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Hell yeah!
He grumbled a bitter, “Hit, out.” Sore loser.
I crouched back down and attempted to catch my breath. While I did that, I watched Neil dart from inflatable to inflatable, taking down not one, or two, butthreeguys.What a showoff.
A stupidly hot, not at all cocky about it, showoff.
Ugh. How annoying.
He slid into place next to me. At this point, I could easily say he was following me through the course. I smirked beneath my mask even though he couldn’t see it.
“Hey there, crazy girl,” he said. Thecrazy girlhad come out more like an affectionate pet name, and I was too busy lingering on that when I felt a sharp pelt to the shoulder.Ow.
Scratch that. It only hurt for, like, a second.
And then I heard Jax laughing from behind me. “Sorry; I’m so sorry.” He threw his hands up. The hit had come from his direction and not the direction of our opposing team. Son of a—
I pointed my gun right into his mask-covered face. He paled, eyes going serious through the strip of clear plastic. “Don’t even think about it,” he said.
I burst out laughing, lowering my gun. “You really think I would do that to you?”
“Um, yeah.” He rolled his eyes.
“Then what the hell would possess you bring me here?” I smirked. Again, he couldn’t see it—no one could—but it was there.
“You know, I was thinking that same exact thing about two seconds ago—”
“Guys,” Neil interrupted. “You’re gonna get us—”
Too late. We got nailed, three sitting ducks in a row.Pow, pow, pow.Neil down, Jax down, Olivia down. Just like that.
“Dammit!” I whined, and it made Neil chuckle.
“Relax. You did good.” He curled his arm over my shoulders. “Kicked some serious ass out there.”
I spun around in his hold just as we exited the course. “Did you just say ‘ass?’” My lips stretched up in amusement.
“No.” He stifled his smirk.
“You totally did,” I said on a wave of laughter.
His eyebrow rose in challenge. “And if I did?”
I met his challenge, folding my arms and raising my brows at him in return.And if he did?“Nothing,” I answered, relenting with a smile. “I just really liked the way it sounded coming out of your mouth.”
Something like choked laughter fell from his lips, and I laughed up at the open sky.
Chapter 16
Marking of Territory
“You ready?” Linda sang all excitedly as I slouched down in the passenger seat of her Audi.
“Yeah.” I yawned. I’d stayed up way too late watching thriller movies with Neil last night. (On the phone, not in person.) One movie had rolled into two, and two rolled into three, and before we knew it, it was three a.m. I wasn’t mad about it.
His sleepy“Night, Liv,”still tickled the edges of my brain the way it had right before we hung up and fell asleep. Like one of those head scratchers with the claws that slipped over your scalp and sent goose bumps down your neck and spine. It gave the same effect as Neil’s low, gravelly, sleep-filled tone.
I swallowed.