Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
Daphne
After we got back to the hotel, we had little time to change and meet back down at the Moonlight Lounge for the cocktail party and charm ceremony. Jada had us on a tight turnaround since yesterday’s schedule had been cut short when Kiana got hurt.
“You know what the bad thing is about winning immunity?” Mia asked, adjusting her bodice.
“Not getting the chance to be eliminated?” I said, only half joking.
Although the Ranch Challenge had been a lot more fun than I’d been expecting, I just wanted the competition to be over.
Dressing up and parading in front of cameras, vying for a man’s attention, really wasn’t my thing.
As I’d prepared the barbeque sauce, the weight of Travis’s gaze had been unsettling, but I refused to let it rattle my concentration.
Mia wrinkled up her nose as if she smelled something foul. “Very funny, Daphne. No, it’s because Travis will be spending his time with the other girls to help him decide who to send home. That’s what’s wrong with it.” She grabbed her phone. “Come on, ladies. Group selfie.”
Sarah and I obliged and gathered around Mia.
She took a few snaps, changing the angle of her phone each time, then proceeded to post her favorites to social media.
It should’ve ticked me off she had cell coverage on the island and I didn’t, but I was enjoying my digital detox.
It made me feel insulated from whatever was happening back home.
“See? Look.” Mia pointed.
I followed her gaze and saw Travis leading Samantha, a water nymph from Minnesota, to a cabana on the beach.
Sheer fabric was draped over the canopy and billowed gently in the ocean breeze.
A tray with two glasses of champagne sat in the middle of the mattress.
It looked cozy—and very romantic. Well, except for the cameras.
Mia slumped in her chair. “That definitely won’t be any of us in a windswept tête-à-tête tonight. Heavy sigh.”
I bit back a laugh. I’d never met anyone who verbalized their visceral reactions.
Watching Travis and Samantha getting comfortable in the cabana, I felt a twinge of something in the middle of my chest. But it wasn’t jealousy or envy.
It was just that it looked really…comfortable.
That’s all. It would be nice to be sitting there, sipping on a glass of champagne and listening to the ocean surf.
With Travis.
No, no! Not with Travis. Just in general.
Sarah clinked the ice cubes in her drink. “How many contestants is he sending home tonight?”
Mia took a long sip of her Bloody Mario through a thick straw and held up two fingers. Hopefully, the drink was in name only.
Nodding, Sarah turned to me. “Where do you think we’re going on our group date tomorrow?”
“I have no idea,” I replied a little sheepishly. “To be honest, I kind of forgot about it.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Mia wasn’t even trying to hide her exasperated tone anymore. “I hope he’s taking us on his private plane. He’s a pilot, you know.”
I didn’t know where Mia got all her information, but she sure seemed well informed.
“If that’s the case,” I told them, “I won’t be able to go.”
“Why not?” Sarah sounded truly disappointed.
“I don’t have a memory stone, so I can’t cross through the island’s charm.” At her confused expression, I added, “I’m human, remember? I’m not a supernatural creature.” I’d told them the truth yesterday at the Ranch Challenge. It was too draining to lie all the time.
“Well, I’m sure Jada has something else planned then,” Sarah added with a kind smile.
Mia played with her straw. “What a shame. I’ll have to suggest a plane ride when he takes me on a one-on-one. Because I, for one, would love to fly with him.”
Sarah’s eyes widened, the panic in her expression obvious. “He’s taking each of us on one-on-one dates?”
“Not everyone.” Mia deftly removed a stalk of celery from her glass using long, dagger-like nails. “Just the ones he wants to get to know better. Which is why I know he’ll choose me.”
While I appreciated confident women, I found this attitude of hers a tad much.
A short time later, Travis escorted Samantha back to the veranda then asked Lauren to accompany him. That cozy little cabana was sure seeing a lot of action.
Mia made a gagging sound. “I can’t stand her. Barf.”
“Who?” I wasn’t sure which woman she was referring to.
She pointed to Lauren. “That.” As if Lauren were a thing. “I hate her.”
Hate was a pretty strong word for someone you just met. “Do you know her?” I asked.
“No, I don’t know her,” Mia said. “But I know of her. Let’s just say, her family and my family go waaaaay back.”
Sarah leaned over and whispered, “Lauren comes from a family of supernatural vampire hunters.”
Mia’s animosity toward the woman made a little more sense now.
