All In The Game

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Shannen’s heart began to thud heavily.

She’d slipped away from camp tonight, wondering if Cortnee had heard her leave. But there was nothing questionable about someone getting up and heading off “to use the facilities,” Shannen reminded herself.

Cortnee hadn’t been suspicious last night; plus, she wouldn’t know whether it was Lauren or Shannen who’d left on either night.

Certainly the last thing anybody would suspect was that practical, logical, no-nonsense Shannen Cullen was sneaking off to meet the chief cameraman. Not even Lauren, the person who knew her best in the world, would ever fathom that.

But then, there were some things that not even Lauren knew about her twin.

Nine years ago, in the throes of rebellion and intense first love—she’d often wondered how much one had fueled the other—Shannen had stopped sharing every single thought and feeling with Lauren. Her wild passion for Tynan Howe had been the biggest secret she’d ever kept. Deliberately, she hadn’t even mentioned his name to her twin.

And though she’d gloried in her secret love, when it was over—after he’d ended it—the price she had paid was enduring her heartbreak alone. For the first time in her young life, Shannen hadn’t had loyal Lauren to share her pain, thereby halfing it. Another grudge to hold against Tynan Howe, and she’d held fast to it.

Yet now, though supposedly older and wiser, here she was repeating her mistakes—the rebellion against the rules, the secrecy from her sister—and with the same man!

What was happening to that practical, logical and no-nonsense character she’d spent years honing? Why was she sneaking out at midnight, like the recalcitrant teenager she’d once been, to meet Tynan Howe? Again!

Nine years ago he had insisted he was too old for her. In her calmer moments back then—and since—she might even have seen his point and agreed. She might’ve dreamed of a day when she was out of high school, out of her teens, and had reached whatever age Ty deemed “old enough.”

But her age wasn’t the sole reason cited by Tynan as to why they couldn’t be together. It was those other, far more hurtful reasons he had supplied—the reasons she came to believe were his true reasons—that still resonated within her.

Well, she was of legal age now, and thanks to the multiple Howe scandals, Tynan was not quite the “catch” he once had been. Not that she wanted to catch him, Shannen quickly assured herself.

She didn’t for many reasons—the current, main one being this game they were playing, on opposite sides of the camera, making Tynan Howe off-limits to her.

It was déjà-vu all over again, as the saying went.

If their clandestine meetings were discovered, she would undoubtedly be kicked out of the game, in full camera view, of course. Clark Garrett and Slick Bobby would want to milk every dramatic possibility.

Lauren would feel so betrayed by her twin’s secrecy, both past and present, and the cameras would record her reaction to it all. Shannen flinched at the thought of wounding her sister.

Furthermore, if she were eliminated now, how long would Lauren last without her in the game? From the time they were little, Shannen had felt compelled to protect Lauren, to make sure no one took advantage of her more naive twin.

Would Konrad, Rico and Cortnee gang up on Lauren if her more formidable sister were gone? Being legitimately voted off the island was one thing, but foolishly getting herself kicked out of the game was unacceptable.

Unexpectedly she and Lauren had come this far. Why throw away a possible chance to win?

Though it would be wonderful to win the top prize, just making the final four would be okay, too, Shannen told herself. Being one of the final four meant a cash prize, with each runner-up—the third, the second and, finally, the first—making more in turn.

Were she and Lauren both to make the final four, the payoff would be considerable. That was not something to be lightly dismissed.

The Cullen twins hadn’t turned over their lives to a prime-time game show for the hell of it. They needed the money—the family was counting on them.

As for the risk Tynan was taking meeting her…

Well, keeping his job because he needed his salary wouldn’t be a concern for him. Whatever their transgressions, the Howes must still be rich. After all, during the entire time the Howe family had been under the full glare of the media spotlight, one story that had never appeared was their plunge into poverty.

Ty probably wouldn’t even lose his job. Wasn’t it a universal truth that men rarely paid the same price for breaking the rules that women did? And, of course, Tynan was a Howe, whose family knew a thing or two thousand about rule breaking.

Victorious concerns aside, Tynan Howe was emotionally dangerous to her. Any man who could effortlessly turn back the clock nine years and transform her into her impetuous young-girl self was a must to avoid.

Unfortunately, Shannen couldn’t seem to stay focused on all the practical, logical no-nonsense reasons why she should keep away from him. She kept getting distracted by other thoughts.

Like his name. He wasn’t even using the name Howe. She’d realized that the first day they had all arrived on the island. There were no introductions to the crew, but when she’d seen Ty among them—after getting over the initial stunning shock—she had paid close attention. And heard him called Ty Hale.

Hale, not Howe. Scrapping Howe for Hale didn’t surprise her nearly as much as the fact that he was working as a television cameraman. After all, the Howe name was no longer a proud symbol of wealth, achievement and privilege. The family had dragged it through so much mud, it had become a stigma.

But Tynan had gone to law school. He’d been a senior law student at West Falls University Law School when they’d met. She knew he’d taken and passed the state bar exam. The names of graduates passing the various state professional examinations always were proudly published in the university newspaper.

Since when did a lawyer work as a cameramen on a network game show? Tynan Hale, attorney at law, made more sense than Tynan Hale, working-stiff cameraman, didn’t it?

She wanted to know; she wondered every time she looked at him behind that camera. Which was nearly sixteen hours a day. The omnipresence of the camera crew was annoying enough, but having Ty always there had reawakened feelings she thought—she’d hoped!—had died.

Not so. Never had she been so aware of anyone in her life—except during their last go-round nine long years ago.

So why didn’t you ask him all those pertinent questions last night, Shannen? she silently chided herself. Instead, she’d ended up in his arms within minutes, after making that pathetically lame excuse of why she had risked meeting him.

Why had she risked meeting him in the first place?

No use pretending she didn’t know the answer to that one. Seeing him every day, all day… Having him so near yet so totally out of reach…

The tension built and burned inside her. Unaccustomed to passivity, she couldn’t stop herself from taking action.

Oh, who was she kidding? Shannen exhaled an impatient sigh, unable to talk herself into the convenient self-deception. Taking action and losing control were too very different responses, and she knew which one had prevailed last night.

Memories of last night whirled through her head, making her wince. Tynan had accused her of strategizing by using silence. Thankfully, he hadn’t known she’d been struck dumb by the sight of him, by the tantalizing prospect of being alone with him. On a tropical island late at night, both of them legal, consenting adults.

Her imagination raced to places that made her blush.

It was definitely to her advantage that he believed she was cool enough to plot and plan and play a game. Now all she had to do was keep up the pretense.

It wouldn’t be very hard to do, Shannen pep-talked herself, as she slowed her pace. She wasn’t a giddy schoolgirl anymore, she was a mature woman known for her competence and self-control.