CHAPTER 17

YOU’RE GOING DOWN

Charlie

I knew the moment that Livy text me that Brandon had put her up to it. She was adamant that I join them on their camping trip. As much as I didn’t want to go outside in the wilderness with bugs and bears and God only knew what, it was taking a lot to convince myself that I didn’t want to go spend the weekend with Brandon.

Plus, the others of course.

I told her I would think about it, but she wasn’t willing to take that as an answer. Thirty minutes later she sent me a picture of her holding a tent and a sleeping bag that she said her and Parker had just bought for me.

After that, there was no way I could tell her no. Instead, I asked her where the best place to buy bear deterrent was. I’m pretty sure that she thought it was a joke.

I didn’t want to look like the idiot stepmom on The Parent Trap though. I needed to be prepared.

I had thought so much about the camping trip that I didn’t give myself the proper time to freak out about laser tag.

Laser tag that I was now getting suited up for.

“Are you sure that I shouldn’t sit this one out?” I asked David for probably the fifteenth time since we arrived.

“No.” He chuckled as he tightened the vest around me. “You’ll do fine.”

I had peered into the laser tag arena or whatever the heck you called it when a power-hungry eight-year-old ran out earlier yelling about his victory, and I knew that I was going to run into something. There were no lights except for the random black lights throughout the room and the glowing lights on my chest and gun. I tripped over my own two feet when everything was well lit. I didn’t need the help.

Brandon stood across from me and his gaze tracked David’s hands as he helped me into my gear. He had barely spoken to me since we arrived, but we hadn’t really had the opportunity either. But he had watched me. From the moment we walked in.

He was on the blue team, a team that I was sure was going to win, while I was on the red. David and I were on a team with Mason while Brandon was partnered up with Livy and Parker. There were about twelve others, all about ten years old, that were split up amongst our team.

The smallest boy on Brandon’s team just ran his finger across his neck while staring me directly in the eye, and even though I was probably three times his age and his size, I wasn’t too proud to admit that he scared me just a bit.

David stood and grabbed his own vest, and Brandon took the opportunity to finally talk to me.

“Are you ready to lose?” He bounced on his feet like he was preparing to go in a boxing ring.

“Did you see that little one?” I pointed to the kid who was staring down the rest of my teammates. “I’m pretty sure he’s out for blood.”

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” he whispered conspiratorially.

“You’re on his team.” I pushed on the blue details of his vest.

“That’s true.” He tapped his chin. “I guess I’ll tell him to aim straight for you then.”

I shoved his shoulder. “You jerk.”

“It’s every man for himself in laser tag, sweet cheeks.”

My stomach flipped, and I swear that I stared at his smile so long that I could see it even when I closed my eyes.

“It’s starting.” David pressed his hand against my lower back, and I started at his touch.

“Right.” I nodded my head then looked back up at Brandon. “You’re going down.” I tapped my gun and tried to give him an intimidating look before David guided me into the dark room.

Find a hiding spot.

That was David’s grand advice, but I still took it.

I found the darkest corner I could manage, and I pressed my hand against the lights on my chest to keep me hidden.

It was a good tactic really. If they couldn’t find me, they couldn’t kill me. I could win this whole dang thing hiding in this corner.

A loud siren went off, and I jumped out of my skin. Three different blue colored kids ran past me, and I tucked myself deeper into the corner to hide. Sure, I could probably pick off a kid or two from my hiding spot, but I wasn’t interested in giving my position away.

Survival 101. Or something like that.

There was screaming and laughter, and anytime the sound got too close, I closed my eyes and pressed my hand harder against the little light on my vest. If they couldn’t see me, they couldn’t find me.

I wasn’t sure how long I was hidden there, but the room was filled with little feet running past me.

I decided to take a risk and sneak a tiny peek out in the open. I barely peeked my head out from behind the wall I was hiding behind, but instantly I saw blue.

I knew that they saw me too, but I still scrambled back into my spot and prayed that someone else would catch their eye and distract them.

I counted to ten and no one came. I moved my head back around the corner, and I almost faceplanted into the one blue chest I knew was looking forward to killing me the most.

That little runt.

“Listen.” I backed away with my hands up. “I won’t shoot you if you don’t shoot me.”

The kid smiled at me and aimed his gun directly at my chest. It was only a second later that the damn thing started vibrating like a turbocharged dildo.

“You jerk,” I yelled, but he was already on the run.

I realized how exposed I still was and started to move back to my hiding spot when I spotted a spark of blue coming directly for me. I quickly moved back into my hiding spot, but it was too late. They had spotted me.

My heart hammered in my chest, and I counted the seconds.

I peeked back around the corner, and it kept moving closer and closer. My gun fumbled in my hands, and I cussed as I tried to regain control.

I aimed my gun directly at the blue chest, but then I saw Brandon’s smiling face as he stalked toward me.

“Go away,” I whispered and shooed him away, but he wasn’t having any of it.

He just kept coming directly for me. His face was barely lit up by the glowing lights on his vest, but I swear he had a spark in his eye. A spark that both thrilled and scared me.