“She said she’s falling in love with Travis,” Mia said, rolling her eyes again. “She’s talked to him maybe ten minutes tops, so that’s a crock of baloney.”
Compared to Mia’s fifteen minutes.
Mia crunched on her celery stick. “Besides, he’s mine.”
I wondered if all vampires were this possessive. It wouldn’t surprise me, though. They certainly were in all the romance books I’d read.
“Anyone want anything?” I asked, rising from my seat. I wasn’t comfortable with this conversation. Ragging on other women wasn’t my thing. We needed to support each other, not tear each other down. Life was hard enough as it was without adding more to the drama pot. “I’m going to get a drink.”
“Nothing for me, thanks,” Sarah said.
Mia handed me her empty glass. “I’ll take another Bloody Mario.”
I held it gingerly and quickly deposited it on an empty tray on my way to the bar. I didn’t want to inspect the red residue too closely in case it was the real deal.
At the bar, I heard footsteps coming up behind me and cringed. I turned, expecting to see the camera crew. They were interviewing the contestants to get our reactions before the charm ceremony, and they hadn’t gotten to me yet. I was doing my best to avoid them.
Turned out, it wasn’t the camera crew, but Travis. The crew followed a few steps behind.
My heart skipped a beat. Not because of Travis, though, I told myself. Being on camera wasn’t my thing. I didn’t like thinking about how I looked all the time and if a certain angle was unflattering. Lab coats, hair in a tight bun, and dorky safety glasses were more my style.
“Care to join me?” He held out a hand to me. “There’s something I want to show you.”
I took it tentatively. “Um. Yeah. Sure.” I hadn’t been expecting to spend any time with him this evening given what Mia had said.
His hand was very warm as it enveloped mine, and I couldn’t help wondering if he had large paws while in his wolf form. I’d been wishing I’d brought a lightweight sweater—the breeze coming off the ocean was chilly tonight—but not anymore. I was plenty warm now.
Sarah smiled over at me and held up her crossed fingers as we passed them. I loved how supportive she was even though we were technically competing against each other for the same guy. Mia, on the other hand, looked pissed—and it probably wasn’t because I’d forgotten her Bloody Mario.
When we got to the beach, I had some difficulty walking in the sand in these heels. Travis paused and crouched in front of me. I assumed he meant for me to use him as support so I could remove my shoes.
“Climb up,” he said.
I blinked, wondering if I understood him correctly. “On your back?”
“Unless you’d prefer I shift into my wolf,” he said teasingly. “Which, according to the doc, I’m not supposed to do yet, but I think I could manage.”
The thought of seeing him as a wolf both terrified and exhilarated me. His human form I could handle all day and twice on Sundays. But his wolf? A shiver cascaded down my spine.
At my hesitation, he added, “Or I could throw you over my shoulder and show you what a brute I really am.”
I gave a nervous laugh. Why did part of me get turned on by feral caveman shit? “Aren’t we just going over to the cabana?”
Since it wasn’t more than a dozen steps away, this seemed liked overkill. I hadn’t seen him do that with anyone else. But then, maybe it was dramatics intended for the screen. He was an actor after all, and the cameras were literally right here.
“No. I’m taking you somewhere else.”
I looked around. “Where?”
“You’ll see.” He made a clucking sound to hurry me up, like you do to a horse. Except that he was the horse, and he wanted me to ride him.
Keeping my mind out of the gutter and my ass covered (no one needed to see that moon), I held my skirt and climbed aboard.
“Good girl, now that’s more like it.” He hooked his arms under my legs, straightened to his full height, and took off down the beach at a good clip.
His knee must’ve been healing well, I thought, as I tried to ignore how his praise heated my insides and that the hottest part of me kept rubbing against him.
God, he smelled good. This time like fresh cut grass and sunshine.
I had to keep myself from burying my nose in the nape of his neck and breathing him in.
However, when he hopped over a narrow channel of water, my lips accidentally brushed his ear.
I couldn’t be sure, but it seemed as if his body vibrated beneath me like a tuning fork. Had he just growled?
It was surprising how intimate a piggyback ride from a very attractive man was.
Soon enough, we were no longer in front of the hotel, and the beach here was dotted with rocky sea stacks. Although it was pitch dark, you could see their imposing shadows rising from the sand.
Travis headed toward one of the largest ones and set me down next to it. “This is Fairy Rock.”
