Of all the ways Gray expected to be spending his first truly sunny Saturday in Seattle, it wasn’t at a company picnic.
A picnic that he was supposedly hosting.
With the help of his assistant.
Who was supposedly just his friend.
And yet here he was on a gorgeous late-May afternoon, surrounded by balloon bouquets, blow-up obstacle courses, beanbag tosses, and the spouses and children of his employees.
It should have been a disaster.
But as usual, Sophie had been right. Everyone seemed to be loving it. He’d lost count of the number of times that someone had clapped him on the back with the affirmation that Brayburn Luxuries was an even better place to work now that it was under Gray’s considerate care.
Wives had simpered at him, grateful that in a world of corporate schmucks with no soul and no family, that they were lucky enough to belong to a “work family” that respected and supported the homelife.
Gray hadn’t bothered to explain that he’d had nothing to do with it. That every last detail, from DJ down to the corn on the cob, had been masterminded by the world’s biggest people-loving tornado.
Sophie.
He looked around for his erstwhile assistant, hoping she’d see that he was smiling and shaking hands just like she’d instructed. While lending half an ear to some hyper little man from finance, he finally spotted Sophie over by the games tent.
Yes, she’d set up a games tent for a three-hour event. And yes, it was ridiculous.
But damn if people weren’t loving it.
His plastered-on smile faltered as he saw who she was talking to.
As if it wasn’t enough that Jeff Andrews had become a permanent fixture at Sophie’s desk over the past couple of weeks, it would seem that he needed to drool over Gray’s assistant at work events as well.
Since they were friends, Sophie had felt the need to explain that Jeff had just finalized a messy divorce and was in need of a friend. Sophie, being Sophie, had taken Jeff under her wing in an effort to “distract him from his pain.”
Gray, being a man, was reasonably sure that the main focus of Jeff’s personal life at the moment had nothing to do with missing his ex and everything to do with coaxing a sympathetic Sophie into bed. He narrowed his eyes as Jeff playfully tugged at Sophie’s ponytail.
Flirting with coworkers, especially subordinates, was unprofessional and lowbrow.
He promptly ignored the voice in his head that whispered, Hypocrite.
“…and that’s how my wife and I learned that athlete’s foot was contagious!” the bumbling employee from finance was saying, with a proud grin at having captivated the CEO’s attention for all this time.
“That’s, um…that’s…” Why the hell were they talking about this? And what was this man’s name again?
“Oh, there’s my wife now!” the athlete’s foot expert said proudly. “Keri! Keri! Over here, babe! I want you to meet Gray!” He blanched for a moment. “It’s cool if I call you Gray, right?”
No, it’s absolutely not cool. “Sure,” he said weakly. “Call me Gray.”
“My wife will think it’s so cool that I’m on a first-name basis with the company’s CEO,” he said with a delighted grin.
Sure enough, the wife was impressed by her husband’s lofty connections, and it took Gray another ten minutes of listening to conversation about sausage-making before he could politely remove himself. Gray began making his way through the throng of people, hoping his expression said “pleasant, but busy.” He couldn’t handle much more of this chatter. Overall, the afternoon hadn’t been horrible, but if he had to make one more inane comment about the great weather or the merits of the Seattle school districts, he’d probably need a sedative.
Pretending an interest in the food, he kept one eye on Sophie as she continued to giggle with Jeff. Didn’t she have better things to do than flirt? Caterers to coordinate? Wallflowers to soothe?
“Great party, Mr. Wyatt,” said a low feminine voice to his left.
Glancing down, he saw Beth Jennings, his HR manager. “Thanks,” he said, grateful to find someone he could relax around. Beth knew him well enough by now not to expect inane rambling. His eyes slid again to Sophie, whose hand was settled on Jeff’s forearm, and his fist clenched around his plastic utensils.
It’s your own fault, he told himself. The “friends” routine had been his idea.
He just hadn’t expected her to embrace it quite so damn readily. She’d moved easily into the role of platonic, helpful friend and bidding assistant. It was annoying, really.
The only hint that there had ever been any tension between them happened in the office elevator on Monday. The elevator became more full than usual, and Sophie, in making room for more passengers, had become pressed against him. His body had tensed immediately at the brief contact, and from the hitch in her breath, he had a feeling she wasn’t exactly immune either.
