However, there were still rumors circulating online that I had a crush on her, and I didn’t need to add fuel to that fire. Granted, it was true. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Which probably made it an even worse idea to visit her, but I had to risk it for the sake of the show.
I managed to sneak out of the lodge undetected. Most of the crew had already gone home for the night, depressedabout how the season was shaping up. No one was looking forward to the first episode dropping next week. Normally, at this point, everyone would be anxious but excited. Probably reveling too much in the drama that would have and should have already unfolded. It was just human nature. But this season, we weren’t dealing with only humans. We had a goddess with an agenda on our hands.
While I hustled across the grounds in the dark, with only the moon and stars lighting my way, my Cupid side started scripting an ode to Demi. That part of me wasn’t giving up. Not on her. Not on the idea of breaking through to her heart.
And there was no stopping this one:
“An Ode to Demi”
You make me want to forget the rules.
Forget the ratings.
Forget that I’m supposed to be the one pulling strings,
not getting tangled in them.
I watch your footage like a fool.
Rewind your laugh like it’s a clue.
Pause on your smile like it’s meant for me.
You are not mine to want.
But I do.
And that’s the worst part.
Because you’re not just rewriting the show.
You’re making me want to rewrite myself too.
While that was good and true, it was insanity. The last thing I needed tonight was to spout off poetry to Demi. Especially because I knew that part of me was already angling to throw pebbles at her window again. Like some lovesick teenager. Or worse—like a cast member on my own show.
But that’s exactly what I found myself doing when I arrived at Demi’s cabin. Another pile of pebbles awaited me. Was Demi right? Was there more to us? Were the gods trying to throw us together? If so, why couldn’t I break into her heart? And why put her on my show where she would be off-limits to me?
But it was getting harder to deny there might be more to it. More than just us forging a partnership on her quest.
I stood there in the still of the night, shaking the pebbles in my hand, wondering for the hundredth time what I was doing and how it might come back to bite me. Knowing my luck this summer, I’d take her eye out or shatter the window. Or even get caught and end up as tabloid fodder and without a job.
I should have just knocked on her door like a normal person, but there was nothing normal about this, and I had to do something to appease the god in me before I broke out in song and confessed to feelings I wasn’t sure about. But . . . I had to ask myself, was it really my god side? Or was it me?
Feeling like the biggest fool, I tossed a pebble at her dimly lit window, hoping she was still awake. The rock hit its mark and, thankfully, didn’t break the glass but only made a small tink noise. A small acknowledgment that I’d once again passed the point of no return.
The one pebble was all it took this time.
Demi pulled her curtains apart and threw up the window, her glare already locked and loaded.
She was ready for me.
I was not ready for her.
Or at least not for her in a sports bra and the tiniest athletic shorts known to man—bare skin glistening with sweat,moonlight catching every curve like it, too, had a crush on her.
I wanted to worship her where I stood.
The god in me wanted to drop to his knees, shout his ode, and vow undying devotion.
