Her belly rubbed against his erection. He was hard and thick, and the image that contact painted made her whimper. Without thinking, she reached behind her and grabbed his hands, then brought them around to her breasts.

The second he touched her, she began to melt. His hands cupped her curves, caressing the skin as he learned every inch of her. His thumbs and forefingers found her ni**les and teased them. Then he grabbed the hem of her sweater and tugged it over her head.

He’d barely had time to toss it away when she was pulling at the hooks on her bra. The bra went flying. Her only thought was to hope the stove was off so if it landed there, nothing bad would happen.

While she was doing that, Finn pulled off his shirt and kicked off his shoes. Then he bent down and drew her right nipple into his mouth. He licked the hard, sensitive tip before sucking deeply. She felt the connection all the way down her belly. Wanting tugged her center.

The combination of the movement, the heat, the moisture and the friction nearly drove her to her knees. She held on to him to keep standing. He switched to her other breast and used his fingers to caress the first. She ran her fingers through his hair, then brought his face to hers so she could kiss him again.

As their tongues tangled, he unfastened the button on her jeans. She stepped out of her flats. Seconds later, her jeans and bikini briefs hit the floor. Finn followed, dropping to his knees, parting her thighs and kissing her intimately.

There was no warning, she thought frantically. No way to prepare herself for the gentle assault of his lips and tongue. She was defenseless as he explored all of her before returning again and again to her swollen center.

With each erotic lick, she felt herself getting closer. Her legs trembled until it was nearly impossible to stay upright. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, but it wasn’t enough. She could feel herself starting to sink.

He caught her as she fell, pulling her into his embrace and against his chest. His skin burned hot against hers. As he stood, her feet left the floor, then he was carrying her through the small house.

She thought about giving directions, but as there were only two bedrooms on a single floor, she knew he could figure it out. Sure enough, he went directly into her bedroom, where he placed her on the quilt. Before he joined her, he sent his jeans and boxers skidding to the other side of the room.

He slid down next to her and put his hands on her body. He began at her forehead, lightly tracing her skin. He touched her cheekbones, her ears, her jaw. He traced her shoulders, her collarbone, before settling his hands on her breasts.

From there, he journeyed down her waist, over her hips, to the vee between her legs. She’d thought he might linger, finish what he started. But instead he continued down her thighs to her knees, her calves to her ankles.

He made the return trip more slowly. When he reached the soft skin of her inner thighs, he shifted between her legs, parted her and bent down to kiss her.

His tongue went immediately to where she was most sensitive. The steady stroking, a back and forth rhythm designed to drive her to madness, made her moan. Her body was not her own. He controlled every reaction, every sensation. Over and over again. Up and down.

Her muscles tensed. She felt herself straining toward the finish.

Not yet, she thought frantically. It was too good. She had to make it last. But it was impossible. The sureness of his touch, the feel of him against her. She felt herself nearing the end, nearing the inevitable.

Then he shifted slightly and inserted a finger deep inside of her. He pushed in once, twice, and she was lost. Her body dove into the pleasure. It swept through her, over her and around her. It was everywhere, and she never wanted it to end.

But gradually, the shuddering slowed. She felt herself resurfacing, returning to the real world. Lethargy battled with contentment. She hadn’t felt this good in a really long time.

Just as the last of her cl**ax faded away, Finn straightened, then put his hands on her hips. He entered her with one smooth, determined thrust. He was as big as she had imagined and filled her completely.

When he was all the way inside, she opened her eyes and smiled at him. “Nice,” she whispered.

He managed a grin. “You like?”

“I do.”

She wrapped her legs around his h*ps and drew him closer. When he withdrew and thrust in again, she urged him to go deeper. She wanted to take all of him. She wanted to get lost in what they were doing. This was life. This is what people who were alive did.

Every time he filled her, she found herself moving a little closer to who she had been before. Her body accepted him, widening and stretching to accommodate him. She felt him get closer. She felt herself getting more aroused.

Next time, she promised herself. Next time she would come again. But for now it was enough to feel him tensing. To feel him straining. To hold him as he lost himself in her.

SASHA AND LANI both sat cross-legged on the only bed in her motel room. The space he shared with his brother was bigger, but not by much. Once they’d been picked for the show, the production company paid for their food and lodging. Not that Geoff saw the need to pay for anything extravagant. So they were all stuck where they started.

When the show was over, they each got twenty grand. More than enough to finance his move to L.A.

Lani spread out several sheets of paper onto the bedspread. A few were new, but some of the pages looked old, with stains, tears and creases from being folded and unfolded again and again.

“I want to be a household name by the time I’m twenty-two,” Lani said, her dark brown eyes bright with conviction. “Movies would be great, but TV feels like more of a sure thing. I flew to L.A. last year for pilot casting season.” She paused and looked at him.

Sasha nodded. He knew enough about how the media worked to be familiar with pilot season.

Every year the networks and cable stations produced pilots for potential television series. Then the executives at the various stations decided which shows got a chance to be seen and which were dumped before they’d even begun. Casting was a big part of making a pilot, and unknowns were welcome to try.

Getting onto a pilot was huge, but once cast, there were no guarantees. Even if the show got picked up—a one in a million shot—your part could get recast with someone else. It was an actor’s version of the lottery.

“How did you do?” he asked.

She sighed. “I got on two pilots. Neither went anywhere.”

She raised her arms above her head and stretched. As she moved, her T-shirt pulled across her boobs.

Sasha watched, mostly out of habit. Lani was beautiful. Her features were exotic, and he would bet she would photograph great.

“What about modeling?” he asked.