But the moment was over before he had a chance to smell her nearness, and in the moments that followed she’d chatted happily about a date she had planned for later that night. He’d told himself the knot in his stomach had everything to do with annoyance at her rambling, and nothing to do with jealousy.
His life was back to the way he wanted it.
No more stressing about saying the wrong thing, and no more constant worrying about what she thought of him.
“Earth to Mr. Wyatt,” Beth was saying. “You got a little preoccupied with the beans there.”
She nodded toward the pot of baked beans that he’d been stirring with angry stabbing motions. “Sorry,” he said, dropping the spoon.
“Oh, it’s no problem. I know you have a lot on your mind trying to make a good impression on all of these employees after the legacy left by Mr. Brayburn. But I have to tell you, as much as we loved the man, he never put on anything like this. Major brownie points.”
“It was all Sophie,” he said truthfully. He’d agreed to the event and shown up, but he couldn’t rightfully claim any part of its success.
“She’s great, isn’t she?” Beth said fondly, glancing over to where Jeff was now feeding Sophie a piece of pie. “You know, I never thought her and Jeff…well, I mean…I hadn’t realized that they were so close until recently.”
Gray grunted, willing Beth to talk about something else. Someone else.
“You know, I always thought…well…I guess you never can tell.”
“You always thought what?” he asked sharply.
Her smile slipped slightly and she began to look nervous.
Great, Gray. Very smooth. He tried again. “What did you think?” he asked with a strained smile.
“Well,” she said nervously, licking her lips and fiddling with her hamburger bun. “After the weird dynamic I saw between you and Sophie that first day, and the way you were always getting under each other’s skin, well, I guess I maybe thought…”
“Yes?”
She let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, it’s just a little gossip. But for those first few days, I thought that maybe you and Sophie had a…well, a thing. Crazy how misperceptions start, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Crazy,” he said quietly. “Ms. Jennings, if you’ll excuse me, I really should be making my rounds.”
“Of course,” she said with a wave of her hand.
His plate full of food he didn’t want, Gray searched around for somewhere to sit. The handful of picnic tables were half-full with chattering families and coworkers who knew each other. Despite his title, or perhaps because of it, he knew nobody beyond their name, face, and job description. He didn’t know their hobbies, their children, or their favorite sports teams.
But he knew Sophie.
Although, he wasn’t even sure he knew her anymore. In the past two weeks, she’d been her usual chatty self with him. Perhaps more so. But it felt superficial. He was now seeing the same Sophie that she presented to everyone else. She was still sarcastic, but nothing like the gutsy spitfire he’d met in the Las Vegas elevator and who’d gone toe to toe with a brand-new boss who’d openly disdained her.
He didn’t like it.
He wanted the old Sophie back. The one who breathed fire but also lit him on fire. But he knew he couldn’t have that.
Abandoning the idea of eating, much less finding somewhere to sit, he surreptitiously dumped his paper plate in the garbage. After he shook hands with a few more people he barely knew, he began making his way toward the activity tent.
Not because that was where Sophie and Jeff continued to laugh like an old married couple, he told himself. He merely wanted to determine if there were employees over there whom he hadn’t greeted yet.
“Hey, guys,” he said casually.
They broke off their conversation as he approached, and he pushed away the uncomfortable sensation that he was obviously an outsider in their party for two.
“Hey, boss,” Jeff said with his usual easy nature. “Great party you’ve got here.”
“It wasn’t really my idea,” he said honestly, his eyes settling briefly on Sophie, who was watching the festivities with a little smile on her face.
“Yeah, this has Sophie all over it,” Jeff said with a laugh. “She totally saved my butt last week when I was trying to plan a wine-tasting party for my staff. Couldn’t have done it without her.”
Gray didn’t miss the casual possessive note in Jeff’s voice and stifled a surge of resentment and the urge to snarl that Sophie was taken.
Especially since Sophie wasn’t looking at him. Gray couldn’t even accuse her of giving him the cold shoulder, she just seemed…disinterested.
Which was exactly what he’d wanted.
“Gray!” called an out-of-breath voice. He tore his eyes away from Sophie’s profile and looked to the source of the panting. Here was the stout Stan—now he remembered the man’s name—of the athlete’s foot, rushing toward him, Keri in tow. Gray stifled a groan.
“We just completed The Castle,” Stan said, panting slightly from his speed-walk across the park. “You’ve gotta try this thing!”
“The Castle?” Gray asked blankly.
