Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Daphne
Isat on the sofa in the drawing room of the hotel with the remaining contestants, camera crew on the periphery. I was trying not to act too depressed, but Sarah didn’t get a charm last night and I missed her already.
Mia jumped to her feet and ran to the mail slot in the door. “It’s a date card. My bet is that someone has a one-on-one tonight.”
There were only four of us left now: Mia, Lauren, Alice and me.
Although I wasn’t as friendly with them as I had been with Sarah, they all were nice enough.
Mia, however, did have her moments. But if any of them caught wind of what had happened with Travis and me in the cabin, things probably wouldn’t be as cordial.
I bit my lip to keep from thinking about how things had ended.
Mia waited until she got the nod from Jada, who stood just off camera. Then she ripped the envelope, like a child opening a big shiny present on Christmas morning. As she held the card up and read it, all the joy and excitement drained from her face.
“What does it say?” asked Lauren.
Mia’s voice was like the edge of a knife. “Roses are red, violets are blue, grab your hiking boots, Daphne. I’ll see you in two.” She tossed the card on the table in front of us. “Good. I hate to hike.”
Travis was taking me hiking? Again? A shot of excitement coursed through me that we were going on our first actual one-on-one. The other night didn’t exactly count. At least, not as far as the contest was concerned.
Alice reached forward and picked up the card. “Whew. ‘Hours’ is in parentheses. I was afraid it was two minutes and I was gonna be like, Girl, you gotta go now!”
Two hours later, Travis and I were strolling through downtown Darkaway, camera crew in tow. As it turned out, I didn’t actually need the hiking boots. That was just for the poem. Comfy walking shoes were all that was required.
I wore tennis shoes, a denim jacket and a handmade dress from a cute store in town that I found during one of my morning pilgrimages to Unholy Grounds. I also brought with me my determination to keep things casual and easy-breezy with Travis. Yeah, good luck with that.
Okay, so he was a pretty great guy in many respects, but that didn’t mean I should fuel my growing feelings for him. I had to keep reminding myself that, sure, this was fun, but it was also temporary.
I could do easy-breezy, no problem. I could do casual.
With a slow exhale, I wondered if he’d been intimate with any of the other contestants.
And because I enjoy torturing myself, I forced myself to picture him with each of the remaining women.
It wasn’t pretty, but this was a dating contest, and those things happened.
The safest thing for my heart was to assume the obvious, and not believe in some ridiculous fairy tale.
“You didn’t need to take me on another one-on-one, Travis.” I gave him a platonic hip bump. “We already had ours.” I knew the subject would eventually come up. Might as well rip off the bandaid on my terms.
“Not officially, we haven’t.” He brushed a flyaway strand of hair from my cheek and tucked it behind my ear.
His touch burned my skin, sending electricity skittering everywhere and my thoughts instantly turned feral.
I wanted more of him. All of him. The other night, he’d been so gentle, so focused on what turned me on, that a tiny part of me wondered if I’d been delirious and dreamed the whole thing.
I’d never experienced such raw intimacy like that before, where my partner’s pleasure seemed so dependent on my own.
What had happened in the cabin was really something else, though. At the thought of how it all ended, I couldn’t help but giggle.
“What’s so funny?” he asked, looking around to see what I was laughing at.
I made sure the camera crew was out of earshot for this. They were taking b-roll and we weren’t miked up. “I’m just thinking about the eyeful you gave those hikers when they came in.”
His lip quirked. “Damn hikers’ cabins with no locks on the doors. I can’t believe my wolf didn’t hear or scent them first.”
“In all fairness, you were a bit occupied at the time.” And boy, could that man focus.
Now it was his turn to chuckle.
Travis had given me several of the best orgasms I’d ever had—I mean really, they were incredible—and just when he went to retrieve the condom and put it on, four hikers had burst through the door.
I screamed and pulled the sheets up to my chin.
But poor Travis was standing there at the bedside in all his naked glory.
The hikers—two men and two women, with backpacks the size of compact cars—stood there in the doorway, staring at him, mouths agape.
And what a sight he was too. The man was.
..very blessed. Both in skill and in physical attributes.
But then, given the size of his dire wolf, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that everything else about him was impressive too.
As a human woman, I had to admit I’d been a little concerned about the logistics had things continued in the direction they were headed.
In retrospect, maybe it was a good thing we’d been interrupted.
He draped an arm around my shoulder now, leaned in close, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. “We need to finish what you started…”
“Me? I didn’t start anything.” Remembering he was ticklish, I poked him in the ribs and he jumped, screeching like a six-year-old on a playground, which made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt.
Damn it. I could see the cameras zooming in.
Travis straightened. He’d seen them too.
“Does someone need a memory stone?” His thumb stroked over mine, sending little jolts of electricity up my arm. “Because I seem to recall a different chain of events. I was just innocently trying to keep you warm, minding my own business, when you went feral on me.”
“Oh my God, you are— That’s not…” When I went to shove him, he moved fast, grabbing my wrists and pulling me to his broad chest. I made a little umph as I collided with all those hard muscles. I craned my neck up and saw a glint of his wolfish yellow eyes.
“We’ve got company, darlin’, so keep it G-rated, will you?” Me? He was the one with the dirty mouth. “Have I told you I really hate leaving things unfinished?”
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Sounds like a you-problem, not a me-problem.” And then, before I could stop myself, I added, “But if you’ll have your people call my people, maybe we can arrange something.”
He tipped his head back and laughed.
However, the instant the words tumbled out, I wanted to take them back.
For me, physical intimacy led to attachment, and the last thing I needed was to get any more attached to this man than I already was.
Even though I’d have no memories of my time on Darkaway when I left, the emptiness in my heart would remain.
I just wouldn’t know why it was there.