All in the Game

by Barbara Boswell

  Her imagination raced to places that made her blush.

  It was definitely to her advantage that he believed she was cool enough to plot and plan and play a game. Now all she had to do was keep up the pretense.

  It wouldn’t be very hard to do, Shannen pep-talked herself, as she slowed her pace. She wasn’t a giddy schoolgirl anymore, she was a mature woman known for her competence and self-control.

  All she had to do was be herself—her current self. To tell Tynan Howe that this was the last time she would sneak around the island to meet him, and nothing he could say or do could change her mind.

  That was all she had to do.

  The moment Shannen spied Tynan Howe/Hale standing in the secluded grove of palm trees, the confidence-boosting tape she was playing in her head became a jumble of blather.

  Fortunately, she had a moment or two to regain her composure before he sensed her presence. She knew he couldn’t hear her approaching. The wind and the sounds of the nocturnal birds and animals provided ideal cover.

  That secret moment or two also provided her with time to study him, and helplessly Shannen made a thorough mental inventory.

  He was tall and tanned and muscular, and his Victorious crew T-shirt and loose khaki shorts emphasized his build to perfection. His face was all arresting masculine features: the coffee-colored brown eyes alert with intensity and intelligence, the strong jaw and sharp blade of a nose, the mouth well shaped and sensual.

  His dark-brown hair was cut short, perhaps in concession to the island heat? She remembered he’d worn it longer nine years ago, when at twenty-five, he’d been a legal adult and she, only seventeen, was not.

  Unbidden came a visceral pang of memory, that hungry yearning she’d felt back then every time she’d looked at him.

  It was remarkably similar to what she was feeling right now.

  Shannen was aghast. This was a mature woman known for her competence and self-control? She had to get out of here, and fast!

  “Shannen,” he called to her quietly.

  Too late she realized she had accidentally moved into his line of vision. Okay, let’s get this over with! She took a deep breath. “Hello, Mr. Hale.”

  Her deep breathing had the unfortunate effect of making her sound throaty and breathless. That was certainly unintended. Shannen frowned.

  “Do you disapprove of my alias?” Ty walked forward to meet her, his hands in his pockets, looking relaxed and cool and calm, everything she knew she was not.

  She resented his composure mightily. “You can call yourself anything you want, it doesn’t matter to me.”

  “I wonder who voted to oust Cortnee tonight?” Ty stopped in front of her and attempted another conversational sally. “It seems obvious that Jed cast the vote against Konrad, but the vote against Cortnee came as a surprise.”

  Diverted, Shannen nodded her agreement. “I thought the five of us would unanimously vote against Jed, but there were only four votes against him. Enough to send him away, thank heavens. Maybe either Konrad or Rico decided they’d had enough of Cortnee?”

  “Or you or your sister did,” suggested Ty.

  “We both voted against Jed. Bad enough he’s an insufferable braggart, but hearing he’s such a user totally clinched it.”

  “It’s a secret ballot, so who knows? Unless you and Lauren discussed your votes?”

  “We didn’t have to. We can’t stand Jed. And what a poor loser he was, throwing that big tantrum. It was pretty funny when Konrad couldn’t stop laughing, though.” Shannen smiled at the memory. “Konrad’s been absolutely giddy today.”

  “The Internet discussion boards will be lit up over this,” said Ty. “Jed does have a loyal following, who will be furious that he’s out of the game. That vote against Cortnee will be dissected, too. She has her own fan base. And you and your sister have an even bigger one.”

  “We do?”

  “Absolutely. Clark Garrett said you two are even being discussed on twins.com, which is normally used for parenting tips on multiple-born kids. He’s elated with the scope of the show. Watch him try to find quadruplets for Victorious II.”

  Shannen stared at him, completely nonplussed. “I haven’t thought about public reaction to the show since the first few days after we arrived here. You’re…keeping up with it?”

  “You can’t escape it in the crew’s camp. Viewer response to Victorious is in the air we breathe there. Clark Garrett is obsessed with the ratings, and he and Bobby monitor the show’s Internet activity like overanxious mothers.”

