Chapter 9 #3
Mia looked equally disappointed in both of us.
“Hello! Secret Shadows is only the hottest show on the Paranormal Network. Travis plays Drake Valentino, a sexy werewolf cowboy who is renovating an old hotel in Deception Harbor. He was an Army Ranger, stationed overseas and has all kinds of PSTDs now after being injured.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. I didn’t have the courage to tell her she’d mixed up the letters. At least I hoped she’d mixed up the letters. If not, that would be a show I wouldn’t care to watch, no matter how hot the leading actor was.
She continued without taking a breath. “He was dating this skanky ho for a while. She cheated on him left and right. I’m so glad he dumped her.”
I wasn’t sure where the line between Drake stopped and Travis started.
This explained everyone’s reaction to him around town. Their hometown boy literally was a celebrity.
I took another sip of my drink. “Listen. I…uh…thought Travis was engaged. In real life.”
“Engaged?” Mia raised an eyebrow. “Why would he be doing Date-A-Wolf then?”
Guess it meant werewolves didn’t have a social structure involving multiple partners. I was mildly comforted by that. “I heard someone mention they’d read it in one of the tabloids.”
Mia flicked her hand. “That’s old news. He’s single now.”
So, the guy was engaged, but not anymore, and now he was dating in the most public manner possible. Okay, then. Who was I to question the dating habits of supernatural creatures?
I was about to ask Mia where the food was—I was starving—when a deep, masculine voice behind me stopped me in my tracks.
“Can I talk to you out on the veranda?”
I turned to find Travis right behind me, and I nearly knocked over my drink.
He wore a light gray suit, a dress shirt open at the collar, and tan loafers without socks.
The tailored jacket clung to his broad shoulders, barely caging his raw masculinity.
I’d been too distracted earlier to notice these details, although I seemed to recall he’d been wearing a tie then. Damn, he was hot.
I stood up quickly, teetering on my borrowed heels. “Sure.”
“I meant Mia,” he said gruffly.
With a squeal, my fellow contestant jumped off her barstool, and he led her away without a backward glance.
I sat back down again, my cheeks flaming hot with embarrassment. The asshole acted as if he and I had never met before.
He’d been nice in the hospital, sure. But he’d also been drugged.
I’d dated men who thought they were all that and a bag of chips. Having been engaged to one, I had neither the patience nor the desire to do that again. And given the fact he was a werewolf? Well, multiply that no by a hundred and one.
The next hour slogged by like a tortoise on Valium.
Travis continued to pull other contestants away for tete-a-tetes on the veranda, including Sarah who’d been as nervous as I’d ever seen her.
She returned a short time later, saying he was nice, but that she didn’t think they had a love connection.
Sarah seemed both relieved and worried about this, which I found somewhat perplexing.
“If you’re disappointed about being sent home tonight, don’t be,” I said. “I plan to spend the rest of my time on the beach and—” I snapped my big mouth shut.
I hadn’t told her I was here by mistake. My arrangement with Jada to stay on the island and finish out my vacation was probably unique to my situation. When the other contestants left the contest, they might really leave the island.
“That’s not it,” Sarah said. “Well, I mean, Travis seems like a nice enough guy, but I don’t like him like him. I’m…I’m worried about how my family will react if I’m sent home.”
She’d mentioned them earlier. “What does your family have to do with this?,” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “What will they do?”
Sarah hesitated, staring at her hands as if trying to decide how much to share with me.
“I come from a wolf clan with a long history of arranged marriages, but unfortunately, no suitors have shown an interest. My family saw this as the perfect opportunity to fix that. They’re going to be very, very unhappy if this doesn’t pan out. ”
My heart went out to her. Everyone should be able to decide who to love—or not love.
No one’s family should force them into doing something they didn’t want to do.
No wonder Sarah seemed so apprehensive about being here.
I wasn’t all that thrilled to be here either, but at least it was a combination of my own actions combined with poor internet targeting.
Surely there had to be a happy medium between families who forgot your last birthday and families who wanted to control you.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, it was time for the charm ceremony.
Good. I couldn’t wait to get back to my hotel room, change into shorts and flip-flops, then head down to the bonfire and chill out.
Or maybe I’d just crawl into bed, read for a bit, and start my vacation fresh in the morning.
At Jada’s direction, the twelve of us formed two semicircles under a vine-draped trellis. The sound of the ocean roared in the darkness just beyond the veranda while the hotel’s bonfire crackled and burned like a funeral pyre out on the sand. Thankfully, I didn’t spot any dancing witches.
With a heavy limp, Travis emerged from the shadows and took his place in front of us.
As if on cue, fireworks went off behind him, illuminating the beach and water in brilliant flashes of color. A few of the women, including myself, oohed and ahhed. It really was spectacular.
Travis cleared his throat and called the first woman forward. “Lauren, may I put this charm on your bracelet?”
“Oh, my goddess, yes!” Lauren rushed to him and held out her wrist. After he attached the charm, she gave him a hug and returned to the group.
Then he called Mia’s name, and I literally thought her boobs were going to bounce clear out of her dress. Thankfully, they stayed put. “Mia, may I put this charm on your bracelet?”
“Yes, yes, yes,” she squealed. It sounded like she was having an orgasm. Unlikely, sure, but not impossible.
Travis continued calling women forward, including a very surprised Sarah, until the only ones without a charm were a cat-shifter named Lillian, an elf named Carmen, and yours truly.
