Adventure to Love (9 page)

That left Cori. Radiant in a gold bikini with gold ropes snaking around her stomach. She even had a gold headwrap intertwined around her ice-blond, shoulder-length hair, making her look like an Icelandic warrior princess. Harper had to hand it to her. She looked good. Really good.

But she knew that she looked better. Now it was just up to Ky to confirm it by making her the winner of the competition.

Ky tapped his clipboard with his pen, deep in thought. As he marched in front of the line of women like an angry drill sergeant, the ladies were all smiles. No one wanted to be caught with a sour expression on her face, not when her fate in the competition was riding on it.

Ky finally spoke. “Ladies, this was a very difficult competition to judge. You all look absolutely beautiful in your swimsuits.” Was it her imagination, or did Ky try to catch her eye when he said that?

He continued. “But as we already know, two of you lovely women will be going home right now.”

The women gasped. Even she didn’t expect two women to be sent home
immediately
after the results from the competition were announced.

“And one of you beauties will be going on a date with yours truly this evening. I have to tell you again that this was a very hard decision for me to make.” Ky mimicked the women’s pained expressions.

Spit it out,
she thought. She stood up straighter and waited for her name to be called. “And the winner is . . . Harper.”

Smiling weakly, Harper put her six months of acting classes to use. She feigned surprise and modesty, as if she had no clue that she would’ve been chosen as the winner of the competition. When really, she knew she had it in the bag. She accepted the tribal medallion necklace from Ky, along with a kiss on the cheek, and took her place back in line.

Now for the good part. Two more bitches—sorry, ladies
—
were going home right away.
She couldn’t wait.

“And now for the hard part. I’m afraid that I have to say goodbye to Samantha and Sarah S. today. This was a very difficult decision for me to make, ladies. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.” Ky sighed and took a moment to say his goodbyes to the two tearful women who were cut from the competition.

God, you would have thought they were getting fired from
The Apprentice
. Way to turn on the waterworks.

Samantha had black streams of mascara running down her cheeks. Sarah S. was sobbing quietly and held on to Ky just a little too long when he hugged her goodbye. Both women had to be escorted away by two butlers to return to their rooms to pack and leave the resort for good.

But who cared?
She had a very important date to get ready for. She looked forward to soaking in a long, luxurious bath in the double-jet Jacuzzi tub in her suite. Which hopefully she would be able to share with Ky later on when she won the competition. Things were looking up.

Ky spent the next hour chatting it up with all the women so that they didn’t feel left out after losing the swimsuit competition.
Annoying.
She just wanted to get the social hour over with. She wanted to get ready for her date and finally have the alone time with Ky that she deserved.

She sat back on her lounger and sipped her rum punch. She tried to rack her brain and think of all the interesting things that they could potentially do on their big date. She’d heard from Samantha who’d heard from Brinkley who’d heard from Morgan that she’d gotten to go on a hot air balloon with Ky the night before.

While a hot air balloon ride was pretty impressive, she was absolutely sure that Ky had something better prepared for their date. After all, why would he pull out all the stops for the very first date of the competition? Morgan’s date would probably pale in comparison to what Ky had planned for her that evening.

She was supposed to meet Ky in the main lobby of the hotel after she got the call from the front desk alerting her that he was ready for her. But she was running late. He was just going to have to wait. She took her time applying her lip primer, lip balm, lip plumper, lip liner, lip stain, and lip-gloss, in that order. Her lips looked . . . perfectly kissable. Just the way she liked it.

She gave herself a little kiss in the mirror and was ready to head out the door. On second thought, her earrings looked totally wrong with the Michael Kors island print maxi dress in petal pink that she was wearing.

The yellow earrings clashed big time with the pink palm tree print. She spent the next ten minutes digging through her oversized jewelry box that she had brought with her for that very reason.
A girl could never be too prepared.

By the time she made it down to the lobby bar where Ky was waiting, he had three empty drinks sitting in front of him.
Oops.
She must’ve taken longer to accessorize than she thought.
No matter.
One of the best-kept secrets of her dating game was to always keep a man waiting. Then he
really
appreciated the time he got to spend with her.