I pulled off my heels and sank my bare feet into the cool sand. Cranking my head up, I estimated the sea stack’s height to be 150 or 200 feet tall. “Why is it called that?”
“Come on. I’ll show you.” He grabbed my free hand and led me around to the backside of the rock where it was low enough to climb up. “Here. Put these on first.” Travis reached into his pocket, unrolled an object and handed it to me.
They were two objects, actually. “What are these?”
“Rubber swim booties. The barnacles on the rocks can hurt. They help with traction too, so you won’t slip.”
“Well, well, aren’t you a Boy Scout,” I said. “Always prepared.”
“I try,” he said with a wry smile. He’d brought a pair for himself too.
After we slipped on our booties, Travis helped me onto the rock. We picked our way over the barnacle-covered lower section, careful to avoid the little tidepools scattered about the surface.
When we reached the ocean side, he paused. “You go first.”
I stepped around him, and what I saw took my breath away.
Colorful tiny lights flitted in a cylindrical pattern from the base of the rock up to the star-strewn sky. Fairy-sprites. Hundreds of them. Like the ones at the Moonlight Lounge. So, this was why it was called Fairy Rock, I mused, as tingles of delight skittered along my skin.
“Oh my gosh, Travis, they’re beautiful.” I was vaguely aware that he was watching me and not the spectacular show of twinkling lights. He’d probably been to this place many times before. “Why are they here, flying like this?”
“You know how an eagle will find an updraft in the sky and just hang out for a while, circling higher and higher?”
“Mmm hmmm,” I answered, not daring to take my eyes off what I was seeing. If I blurred my eyes just slightly, the fairy lights formed continuous neon lines spiraling upward.
“At low tide in the evening, there’s a thermal updraft here that the sprites enjoy playing in. We have them all over the island actually. I thought you might enjoy seeing this one.”
“I…I love it,” I said, my voice suddenly thick with emotion. I was overcome by how thoughtful this was. He’d actually noticed and remembered how entranced I was when I saw the little creatures for the first time at the Moonlight Lounge, and he wanted to show this to me.
The back of his hand brushed mine, then he shoved them in his pockets as if he wanted me to have this experience on my own. But he was the one who brought me here. It was a gift to me.
Hooking my arm in his, I leaned into his warmth and let his steadiness keep me balanced as I watched the magical twinkling lights above us.
One of the fairy sprites came close to my face, and I laughed with delight.
I may have toppled over if not for Travis’s hand suddenly at my back, steadying me.
With the sound of the surf crashing around us, I could’ve stood here beside him forever.
But then a voice cut through the darkness like a buzz saw. “Travis? Daphne? You up there?” It was one of the camera guys. “These rocks are really sharp.”
Travis sighed and I stepped away from him.
“Guess they should’ve brought their rubbers,” I whispered.
A laugh burst from his throat. “Coming,” he called back to them, shooting me a devilish smile that made me snort with laughter.
I hated to leave, but everyone was waiting for us.
Correction: everyone was waiting for Travis.
I fidgeted with the charm bracelet around my wrist. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but the ceremony had to be starting soon.
Had our bachelor figured out who he was sending home?
I had to admit, I was glad I was safe from elimination, that it wouldn’t be me.
At least, not tonight.
Travis held my hand as we picked our way back over the barnacle-covered sea stack.
It came as no surprise to see the lights and cameras rolling when he jumped onto the sand.
He turned and reached to help me down, his large hands splayed around my waist. But when I landed, he didn’t let go of me.
Instead, he pulled my hands behind him, making the fronts of our bodies collide.
He was all broad shoulders and big, strong muscles.
And, if I wasn’t mistaken, he was more than a little excited.
Which I found pretty thrilling, to be honest.
I lifted my chin. “Thank you for bringing me here, Travis. That was such a thoughtful—”
Without warning, his mouth crashed over mine, my words lost on his lips. A hand tangled in my hair, another cupping my nape. It was one of those sexy, made-for-TV kisses that every girl dreams of. His tongue invaded my mouth as he kissed me deeper, and I think I moaned just a little.
Okay, so the theatrics were for the sake of the cameras, but I didn’t care. I slid my arms around his neck anyway and arched into his sexy embrace.
Right now, I wasn’t worried about whether or not kissing a werewolf was a good idea. Because in this moment, it definitely was.