Thank goodness it was almost over. My feet were killing me from standing around in these heels.
On the way back to my room, I was going to check out the various beach cabanas and decide where I wanted to try getting a spot in the morning.
I’d have to get there early. The good ones probably went fast.
Then Travis called out the last name. I started to turn toward Lillian to congratulate her until I realized it wasn’t her name he’d called.
It was mine.
I was so shocked, I couldn’t move, my feet were frozen to the floor. Someone literally had to push me forward.
I moved toward Travis haltingly, searching the darkness behind the camera lights for Jada. What was going on? She’d specifically said this wasn’t going to happen.
His golden eyes sparkled in the moonlight as I stopped in front of him. I stood there searching his face for some sort of explanation, but all I got was a practiced, camera-ready smile.
“Daphne, will you accept this charm for your bracelet?”
I was so confused. And not because he’d slightly changed the wording of that catchphrase. “But I thought I was done tonight. I’m not supposed to be moving on,” I whispered.
“There’s been a change in plans,” he said through gritted teeth.
“But Jada said—”
“I don’t give a shit what my sister told you,” he snapped, shooting a withering glare off camera to his right. “This is my decision and mine only. Not hers.”
What the— Jada was his sister? His own sister created...this?
She groaned from the wings. “Travis, please. We’re rolling.”
“Then cut and edit the footage later,” Travis replied. His expression softened when he turned back to me and held out the charm. “May I?”
I clasped my hands behind my back, moving the bracelet out of his reach.
Not so fast, buddy.
I wasn’t about to let him off the hook and fawn at his feet. I didn’t care that he was a fancy movie-star and always got his way.
“You were a real jerk back there at the first-meet. And you showed zero interest in me during the cocktail party, basically giving me the cold shoulder. You’re bad boyfriend material, Travis, and I deserve better than that.
” I cringed inwardly at the word boyfriend, but this was Date-A-Wolf, and I wasn’t about to pussyfoot around.
“Why in the world would I want to date someone like you?”
I lifted my chin and steeled my spine, expecting him to react poorly. After all, no one likes to be called out for being bad at something. Particularly a man when you’re talking about his dating prowess. They think they’re hot shit and hate it when you point out they’re not.
I was surprised when Travis threw his head back and howled with laughter.
“What? So, you’re mocking me now?” I seethed. “Like this is some sort of game to you?” Which it was, but that was beside the point.
“Not at all. I’m sorry, Daphne,” he said, wiping his eyes. “Really. You’re absolutely correct.”
He said it with such sincerity, but he was an actor, so I wasn’t sure if I trusted that assessment. He couldn’t really be agreeing that he was bad boyfriend material. Could he? It would be a strange admission for someone who was the prize in a dating contest.
Travis pulled me away from the cameras and prying eyes, which I really appreciated, then turned to face me on the other side of a nearby potted palm.
“Listen, Daphne. You were the last person I expected to see paraded in front of me tonight. Especially after what happened at the hospital with you not being ITK.”
That sounded like a personality test—INFP? ESTJ? I’d taken plenty of online quizzes, but that acronym didn’t ring a bell. Why would he be bringing it up now? “ITK?”
“In The Know. A human who knows about the supernatural world and creature folk. I realized at the hospital that you were clueless.”
I bristled. I didn’t appreciate his word choice.
“I figured this was a mistake—or someone’s idea of a joke.
And to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure how to handle the whole cocktail-and-mingling thing.
It was so...awkward and confusing.” He swallowed hard before continuing.
“Jada said you wanted to go home, so I was trying to respect that and focus on getting to know the other women instead. But I shouldn’t have flat-out ignored you. It was a dick move on my part.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
An angry glint flared in his eyes, and I was glad it wasn’t directed at me. “I’m so pissed at my sister. None of this—” he spread his arms wide “—should have happened to you. It wasn’t fair or right for her to put you in this situation.”
We were in agreement there too. “Then why are you choosing me? Why not just let me go?”
“Let you go?” He frowned, as if the idea was preposterous to him. “Because I want you to stay.”
One minute he couldn’t stand that I was in the contest and now he wanted me to continue? His sudden reversal was giving me a serious case of whiplash.
“I don’t know how it works in your world, Travis, but in mine, dating is a two-way street. What if I don’t want to stay?”
He looked taken aback. As if he couldn’t fathom someone not wanting to date him—a hot-as-hell, famous celebrity, desired by women everywhere.
“Fair enough,” he said, squaring his shoulders as if he thought I might punch him. “You’re absolutely correct.” Then he looked at me—really looked at me, as if peering through the shadows around my heart. “But I really wish you would.”
I’d like to say that I weighed my options carefully, that I assessed the pros and cons with a calm and rational mind. Rewarding bad behavior was never a good thing. It ensured you’d get more of the same.
And the man was a werewolf, for heaven’s sake. A werewolf!
But my mother would tell you I could be impulsive at times—that I didn’t think things through from beginning to end. Too rash and hotheaded. Just like my father. She also referred to him as a monster on more than one occasion.
Despite all reason and my better judgment, I thrust out my wrist at him. “Okay. Fine. Give me the charm.”
He tried to hide a smirk at the corner of his mouth, but it only accentuated his infuriatingly cute dimple. As he attached the charm to my bracelet, his fingers grazed the inside of my wrist, shooting electricity up my bare arms.
I ground my teeth together, doing my best to ignore the sensation.
This man was trouble. I’d be smart not to forget that.