Chapter Twenty-Six
Lindsay
As we drove, I decided since I was going all in for as long as this lasted, I might as well make some moves of my own. After all, he had carried me and defended me when my roommate made it sound like the last thing in the world she’d expected was for me to be seen having fun, or to have a hot guy be interested in someone like me for more than just a good time.
I settled my hand on the back of his neck and played with the ends of his hair. He made a low noise in the back of his throat and desire danced along my nerve endings. This giant dude with his stoic facade and all that barely contained intensity ended up being so different than I expected. When it came down to it, he was basically a big teddy bear. A big teddy bear who could slam dudes into the boards and tear people apart if they messed with him. It was a swoon-worthy combo, one that I now realized was useless to resist.
“Hey, Ryder?”
He turned to me, a lazy smile on his face. “Yeah?”
“Thanks for not giving up on me, even though I was kind of bitchy when you first hit on me.”
He grabbed my hand, brought it up to his lips, and kissed the back of it—usually he was clean shaven, but this morning he had a five o’ clock shadow and then some, and the combination of soft lips and whiskers sent a pleasant shiver down my spine. “Everything worthwhile takes effort and a little extra fighting for. And for the record, I wouldn’t say bitchy. Reserved, maybe. But from the first moment I saw you, I knew there was something different about you.”
“I’d about decided that the only way a guy would be interested in me was if I threw myself at him.”
“While we’re clearing things up, I wouldn’t mind that method.”
I shoved his arm and he laughed. Then he slowed and looked me in the eye. “Honestly, most guys were probably just too intimidated. But I’m glad. Weeds out all the losers who don’t see there’s more to you.”
My heart took off, beat after beat, and the desire I’d felt earlier turned into need. “Okay, now I am about to throw myself at you.”
“Bring it.” He pulled into the parking lot, and the second he put the car in park, I lunged across the console and straddled him.
I threw my arms around him, pressed my lips to his, and sank into his embrace. He gripped my hips, his fingers slipping underneath my T-shirt and digging into my skin.
“How tinted are these windows?” I glanced outside, unable to gauge how easily someone could see in.
“Dark enough.” Ryder kissed my neck and lightly sucked the skin there. Paintball sounded fun and all, but now I was thinking of a different physical activity, one where I did the opposite of taking out my aggression on a certain hockey player.
His hands drifted higher, his fingertips skirting the bottom of my bra. I pushed into him and he palmed my breasts. I bit lightly on his bottom lip and he brushed his thumbs across my lace-covered nipples, sending a ripple of pleasure down my core. I rolled my hips and he groaned, growing harder, which made me moan in return.
He pulled back and exhaled. “Okay, the windows might not be dark enough for what I want to do to you. Especially now that several of my teammates are starting to pull into the parking lot. It’s only a matter of time before one of them thinks it’s funny to knock on the window.”
“Dane,” I guessed.
“Oh yeah, my money would be on him.”
I laughed, experiencing that sense of belonging over the fact that I knew his teammates so well, and then worrying once again that it meant I was getting too deep. I’d already jumped, though, so my brain needed to keep up. Or shush up. Or I wasn’t really sure, but being wrapped in Ryder’s arms was definitely where I wanted to be.
“To be continued?” he asked, dragging his lips across mine.
I rested my forehead against his, working to regain control of my breathing, and nodded. “To be continued.”
“Okay, the game’s capture the flag,” Daniel, whose dad apparently owned this giant outdoor course and most of the gear, said. “In order to make it more interesting, players will freeze when they’re hit and team captains can unfreeze them if they can reach them without being shot.”
He quickly covered the rules and teams were drawn—girlfriends on same sides as their guys, “As not to prevent anyone from getting laid,” as Daniel so nicely put it. Maybe he wasn’t quite so chivalrous as I thought, although I supposed not making couples fight was nice in a way.
It also meant I was on the same team with Beck and Lyla, and Dane and Megan. Whitney was on the other team with Hudson, as well as a few other girls who looked as clueless as I felt about the entire game and what we’d managed to get ourselves into.