“Freckles.” He chuckled softly when he was only about a foot from me.

“You are going to give my position away,” I whisper-yelled before I grabbed his hand and yanked him into my corner.

“Have you just been hiding this whole time?” He chuckled again, and I realized that Brandon was not someone I would try to survive in the wild. He was too dang loud and would get us eaten in a hot minute.

“Yes. I’ve been hiding.” I looked around the corner again to make sure we weren’t found. “I’m not trying to get killed.”

“You do know that it’s just laser tag, right? You don’t actually die.” The right side of his mouth was jerked up in a permanent smile, and I wanted to reach up with my fingers so I could see what they felt like. Those lips of his that were constantly smirking.

“I know it’s fake.” I was still staring at his mouth. Had his lips always looked that good? “But as of right now, I’m winning. I’ve only died once.”

“But you haven’t killed anyone either.”

He reached up and slowly tucked a wild curl behind my ear, and I held my breath as I let myself take in the touch of his skin against mine.

“Freckles?” His voice was raspy, and the sound alone caused me to tighten my thighs.

I swallowed. “Yeah?”

He ran a finger along my jaw. There was something about being in this dark corner that seemed to make everything less real. Like we weren’t crossing boundaries. Like I wasn’t a complete fool.

He leaned closer to me, his vest pressing against mine, and I wanted nothing more than to rip them away. I wanted to rip away every damn thing between us.

His hand slowly caressed my chin before he gently lifted it until I was looking directly up at him.

“Tell me to stop.”

I let his words roll over me, and I knew that he was right. I should have told him to stop. I should have screamed it from the top of my lungs, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t form one single word as I stared up at him.

Instead, I lifted a shaking hand to his side and gripped his t-shirt in my hand. I needed something to anchor me, to hold me steady, because I was falling. I knew I was.

He smiled down at me, not the cocky smile he gave out freely, but a smile that was soft and forced me to move my body a bit closer to him.

His thumb ran across my bottom lip as if he was contemplating whether or not he was making the right decision, and I didn’t know what got into me as I peeked my tongue out of my mouth and tasted the tip of that thumb.

He lost it then. That strained control that he always seemed to have a perfect handle on.

The hand not on my jaw plunged into my hair, and his mouth came down against mine. It was everything all at once. The feel of his lips, the sound of his soft moan, the tug of his hands in my hair. It clouded my mind.

It drove me crazy.

His lips were gentle against mine, but I could barely breathe. There was only him and me. Nothing else mattered. Not the stupid game going on around us, not that I was here with David, and definitely not the fact that I knew it was a completely bad idea.

My hand tightened in his t-shirt because I couldn’t get him close enough. I wanted more. I needed it.

He walked me backward pushing my body against the wall, and a loud moan escaped me when his hips pressed against mine. Brandon lost it then.

His kiss was no longer gentle and teasing. He lost control, and it was by far the sexiest thing I had ever witnessed in my entire life.

His teeth nipped my bottom lip before his tongue tasted mine. I felt wild with lust like no matter how much he gave me I would want more.

His hands didn’t move away from my face or hair as he devoured my mouth, but I was dying for him to touch me. I wanted his hands everywhere. There wasn’t a single spot that wasn’t craving the feel of him.

I pressed my body harder into him, and he let out a low growl when I felt how turned on he was pressed against me.

He ripped his mouth away from mine, and his teeth raked against my jawline as his mouth moved to my neck. His lips had barely pressed against my sensitive neck when the loud siren blasted through the room and had me jumping out of my skin.

Brandon sighed and rested his forehead against my shoulder. My heart was racing at a pace that I was certain was unhealthy, and my skin felt like it was a live wire.

I gulped down breath after breath, but it was all Brandon. Every breath. Every thought. I was surrounded by him. By the ghost of his touch, by the smell of him that clung to my skin.

He pushed off the wall and stood to his full height. He stared down at me with a mix of happiness yet worry on his face, and for the first time since he touched me, I remembered where we were and what we had just done.

He saw it too. The moment the panic started to fill me.

I was here with another man for crying out loud. What in the hell was I doing?

I jerked my hair out of my bun and combed my fingers through it before quickly throwing it back up. My fingers shook as I touched them to my lips. I knew they were swollen from his kiss.

Brandon watched me the entire time. He tracked my hands as they moved. He searched my eyes.

I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to make sense of what just happened, but I knew with absolute certainty that I didn’t regret it.

If nothing else ever happened between us, I would never regret this moment.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but a surge of laughter and running feet echoed through the hallway outside my hiding spot.

Brandon’s attention turned toward the sound before he looked back at me. “We should go.”

I nodded my head in agreement. We should, but that didn’t mean I wanted to.

I had no idea how I was going to face everyone else. How I was going to face David.

Brandon gripped my hand in his, only for a brief second, and the reassuring squeeze he gave me made me settle if only a little bit.

I nodded my head like he had just told me everything was going to be fine, strapped my gun back over my shoulder, and followed him out.