She walked slowly to where Ky was sitting at the bar. She’d hoped he would turn his head at the sound of her heels so that she could make her slow-motion grand entrance. But no such luck. He sat slumped at the bar with his head in his hand, completely engrossed in what sounded like a very boring conversation with the bartender.

She tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, babe! Did I keep you waiting?”

The look on his face gave her the answer. She was going to have to butter him up and get him out of this funk so that he would stop being irritated with her for making him wait. Sometimes, on very rare occasions, the “make him wait” plan backfired. It just sucked that one of those times was on camera.

She laced her fingers through Ky’s other arm that was hanging at his side. “I am so, so very sorry I kept you waiting,” she cooed into his ear.

She dropped her voice lower to a whisper. That was a great way to create instant intimacy on a date. The guy always had to lean closer to hear what she had to say.

“If you want to know the truth, I was just really nervous about this date. It took me so long to decide what to wear because I couldn’t make up my mind. I just wanted to make a good impression!”

There. She’d played the innocent, girl-next-door card. That normally got her out of trouble. Ky gave her a forced smile. He got up from his barstool and gestured to the driveway in front of the hotel. “Well, now that you’re here, we can get moving.”

Um, that was a little businesslike for a first date, wasn’t it?
Ky’s mood didn’t seem to be improving. He led her to a Hummer limo waiting at the curb. He got in first. She scurried in after him before he closed the door in her face.

They sat in the limo in silence. She decided to speak first. After all, three cameramen were documenting their every move. She didn’t want to make her first date segment totally snooze-worthy for all the viewers at home, did she?

“So, can you tell me what we have in store? Or is it a sur-
prise
?” She giggled.

Ky replied in a flat voice, “It’s not a surprise. We’re going rock climbing.”

“Oh.”

Rock climbing? What a horrible idea for a first date! And why didn’t anyone tell her that they were going to be doing something active?
She definitely wouldn’t have worn a $200 dress if that were the case. And her Miu Miu sandals were brand-new. If she scuffed them, she was going to freak. How could she put this delicately . . .?

“Oh. That sounds really interesting!” She forced a bright tone in her voice. “But I’m afraid that I didn’t bring any type of rock-climbing gear with me. So are there any other activities we could do instead? Like I said, I’m just really excited to spend time with you, no matter what we do.”

And I wouldn’t mind a hot air balloon ride,
she grumbled to herself.

“I think they have rock-climbing gear and clothes for both of us.” Ky gestured to the linen suit he was wearing. “Obviously, I’m not really dressed for rock climbing either. So we’re probably going to change when we get there.”

Sure enough, the limo pulled up to a jungle hut next to the beach. Two of the familiar butlers from the resort were there with shorts, T-shirts, tennis shoes, and rock-climbing harnesses in hand.

She was directed to a changing area in the hut. There she shed her gorgeous maxi dress for ill-fitting gym clothes that she squashed into a too-snug harness that rode up on her crotch.

Seriously?
She had cameltoe in the front and in the back after putting on the harness. It was possibly the most unattractive look she could have envisioned for her first on-screen date.

She peeked out of her changing room to see Ky checking himself out in the mirror. Amazingly, he somehow made the drab gray shorts and plain white T-shirt look good. Especially given the fact that his goodies were now perfectly on display thanks to the snug climbing harness strapped around his waist.

At least she would have something nice to look at while she climbed up some big rock for no reason at all. She had never understood rock climbing. Especially at those indoor gyms.
What was the point of working up a sweat and climbing and climbing to reach nothing at all?

It was even more embarrassing to fall off of the rock-climbing wall and hang there, dangling like a piece of bait with everyone looking at her. That was one particular personal training incident that she wanted to erase from her memory.

Ky nodded at her. “Okay, glad you got ready quickly this time.” Was that sarcasm she detected?
God, he really needed to get over it already.
“If you’ll just follow me, we’re going to hike to our rock-climbing area in the jungle.”

