Bird of Paradise by Katie MacAlister Read Free Book Online Page A

asked, looking
around the room. “Handlers, do we have everyone? Yes? Excellent.
Welcome, contestants, to Eden! My name is Dara Thompson, and I'm
the executive producer of Eden. Standing to my left is the
president of Hawkeye Productions, Mr. Michael Hawkins. Before Mike
welcomes you and explains what will be happening in the next few
weeks, I'd like to introduce someone who I'm sure you'll all
recognize—the host of our show, the fabulous Rupert Asterisk!”
    The audience applauded while Adam wrestled his
orientation packet from where Jesus had dragged it to his chair,
returning the folder with one soggy, chewed upon corner to the
table. He dug through his pocket until he found a well-gnawed
catnip mouse, giving it to the cat, who promptly growled and
pounced on it, holding it with his front paws and rolling onto his
back to kick at the mouse with his back legs. Adam looked up to
find Hero's serious grey eyes on him. He smiled at her. She started
to smile in return, then suddenly shifted her gaze to the front of
the room, where the show's host, the well-known diminutive
actor/comedian was entertaining the crowd with somewhat bawdy jokes
about Adam and Eve. Adam smiled politely with the rest of the
audience, but couldn't help but sneak a peek back to the woman
sitting next to his cat.
    She was studying Jesus’s mouse with a perplexed
expression. He grinned, and leaned across the cat to whisper, “It's
a sock. Actually, it's three socks sewn together. Sturdier that
way. I made it myself.”
    Her eyes met his, tiny lines of puzzlement between
her arched brows smoothing out as she blinked at him. “You make him
toys?”
    “I have to. He eats regular cat toys. This one will
probably last a week or less before he guts it.”
    She watched Jesus chomping on the sock mouse's head.
“You put whiskers on it?”
    “Well, it is a mouse. They have whiskers, you
know. I wouldn't want to cheat him out of a proper
mouse.”
    She looked at him as if he was the one with mouse
whiskers; then suddenly her eyes warmed up and her enticing lips
curved into a smile. It lit up her whole face and, more amazingly,
seemed to light him up inside, as well. “You really are a very nice
man despite everything.”
    Despite everything? The warm glow
her smile had started suddenly froze into a leaden lump of
embarrassment. The women. She must have seen those blasted women
hanging off him. Hell .
    “I can't think of anyone else who would go to such
trouble for a pet.”
    His heart started beating a bit faster at her
praise. “He's not your average garden variety of pet, as you can
see. He's had a hard life. A few toys are the least I can do to
make up for what he's been through.”
    She looked like she was going to say something else,
but the woman on the other side of him shushed them and pointed
toward the stage. Asterisk had been replaced by a tall man with
slicked-back blonde hair who was explaining the basic rules of the
contest.
    “Now, as you all know, the show is
divided into two-week sections. The first two weeks feature a
variety of events and are intended to give you all a chance to find
out how compatible you are with the contestants of the opposite
sex. Each day of the first week you will have three dates: two
during the day, and the third a group date at night. At the end of
every day you will be required to go into the special video booths
set up in the lobby. We call them the confession boxes.” The man
waited for the polite laughter to die down. “The confession box is
where points are awarded; if your date indicates he or she had a
good time with you, and you say likewise, you both receive points
for compatibility. If one of you states he or she did not enjoy the
date…well, sorry, no points there. The second week you'll be paired
off with those dates whom you've scored with—that's scored points , gentlemen.
Anything else is up to you.” The man held up his hands as if
absolving himself from any wrongdoing as the audience