The Husband Hunt - Kat's Season (The Bachelor Series) by Kiki Abbott, Kim Hornsby Page A

rubbed noses with her.
                 “You know you can kiss me, Pierce.”
                 “Not with cameras,” he whispered away from the cameras. “I want our first kiss to be private. Special.”
                 She’d barely heard him, but the look on his face made her want to drool all over again. Maybe she had something stuck in her teeth and he couldn’t kiss her. Or maybe he wasn’t into her, like she was into him. Pierce hadn’t had the ‘strolling the streets of NY’ fantasy like her. “If we end up together, what do you see our lives like?” It was the big question, but Pierce didn’t flinch.
                 “Fun, crazy-filled days like this. Too intimate for anyone else to understand, but free, and confined at the same time. Confined to each other. We’ll hole up in my place for about a year and not come out until we can let another person into our circle.” His expression was so intense, Kat almost gasped even though he’d hardly said anything she understood.
                 Pierce was amazing, and when they parted later that afternoon, Kat was falling hard for the artist from New York. When the cameras arrived to tape her comments about the date, she couldn’t help but say that she was falling for Pierce. She used words like ‘perfect,’ ‘heavenly’, ‘worth waiting for’.
     
    This time it was Ben who asked to speak with Kat. Alone. He wanted the conversation off camera but was told they needed to film. No negotiation. Mary told Kat all this before she met him on the beach after sunset. He was sitting on the sand, staring out at the darkened ocean when she sat down beside him. “Hi Ben. You wanted to see me?” She wanted to kiss his shoulder, touch him, but refrained.
                 “I feel terrible telling you this, but I’m worried for you, Kat.”
                 “She could see that the director, Jim was practically salivating to hear what Ben would say. Her attraction was to him was powerful and she had to focus on what he was saying. Trying to not think of how soft his lips were, she entered the conversation. “Why? What’s going on, Ben?”
                 “One of the guys here, I’m pretty sure has a girlfriend” He took a deep breath and watched the surf roll in to the Maui sandy shore. “I’m worried that you’re going to get hurt.”
                 “Why do you think this person has a girlfriend?” Who could it be? No one she cared about. This revelation mattered less after her amazing date with Pierce, than it had last night. If Blake or Lance came on the show for business exposure, she’d have them leave. There were several men in the group who had her attention but after today she was filled with Pierce and hadn’t come down from the date yet, regardless of the absence of a kiss.
                 “He mentioned that he has a relationship that isn’t over, exactly, and that he’s on the show to promote his work.”
                 Lance or Blake. He had a business. Or Colton. Maybe Sam. That was alright. They were expendable. She’d be sorry to let one of them go but at this point she was having to zero in on husband material anyway, and she wasn’t entirely sure about Colton. Or Blake. It would be a shame about Sam.
                 “Who is it, Ben? Can you tell me, because I really need to know if someone is making a joke of this. I’m putting my heart on the line here.”
                 “I know.” He took her hand. “It’s someone you like very much. That’s the hard part.”
                 And then she knew. It was Pierce. Her heart fell into the pit of her stomach. “Pierce has a girlfriend?” She didn’t want to cry in front of Ben. He was a nice guy and she didn’t want him to see her like this. Especially if he was developing feelings for her, like she had been with him, until Pierce became the only