take calls. They’re looking for the next big thing. They want to find him or her and take that potential client to their boss.”
Sasha stared at her. He and Lani might be about the same age, but he suddenly felt like a kid at the grown-ups’ table. How did she know all this?
His questions must have shown because she grinned. “Don’t look so surprised. I’ve been working the program since I was thirteen.”
“I guess that should make me feel better.”
She shook her head. “You’ll catch on. It’s not that hard. Everything is about capturing attention. Getting your fifteen minutes of fame and making it an hour. I’ve been thinking that we need a story line.”
“What do you mean?”
“Regular dating isn’t interesting. Who wants to watch that? What, we’ll be sitting there talking?” She shook her head. “We need something better. We need a better reason for viewers to want us to win.”
He leaned toward her. “Okay. Like what? Something from a movie?”
“I thought one of the classic love stories,” she admitted. “But I’m not sure that’s the way to go. Too many people will be familiar with the plot. Plus, it’s not enough. It’s not like we can have people kidnap us, although that would be fabulous.”
She pulled out one of the pieces of paper and waved it at him. “I watched soaps. Some of the story lines are really great. When you think about it, people watch soaps because something is always happening. That and they care about the characters. So we have to get people to care about us and we have to give them something interesting to watch.” She looked at him. “Sex sells.”
“I can do sex,” he said with a grin.
Lani rolled her eyes. “I already told you, no porn. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do romantic and passionate. People love that. I’m thinking we could have one of those great relationships where we’re always falling in love and fighting and then breaking up and then getting back together. The camera loves drama. The camera loves action. If we give the director something interesting to film, we’ll get the most TV time. And that’s what we want.”
“I can do action,” Sasha said, still a little stunned by Lani’s determination and willingness to do anything to get what she wanted. The most he’d done was walk away from college and his brother. At the time, that had seemed huge. Now he wasn’t so sure.
“We’ll be the couple everyone is talking about,” she said eagerly.
“Absolutely. So what’s the plan?”
Lani grinned. “I’m not sure.” The grin widened. “Are you afraid of fire?”
THERE WAS A LOT MORE to filming a television show than Dakota had realized. With ten couples, nearly as many locations and what seemed to her to be a very small crew, chaos reigned. Each couple was going to get a local date, and a few of them would get travel dates. It seemed to her that getting a travel date the first week made it a lot easier to stay on the show.
She’d always been a huge fan of shows like Project Runway and Top Chef. But she’d had no idea of all the work that went into forty-five minutes of air time. Today two couples were getting to know each other while they walked around Fool’s Gold. A very nice first date in reality, but from what she could see on the monitors, it didn’t make for exciting television.
She checked her clipboard to see how long the “date” was supposed to last. As she glanced back at the couple, she saw a tall, yummy-looking man walking toward her.
She hadn’t seen Finn for nearly two days. Not since he’d been at her place and they’d engaged in acts that had the potential to send her to a higher plane. A quality she could really grow to like in a man.
As she wondered if she would be embarrassed or feel awkward around him, her body began a quivering dance of anticipation. As if her whole being had been invaded by sex-starved DNA.
“Morning,” he said as he approached.
“Hi.”
She stared into his blue eyes and found herself smiling. No bad feelings for her, she thought, relieved. The quivering got even better when he smiled back.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
“Better,” he told her. “I’ve been dealing with a few work-related crises back home, I flew some cargo to Eugene, Oregon, then spent most of yesterday trying to talk the twins into going back to Alaska.”
“How did that go?”
“When we were done, I pounded my head against a wall just to make myself feel better.”
“Ouch. Did you really expect your brothers to get on a plane and go back with you?”
He shrugged. “A guy can dream, right?” He shook his head. “No, I really didn’t expect them to come with me. I knew it wasn’t going to work, but I was compelled to try. Call me an idiot.”
“Actually, I think you’re someone who really cares about his family. You’re misguided, but that happens to all of us.”
He chuckled. “Thanks, I think.”
“I was being nice,” she told him.
“In a very subtle way.”
She laughed. It was good to know she hadn’t imagined that being around Finn was fun. The morning after could be an awkward time, even several days later, but she felt just as comfortable with him as she had before they’d made love.
“About the other night,” he began.
Talk about being on the same wavelength, she thought. “I had a great time.”
“Me, too. It was a surprise, not that I’m complaining.” He looked at her. “Are you complaining?”
“I’ve never felt better.”
The slow, sexy smile returned. “Good.” The smile faded. “What with it being unexpected and all,” he said, “I didn’t use anything. Is that a problem?”
It took her a second to realize what he was talking about. Protection, as in birth control.
“There’s no problem,” she told him.
“You’re on the Pill?”
The easiest thing would be to say yes. It’s what people expected the answer to be. But for some reason, she didn’t want to lie to Finn.
“I don’t need to be,” she told him. “I can’t have kids. It’s a medical thing. Technically, if all the planets aligned, on the day of an eclipse, with the aliens landing, it could happen. The phrase ‘one in a million’ was tossed around.”
She gave Finn credit. He didn’t back away or even look ridiculously relieved. Instead, sympathy crossed his face and he said, “I’m sorry.”
“Me, too. I always wanted kids. A regular family. I am at
