been a good time to find out he wasn’t in love with her? Better yet, shouldn’t she have realized that on her own? But she hadn’t even realized her own feelings weren’t as strong as she’d told herself. She’d have sworn she was in love with Keith, but how could she have been? She couldn’t even name his hobby.