Ryder handed me a pair of thick goggles and helped adjust them so they fit snugly on my head. He demonstrated how to fire the weapon, shoved an extra clip in my pocket, and then looked me up and down. “Oh yeah, you’re ready. And a weird part of me wants to be taken down by you.”
I flipped my gun around my finger, nearly dropping it before regaining it and pretending to holster. “Better watch out. My allegiance is for sale.”
Ryder stepped closer and hooked his finger through my belt loop. “How much?”
“Careful, soldier. That sounds a little too close to implying I’m a prostitute.”
He opened his mouth, no doubt to say something highly inappropriate. I quickly maneuvered the barrel of my gun an inch from his crotch, and he slowly held up his hands. “My mistake, ma’am.”
“You guys can get a room later,” Dane called. “Right now, it’s time to talk strategy.”
Admittedly, as Dane outlined the plan, I only half listened, far more concerned with flirting with my…dare I go ahead and use the term? Boyfriend? He had, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.
There was also something crazy hot about his all-business face and the way the muscles in his arms flexed when he lifted his weapon or pointed toward the areas on the course he, Dane, and the rest of the team were discussing.
As the strategy session wound down, Lyla turned her weapon in her hands, studying every inch of it. She twisted the gun up, looked down the barrel, and she must’ve accidentally pulled the trigger, because I didn’t think anyone would purposely shoot herself in the face.
Orange paint dripped from her goggles, and a few splatters from the “shrapnel” covered my right arm. “FYI, it works, and it has a hair trigger,” she said, a sheepish grin on her face. “In case anyone was wondering.”
Beck removed her coated goggles and wiped them off with his shirt. “Luckily for us, friendly fire doesn’t count, especially before the game’s even started.” He replaced her goggles and gave her a quick kiss.
The way they looked at each other would’ve given me intense feelings of jealousy and longing a month or so ago, but now it made me look at my someone, who winked at me as he slipped his hand in my back pocket. My insides went all gooey warm, and I was in serious danger of turning into a giggly mess of a girl who believed in real life happily ever afters.
“Everyone set?” Daniel stood on a straw bale on the far end of the field, where the rest of his team was gathered, bullhorn in hand. We were on the opposite end, and everyone tensed, weapons at the ready. “Go!”
Ryder grabbed my hand and pulled me behind a wooden cart. “Wait for Dane to draw their fire, and then we go.”
His eyes were so blue, and he looked hot even in the big goggles, which I’m sure weren’t nearly as flattering on me.
“Lindsay?”
Right. We were in the middle of a battle. A flag and bragging rights were at stake. I nodded, and as paint bullets flew off to the left, Ryder and I ran toward the next barricade, a wooden panel propped up with a couple of large bales.
We paused to catch our breath, and then Ryder peeked over the top. “Incoming.”
“Seriously? You guys are so serious with your army lingo. Are there bogeys at five o’clock?”
“More like one o’clock,” Ryder said, then he stood up and fired off a rapid stream of shots. I heard swearing and I figured that meant he’d hit someone. He ducked down right as a stream of blue paint hit the flat wood panel shielding us.
Blue splatters flew over and hit my legs. Not enough to get me out. I paid enough attention to the instructions to know it had to be a direct hit.
I pushed to my feet and fired in the direction the bullets had come from. Pink exploded, hitting one of the guys from the other team square in the chest. “I got him! I actually got—”
Ryder yanked me down as another stream of bullets came our way—yellow this time. With two fingers, he gestured toward a tree on the far end of the boundary. I didn’t think there was any way we’d make it without getting hit, but I decided I’d give it my all. He extended his hand, I slapped my palm in his, and then we ran.
Ryder spun out, firing off another round, and when I saw someone coming at us from the other side, I fired. They dodged my bullets as they ducked for cover, but it gave us enough time to make it behind the tree.
Adrenaline surged through my veins and I found myself super invested in the outcome. I wanted that flag. I wanted to win. I wanted my bodyguard—well, that was a result of more than just the game, but with the added adrenaline, my desire for him was stronger than ever.
