I chuckled. "Don't give them any ideas."
That earned an amused twitch of Taylor's lips. "You're right. I'll keep any forms of strange and unusual punishment to myself."
"Punishment?" I grinned. "You hate spending time with me that much?"
"If it involves being handcuffed to post for an hour, then I'm leaning towards yes."
I let out a pained noise. "Taylor, all you do is wound me."
"You can take it, alpha dragon," Taylor replied, putting a snarky emphasis on the last two words. That was another thing I liked about him. Since we were so rare, the whole alpha dragon concept was plastered all over the show as a marketing tactic. Many of the contestants bought into it, too. Frankly, it made my skin crawl when Alaric flirted with me during the meet and greet, fawning all over the fact that I was an alpha dragon. It waswhatI was, notwhoI was. Taylor was the only omega who saw that.
"So…" Taylor looked around. The camera crew was a good distance away to give us space, though their excellent lenses were likely capturing close-up shots as we spoke. "How would you like to spend this next hour, Crimson?"
The way he said my name sent a chill down my spine. "I can certainly think of a few ways."
A brief flicker of pink appeared on Taylor's cheeks before he huffed and brought himself back to earth. "I see you weren't listening earlier, lizard brain."
He leaned in closer so his forehead nearly brushed mine. "Hey, that offends me."
"The name of the game is Look, But Don't Touch, remember?"
To be fair, he was right, I hadn't been paying attention at all. My brain was occupied with the fact that I was handcuffed together with my future mate. Maybe lizard brain wasn't too far off.
I scoffed. "What, so I'm not allowed to do this?"
I raised my cuffed wrists and reached out a finger to touch Taylor's hand.
Out of nowhere, Gaius karate chopped me away.
"Ow!" I cried. "Where the hell did you come from?"
Gaius tutted at me, wagging a finger like I was a child. "Ah, ah! Looks like Crimson didn't understand the rules."
"What rules? You never mentioned any."
"Taylor just explained them, but allow me to elaborate. You may look at Taylor, but you cannot touch him for the duration of one hour. No holding hands, no hugging, no kissing on the cheek—or kissing elsewhere…" He winked.
"I'm going to turn you into chicken nuggets," I grumbled.
Gaius tapped my handcuffs. "You're free to do so after your hour's up. Until then, good luck staying apart from your date." He arched a brow dramatically. "That is, unless the two of you aren't fated mates after all."
That random remark turned my stomach. What was that supposed to mean?
Before I could interrogate him, Gaius strolled back to the safety of the camera crew. A burning anger roiled in my gut. How dare he insinuate that?
"Crimson?" Taylor asked quietly, "are you all right?"
The sound of his voice calmed me down. Slightly. Turning back towards him, I sighed through my nostrils. "I'm fine. Just thinking about plucking all of Gaius's feathers."
"Because of what he said?" When I nodded stiffly, Taylor said, "don't worry about it. He was only trying to stir drama and rile you up." He smirked. "And it worked."
I flushed, feeling a bit embarrassed. "I apologize. I'm normally in better control of my temper."
"You don't have to be. I like seeing different sides of you."
"You do?" I asked, my brows shooting up in surprise.
Taylor shrugged. "What's the point in only knowing one facet of you? That's not what dating is about. I'm supposed to know the real you, aren't I?" He glanced down at the sand. "But what do I know? It's not like I'm a master of dating."
