Page 64 of The Love Dare
Bitch.
Winnie flattens her palms against the counter and closes her eyes as she inhales a deep, centering breath. It’s nothing she hasn’t heard before, and it’s nothing she’s going to let derail her—not when she’s so close to getting everything she’s ever wanted. Instead of screaming or crying or running the way she once might have, she simply wets a washcloth and starts scrubbing. Five minutes later, the glass is clean.
The stain on her soul isn’t nearly as easy to remove.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
tyler
Tyler fidgetswith the handful of pebbles filling his palm. The little rocks scrape and scratch together while he stares up at the silvery glass of the second-story room he’s almost positive belongs to Winnie.
Something about this was too easy—the casual way the woman at the front desk mentioned the possibility of a meteor shower as production shuffled him by, the fact that no one was keeping an eye on the door to his hotel room, the perfectly empty lobby when he snuck downstairs. Hell, with the midnight sun, he doesn’t even have the cover of darkness.
It’s all wrong.
And yet…he can’t find the will to care. So what if he’s being set up? So what if there’s a secret camera filming his every move? He just spent ten hours on a group date dodging women left and right. All he wants is Winnie, and if Nina is going to give him an open pathway to her for some godforsaken reason he can’t begin to understand, well, he’s damn well going to take it.
Tyler pulls his arm back and releases.
A pebble hits the glass with a smallclink.
He waits.
Nothing.
So he tries again…and again…and again.
Fourth time’s a charm. The curtain is thrown to the side, and?—
“Fuck!”
Tyler leaps back as his heart just about breaks through his skin. A white face presses up against the glass like something out of a slasher movie. The huge black eyes are unreadable. The lips, though, twist into a wicked grin.
“You should see your face!” a feminine voice calls as the window slides open.
He recognizes it immediately. “Harper? Jesus. You scared the shit out of me.”
“I know.” Her glee deepens. “Looking for someone?”
He scrunches his face and scrubs his hand through his hair. This is more awkward than he realized it would be. Winnie’s three closest friends in the group have made it pretty obvious they’re only there for the exposure, but heis technically supposed to be dating them, and now that he’s staring into Harper’s eyes wishing they belonged to someone else, he can’t help but feel like a complete and total asshole for being here.
“What’s going on?” Two more ghostly white faces careen into view. This time, however, he’s prepared. Charlotte’s eyes pop wide while Cynthia adds, “Oh, it’s you!”
“It’s me.” He shrugs, suddenly wishing for an exit strategy. Why the hell did he think this was a good idea? He knew she wasn’t rooming alone. What did he think was going to happen? That he would walk out here and she’d just be there waiting for him like a lovesick puppy staring out the window, daydreaming that he might show up?
Yeah, he realizes. That’s exactly what he thought was going to happen.
Gah!
He shifts his weight, squirming beneath his jacket.
Harper elbows Cynthia. “Do you see his face right now?”
“Obviously. I’m looking right at it.”
“But do youseeit?” the girl jokes, laughter on her lips she’s not even trying to hide. “He’s so uncomfortable.”
“Do you see your faces?” he calls up. “You look like the three most cheerful serial killers I’ve ever seen.”