  She twisted her hands. “It’s strange how life in this game seems to be more real than real life back home right now.”

  And it was downright unnerving how she had managed to fixate on him to the exclusion of real life back home! Shannen gulped.

  “What is your real life like back at home, Shannen?” He sounded genuinely interested.

  She didn’t want him to be. “Haven’t you read my Victorious bio? The basic facts are all there,” she said glibly.

  “The basic facts are pretty minimal. You and your sister graduated from West Falls University. You’re a nutritionist at West Falls Hospital, and Lauren teaches home ec at West Falls High. You both were granted leaves of absence from your jobs to do this show—which you claim you tried out for as a lark. There isn’t any real personal information.”

  “Such as?”

  “Mention of a boyfriend or fiancé.” He cleared his throat. “A child or ex-husband. That sort of thing.”

  “Because there aren’t any. Lauren and I are both happily single and free.”

  Their eyes met. Ty was the first to look away. “It’s your turn to ask me,” he said in a peculiar tone.

  Shannen guessed he’d been trying to be wry but had ended up sounding sheepish instead. Best of all, he knew it. His discomfiture delighted her.

  “I’m supposed to ask if you have a girlfriend or fiancée or wife and kids? No, I’ll pass. I really don’t care.”

  “Don’t you?”

  He met her gaze again, and Shannen’s pulses jumped. Sexual awareness crashed over her like a wave breaking on the shore. They were standing way too close, she realized with a start.

  How had that happened? She had no recollection of either of them moving, yet they must have, because now they were in each other’s personal space, within easy touching distance.

  “I don’t mind volunteering that I don’t have a girlfriend, fiancée or wife and kids. No ex-wives, either,” Ty said, breaking the brief charged silence.

  “You Howes are so dedicated to honesty,” she said sarcastically. “Such role models for morality! Oh wait, I forgot—you’re a Hale now, you’re keeping your true identity a secret. Which is just more Howe deception, if you ask me.”

  “You could look at it that way, I suppose. But my sister Jessie Lee and I see it from a different angle. She gladly and permanently dropped Howe for her married name. Jessie Lee says nobody in their right mind wants to carry the burden of the name Howe at this point in time. Well, I’m of sound mind, Shannen.”

  “Jessie Lee isn’t the sister who embezzled the money from the flood relief fund, is she?”

  “No, that would be Janice. Who is still serving time. She would disagree with Konrad about the tastiness of prison food, by the way.”

  “She had a trusted position with a respected charity organization, and she stole from the very victims she was supposed to be helping,” Shannen said sternly. “She deserves to be in jail!”

  “You won’t get any argument about that from me.” Tynan held up his hands in a gesture of truce. “My brother, Trent, took his rightful place there, too, after he almost singlehandedly brought down the biggest accounting firm in the country with his auditing schemes. Meanwhile, it’s disturbing to consider what he might be cooking up in prison now, with all that time on his hands.”

  “There was a dreadful cousin, too,” Shannen blurted out before she could stop herself. The Howe family’s fall was not unlike a train wr
eck that you tried to avert your eyes from but couldn’t help staring at anyway. “What finally happened to him?”

  “Cousin Davis is locked up for a very long time. Between the postal service investigation and what they found on his computer, they nailed him cold, thank God.” Ty sighed. “Being a Howe means serving as a target for numerous well-deserved potshots. Blame comes with the name, which is why I decided to use Hale.”

  “Because you’re such a paragon of virtue?” she asked, baiting him.

  “Because I didn’t enjoy being a pariah by proxy. There are lots of people who believe that an uncorrupt Howe is an oxymoron, like a good terrorist.”

  “Are you going to be a Hale permanently?” Shannen was curious.

  “I don’t know. I do know that it’s a great relief to be anonymous, something you’ve given up by being on this show. After the game is over and you’re back home enduring the media attention, you’ll—”

  “Want to change my name to escape my notoriety? I seriously doubt it.”