“How you holding up?” he asked, his breathing ragged from our sprint.
“Good. I want to take them down.”
“That’s my girl.” He curled me close and then peeked around the tree, gun out. He fired off a few rounds.
“Dane might be in trouble,” I said as I scanned the other half of the field. I noticed Hudson sneaking up to the barrier where he and Megan were holed up.
It was a far shot, but I couldn’t simply let Hudson take them out—as the captain, Dane was the only one who could unfreeze my teammates.
I aimed my barrel at Hudson’s back and fired. The way he jerked around made it clear he hadn’t expected it. Again, I was totally over our past, but a triumphant surge definitely accomplished that hit.
Unfortunately, I’d left myself open. I dodged, and the bullet just missed me, hitting the tree and sending a spray of paint across my cheek and neck. Already most of us were pretty colorful, direct hit or not.
A few of the frozen players from both sides were freed and madness ensued. Ryder made a circle around his eye and pointed toward the flag, then held up two fingers and swung them around.
“Can I see the flag?”
He shook his head and repeated the gesture.
“Um, I really don’t know what you mean. Can’t you just talk?”
The shush gesture I understood. He grabbed my hand and sprinted toward an old hollowed-out log seconds before bullets sprayed where we’d been. “I was trying to tell you there was a sniper up high, and we had two enemies approaching.”
“I’ll totally understand that next time,” I said, although I had my doubts. Ryder and I went from cover to cover, and occasionally he and Dane exchanged a bunch of hand signals while Megan and I shrugged, grinned, and waved at each other.
We inched toward the flag, so close now that I could practically taste our victory.
But just before we reached the stand, Ryder grabbed me, curled me into his body, and flinched as a bullet burst against his back.
“Aww, you took the hit, just like you said you would.” My sappy smile turned to a frown. “You should’ve let it hit me. You’ve got a way better chance at getting that flag.”
“No way, you’ve got it. You’re so close.” Ryder put both hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye. “Shoot so they have to duck, and then run like you’re on fire.” Before I could say that I’d rather check out some of the alternatives and take more time to make a plan, he gave me a quick kiss and shoved me in the other direction. “Go!”
I fired toward the place where two guys from the other team were camped out. As soon as they ducked, I sprinted with everything I had in me.
I was only a couple of yards away from the flag when I got pelted in my upper back. Damn. That stings.
I lowered my gun, a sense of failure going through me. I knew Ryder wouldn’t care, but I’d wanted that stupid flag.
Gunfire erupted off to my left and the guys who’d tagged me went down, paint splattered across their chests. Megan darted out into the open. Dane came right behind her.
He tapped me, unfreezing me, and the three of us ran for the flag.
Dane took a hit.
Three feet…
Megan swore and froze in place.
I spun around, fired with reckless abandon, and then launched myself at the flag. A few paint pellets hit near my feet, sending up sprays of color.
My fingers wrapped around the flagpole, and I jerked it free of its stand and waved it through the air.
“Game!” Daniel called. Then he turned to me and held his hand up for a high five.
Holy shit, did we really win? I slapped his raised palm, feeling a huge grin spread across my face.
My team rushed me, and Ryder was right there, lifting me in the air. Winning sent a flood of endorphins through my veins, and suddenly I totally got the jock thing. I mean, obviously I’d always understood the attraction to them, but this…? This was a high I hadn’t experienced since the first edition of the Heights that I was in charge of successfully went out, not a single typo in sight.
“See. I knew you could do it,” Ryder whispered in my ear.
“Only because you guarded me and got me within a few feet.”
“I think that means we make a good team.”
“I think so, too.” We kissed, drawing it out and letting the rest of the world melt away for a moment.
Daniel stood up front. “Okay. We can either go for a rematch, or do a free-for-all round.”
The crowd was pretty unanimous on the free-for-all vote.
“Five minutes to reload and then we shoot until every gun is empty!”
Ryder cocked an eyebrow at me. “You down? You can sit it out if you want. I know the paintballs kind of sting.”
I clicked my tongue at him. “Do I look scared?”