"Ugh! I can't wait!" She slid back and threw her hands up. "This is going to be such good research for my novel. I can't wait for the ghost tour."
"Ghost tour?" My curiosity piqued and I turned.
"Didn't you get the itinerary?" Juniper asked.
"Was it an email? When did he send it out?"
"I got mine in the mail. There’s a few classes and then some group brainstorming sessions,” Annie explained. "There will be time to do other activities too…” Her gaze raked over Priest again. "What did you say your name was again?"
"Priest."
"Priest. One of our classes is about the human body and how it responds to things. Tristan needs models. Maybe you should do it. I would love to studyyourbody."
I took a calming breath. "Arden, you said you guys take care of the hotel?"
The driver nodded.
"Have you seen any real ghosts?"
"I see many things throughout the day. Who is to say they aren't just a guest?"
I rolled my eyes. Was he afraid we'd leap out of the moving vehicle if he answered it straight? Or was this all part of the experience?
"You must see them if you do ghost tours. Or is it just a gimmick?" Annie asked.
"Gloriana is the guide. She will be able to answer any questions you have about the hotel and its previous guests."We got off the freeway and started up a long, one-way road that made me dizzy looking out the windows. My stomach seized and my breathing quickened, as we slid on the ice. Maybe there was reason to panic about the storm.
"Everything is fine," Arden reassured us. "The heavy snow is not here yet. We have plenty of time to get there."
The snow wasn't what I was worried about, I wanted to snap. I was worried about falling off this cliff!Priest reached for my hand. I took it and squeezed. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing, and eventually, Priest murmured that we were on flat land again.
I opened my eyes. We were off the winding cliff, and I could see the hotel sitting atop a hill over a small forest of trees.
My nerves about falling to my death turned into nerves about Moth. This was it. In less than an hour, I'd be in the same vicinity as my celebrity crush. He wasn't a huge celebrity, but he was big enough that when I told all my friends how I lost my virginity to him at a haunted hotel, they would think I was the coolest. Maybe he'd even write about me in one of his memoirs.
Summer thought it was silly, for me to not have done the deed yet. She and most of our friends lost their virginities ages ago, but not me. I'd dated throughout high school, but I never allowed any of them to get past first base. Those boyfriendswere all losers. I didn't want some boy to just give me three pumps and pull out. I'd read too many romance novels to accept that pitiful nonsense. No, I wanted the real deal. Passionate lovemaking in which I was the first to orgasm, not the man. With foreplay and talking and roaring fires and silk sheets. Real men knew how to satisfy women, and I wouldn't settle for anything less.
My last submission to an agent had been returned with painful critique.I’d actually cried.
"It's obvious your sexual life is lacking. To write a good romance, you need to experience the world more. Go, have some affairs, get some years under you, mature, and you are welcome to submit again."
I didn't need years. I just needed Moth.
I came to this retreat to make sure my first time was with someone I knew would be worth my virginity, and I couldn't wait to see what this week had in store. Hopefully, I'd find myself in bed, naked and gasping, sooner rather than later.
Arden drove through the trees and right up to the building steps. He parked and leapt out to open our door. Tristan came out of the hotel with a man who had long blond hair, tattoos everywhere, and the face I'd had saved over and over again in my phone.
Moth.
Rule 7 - Priest
Don’t let someone else take your final girl.
Laney's eyes widened. What was she looking at? I followed her gaze to a tall, blond guy with tattoos who looked like…
Moth.
I remembered him.