  “Your name won’t matter. Since you’re visually known through TV exposure, you’ll be identified on sight.”

  “Oh, well, how bad can that be?” Shannen gave a dismissive shrug. “As twins, Lauren and I have always been stared at. After this, a few more people will stare at us. Then we’ll go back to work, interest in us will quickly fade and everything will return to normal.”

  “Maybe. Or maybe you’ll win this game and be a millionaire, Shannen. That will surely change your life.”

  “Surely,” she echoed mockingly. “Should I ask you in advance how to fend off fortune hunters? After all, you’ve been hounded by scheming gold diggers your entire privileged life, haven’t you?”

  He had the grace to look ashamed. “I knew it was too much to hope you’d forgotten…that.”

  “Being called a conniving gold digger and white-trash jailbait is rather memorable, Tynan.”

  He groaned. “Shannen, I never thought you were a—”

  “Calculating fortune hunter? Of course you did. And to tell the truth, you were right about the appeal your money held for me. I liked the idea that you were very rich. I don’t mind being called conniving, either. That’s a compliment in some circles, and in this game it’s crucial. But the jailbait, white-trash part—ouch!”

  She hoped she’d pulled off the breezy insouciance she was aiming for. She certainly wasn’t feeling that way. His invective had seared her brain and remained engraved there ever since he’d hurled it at her the fateful night he’d broken her heart.

  Shannen gave her head a quick shake. No, she wasn’t going to stir up all those old feelings, not here, not now!

  “I didn’t mean it, Shannen.” Ty’s voice was low and urgent. “I was desperate that night, and I didn’t trust myself around you. Remember, I’d just found out a few hours earlier that you were only seventeen years old.”

  He paused and shook his head ruefully. “From the first time I met you, your effect on me was nothing less than explosive and exciting, and the more we saw each other, the deeper my feelings grew. But then I saw you getting off that school bus. A school bus, Shannen! I couldn’t believe it. I did some checking around and finally found out the truth. You were way too young for me. It was wrong for us to be together, and I knew I had to say something to make you… You were too young to understand what you…”

  His voice trailed off.

  Shannen found hers. “That’s ancient history. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  She was both fascinated and repelled by his unsteady pronouncement. Was it the truth, or was he indulging in some self-serving revisionist history?

  Not that it mattered. Not that she cared at all.

  He was a condescending, self-righteous jerk, she reminded herself, recalling how she’d hurled the epithet at him that same night. It was the most insulting thing her seventeen-year-old self could come up with while grappling with the pain of what he’d called her.

  And it was lame compared to his pernicious insult. She had a far better verbal arsenal now.

  “I suppose it would be boorish of me to point out that you were the one who brought it up in the first place with your fortune-hunter crack?” Ty’s lips quirked.

  “You were boorish to say it back then,” she shot back. “But when faced with packs of fortune-hunting vixens, all’s fair, I suppose. Still being relentlessly plagued by them?” she added caustically.

  “Not anymore. Fortune-hunting vixens don’t bother us fortuneless guys.”

  “Do you mean—did you— You lost all your money?” The notion was staggering.

  Ty looked uncomfortable. “The family legal bills and penalty fines equaled the national budget of a small country. And let’s not forget all those civil suits filed against us.”

  “But don’t the rich have trust funds and all, that can’t be touched?”

  “When you have an enterprising auditing genius like Trent in the family, nothing is safe,” Ty replied.

  “Your brother stole from his own family, too? My brother has done the same thing.” Shannen lowered her voice, as she always did when talking about her brother. As Gramma said, There were some things that didn’t need to be shouted from the rooftops. Big brother, Evan, was one of them, even here, alone with Ty in the middle of the island.

  “From the time Lauren and I first learned what money was, we learned that Evan would swipe it from us—pennies, nickels, dimes. He didn’t care how small the amount—Evan would take it.”

