Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 95609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
It might go faster since Joe is determined to keep up his live marketing idea, but normally these things take hour after hour because they constantly have to reposition the cameras to get the right shots.
Hours that the women spend in their heels.
“It won’t be over for me.” There’s something plaintive in his tone.
I do feel for him. So many things, but I latch on to sympathy because the other things are painful. “You’re going to be great, Luca. You’ll find what you need. At least I hope you do.”
“Your Majesty, you’re needed on set.” Christy is standing in the doorway, wearing her radio and carrying a clipboard. “And the producers would like to have a word with you about how tonight’s ceremony needs to go.”
He’s still staring down at me like he’s not sure whether to be angry or to eat me alive in the most decadent way possible. “All right.”
He steps away and turns to go, straightening his jacket and flashing Christy a confident smile. He’s back to being the perfect royal superhero.
I wonder how many women he’s kissed tonight. Usually they take it a little slow, but I would bet Shelby at least tried to get her perfectly done lips on him.
I don’t want to think about all the times this evening some woman dragged him into what seemed to be a private alcove for an intimate—if you consider four cameras on you intimate—chat with the man I’d spent hours getting to know.
Except I hadn’t.
Had I?
“Fox, I’m serious. Get your ass in that living room.” Patrick is back and he points the way he wants me to go.
Like I don’t remember. I totally knew it was that way. I think. It’s a gorgeous place, though it’s not in the best of shape. It doesn’t matter. It will look great on camera, but I can see where this mansion could use a real live, not-cheated-for-prime-time-TV glow up.
I’m going to have to learn how to get around here. It will help me to better avoid Luca at all costs.
Did the guard say there were tunnels? Because I can hide in tunnels. I can maybe become a mole person and happily live out my life underground and not have to go through with this.
“There you are.” Hannah has the biggest grin on her face. She’s followed by Ashley F, who sips on her cocktail. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you. Did you get any private time with him?”
Again, that is a wide definition of the word private. Still, I kind of had. “Yep.”
“Isn’t he amazing?” Hannah puts a hand to her heart and sighs, looking like a Disney princess who’s finally found true love.
I can’t tell her that he’s not exactly here to truly fall for one of them. I mean I kind of think she should already know. I’m still surprised when people think professional wrestling is real, and that’s what this is except with a lot of moisturizer and passive aggressiveness taking the place of fake violence. “He seems nice.”
“Ladies, I need you all in the main living area.” Patrick is the slightest bit less chilly than he is with me. He must like Hannah. Or she’s just not me. “We’re going to begin the king’s choice in a moment.”
“The king’s choice? Is that what we’re calling it?” I ask.
“Elimination seems cold, and the rose ceremony is trademarked. Also, the daisy ceremony seems incredibly derivative,” Patrick says, sounding awfully prim.
“Well, we wouldn’t want anyone to think we got this idea from somewhere else,” I shoot back.
He shakes his head and moves on. “I hope I don’t see this attitude tomorrow or you’re going to have a rough time, Fox.”
He touches his headset and begins to speak, leaving us behind.
“What does that mean?” Ashley F asks. “I thought they wanted us to have attitude.”
“It means I’ll be back in the trenches tomorrow,” I explain as we start toward the room where the cocktail party seems to have moved. Our steps echo along the parquet floors. “They pulled me out of the production assistant pool. The king is going to cut me along with two others this evening. Excuse me. The king is going to decline to choose me, and this Cinderella is going back to sweeping the chimney.”
Ashley F hustles to keep up with me. I’m short, but I can power walk when I want to, and I want to now. I want to get this over with. Seeing Luca like that completely unsettled me. I don’t like being unsettled. Settled is better.
A deep sense of disappointment coats my whole soul. At least I’d had that night. It hadn’t ended the way I’d wanted it to, but I had the memory of walking through the city, talking to him, holding his hand and getting ice cream.
Now that ice cream is ash because it had been lying to me. Lying.