Page 55 of Glamour & Gumballs

He didn’t bug me again, and when he changed the subject, I didn’t participate much in the conversation.

It was a long, long date.

twelve

ERIN

Harker was gone when we got back.

I made a point to avoid Ev, and glared at him when he offered me a hand to help me out of the boat. Though I accepted the help, I released him as soon as I could and strode back to the shelter. As I went, I called in a flat voice, “I’m going to bed.”

No one tried to stop me on my way there.

When Rhett joined me in the shelter, he held me casually, but lulled me to sleep with another mental image of us on a warm beach together. The things he murmured to me in the illusion told me he was struggling with smelling my scent on the other guys’ skin, so I knew I needed to back off for a while if I could.

Acting like I’d been caught with Julian required keeping to myself more the next few days, so I did exactly that. It calmed Rhett’s possessiveness down, too.

Julian won the next challenge as well. It was a different kind of puzzle, so Ev went home in the next vote.

When Kyle won the challenge after that, he got to choose two guys to go with us. He picked both Rhett and Travis for our outing to a little bar nearby. Having Travis there meant Rhett and I couldn’t talk freely or spend any real time together, which was shitty.

But Julian was gone when we got back after the vote.

With him out, the biggest threat to Rhett’s game was gone, so I finally relaxed for a few days.

Of course, relaxing didn’t mean I could spend any more time with Rhett. But it wasn’t raining anymore, so I tried to enjoy it.

On the morning of day 17, I woke up early. Rhett was still sleeping, so I slid off his chest quietly and padded out to the beach.

I walked along the sand alone, watching the sunrise as I went. It was windy, which didn’t seem like a great sign as far as the weather went, but I tried not to worry about that.

There were bigger things to deal with.

We were only a little over halfway through the game.

It felt like I’d survived a lifetime on the beach. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it another thirteen days, but I also wasn’t sure what it would be like to go back to reality anymore.

I itched to sit down with Rhett and have a conversation about what life would actually look like if I chose him in the end like we were planning. I barely knew the guy. And while I did like him, forever was a lot to promise someone.

Granted, I hadn’t actually promised anything.

I hadn’t even completely agreed to go along with his plan.

Maybe I needed to rethink that.

Thunder rumbled overhead, and I grimaced. Though the sun was rising, I was well aware of how quickly storm clouds could come in and change everything.

I forced myself to consider the main reason I was working with Rhett.

The reason I’d attempted creating chaos in the game.

Because I didn’t want to land in an abusive relationship. And Rhett was a lot of things, but he wasn’t an abuser. He was patient. Laid-back, even.

I would be safe with him, and that was what I wanted.

But… what if I wanted more, too?

According to him, fae couldn’t abuse their mates. Which meant that every man on the island could actually be a potential mate for me.

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