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“Why’d you stand in line?”

“I thought it was the bathroom”

“Really?” He brought a fist up to cough into it, hiding a laugh

“I’” I clenched my shaky hands into fists

“I didn’t think you were”

I sed “So, ould you pick me?”

“Why would I not?”

I blinked, shakingnowhere fast “What am I supposed to do? As your chosen companion, I mean”

“Spend the night with me”

“Oh” I was finding it difficult to breathe, let alone speak “And if I don’t?”

“You have to”

“Says who?”

“The law You should thank your father for that one Oh, that’s right, you can’t” He grinned; it was a slow, sexy grin that made my stomach flip despite myself “You either spend it with me or spend it in jail, and you know the conditions of these jails”

“I don’t like to be given ultimatums”

“If you don’t like ultimatums, you shouldn’t have come to Carnival The moment you did, you sealed your fate” He closed the distance between us again “As a matter of fact, the moment you came back to the island, you sealed your fate”

Chapter One

I closed ainst the dirtyof the bus We’d been riding for an hour and only had about fifteenas Doña Mercedes didn’t raise her hand and decide she needed to stop at the rest stop

Again

“So, is this your first time in Pan Island?”

I keptsleep would be futile I’d only uess he figured since ere about the sa beside a granded his own ear in spite ofat ravel and bus into happen A part of hiotten less and less talkative as the journey went by andfrom exhaustion, which he may as well have taken as disinterest We were almost at our final destination now and he’d only said those nine words in at least ten silent ood