Page 58 of Cowboy Seeks Husband
Roan bristled and squeezed Walker’s hand. “Does being rude to people make you feel better about yourself?”
Molly laughed. “Oh, look at that, our little lion’s got teeth.”
Roan’s breath caught in his lungs and he tried to pull his hand away but Walker held fast. “She’s just trying to push your buttons. Produce a reaction. It’s her job. She watched the footage and got that I’d called you that a time or two, and now she’s trying to poke you with it. Guess if she can’t get the kiss she wants, a huffy fight will do.”
Molly laughed softly. “Look out, Cowboy Mastermind is on to me.”
“Okay, you want the good stuff?” Walker turned a little so he could look at Roan head on. “If I had to do all this over again, I couldn’t have wished for a better guy to meet on a rigged reality show.”
“Do it again. Without the ‘rigged’,” Molly said.
Walker ignored her, leaning closer, eyes darting from Roan’s mouth to his eyes and back again.
Oh my God, Roan thought.He’s going to kiss me.
And he wanted it, but without the audience. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Molly give them a thumbs up. Walker took hold of Roan’s face, and then pressed his mouth to Roan’s cheek sweetly.
“I want to kiss you,” he whispered, probably hoping the boom pole wouldn’t still pick the words up. Or maybe he didn’t care. “But not in front of these jackasses.”
“Same,” Roan whispered.
Walker straightened, winked at him, and left.
“All I care about,” Molly said to Roan as he stood up from the couch feeling flushed and irritated all at once. “I repeatallI care about is that the first time you make out? It’s on camera.”
“Whatever.” Roan went to push past her, too, wanting to follow Walker inside, but Molly stopped him.
“Not whatever, Roan. You guys are our money makers, got it?”
Roan wiped a hand over his mouth and glared at her.
“One more question. Get a close up of his face,” she said to the camera guy. Roan thought he saw John roll his eyes, but he didn’t say anything. “How are you feeling about your situation now, Roan? Are you still just here for the money? You and Walker seemed to be getting pretty cozy in here before we busted in.”
“I hope Luke will be rephrasing that into a decent question,” Roan said.
“He’ll ask whatever I tell him to ask, depending on your answer. We’ll make it look good, don’t worry. We’ve already got plenty of shots of you watching Walker when he’s not looking. Oh.” Molly laughed. “And a fantastic one of your face when he planted that kiss on Chad. You can say whatever you want, Roan, baby, but you were jealous as hell. We’ll edit it to make sure it sounds the way we want it to sound.” Then her eyes softened and she said the next bit almost like she was proud of him or something. “The public is going to eat you up.”
Roan sighed, feeling bone tired all over. “I like him,” he said, looking down at his hands. “I like him a lot. And he deserves someone who can be here with him. On this beautiful farm. Someone who will be able to share this fascinating life with him wholeheartedly. And that can’t be me. I have to go back to Ohio when this is over no matter what happens here.”
“Aw, little lion,” Molly said softly. “You’re gonna make me cry.”
“Don’t call me that,” Roan snapped and pushed his way into the house. He hated that woman so much.
Everyone else was already asleep by the time he stumbled out of the bathroom and into his bed. The advantage of five people leaving was that he’d managed to grab a bottom bunk for himself. As he wedged his toes between the wooden end and the mattress, his final thought was how he coveted Victor’s giant queen bed that he had all to himself now.
No, that was a lie. His very final thought was how he wished he’d turned his face at the very last moment and kissed Walker’s soft mouth. Cameras be damned.
