Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Travis
Ipressed the elevator button in the hospital lobby then checked my phone.
Nothing.
I was expecting to hear some news from my new attorney. Alexander had recommended her—said she was a real bulldog, which I could respect. Although I’d just retained the woman, her findings couldn’t come fast enough. But then, patience wasn’t exactly a virtue of mine.
Where was that blasted elevator anyway? I didn’t have all day. I flexed my knee. Maybe I should’ve taken the stairs. I jabbed at the button several more times.
“Do you think that’s going to help?” said a female voice behind me.
My inner wolf jolted to life, and I turned to find Daphne standing a few feet away.
She was gazing at me expectantly, a half smile on her lips. I blew out a long, slow breath, the air between us crackling with electricity. Heaven’s Moon, she was a sight.
With a pair of cheap Darkaway Island sunglasses perched on her head, a beach bag slung over her shoulder, and a colorful sarong tied around her hips—still with the price tag on—she was far too imperfectly perfect for my own good.
My baser instincts didn’t see that as a problem whatsoever and gave a low growl.
Down, boy.
I was rarely at a loss for words—I was an actor, for gods’ sake, and made a living saying them. But around Daphne, it seemed I had little more than a picture-book vocabulary. “Hey.”
She jutted a chin at the elevator button. “Does the elevator say to itself, forget those people on four. There’s a guy in the lobby who’s in a real hurry.”
I chuckled. “What brings you here?”
“Just checking on Kiana,” she said. “I heard she had to have surgery.”
I pressed my lips together and gave a solemn nod. “Yeah, I heard that too.” Guilt tugged at my insides yet again for the part I played in her injury.
She glanced at my leg. “Are you here for a checkup? Is Carlisle, um, Dr. Lesauvage, looking at your knee?”
I shook my head. “No, I’m visiting Kiana too.”
Her eyes widened with surprise. “You are?” Then an expression crossed her face that I couldn’t read.
The elevator doors opened. I motioned her inside, but she hesitated.
“That’s okay…I don’t want to intrude.” She clutched the strap of her beach bag with both hands. “I’ve got other errands to run and can just come back later.”
Intrude? With Kiana? As in, she thought I had a thing for her and wanted to spend time with her? Alone? I needed to dispel that misconception before it took hold.
“Come,” I demanded. “We’ll see her together. I was planning to visit the coyote shifter boy too. Remember him?”
I held the door along with my breath, not wanting a chance meeting with Daphne to evaporate into nothing more than passing niceties.
The elevator gave an annoying buzz. In or out, it demanded.
“Okay,” Daphne said after a moment and stepped inside.
A thrill of satisfaction coursed through me, and I pressed the button for Kiana’s floor.
“He’s the boy they brought into the ER when you were there, right?” she asked, repositioning her beach bag and giving me a spectacular view of her breasts.
“Yes.” I flexed my hands as I thought about cupping those silky soft mounds and drawing first one nipple, then the other, into my mouth.
Eyebrows raised, she looked at me inquisitively. Had she said something? Fuck. Had she caught me gawking? I cleared my throat, dragging my mind out of the gutter. “What?”
“Did you meet his family?”
“Briefly. Since they’re spending their vacation in the hospital, I thought a visit from Drake Valentino might cheer them up.” I rubbed a hand on the back of my neck. “I know that must sound pretty egotistical.”
“You’re a celebrity,” she said. “I get it. Never discount the value of something that brings joy to someone, Travis. Something that takes their mind off the pain, if only for a while. You know, like good genre fiction.”
I raised an eyebrow. “A book?”
She squared her shoulders and stood a little taller as if she were readying herself for a fight.
“You know—romance, horror, fantasy, science-fiction…. Oh sure, those books often get crapped on from high falutin’ skeptics, but there’s nothing better to whisk you away from reality than reading a page-turning novel. ”
She was obviously very passionate about the subject. As an actor in a supernatural soap opera, I could relate. I was used to getting dogged by so-called critics too. But I liked what I did and it made people happy, so fuck the naysayers.
“Let me get this straight,” I said. “You’re comparing me to a book?”
“Consider that a compliment.” An impish smile played across her lips. “Although from what I gather, Drake Valentino is kind of an asshole.”
I scoffed. “Depends on your perspective.”
“He slept with someone while his fiancée was in a coma. That’s pretty dickish, Travis.”
Someone’s been binge-watching Secret Shadows in her hotel room. I smirked, secretly thrilled that she was stalking Drake Valentino.
“Well, she did try to run him down with her car,” I said. “That’s how she got into the accident in the first place.”
Daphne flipped her hair behind her shoulder, which made her sunglasses slide off her head. She gave a little yelp and caught them before they hit the floor. I couldn’t help but smile—yet again—at her adorable awkwardness.