  “Who would’ve expected we’d share a bonding moment over our thieving brothers?” Ty gave a hollow laugh before turning serious once again. “Shannen, there is no justifying what I said to you that night. At the time, I believed I was doing the right thing to keep you away from me, but since then—”

  “Oh, spare me the tired old ‘cruel to be kind’ excuse.” Shannen’s temper flared. Their bonding moment, such as it was, was over. “It’s phony and self-righteous and I don’t buy it. Motives can be either cruel or kind but not both.”

  “Motives can definitely be mixed, Shannen.”

  Fast as a heartbeat, he backed her against the thick column of a palm tree. He slipped his arms around her, trapping her between himself and the tree.

  “I’d like to know your motives in renewing our relationship.” His voice was husky. “I’d be willing to bet my camera equipment that they’re…mixed. Would I be right?”

  With a soft gasp Shannen tilted her head back and looked up at him. The hot gleam in his dark eyes challenged her; his smoldering sexuality fueled hers. She felt her nipples tighten as sharp coils of desire spiraled deep inside her.

  “I’m not trying to renew our relationship, because we don’t have one,” she said huskily. “We never did. I had a one-sided crush on you when you were a hotshot law student and I was a teenage idiot. End of story.”

  “It was more than that and you know it.” Tynan nuzzled her neck, drawing her closer. “I was crazy about you, Shannen. When I found out you were just a kid, I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut.”

  Sensual hunger was swiftly infusing her body with hot, syrupy warmth. Shannen knew she should fight it, and she tried to bolster her resistance against it.

  “I was still the same person you claimed to be so crazy about.”

  “Not even close, Shannen. I thought you were a twenty-two-year-old graduate student—because that’s what you’d claimed to be. Quite a difference between that and a lying little teenager who was using me to rebel.”

  “I wasn’t! Using you to rebel, that is,” she specified, because she couldn’t deny she had been a teenager or that she’d purposely lied about her age.

  Right now she was feeling much the way she’d felt back then when he’d taken her in his arms. The same pounding excitement, the same fierce arousal.

  Almost a decade later he still evoked a hormonal hurricane within her. It should have been a sobering realization, not a thrilling one.

  But thrilling it was. She was aching to tou
ch him, and finally, nervously she allowed herself to. Just a little, Shannen vowed, just this one last time before she returned to camp and never did this again.

  She reached up to curve her hand around his jaw. He’d been clean shaven this morning—she had noticed, just as she did every day—but now a light stubble covered his jaw. It felt sensuous and scratchy and very erotic.

  Her fingers slid to his mouth and traced his lips.

  He caught her thumb with his teeth and gently pulled on it at the same time his big hand closed over her breast.

  A moan escaped from her throat, and she felt herself slipping under his spell. Again. Ty was the first man ever to make her feel weak with wanting. Who would’ve guessed that in the nine years that followed their parting, he would remain the only man to elicit that response?

  All those years her icy control had never wavered, and then along came Tynan, and once again she melted like a Popsicle in tropical sun. He held such power over her!

  Sudden alarm bells began to sound in her head. With power went control, and all her adult life Shannen made sure that she was the one with both.

  She hadn’t been that way at seventeen, though. She’d been all too willing to cede everything to Ty, “white-trash jailbait” that she’d been. Shannen winced.

  He brushed his mouth over hers in a tempting, tentative caress. “We’ve been down this road before, Shannen.”

  Yes, they had. Shannen’s alarm turned into panic. Was she nuts? Or maybe just “white-trash jailbait-all-grownup,” out for a midnight romp on the beach with the man who’d coldly dumped her when she was utterly vulnerable.

  Ty lifted his head and gazed down at her. “But we never got far enough, did we, sweetheart? Tonight—”

  “Nothing is going to happen tonight, either!”

  He wasn’t expecting it, so when she pushed at his chest with both hands, Shannen successfully shoved him away from her. He had to make momentary use of his arms to maintain his balance, and she took the opportunity to make her escape.

  “I’m out of here. And don’t try to…to contact me again,” she ordered, gulping for breath. “I won’t meet you again, no matter what.”