Keri gestured toward the huge blow-up jungle-gym monstrosity on the far edge of the park. “Over there. It’s been the hit of the party. At first it was just the kids that were competing, but now the adults are going through. It’s a race to see who can get through it first.”
That sounded like…hell. Gray glanced toward Sophie with a raised eyebrow.
“The event coordinator highly recommended it,” Sophie said with a shrug. “Apparently it’s becoming quite the rage at corporate events, assuming employees don’t mind a little physical activity.”
What had happened to the days of cocktail parties? What was wrong with standing stationary and drinking a nice Scotch?
“That’s great,” Gray said awkwardly.
“Who won?” Jeff asked Stan and his wife.
Dammit. He should have asked that.
“I did,” Keri said proudly as Stan pouted.
“It was my socks,” Stan said defensively. “They’re new, and therefore very slippery. I’d recommend taking your socks off before going through, Gray.”
Gray didn’t know which disturbed him more: the athlete’s foot expert discussing going barefoot, or the fact that they apparently expected him to fumble his way through a blow-up tower in front of his entire company.
“Oh, I’m not really dressed for that,” he said noncommittally.
Sophie snickered. “Yeah, I’m sure your jeans and polo shirt are really going to hold you back. It’s not like you’re wearing a suit.”
He met her eyes. They both knew the only reason he wasn’t wearing a suit was because she’d called him that morning with a stern lecture on looking approachable and “not looking like a stiff.”
“Come on, Gray, the people will love it,” Jeff said, taking a sip of his beer. “The oh-so-proper CEO scooting through a plastic tube on his belly? It’ll be great for your reputation.”
Gray narrowed his eyes looking for an underlying insult, but Jeff’s face remained pleasant, and the sausage-making couple bobbed their heads in agreement. “I shouldn’t,” he said with sham regret. “I still have a ton of people to meet. But you should,” he said to Jeff. “You’re a vice president; it should have the same effect.”
“He can’t,” Sophie said. “Jeff’s got a bad ankle after his last tennis match.”
“Oh, and whose fault is that?” Jeff asked teasingly.
She shrugged innocently. “It’s not my fault you didn’t listen to my warning about my killer backhand.”
What the hell? They’re playing tennis now? Together? She’d never asked him to play tennis. Friends did that kind of thing, right?
“I’ll go if you go,” he blurted out.
Four pairs of startled eyes glanced at him.
“Who are you talking to?” Jeff asked.
“Sophie,” Gray said, daring her to meet his eyes. “Come on, the president against his assistant? It’ll be great for company morale.”
He’d chosen his words deliberately. She was all about company morale. She narrowed his eyes at him, and he could see her mind reeling with possible excuses.
Finally she nodded. “All right. You’re on. But you should prepare yourself for a crushing loss. I’m extremely agile and flexible. It’ll be no contest.”
“I’m bigger. And taller.”
“I’m scrappy.”
“I lift weights.”
“I play tennis,” she snapped back.
“Okay, then!” Jeff said with a laugh. “Let’s see this battle go down, shall we?”
And suddenly Gray felt the lightest he had in weeks. Sophie had let her fake cheerful mask down for the first time since The Talk, and it felt good to have her back, if only for a moment.
Just this one stupid activity, he told himself. Just this one last moment to draw out the real Sophie. Then it was back to professionalism and talks about the weather.
* * *
Kicking off her sandals, Sophie stared up at the beast called “The Castle.” When she’d signed the contract to have the damn thing set up, she certainly hadn’t pictured herself going through it. It was supposed to be for kids.
She watched as the two teens in front of her began climbing up the tubes that marked the entrance to the death trap. A crowd of spectators cheered and someone wearing a striped ref outfit held a stop watch.
Why had she agreed to this?
She studied The Castle more closely, trying to gauge what it was like inside. There were a couple parts of the maze with see-through nets, and from what she could tell, The Castle was basically a combination of slides, ropes, ramps, and awkward-looking ladders. Most of the obstacle course was hidden from view, but every now and then she could see the two agile teenagers laughingly struggling to keep their feet as they pushed each other aside in a race to get to the next tube.
“Are you sure this is meant for adults?” Sophie asked a Castle employee.
“Oh, definitely,” said the pudgy worker, who looked like she couldn’t fit through the small spaces of The Castle if someone paid her. “Usually it’s the adults who end up hogging the whole thing after the kids have had their fun.”
