Thank you to Love Bytes for having me today. My story I released last month follows Adam & Taylor as they embark on a journey around the world on a reality television show. Adam came with his best friend Anderson, and Taylor with his sister. In a twist of events, they end up on the same team.

 

Here we join them on one of the tasks.

 

The World Traveler by Claire Castle

 

The race would be so close, with each team getting one turn to dive and earn points. Our place in the race could change in an instant, from first to last so quickly.

No time to think about that now. On the first practice jump, I thought we did quite a decent attempt. Standing back on the pool deck to watch a few other teams, I could see that they were all over the place. Not to be an asshole, but I knew we had a real chance here. If I could just keep the counts together that Adam had taught me.

Another team was up, and I could see they weren’t in sync. They hit the water at completely different times. No ill will toward them, but I was kind of relieved. This was a competition after all.

Adam looked at me strangely. He rubbed the base of my wet back.

“It’ll be okay. We’ll do one more practice run and then try. I know you got this.” Again he seemed to know exactly what I needed and where my head was at.

I saw a towel, took it, and tried to dry off a bit. Probably no point, but it was cold, and moving seemed to calm my nerves. We watched Anderson—yes, I remembered his name now; funny how that went when I wasn’t jealous about his relationship with Adam—and Jessica attempt the jump, and I cringed but tried to hide it. My forehead creased and I thought if I ground my teeth much more they might crack.

It was absolutely terrible, but there was really no time to think about that. We would be up again soon. Over the past few days, when we’d had downtime between challenges, all four of us agreed that we would not get upset when one pair of us went home. It had seemed fine chatting about it, but seeing that it might unfold here seemed unfortunate and upsetting.

I rubbed my arms to warm up. It was cold in here. My teeth chattered, and Adam came over with a blanket for me to keep warm. He threw it over my shoulders and stood close to me.

“Aren’t you cold?” I asked.

“No, not really. I’m used to this.”

“They’re not doing too well, are they?” I was no expert, but even I could see that it was not going well at all. Adam bit his lip. Sexy as fuck, but now was not the time for my musings.

“Terrible,” he whispered, looking over at me.

I took a minute to study his wet hair, beautiful eyes and lips, and lithe swimmer’s body. It was divine stuff that fantasies were made of. He didn’t have his glasses on for this challenge, but luckily, he said he could see, no problem.

“Do you think they’ll make it through this round?” I tried not to sound nervous. Adam seemed to be the calm one at this moment.

“We just have to focus on us this time, unfortunately. Any distractions and I’m afraid we won’t make it either.”

He was right. Just like the four of us had discussed, we would do our best for ourselves and try not to think about the other team.

Adam shrugged. “Sorry, didn’t mean to sound bitchy. Just trying to stay in the zone.”

I patted him on the shoulder. “Okay, let’s do this.”

It was our turn to dive for the judges. All the other teams were waiting and watching. If we made this, we would get a first-place finish—our first of the race. Adrenaline kicked in. I knew Adam would kick ass at this, so I needed to get this perfect for him, for us. I wouldn’t let him down. That was all that was running through my mind.

It would only take a few seconds, even if it felt like a lifetime. I concentrated on the platform we were walking on side by side, heading for the end of the board. One count for each movement. Standing high on the diving board with Adam by my side, I looked over and could feel his eyes on me too. As he raised his hands up, I waited for his count.

And then we were moving in unison, jumping in one fluid motion. I could sense that he was right there next to me, doing the same moves, almost like a dance. It was poetry in motion. My feet landed where they should. My body felt graceful as I landed in the pool, and when we surfaced, I glanced at Adam to gauge his reaction. He would know far better than me how we had done.

He gave me a high five, and then we climbed out of the water to wait. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion as we waited for our score. Everything was silent; all I could hear was our breathing. It would be epic if we got a great score on the first attempt.

I was getting anxious. I couldn’t look. I hid my eyes against Adam’s shoulder.

Next thing he had turned around to hug me. He kissed me on the cheek and said in an excited voice, “We did it. You were inspiring.”

“What?” I glanced around to the judges and saw we scored twenty-three out of thirty. I couldn’t believe it. They handed us the next clue.

BLURB

Charming Taylor Samuels doesn’t expect his sister’s video audition for the reality television show The World Traveler to result in anything. But when they’re chosen to compete, he can do nothing but hope for the best.

Adam Scott’s best friend wants them to try to get on The World Traveler, and so Adam reluctantly agrees to make him happy.
As the reality sets in that they’ll competing, Adam tries not to panic too much.

Little do they know that a twist in the show will see Taylor and Adam’s worlds collide in a way they never imagined.
Will everything go horribly wrong, or could this be the perfect beginning to a wonderful journey?

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About Claire Castle

Claire Castle grew up surrounded by books. She has loved reading for her whole life. Her true love is romance and HEAs. When she’s not reading or writing, she can be found wearing comfortable leggings, drinking mocha and petting her west highland terrier. She loves collecting awesome mugs and paperbacks of her favorite stories.

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