Chapter 10: Laney
“Mr. and Mrs. Carter?”
It takes every ounce of restraint I have not to flinch when somebody calls our name as we leave the airport. It’s a friendly-looking Hawaiian girl, probably a few years older than me, wearing a blue and gold sundress. Royal Shores colors. I was hoping the big sunglasses I put on as we left the plane would be enough to hide my face until we were safely locked up in the hotel, so it’s concerning that we were recognized immediately.
Travis’ huge hand squeezes my side. “That’s us. Are you from Royal Shores?”
The Hawaiian girl nods. “My name’s Kayla, and I’m going to be your personal guide to Royal Shores. It’s my job to make your honeymoon as amazing as it can possibly be.”
Travis and I share a look. I wasn’t planning on a hotel employee being assigned to us. God, look how friendly and professional she is. She’ll probably be able to tell that we’re not really married in the next five minutes, especially if she recognizes Travis. Not good.
Travis smirks. “Personal guide, huh? What does that mean?”
Kayla laughs, even though I’m sure she gets this question literally every day. “Well, Royal Shores is a big place. There’s so much to do there that it can be intimidating without a little guidance. That’s why Royal Shores assigns a guide to every couple, whose job it is to get to know them, figure out what they want out of their honeymoon, and point them in the right directions.”
Travis laughs. “Alright, but, uh…what if we’d rather stay in than go out? I don’t think Laney here’s going to let me get out of bed all week.”
Travis’s hand reaches down and grabs my ass, and a gasp escapes my lips. Holy crap, I’m going to kill him as soon as we’re alone. Of course, it works. Kayla laughs and gives us a knowing look.
“Oh, of course! You can have as much alone time as you want! We even have special suites for couples who want their honeymoon to be a little more…intimate. If you want, I can go ahead and set you two up in one of the Couples Deluxe suites.”
Travis makes that stupid smirky face that he makes when he’s trying not to crack up laughing. Luckily, Kayla seems oblivious. Or maybe she’s just professional. Either way, as much as I want to dump Travis’ pervy ass back on the plane and ship him back to California, making it seem like we’re super horny newlyweds is probably the best way to get Kayla here to leave us alone.
“So…these Couples Deluxe suites…they’re extra private?”
Travis grins. “She’s a screamer.”
I smack Travis on the arm, and he grabs my wrist, pulling me into his body. God, he’s being so handsy with me, and I can’t tell if he’s acting for Kayla or……
“So, uh…as you can see, we’re going to need all the fucking privacy you got.”
Kayla laughs. “Okay, that’s fine. It makes my job easier, after all.”
Kayla gestures to a shiny black van parked on the airport curb. “Well, if you’ve got all your bags, I can take you to Royal Shores whenever you want. Ready to go?”
“I can’t wait,” I say, pulling myself out of Travis’ embrace as gently as possible without attracting attention. God, he’s got me totally flustered. My face is bright pink and I’m breathing hard. What did he call me the night we got married? His blushing bride?
Kayla beams. “Great!”
She walks over to the black van on the curb and pops the trunk. “I can already tell that you two are going to love Royal Shores.”
***
I have to pull Travis into our room. He’s standing in the hallway, telling Kayla all about our wedding. How we were so in love that we just couldn’t wait any longer, so I dragged him into the nearest casino and begged him to marry me on the spot.
I tug on his arm. “Come on, honey, let’s let Kayla get back to her job.”
Travis raises his eyebrows at me. “Looks like somebody’s ready to get started. Alright, I guess I’ll finish the story later. In the meantime, you’re probably going to want to leave us alone for…I don’t know, the next six hours or so.”
Kayla nods. “Call me if you need me!”
And with that, she heads back towards the stairs, and I yank Travis into our room, close the door, and smack him as hard as I can on the arm.
“Fuck, what was that for?”
“That was for grabbing my ass outside the airport and telling our guide all about how I’m constantly begging to get in bed with you.”
Travis shrugs. “Sis, you’ve been telling me all week how dangerous this is, and how we need to make sure the hotel doesn’t figure out that we’re stepsiblings. I was just making sure that the hotel leaves us alone because it thinks I’m going to spend the entire trip fucking your brains out.”
I roll my eyes. I mean, it probably worked. If I was Kayla, I’d probably avoid this room as much as possible. “Okay, fine. But that doesn’t mean we are.”
