Whose Bride Is She Anyway by Dakota Cassidy

real stallion Vincenzo was.
    Vinny must have noticed them eyeballing him. He waved his turkey leg in the air in a salute from the other end of the table.
    “Do you think Kelsey would pick someone like
him
?” Aaron sounded almost frightened by the prospect. Vinny
was
scary and a macho, macho man in every knuckle-dragging sense of the word.
    August fought back a snort and sipped whatever the hell was in the coconut shell with the pretty pink umbrella. “You never know, Aaron. Look at last season’s show. Did you really think she’d pick Bryan? ”
    Aaron laughed. “I was rooting for Leo, myself. No, I never thought she’d pick Bryan, he was a long shot.”
    “So, you just never can tell, now can you? ”
    “No, I guess you can’t. We’ll have to see who floats her boat, I guess.”
    August was still wondering if
she
would float
his
boat. In order to win the cash, you had to agree to be married on the spot and stay married for a year. But how well could you
know
a person after a month of the occasional date on national television? Well enough to marry them?
    Shoulda thought of that before his pistol of passion sucked up all the oxygen to his brain
… nitwit.
    August pushed his food around on his plate while the contestants got to know each other. The show’s host—Preston Weichert—was supposed to make an appearance and everyone was supposed to stick around for his illustrious manifestation. Otherwise, August would be history. He was tired and hot and overwhelmed by all of the banter.
    A rumble in the crowd yanked him out of his misery. Kelsey’s name was circulating, whispered in hushed tones. Like the Second Coming had finally happened. Ah, she’d arrived. Now was as good a time as any to find out if he and Kelsey had a
    shot at happily ever after. Or at the very least a good boink.
August
,
ya need to shut up
.

Chapter Seven
    Have we met?
    A ugust was disappointed to find that it wasn’t Kelsey who’d caused the stir. It was Henry Abernathy and crew. Henry spent a good hour filling them in on what to do and what not to do. Where they could go and where they couldn’t for what seemed like the hundredth time. Now that they were on the island, they couldn’t go home unless the y were dead or a family member was. No backing out, even if they didn’t marry Kelsey in the end. More damn restrictions than August wanted to contemplate and death as the only option to relieve him. Shooting began tomorrow, bright and early. They were due back at the pool at eight a.m. sharp for the formal introductions and then, the game began.
    Cameras twenty four-seven. He’d had but a taste of that tonight and he wasn’t sure he liked it. While some of the guys were real hams, August was what the crew called “camera shy”. He wondered if they might not shy away from a camera if it was shoved up their nostrils.
    After going back to his hut and changing, he decided to take a run. Falling into a light jog, August headed up the long strand of beach and set free the battle that waged in his brain over his stupidity.
    Fuck, he shouldn’t have done this. Attention was something he liked best focused on someone else.
    And marriage? Shit, he should have given this more thought and listened to his nether friend much less.
    Well, movie star, it’s a little late for that now, don’t you think
? He’d have a camera up his ass for the next friggin’ month.
    The conversation in his head was obviously not going to take a vacay either. I’ll go through with it, he consoled himself. I have a purpose here. Kelsey’s probably not going to pick me anyway.
    He didn’t know that for sure. She might fall madly in love with him. He might fall madly in love with her…
    It could go either way, he conceded.
    And then he could get married, live happily ever after and all that mushy stuff.
    Marriage… The word loomed ominously, clanging around in his head. Was he ready for marriage?
    Might I remind you, you should have thought about that