Irresistible Bachelors: Books 1-5 by Landish, Lauren (bts books to read TXT) 📕

“Whooo, nice one there, Robin Hood!” Hannah teases, raising her own bow and firing, but she gets the same result.

“You were saying?” I ask, and Hannah grumbles in reply. For the next twenty minutes, we all hit jack shit, Cassie struggling the worst. I can see what it is, honestly. She doesn’t have the patience that the rest of us do, and instead of slowly relaxing her fingers and pulling through like Jay taught us, she’s ‘yanking and shanking’, as he called it.

Finally, just as I wonder if we’re going to end up eating nothing but bananas, Caleb gets the first fish, a near-perfect shot on a parrotfish that he pulls out of the water and brandishes over his head.

Just when I’m about to gloat, Hannah releases an arrow that strikes home. She struggles and needs Jay’s help to pull it out, but when she does, my mouth goes dry. The fish is fucking huge, easily two feet long and almost as wide. “What the hell is that?

“Roi!” Wesley says enthusiastically. “It’s a kind of grouper. Good catch, but it’s inedible. Too much poisoning of the waters.”

I keep shooting, aiming just for the bigger fish but hitting nothing. Hannah hits another small fish, and now the girls have two to our one.

“Five minutes,” Wesley says, but I let it all fall aside as I see something that makes my heart speed up.

I nock my arrow and pull back, knowing I won’t have another chance, and I hope the damn line holds. I let fly and feel the jerk in my hands as I hit. The line starts to fly off my reel, and I struggle as Caleb rushes over, helping support me. It’s not like rod fishing. There’s no bend of the rod to work with. Jay sees what’s going on, rushing down to the water with a spear, and with a mighty thrust, he hits home.

“What the hell is it?” Cassie asks, and I’m glad for Jay and Caleb’s help as they pull the giant fish up onto the sand.

“A reef shark,” Wesley says wonderingly. “A Galapagos reef shark.”

Hannah and Cassie try desperately to get another shot in, but Wesley soon calls time. Jay runs off to get some helpers, who carry the six-foot-long shark toward the main house along with the rest of the catch.

“Please wash up. I’ll announce the winner at dinner,” Wesley says. The four of us head back up to the main house, the girls quiet while Caleb is ecstatic. I say little, happy about my certain win, but I keep stealing looks over at Hannah.

Watching her shoot the bow, it was sexy as hell. She had a total Wonder Woman vibe going, except for the wrong color hair. Face it, you got lucky. If that reef shark hadn’t been there, I’d have lost.

Dinner is delicious, if anticlimactic. And it feels nice to wear something besides that hip wrap again as we gather on the beach for something akin to a luau. Wesley stands up as the roasted fish is brought in, shark fin soup being the centerpiece. “Today, I hope you learned a vital lesson. In the circle of life, we must respect and take only what we need. The ocean is a bountiful provider, but it’s not a Golden Corral.”

“Today, we were lucky,” Wesley continues. “One doesn’t simply harvest a reef shark with a bow, so that makes the winner pretty obvious. The current tally is Anthony and Caleb two, Hannah and Cassie one.”

Two to one so far. I should feel good, but looking at the dejection on Hannah’s face, a big part of me is uncomfortable, winning at her expense. But my family needs this. Hannah said she’s working for Aurora, but it doesn’t ring a bell. I’m sure it’s some big multinational or something. Knowing them, they’d slash and burn the land around here and put up some sort of damn theme park.

“Oh, by the way,” Wesley says, getting up on his feet and pulling my attention away from Hannah’s beautiful yet dejected face, “I’ve decided that you’ll be my guests for the rest of the week as well. Like today, it will make it easier without your having to transit back and forth.”

We all kind of look at each other, knowing there’s no point in trying to argue against it. That is, except for Cassie. “But what about our stuff?” she asks.

“We’ll have it taken care of,” Wesley says. “If you give Alani your keys, your bags will be delivered by tomorrow morning. And don’t look so down,” Wesley adds as he notices we aren’t too thrilled about this but just aren’t saying anything. “I think you all know as much as I do that this visit will change your life, regardless of the winner.”

“Big booty ho!” Mo Mo says again out of nowhere. I’m sure Hannah is ready to take a broom to that damn bird.

“If you wake up with a dead bird in the morning,” Hannah growls, “don’t be mad at me.”

Wesley chuckles. “It’s getting late. Let’s get back.”

On the walk back, I think about it and realize that despite the stakes, we’re probably all secretly enjoying this. This place is a hell of a lot more fun than any hotel. It’s growing on me.

As we walk toward the main house, I feel Hannah fall into step with me. The way through the trees is somewhat narrow, and more than once, I feel her arm rub against me. The trees are lovely, dark, and mysterious with just hints of pale moonlight filtering through them, and in the half light, I glance over at her. She’s more than just sexy. She’s angelic, vulnerable, and more. I clear my throat, looking ahead, and Caleb and Cassie have already stalked back to the main house, and we’re almost alone.

“You looked good out there today,” I say quietly. “I got lucky.”

Her lips part in surprise as if she wasn’t expecting a compliment. “T-thank you. But you won both games.”

“The dancing was