“Yeah, fun,” Sophie muttered as she tucked her shirt into her shorts. Her cute yellow sweater set really wasn’t meant to be tucked into anything, but she’d take the fashion faux pas in order to keep this party family-friendly. Last thing she needed was to give all of Brayburn Luxuries a glimpse at her less-than-toned belly.
Where the hell is Gray? she wondered as she looked around. This was his damn idea and now he’s nowhere to be found. Maybe he chickened out.
Nope. There he was, laughing with Jeff as though the two were old long-lost friends. For a while there she’d thought that he might actually be jealous of Jeff, but obviously that had been her imagination. Or wishful thinking.
Because why would he be jealous if they were just friends?
It was better this way, she told herself for about the millionth time in the past month.
To be honest, he’d surprised her. She’d figured that his suggestion of being friends had merely been his polite way of saying Get lost, but to his credit, he did seem to be making an effort to actually be friendly. He’d invited her on a couple of morning coffee runs, rambled to her about sports (as though she would ever care), and even asked her advice on what to get Jack and Jenna for their birthday.
There was nothing romantic about it in the least. Nothing but buddy-buddy platonic chitchat. And that’s what irked her the most. It would have been cleaner if he’d merely decided to blow her off completely. That way she could just give him the finger, quit, and move on with her life.
But the man was actually trying. He was stretching his stilted, introverted ways and trying to reach out. Granted, it wasn’t in the way that she wished. And certainly not the way that her lady parts wished. But it was something.
The part of her that was a sucker for wounded creatures wouldn’t let her turn her back on him while he was clearly trying for self-improvement. However, the man didn’t look quite so wounded and needy at the moment as he laughed with Jeff and flirted with Rachel, the new receptionist.
She found herself scowling at him. How dare he volunteer them to bounce around like idiots inside of an inflatable death trap, and then look completely unfazed.
Catching his eye, she jerked her head at him, gesturing for him to get over here so they could get this over with. He raised an eyebrow at her, but began making his way toward her. The yells on the other side of The Castle indicated that the kids in front of them were making their way through the final obstacle.
“You ready for this, Dalton?” he asked.
“I can’t believe I agreed to this,” Sophie muttered.
“Scared of losing?” The man looked downright giddy.
She scoffed. “We both know this is ridiculous. We’re going to look like fools, but I suppose it will be good for your people to see you when you’re down.”
Gray’s eyes followed her movements as she reached behind herself and pulled her foot back toward her butt, unconsciously moving into a pre-run routine.
“Are you stretching?”
Blushing, she dropped her foot. “No. Maybe. Gotta stay agile, you know?”
He rolled his eyes as The Castle employee headed toward them.
“You guys ready?” she asked.
“No,” Sophie grumbled.
But Gray gave a nod and kicked off his shoes, practically grinning as they stepped up to the starting line. Who would have thought that an inflatable toy and a bit of competition were all it took to coax a full smile from the man?
Word had apparently gotten out that the CEO and his assistant had lost their minds, because the crowd of people had doubled, and the whoops of encouragement and laughter grew deafening.
“You’d think they were watching gladiators,” he said.
“I’d be the gladiator,” Sophie replied. “You’d be whatever weakling they throw in there, who gets mutilated.”
“That’s not very friendly, now is it?”
“On the contrary,” she said. “It’s quite friendly. See, if we were more than friends, I might let you win for your delicate pride and all, and because I wouldn’t want to deal with you sulking over dinner. But since we’re just friends…well, then I don’t have to see you over dinner, now, do I? Therefore…I’ll happily beat you.”
She didn’t even know what she was talking about. Where had this case of verbal diarrhea come from? Gray looked at her with a thoughtful expression on his face, but didn’t respond.
“Okay, guys, are you ready to RUMBLE?” hollered the way-too-enthusiastic Castle referee.
“On your mark…”
Shit.
“…Get set…”
Dammit.
“GO!”
A whoop of laugher escaped Sophie as she and Gray rushed forward, pushing each other out of the way in order to be the first one up the tube.
“Hey!” Gray said, as she jabbed her elbow into his side. “You fight dirty.”
“Pussy!” she mumbled back, all thoughts of keeping this affair family-friendly forgotten.
Thanks to her pointy elbows and sharp fingernails, she managed to get to the tube first, giggling as she squeezed her way through the tight opening. It was more yielding than it looked, but it still required an awful lot of wiggling.
“Nice view,” she heard Gray mutter from close behind her as he followed her through the narrow opening.
