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I smiled in amusement.
Dammit.See?
We went into the main office, paid our fees, and suited up. I felt like a badass in my camo coverall, mask, and AK-47. (Joking. It’s what I named my paintball gun—AK. Much to my own amusement.)
“Okay, so it’s us four, and those four, against those eight.” Jax gestured between us and another group standing closer to the course entrance.
“We can totally take them,” I said. I totally meant it. I didn’t know where my pretentious, swaggering display of courage came from since I’d never actually played paintball before, but it was there.
Neil slid his fingers through mine, and my attention snagged on his laughter. The low rumble that fell from his lips, the vibration of it traveling from his chest, down into his fingertips, and straight into mine.
I took an unsteady breath as my throat closed up tight, the vibration turning itself into a warmth that was spilling into every dark piece of me. My heart hammered; my thoughts scattered and lost their damn mind.
It was…new.Like all of the things I’d felt in his presence before, only… turned way the hell up. It shook the metaphorical ground I stood on. Because I’d thought all these feelingswereturned on, before.
I was wrong.So stupidly wrong.
How was that even possible?
Whatisthis?
What did it mean?
Nothing.It means nothing. I shrugged it off. It meant that I liked Neil, but I already knew that. The rest of my thoughts could shut up and go jump off a bridge.
He tugged on my hand, pulling me behind him into the course and directly out of my mind. Which was… good. I didn’t want to be dwelling inside there anyway. My thoughts tended to have a mind of their own and spiral into things that didn’t make any sense, but totally convinced me should make sense, as evidenced, and it was crazy-making.
“You ready?” Neil breathed in my ear. He didn’t actually, literally breathe the words into my ear, but it felt that way, sending a line of goose bumps down my arms.
“Oh, I’m more than ready,” I replied. I wanted to paintball the shit out of someone. My excitement about it eclipsed anything else for the moment, clouding things better left ignored.
A quick glance at Pax, and I saw that he looked nervous. I bit back my smirk. He was sweet—too sweet. Too sweet for paintball, and definitely too sweet for Jax. It was certainly interesting, those two. But maybe that’s what Jax needed. A little light to balance out the dark.
I tucked that thought away for later.
The ref sounded a horn, and it was on.
I ducked behind an inflatable, heart already racing faster. Neil caught my attention and gestured to my right. I didn’t even think about it before charging out and shooting in that direction like a madman before throwing myself into a crouch behind another inflatable. Had I managed to shoot someone? Who knew?
But this was freaking awesome. Adrenaline was coursing through me, making me giggly. Me, giggly. I guess hell had frozen over and Satan was ice-skating to work this morning.
Neil shot out into the open, gun pressed against the front of his shoulder as he aimed and popped out a few intentional shots.
“Hit, hit.” The single word came from two different voices across the field. “Out, out; out, out,” they echoed.
Okay,hot. Neil had totally annihilated them. Like an assassin straight out of an action film. Again…hot.
He skidded onto the ground next to me, smiling. I couldn’t actually see it, but his eyes were crinkled, lit with the laughter that was hiding behind his mask.
“You can’t just go shooting blindly,” he said through a chuckle.
“Why not?” I took offense to his statement. Mock offense, anyway. “I didn’t get hit.”
He laughed again. “That time. Come on, follow me.” He nodded for me to follow behind him, but screw that.
I darted through the next few inflatables, paintballs whizzing past me. I actually felt one fly right by my ear. But still, I didn’t get hit.Ha.
Movement sounded just ahead. Feet ground to a halt on the opposite of me, directly through the inflatable. Throwing my gun up above me, I quickly peeked up, shot, and nailed a guy right in the chest.