She put the sunglasses back on her head and scowled at me. “Sounds like he may have deserved it.”
“True, but technically he didn’t cheat on her until after she tried to kill him. Not to give away any spoilers, but he’d been pining for his best friend’s little sister for a long time.”
“Affairs of the heart can be just as devastating as physical ones.” There was some venom in her voice, which made me wonder if she had some real-world experience with someone who cheated on her. Anger stirred inside me at the thought of anyone causing her pain.
When we got to Kiana’s room, the woman was happy, if not a little surprised to see us.
Other than calls from Jada and Sarah, she hadn’t heard from any of the other contestants.
Daphne offered to take a few pictures of me, Kiana and her mom, who had flown in as soon as she got the news about what had happened.
I promised to check in with her again after her surgery.
Daphne acted as the photographer when we visited Elliott too, who was—I was glad to see—sitting up and talking. After signing a few autographs for his family and sharing some behind-the-scenes stuff about Secret Shadows, we said our goodbyes and left.
As soon as we stepped into the elevator again, Daphne burst out laughing. She’d clearly been holding it in.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
She grabbed the railing as if it might keep her from falling to the floor. “You know what you signed, don’t you?”
I looked at her, confused. I’d signed so many things I honestly didn’t remember.
Daphne wiped her eyes. “That plastic container Elliott’s grandma gave to you.”
“The water bottle?” The older woman had been looking around the room for something for me to sign and grabbed it from the windowsill next to Elliott’s bed. To be honest, I’d signed stranger things than that, so I hadn’t really thought much about it when she handed it to me.
“It wasn’t a water bottle, Travis. It was—” She erupted in more fits of laughter. “It was a portable urinal.”
“A what?!”
“You signed a freaking urinal!”
Now that I thought about it, the lid had been spout-shaped. With my wolf’s keen nose, however, I’d have detected the smell of pee if it had been used before.
But that didn’t stop me from raising my hands over my head like claws and pretending I was going to touch her with my urinal-infected fingers.
She shrieked and spun out of my grip. I was just about to grab her when the elevator dinged.
We stopped our childish antics as the doors opened onto the lobby filled with people.
Red-faced and out of breath, we rushed out, ignoring the stares.
Once outside, I turned to her on the sidewalk.
Even though I’d be seeing her on the group date tonight, I wasn’t ready to go our separate ways just yet.
The chemistry between us was undeniable, and I wanted to spend more time with her.
Just the two of us—away from the cameras and the contest. The calls to my agent and my lawyer could wait. “Let’s go grab a bite to eat.”
She fidgeted with her beach bag, shifting it to her other shoulder.
“Poe’s Kitchen is a favorite among locals,” I cajoled. “It’s right around the corner.”
“Edgar Allan Poe,” she said under her breath. “Figures.” She twisted her hands together, looking pretty conflicted.
It seemed like she wanted to say yes, and yet she was hesitating. Why?
Earlier, I’d have said it was the whole werewolf/human thing, but I knew that wasn’t it. We’d kissed twice, and she didn’t seem the least bit scared. Okay, so the first time, she technically was the one who kissed me, and it was before she knew about my true nature.
Could I be giving off scary-werewolf vibes and just not know it? I thought about Fairy Rock, the hospital visit, and her goofy elevator antics. No, I was certain she wasn’t afraid of me.
“I…can’t,” she said, looking away. “I’ve…um…got some errands to run.”
“No problem. We can run your errands together and then have lunch. There’s plenty of time before nightfall.”
“No,” she said quickly, eyes widening, the playful spark in them gone. “You can’t— I’ve got— No.”
If this part were being filmed, this was where they’d add the screeching sound of brakes.
She pointed back to the hospital. “That was fun. You were really good in there and made a lot of people happy. But I’ll…uh…see you tonight, okay?”
I was an alpha-male, not an alpha-hole, so I wasn’t going to press the matter further. Even though my inner wolf was pushing me to “alpha-up” and make her do my bidding.
Before I could answer, she spun on her heel and left, the price tag on her sarong flipping against her leg.
I stood there on the sidewalk, mouth agape, not entirely sure of what had just happened.
For one thing, I had just been turned down for a date. That sort of thing didn’t happen often. Not to me.
Was she not attracted to me? Had I read her wrong? That first night, she did say I was bad boyfriend material. Maybe she still felt that way. But then why had she said yes at the charm ceremony?
And later—when I’d kissed her at Fairy Rock—why had she responded like she was as into it as I was?
I rubbed my neck and headed off in the opposite direction.
Or maybe... Was she hiding something? Did Daphne Dupree have secrets of her own?