Travis is quiet for a moment, giving me a look that sends shivers up my spine. Then, he grins. “Right. We’re just going to nice, professional and productive until it’s time to go home.”
Only Travis Carter can make a sentence like that sound dirty as hell. I guess that’s why he gets the big endorsement deals.
Trying my best to ignore Travis and the prickly feeling on my skin from pretending to be his loving wife for 45 minutes, I put my suitcase in the corner and look around the suite. At first, it just looks like a really, really nice hotel suite. Soft carpets, a shiny, state-of-the-art kitchen, huge windows and a balcony…that kind of stuff. But the more I look, the more I notice the little details everywhere. The big mirrors everywhere…the huge marble bathtub in the corner of the living room, big enough for two…the way the covers are pulled back on the only bed in the suite…this whole place is designed with one thing in mind.
Travis cracks up behind me, and I turn around to see him standing over an open drawer full of condoms.
“Think this is going to be enough, Sis?”
I glare at Travis. “I mean, that’s like a daily supply for you. Maybe you should take those for your next trip to Vegas.”
Travis opens another drawer, and pulls out a glossy booklet that looks kind of like a room service menu. “Is that room service? We should order something, I’m pretty hungry.”
Travis raises his eyebrows at the booklet. “Well, uh…I guess you could call it room service. What are you hungry for?”
Travis tosses me the booklet, and I look down at it. On the cover, there’s a picture of a young, attractive couple, clearly paid supermodels, laying on a beach with the words “Make Tonight Special” written across their bodies. A little weird for a food menu, but maybe it’s also a wine list…
Oh. It’s not a food menu. My eyes get huge as I see a huge spread of naughty items, each with a code to order them from the front desk. My eyes dart back and forth between handcuffs, vibrators, paddles…
“Ew!” I close the booklet and chuck it at Travis’ feet. “Travis! Why did you even give me that?”
Travis shrugs. “You were looking at it for a pretty long time. I thought you were about to order something.”
“I was not looking at it for a long time! Is there an actual food menu in there or are they expecting us to eat each other’s tongues all trip?”
Eventually, we do find a food menu in the very back of the lowest drawer, which makes me wonder about the priorities of the last couple who stayed in here. Desperate to get my mind onto anything else, I ask Travis what he wants to eat, and we end up ordering a plate of crab cakes up to the suite.
And then, after a semi-awkward period of negotiation where I claim the bed and make Travis sleep on the couch in the living room, things are finally a little more normal. I mean, normal for me, which isn’t really normal at all. After all, I’m still on a fake honeymoon with my oversexed stepbrother, and we’re about to eat crab cakes off the floor of a luxury hotel. But at least he’s stopped hitting on me!
Our crab cakes come, courtesy of a very confused Kayla, and I pull out my laptop and sit on the big couch by the window. “So, do you actually need my help for this coconut thing?”
Travis shrugs, then brings the crab cakes over to the couch and sits next to me. “I mean, mostly just because it’s our alibi. I haven’t even officially entered it yet, but I’m pretty sure all I have to do is show up and the dudes who run it will make it happen for me.”
“Okay, so…” I’d opened a document to write down a checklist of duties, but it sounds like I don’t really need to do that.
“I’ll just tell everyone there that you’re my assistant and give them your email, and then if there’s anything that comes up, you’ll do it. I told you, it’s ridiculously low-key, it’s just some bike shop guys and local bikers. The most you’ll have to do is maybe set up a photo shoot for the event.”
So now my checklist has exactly one item: schedule photo shoot. But in my head, I’m making a different checklist.
Find Jason Hayward.
Make sure Kayla doesn’t suspect anything.
Make sure Travis doesn’t blow our cover.
And last, but most important of all:
Keep things professional with Travis. And whatever I do, don’t let my guard down and do something stupid like jumping into bed with him.
There’s just too much at stake.
Once I’m done with both checklists, I shut my laptop and start munching on a crab cake, while Travis goes into the kitchen and looks to see if there’s anything to drink. He comes back out with a bottle of wine that looks like it costs more than my whole month’s paycheck. I give him a look.
“Remember what happened last time we had alcohol?”
Travis laughs. “Not at all.”
I shake my head. “Alright, fine. One glass, and then I’m going to bed.”
“Fair enough. I’m still hung over from last time.” Travis uncorks the bottle and pours out a glass for each of us. Then, he lifts his glass and looks me in the eye.
“Here’s to the best fucking honeymoon ever.”
I roll my eyes and touch my glass to his.