Sloane’s POV

“Look at me like we’ve only just met,” Elias murmured as we stood side by side on the main terrace the next morning. “Not like I was inside you four hours ago.”

The cameras were already rolling. Soft morning light. The other women clustered near the coffee station in carefully chosen outfits. I kept my expression polite and distant while every nerve in my body remembered the exact weight of him.

“I’m trying,” I said under my breath.

A producer called us over for the first group activity of the day: a walk through the estate gardens with paired conversation prompts. Elias was steered toward a cheerful redhead...