“I’m too short,” she told him. “Five-five. It’s not going to happen. I’ve done some swimsuit stuff back home. Catalogues, that kind of thing. Of course I’ve had tons of offers to do nude shots, but there’s no way. I wouldn’t want those pictures to come back and haunt me when I’m up for an Oscar.”

He wanted to get out of Alaska and be famous and very rich. Being a star was a way to make that happen. But Lani wanted it all. A serious acting career, awards and scores of paparazzi following her every move.

“We need to nail down our plan,” she said, shuffling the papers. Her long, dark, wavy hair tumbled over her shoulders.

He supposed he should want to have sex with her or something. If she took off her clothes and offered, he wouldn’t say no. But he wasn’t really interested in her that way. Lani was the first person he’d met who wanted the same thing he did, only more. He understood that if they worked together, they would have a better chance of getting it all.

“You know, if we win, we’ll each get a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars,” he said, leaning back against the pillows. “Plus the twenty. I want to rent a house in Malibu.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” she told him. “That’s before taxes. We’ll be lucky to walk away with seventy thousand. And that has to last. I’m getting an apartment in the San Fernando Valley. Somewhere near the studios in Burbank, and an easy drive over the hills. That way I can be in Century City or Hollywood pretty fast. I know if I don’t get picked up right away, I’ll need to get a job.” She looked at him. “Do you have your dream list of agents?”

Agents? “Ah, not really.”

“I do. Once this show starts to air, I’m going to be making calls, asking their assistants to watch me. There’s no way I’ll get to the agent I want, but assistants love to take calls. They’re looking for the next big thing. They want to find him or her and take that potential client to their boss.”

Sasha stared at her. He and Lani might be about the same age, but he suddenly felt like a kid at the grown-ups’ table. How did she know all this?

His questions must have shown because she grinned. “Don’t look so surprised. I’ve been working the program since I was thirteen.”

“I guess that should make me feel better.”

She shook her head. “You’ll catch on. It’s not that hard. Everything is about capturing attention. Getting your fifteen minutes of fame and making it an hour. I’ve been thinking that we need a story line.”

“What do you mean?”

“Regular dating isn’t interesting. Who wants to watch that? What, we’ll be sitting there talking?” She shook her head. “We need something better. We need a better reason for viewers to want us to win.”

He leaned toward her. “Okay. Like what? Something from a movie?”

“I thought one of the classic love stories,” she admitted. “But I’m not sure that’s the way to go. Too many people will be familiar with the plot. Plus, it’s not enough. It’s not like we can have people kidnap us, although that would be fabulous.”

She pulled out one of the pieces of paper and waved it at him. “I watched soaps. Some of the story lines are really great. When you think about it, people watch soaps because something is always happening. That and they care about the characters. So we have to get people to care about us and we have to give them something interesting to watch.” She looked at him. “Sex sells.”

“I can do sex,” he said with a grin.

Lani rolled her eyes. “I already told you, no porn. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do romantic and passionate. People love that. I’m thinking we could have one of those great relationships where we’re always falling in love and fighting and then breaking up and then getting back together. The camera loves drama. The camera loves action. If we give the director something interesting to film, we’ll get the most TV time. And that’s what we want.”

“I can do action,” Sasha said, still a little stunned by Lani’s determination and willingness to do anything to get what she wanted. The most he’d done was walk away from college and his brother. At the time, that had seemed huge. Now he wasn’t so sure.

“We’ll be the couple everyone is talking about,” she said eagerly.

“Absolutely. So what’s the plan?”

Lani grinned. “I’m not sure.” The grin widened. “Are you afraid of fire?”

THERE WAS A LOT MORE to filming a television show than Dakota had realized. With ten couples, nearly as many locations and what seemed to her to be a very small crew, chaos reigned. Each couple was going to get a local date, and a few of them would get travel dates. It seemed to her that getting a travel date the first week made it a lot easier to stay on the show.

She’d always been a huge fan of shows like Project Runway and Top Chef. But she’d had no idea of all the work that went into forty-five minutes of air time. Today two couples were getting to know each other while they walked around Fool’s Gold. A very nice first date in reality, but from what she could see on the monitors, it didn’t make for exciting television.

She checked her clipboard to see how long the “date” was supposed to last. As she glanced back at the couple, she saw a tall, yummy-looking man walking toward her.

She hadn’t seen Finn for nearly two days. Not since he’d been at her place and they’d engaged in acts that had the potential to send her to a higher plane. A quality she could really grow to like in a man.

As she wondered if she would be embarrassed or feel awkward around him, her body began a quivering dance of anticipation. As if her whole being had been invaded by sex-starved DNA.

“Morning,” he said as he approached.

“Hi.”

She stared into his blue eyes and found herself smiling. No bad feelings for her, she thought, relieved. The quivering got even better when he smiled back.

“How’s it going?” she asked.

“Better,” he told her. “I’ve been dealing with a few work-related crises back home, I flew some cargo to Eugene, Oregon, then spent most of yesterday trying to talk the twins into going back to Alaska.”

“How did that go?”

“When we were done, I pounded my head against a wall just to make myself feel better.”

“Ouch. Did you really expect your brothers to get on a plane and go back with you?”

He shrugged. “A guy can dream, right?” He shook his head. “No, I really didn’t expect them to come with me. I knew it wasn’t going to work, but I was compelled to try. Call me an idiot.”

“Actually, I think you’re someone who really cares about his family. You’re misguided, but that happens to all of us.”

He chuckled. “Thanks, I think.”

“I was being nice,” she told him.

“In a very subtle way.”

She laughed. It was good to know she hadn’t imagined that being around Finn was fun. The morning after could be an awkward time, even several days later, but she felt just as comfortable with him as she had before they’d made love.