“Enjoy the angle while you can,” she said back. “It’s the last time you’ll get this close.”
She yelped as a palm smacked her behind, just as she made her way into the next chamber.
“You spanked me,” she sputtered as she found herself in a pit of plastic balls that went up past her waist.
“No, no,” he said, looking around for the passageway out of the chamber. “I was just helping your hips fit through that narrow opening.”
She let out a little growl as she struggled to push through the sea of plastic balls, wading toward some sort of shaky-looking ramp. “Hey, no fair!” she exclaimed. “You’re taller, so you can reach higher.”
“Just like it was way easier for you to wiggle through that last tube because you’re smaller. Well, except for your hips.”
“My hips are fine,” she said, self-consciously touching the offending body part.
“Yes, they are,” he said matter-of-factly as he hoisted himself up the ramp using the strategically placed handles. He’d already shimmied up the squishy slope by the time she’d pulled herself to the base of the ramp.
“See you at the end,” he hollered as he moved out of sight.
Snarling obscenities at him, she struggled to reach the lowest handle, wondering how children had managed this thing. Then again, kids were like monkeys. Twenty-eight-year-old women? Not so much.
Grateful that this particular part of the challenge was out of sight of spectators, she tried unsuccessfully to levy herself up to the next platform before she slid down again and again into the plastic balls.
She finally managed to get a decent grasp on two of the handles, and was debating where to make her next grab when she saw a hand extend in front of her face. Glancing up, she saw Gray’s laughing eyes stare down at her.
“Need some help?” he asked casually.
“No,” she said primly, conscious that her face was red and sweaty and that her arms were beginning to shake from the effort of supporting all of her weight.
“Come on, Soph,” he said, wiggling his fingers at her. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Sophie knew she had plenty of faults, but pride had never been one of them. When faced with the choice of dealing with a gloating man or languishing among plastic balls, she’d tolerate the testosterone overload. Grasping his arm, she allowed him to pull her up. When she lay gasping at the top of the platform, she paused a moment to catch her breath. “Do you think that’s that hard for everyone?” she asked him.
“No,” he said simply. “Guess you shoulda stretched your arms in addition to your quads, huh?”
She punched his shoulder. “You’re not supposed to help me, you know.”
“Yeah, well, it was either that or listen to you bitch in the office on Monday, so I was really doing the company a favor.”
“This is ridiculous,” she said as they began crawling on their hands and knees through a tunnel toward the next horrible challenge. Suddenly the roar of the crowd got louder and she realized that they were in the part of a tunnel that was visible to those watching. Fixing a smile on her face, she grinned and pretended to flex her muscles, while horribly self-conscious of how foolish she must look.
“Somebody get the tissues ready,” Gray called to his laughing employees. “Sophie’s going to need someone to comfort her when she loses!”
“Oh, so you’re making jokes now,” she muttered, as they cleared the tunnel and found themselves in a chamber surrounded by nets.
“I just wanted to give Jeff a man-to-man heads-up that he’ll have a chance to cheer you up when you emerge a sulky loser.”
“I’m not sulky. And I’m not going to lose. And why would Jeff care?”
“Oh, come on,” he said. “You’re going to tell me you two aren’t dating?”
“I don’t have to answer that,” she said stiffly. “But…no, I’m not dating Jeff.”
“Well, he’s interested,” Gray muttered as he began testing the nets for support.
Sophie had suspected as much herself, but wasn’t about to admit it to her boss. “I’m not so sure I like this chatty Gray. I think I liked you better in Vegas when you were all hostile. You weren’t so annoying.”
“I think you like me annoying,” he said with a wink before he began to climb up the side of the wall. “It ensures we have more in common.”
Rolling her eyes, Sophie followed him, finding this particular hurdle much easier than the previous. In fact, her lighter weight made it easier for her than it was for Gray, since there wasn’t as much pull on the net. Neither of them spoke as they concentrated on getting to the top.
“How long is this thing?” Gray muttered as he joined her at the top of the platform. “I thought it was like a minute-long adventure.”
“Are you kidding? It took the kids before us almost ten minutes, and they’re a hell of a lot more limber than we are.”
“Speak for yourself.”
“Oh, come on. You’re hardly Tarzan.”
“Me, Tarzan. You, Jane.”
“This new side of you is giving me a headache,” she said, even as she found herself smiling.
