The Dare (The Bet 3)

Beth stretched her arms above her head.

Down boy. We needed to get out of the hut before it turned into the hut of shame, and I made a complete ass out of myself by getting on my hands and knees and begging. I crumpled the paper onto the ground and stalked over to the phone and dialed the concierge.

"This is the concierge desk. How may I help you?"

"I want to romance my girlfriend," I said evenly into the phone, using my best politician voice. "Does this hotel have any excursions we can participate in?"

"Of course." The man chuckled. "When would you like your outing to take place?"

Beth bent over to pick up something off the floor. Holy shit.

"Now!"

"Alright, you don't have to yell."

"Sorry." I croaked. "I thought I saw a… turtle."

A turtle? Beth mouthed.

"Sir, tortoises aren't predators."

"I know, I just…" I licked my lips in irritation. "The excursions? Please?"

The man was silent for a minute. "At this moment, all we have available is the noon excursion to a few of the sugarcane fields with a lovely picnic and a horseback ride through the waterfalls."

"Sounds perfect."

"Great, but I should warn you that—"

"Money isn't a problem," I interrupted. "We'll be in the front lobby in ten minutes."

I hung up the phone with a smug grin. Yeah, I was basically kicking Iron Man's ass. A horseback ride? Hiking through sugarcane fields? And a picnic? Slap my ass and call me charming. Fairytale, here we come!

****

"Jace?" Beth gripped my arm and stepped on my foot for the second time in five minutes. I winced in pain. "Sorry."

"What?"

"I think we're lost."

"We're not lost," I snapped. "We're exploring."

Exploring: A word men use when they're lost. See also: Stubborn as a mule.

"Oh." Beth sighed.

I took a sip of water from my water bottle and soldiered through. The picnic had gone pretty well. But now we were supposed to be touring the sugarcane fields, and in a moment of pure genius, I'd taken a step in and asked Beth to follow me. After all, how big could a sugarcane field possibly be?

It was like being in a giant cornfield, only the spiders were bigger than Mars and had fangs that made them look like tiny vampires ready to feed on our souls.

Note to self: Sugarcane fields are where people go to die. See also: Hell.

I pushed through some more sugarcane stalks and swore when I realized we'd have to go back the way we came. There was no way we could walk out of this place and actually make it back to the van in time for dinner. I wasn't Bear Grylls, and I could have sworn I saw a spider waving at me a few minutes ago. No way was I giving him a chance to get up close and personal.

"Jace..." Beth whispered.

"Not now. I'm trying to decide what direction we're facing," I snapped and looked up at the sky. North was ahead of us. The hotel was south—"