Romancing Miss Right by Lizzie Shane Page B

wanted to make this place for you, where
you can get away from the competition and the stress and just be
with me.” He took both of her hands. “I want you to know that I
know about the kissing gauntlet that one of the Suitors threw down
and how the other Suitors reacted to it and that’s why I’m not
going to kiss you this week.”
    Marcy blinked. Daniel was generally pretty
predictable, but she hadn’t seen that one coming.
    “I want to be your safe haven,” he went on.
“I want you to know there will never be any pressure from me and
you can always come to me when you need someone who doesn’t want
anything from you beyond the right to guard your heart.”
    Would America be swooning, she wondered? Was
there something wrong with her that the line did nothing for her?
She was officially a cynical bitch, letting her skepticism rule her
heart.
    “Thank you, Daniel.” She squeezed the hands
that held hers. “I know I can trust you.”
    At the word trust, his face screwed up as if
he were in pain. “Marcy… there’s something you need to know.”
    He’s gay .
    Shut up, subconscious, that is not helpful
commentary.
    While she argued with herself, distracted,
Daniel forged on.
    “I thought we had to let you make your own
decisions, your own mistakes—”
    How magnanimous of you.
    “But I worry that you are acting without all
of the information. I didn’t want to get involved in your
relationships with any of the other Suitors—”
    Then don’t .
    “But I can’t in good conscience let you
continue being deceived by this man for another Elimination
Ceremony.”
    Marcy searched her feelings—trying to figure
out how to react, to determine what the producers would want her to
feel in this moment, but all she got was a vague curiosity if the
lighting was good enough for them to be having this conversation.
The night-vision feature was typically reserved for blurry make-out
sessions because it wasn’t that sharp.
    “I appreciate your candor,” she said. Even
as I find it slightly insulting that you think I’m oblivious to
everything that’s happening here.
    Daniel’s shoulders relaxed at her words. He
was visibly relieved at that slight encouragement. She tugged on
the hands he still held and urged him to the mouth of the gazebo
where the camera crews hovering on the lawn could get a clear,
bright shot of them during this discussion.
    “It’s Craig,” he said firmly. “The guys and I
have been discussing it and we don’t think he’s here for the right
reasons.”
    Marcy sank down onto the gazebo steps and
Daniel hesitated only a moment before brushing off the other side
of the step and perching on it.
    “I know.”
    His jaw dropped like a character in a
cartoon. “You know?”
    She patted his knee and he caught her hand,
lacing their fingers together. He probably wouldn’t believe her if
she told him that Craig had already told her what he wanted out of
the show. Any more than he would understand why she still wanted
him to stay, knowing that. Sometimes it seemed like he was the only
one here who really got her.
    What would Daniel think if he found out that Marcy wasn’t here strictly for the right reasons either? How
would he react if she told him that she thought coming on a show
like this for the sole purpose of finding love was an exercise in
naivety and self-delusion?
    Daniel thought she was a romantic because she
was a romance writer. He didn’t have a clue that her bar for
romance wasn’t set at roses and moonlight, but rather at a real
connection. The trappings of love just brought out her cynical
side—which inevitably made her feel like a fraud. Like she was
faking her romance expertise. What the hell did she know about
happily-ever-after anyway? She’d never had one. She feared every
day that her readers would figure out she’d been putting one over
on them and the dream job she had would vanish in a cloud of
smoke.
    But Daniel didn’t know that because he didn’t
know her. Was