Hike?
The date was getting worse and worse. She trudged behind Ky as they hiked on an all-terrain trail deep into the jungle. She didn’t even bother to walk next to him and strike up a conversation.
Fuck it.

Even if the cameras were on them every second, she really wasn’t in the mood to have a cheerful conversation. Not when she was dripping sweat and trying to keep her makeup from running in 100 percent humidity.

After what felt like hours, she finally saw an enormous rock with pegs sticking out of it at the end of the trail. “Finally,” she griped to herself.

Ky, with his bat-like hearing, had somehow heard her. “Yeah, that was a good five-mile hike, wasn’t it? I just love anything that gets the blood pumping. I feel totally invigorated.” He smiled.

At least one of them was in a good mood. Hers had completely plummeted. Crashed and burned. She wasn’t sure she could go through with this whole rock-climbing adventure. But opting out would mean a quick ticket home.

She channeled her inner yogi and focused on the faces of the women in the competition. That was the only way she was going to get through this extreme adventure date. She had to beat all those stupid bitches and show them that she really was better than them. She wasn’t going to let something as lame as rock climbing kick her out of the competition.

She wiped a stream of sweat off the side of her face.
That was lovely, just lovely.
Her extensions were sticking to her back, drenched in sweat. She had no clue how she was going to clean and dry them in time for their morning meet and greet at the Great Pool the next day. On top of that, she was going to look like a drowned rat for the rest of the date.

She approached the rock with caution. Ky was already halfway up the rock without a spotter.
Showoff.
He stopped, looked down at her, and waved. She wanted to give him the finger. But instead, she used that finger to grab onto the closest peg she could reach.

With a little, okay,
a lot
of grunting and swearing, she was able to use her weak upper body to pull herself up onto the pegs. Now what was she supposed to do? She thought the whole point of the date was to bond. But Ky was like twenty pegs ahead of her and had almost reached the top of the rock. There was no one to spot her, no one to give her a hand to pull her up to the next peg. She was on her own.

She managed to make it halfway up the rock when her arms gave out on her. Just as she had feared, there she dangled. Luckily, the only people around to look up her saggy gym shorts were the cameramen at the bottom. They were probably loving it. They were probably zooming in to get a great crotch shot to post on the Internet.

Ky looked down at her from the top of the rock, where he’d been sitting and sipping on a bottle of water for the past twenty minutes. “Hey, little lady, do you need some help?”

“What does it look like?” she growled.

Ky scurried down the pegs without a harness. He got to her in two minutes flat. It was almost embarrassing how much more athletic he was than her. Ky reached out and gently pulled her toward him. She grabbed onto the pegs for support.

Ky unclipped her harness and said, “Okay, how about you hold on to me, and I’ll lower you to the ground?”

She grabbed on to Ky’s arms for dear life. His strong, toned, muscular arms.
God, this guy was more ripped than he looked, which was saying a lot.

She felt herself floating down as Ky repelled, holding her tight in his arms. Ky released her a few feet above the ground. He jumped down next to her and grinned.

“So, what did you think? Was that your first time rock climbing? I have to say that I was pretty surprised you did so well.”

“Yeah, that actually wasn’t my first time, if you could believe it.” She laughed in spite of herself. “Obviously, I need to work on my upper body strength if I’m ever going to try it again.”

More like
never
going to try it again. Thank God the worst part of the date was over.

At dinner, Ky still seemed distant. Harper was stumped. She thought that they’d finally connected on that God-awful rock climbing date. If she had to haul herself up the side of a mountain dripping sweat on a date, a guy better fucking appreciate it.

They finished their first course in silence. Of course, she couldn’t complain about the backdrop of their dinner. The horrible date that seemed like it would never end was beginning to look up.

They sat on a small island in the midst of a hidden lagoon about twenty yards from the rock-climbing area at the end of the trail. After they’d finished the “adventure” portion of their date, Ky led her to a tiny hut in the jungle, where she was able to take a sponge bath, fix her smudged makeup, and put her dress and heels back on.

Hardly what she would have hoped for when going on a date on camera, but still . . . it was better than wearing awkward gym shorts with a cameltoe any day.