Oh hell, she thought as she looked down at the winding slide in front of her. “They want us to go down that? Onto what?”
“I’m guessing they’re not going to have us land on cement,” Gray said.
“Still, what if I land funnily on my hand? The stitches are out and it’s healed,” she said as she hesitantly settled into a sitting position, “but what if—HEY!”
Gray planted a palm against her back and gave her a shove. With a squeal she went sliding into darkness before landing indelicately on what seemed to be a very bouncy mattress-like trampoline.
“Look out,” Gray called from the top of the slide, and she rolled to the side so she didn’t get crushed.
“Shit,” he muttered as he landed with a grunt. “I think you might have been right. This was not my best idea,” he said as they lay on their backs, trying to catch their breath.
Sophie couldn’t help it. She started giggling. After all that they’d been through, who’d have thought it would come to this? Both of them panting, slightly sweaty, and completely defeated by a pile of plastic, nylon, and nets. Turning his head to look at her, he smiled back, and then he too was laughing.
“Nobody can see us here, right?” he asked.
“Nah, I think they designed this as a reprieve. It lets the oldies like us catch our breath without prying eyes.”
“Good,” he said firmly.
And then he rolled toward her, and before she knew what was happening, Sophie found herself pinned between the padded floor and a hard male body. His mouth took hers with such fierce possession she gasped from the shock of it.
Unlike the kiss in the office, which had been a slow and deliberate exploration, this kiss felt like a brand. The insistent pressure of his lips against hers and the slick rhythm of his tongue left her brain no room to wonder or consider or analyze. There was nothing to do but feel.
He used his arms to brace himself above her, but wanting to feel more of him, she slid her hands around his shoulders and tugged, urging him to put all of his weight on her.
Gray complied and they both groaned at the contact. She didn’t know how long they stayed there, her arms locked around his neck, and his hands framing her face as they learned each other’s taste, their heads tilting this way and that without their lips ever breaking contact.
She felt his him grow hard against her thigh, and she rubbed herself against him. He swore and nipped her neck with his teeth. Dimly, Sophie became aware of the laughter outside dying out, and worried questions from the outside began to pierce her passion-drugged consciousness.
“What happened to them in there?”
“Are they stuck?”
“Should we send someone in after them?”
Turning her head to the side slightly, she pushed her hands against Gray’s shoulders. “Gray,” she said, her voice sounding husky.
“Mmm,” he said as his lips roamed over her face.
“We have to get moving. They’re going to send someone in after us. They think we’re stuck.”
Slowly he pulled back from her, and for the briefest moment she saw some new expression in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. Something that went beyond desire or amusement. But it was gone before she could identify it, and she saw the moment reality slammed back into him and his eyes retained their usual cool, overcast expression.
With a fluid movement, he pushed to his feet, pulling her with him. “This way,” he said roughly, pulling her toward the next, and hopefully final, tunnel.
“Okay, so I guess we’re not going to talk about that,” she said in an attempt at lightness.
He didn’t respond, and merely shoved her up onto the next platform before pulling himself up beside her.
“Last stretch, Dalton. You ready to lose?”
“Oh, you’re on, Mr. Wyatt.”
And with that, they both broke into a run, pushing their way through a net room filled with foam tubes hanging from the ceiling. He had the advantage of strength, but her smaller size allowed her to more easily navigate the small spaces. They pushed and pulled at each other in an attempt to get ahead as the laughing crowds cheered them on.
“All right, Sophie!” she heard Jeff call. “That’s my girl!”
Gray paused momentarily, giving Sophie just the last bit of advantage she needed to dive toward the exit tube ahead of him.
She felt his hand grasp around her ankle and let out a girlish squeal as she tried to kick free. He held firm, and despite her squirming, he managed to get even with her as they each tried to push the other aside long enough to squeeze through the one last tube.
“You should let me win,” she gasped. “People will like you more.”
“When have I ever cared if people like me?” he muttered back, his own breath sounding a bit short.
She bit his forearm.
“What the hell!”
“Whoops. Instinct took over,” she said.
“Exactly what instinct is that, bobcat?”
He nudged her to the side, and she lost her advantage as the tubes fell back into place, blocking the exit.
“Argh, just let me through!” she exclaimed laughingly.
“Earn it.”
She went to nip him again, but he grabbed her disheveled ponytail and held her teeth away from his body.
“Christ, Sophie,” he said with a laugh. “I think you might be my…”
He broke off, and then shook his head as if to clear his brain.
“I might be your what,” she goaded. “Nemesis? Thorn in your side? Your demon?”
His lips quirked slightly and he laid his mouth against her ear in the pretense of pushing past her. “I think you might be mine,” he whispered.
And just like that, her world faded away. She forgot about the fact that she looked like she’d lived through a hurricane, forgot that there were a hundred people waiting for her to squeeze through an inflatable tube, and forgot that this man had once been everything she’d hated in the world.
Her shock paralyzed her, and his gray eyes glowed down at her before he gave her suddenly limp body a gentle shove, and with some kind of ridiculous war cry, he went diving through the tunnel ahead of her.
The crowd erupted in applause, and pulling herself together, she followed him through, careful not to let her now-damp sweater set ride up. She emerged to a crowd of people patting Gray on the back, and Jeff was there to pull her to her feet.
“Good show, Sophie,” Jeff said with a warm smile. “I thought you guys had died in there.”
“It was touch and go, believe me,” she said, as she was surrounded by her rowdy coworkers.
Stan Michaelson had fashioned a makeshift gold medal and was trying to place it around Gray’s neck, and her boss grinned almost boyishly as everyone clapped him on the back and demanded to hear about his technique.
Sophie smiled and laughed, and joined in with the chatter, but inside she was shaking at what had just happened. She willed Gray to look at her, just once so she could confirm that she hadn’t misheard him. That the kiss hadn’t been a dream.
But he was uncharacteristically hamming up his victory for his audience, and seemed to have forgotten that she existed.
Jeff slung an arm around her shoulders as he led her away from the crowd. “What time do you think this party’s wrapping up?”
Sophie glanced at her watch. “Oh! Crap! Any minute. I have to go talk with the coordinators. We only have this picnic area reserved until six o’clock.”
She started to dash off, but Jeff grabbed her arm.
“Have dinner with me?” he asked.
“Oh, um…” Sophie glanced up into Jeff’s classically handsome face. She’d always liked him, and the old Sophie might have even had something of a crush. But now he seemed so…bland.
“Come on, Soph, it’s not a marriage proposal. Just food,” he teased.
“Sorry, Jeff. She already has plans.”
Jeff and Sophie both spun around to see Gray standing a few feet away. She raised a challenging eyebrow at him, but didn’t break eye contact. What game was he playing now?
“Oh. Sure, sorry, boss,” Jeff said in obvious puzzlement.
“It was, um, part of our bet,” she said nervously to Jeff, hoping to avoid any awkward explanations. “I said I’d buy Mr. Wyatt dinner if he won.”
“That’s not why we’re having dinner,” Gray said, walking toward them.
“Okay, okay,” Jeff said raising his hands in bemused surrender. “I’ll let you guys work out whatever you need to. See you Monday.”
“Jeff…I…” Sophie said awkwardly, as he began to walk away. Jeff waved a hand at her as though dismissing the entire episode.
“Don’t worry about it, babe.” He winked and then spotted the cute receptionist. “Yo, Rachel! Wait up!”
“Hmm, he moves fast,” Gray said blandly.
“What was that about?” she hissed at the gloating man beside her.
“Let’s go, I’m starving.”
Her jaw dropped. “Just like that? And what do you mean, you’re starving? I had Seattle’s best caterers here. Didn’t you eat?”
“I don’t want that stuff, I want my cooking,” he said as he began storming toward the parking lot.
“Snob,” she said. But she found herself trailing after him, trying to figure out whether this was a continuation of their manufactured “friendship,” or a follow-up to the kiss.
Hell, maybe it was just a caveman routine. He didn’t want her, but didn’t want Jeff to have her either. His whispered words echoed through her mind again, and she nearly stumbled at the memory.
I think you’re mine.
She skidded to a halt as reality sunk in. “I need to go make sure clean up is under control.”
He turned around. “So make a phone call.”
She narrowed her eyes.
He narrowed his right back. A challenge.
“Okay, I’ll go with you, but I’m not helping you cook,” she said.
“As if I’d let you anywhere near a knife.”
“Is this like a…friends’ dinner?”
He signed and moved toward her. Leaning down, he stamped an impatient kiss on her lips. Pulled back. Did it again, lingering this time. Well, that answered that question.
Friends didn’t kiss like that.
“Okay?” he asked impatiently.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“Excellent. Now let’s get going. I want to stop and get a first-aid kit on the way.”