CHAPTER NINE

 

I wake up early, still feeling pissed off over yesterday’s water rafting palaver.

Aiden had ‘accidently’ pushed Beau into the water. Then he’d nearly, accidentally, been knocked out with a paddle, when we’d gone over a bar of sand.

I’d gotten up to scream at the same time Ashton had to gloat. He’d ended up knocking me over too. The water had been freezing. I’ve never felt pain like I had in that the first second of falling in. It had felt like a thousand knives were stabbing into me. It didn’t help that it started raining ten minutes into the rafting—something that hadn’t been forecasted. But it happened, and it poured, chilling the air around us.

It was miserable.

By the time they’d pulled us both to safety in the raft, I just wanted to go home. Home to my bed, where I had heating and thick blankets.

Thankfully, Charlotte let us have two of the three spare blankets she’d brought along with her once we got back to our campsite.

We’d showered and dressed, and made the boys bring our food to the tent. At that point, I’d been ready to kill someone. I couldn’t get warm for shit.

Fortunately, I’d had Beau with me. After their little stunt, they’d been in no position to tell me what do, so their plan to swap places and have me stay with one of them, failed.

Beau had wrapped me up in arms, making me feel like I was on cloud nine. After an hour of being cuddled against him, I soon warmed up.

It was the middle of the night when I’d felt him move from the tent, most likely to take a piss. As soon as we’d eaten dinner, we’d stayed in the tent, too cold to step outside and join the others.

When he’d returned, I had reverted to being a shivering mess. He’d been what felt like three hours outside, so he was chilled to the bone.

Now, I’m toasty warm under the comfort of Beau’s body. It feels good to be here, in his arms. So much so I’m wondering if we can cancel today’s activities and stay here.

I take him in while he’s asleep. He looks younger, relaxed. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a mellow person, but he’s also on guard for the unknown all the time.

Seeing him now, looking vulnerable, pushes me to want him more, to get to know him more. I want to know every little thing there is to know about him. There’s just something about seeing him, really seeing him, that draws me to him.

My gaze moves down to his strong jaw, following it, and along to his lips. I don’t know what compels me to do what I do next. I just know I can’t fight the urge to feel his lips against mine any longer. My breath catches as I lean forward and press my lips against his. They’re soft and full. Kissing him has never felt so right.

He stirs, his eyes fluttering open before they land on me. His expression softens, looking at me with a lazy smile. I can’t help but return it, feeling wave of happiness flow through my body.

“Morning, beautiful. Did you―”

“What the fuck!” Aiden yells, fear evident in his voice.

I’m still staring down at Beau, so I see the knowing grin spread across his face. He shoots up, taking me with him.

He opens the tent as another squeal rumbles outside.

“It’s hissing at us,” Ashton squeals, almost sounding like Charlotte.

“Stop fucking moving,” Aiden yells at Ashton.

My eyes widen when I look over at their tent. It’s unpegged and both their heads are holding the roof up. It’s only a two-man tent, so they’re stretching the material.

“It’s staring at me.” Ashton screams again.

Landon walks out of his tent looking pissed off. He storms over to the boys, probably to knock some sense into them. Beau chuckles under his breath at their screeching.

“What did you do?” I whisper.

“It’s coming for me,” Ashton wails, sounding close to tears.

“It’s gonna fucking eat us. Someone, anyone, help!”

Beau’s laugh rings through the tent. “You’ll see.” He winks at me, smirking.

My gaze moves back over to the boys’ tent, watching as Landon unzips it. He doesn’t get a chance to look inside because Aston and Aiden both fall out and knock Landon over.

“What the fuck?” Landon growls.

The two culprits fall onto their arses and shuffle backwards, looking at the tent with wide, fear-filled eyes. There’s no guessing what’s in there, and with those two, it could be anything from a cat to a money spider. They are just that dramatic.

When Landon’s eyes also widen, I try to look into the tent. He moves back at a fast pace, looking scared, and I begin to worry. I glance back over to the tent opening for another look and start laughing.

A grass snake slithers out, clearly in distress and feeling threatened. Its body is inflated and it’s hissing between its teeth as it heads back towards the forest.

I’m stunned as I glance at Beau. “How?”

Beau chuckles. “My dad’s friend breeds snakes. He showed me a thing or two, including where to find them.”

“You are so crafty.” I begin to giggle, gaining everyone’s attention. I hadn’t realised everyone had come out to see what the commotion was about. I was too enthralled by the entertainment Aiden and Ashton were putting on.

“You?” Ashton growls, getting up from the ground. He points at Beau, breathing heavily.

“Me?” Beau asks, pointing his own finger at his chest innocently.

“You did this?” Aiden asks, almost in awe. Well, he would be if he wasn’t so scared.

Everyone looks at Beau with stunned expressions. At first, I’m worried about their reaction and if it will cause a rift between Beau and my family. But then Maddox, followed by the rest of them, start laughing uproariously, so I relax and join in.

“I told you payback’s a bitch.”

“You could have killed us!” Ashton squeals, throwing his arms up.

Beau scoffs. “It was a grass snake, not a cobra.”

“That wasn’t just some grass snake. It had fucking fangs and was hissing at us. It came at me.”

“It touched me whilst I was sleeping,” Aiden adds, looking pissed now.

“Where?” I blurt out.

He turns bright red, the veins in his neck pulsing. “It doesn’t matter,” he shouts louder.

I giggle, earning a glare. “It was harmless. I promise.” My assurance falls on deaf ears.

“What would you know?”

My giggle turns into full laughter. “I’m a vet, remember.”

He snarls, before grabbing his bag out of the tent. “I’m going to get ready. See you lot at breakfast.”

“And I want an apology ready by the time we get back,” Ashton barks. He glowers at Beau one last time before storming off after Aiden.

We’re all silent for a few seconds before laughter fills our campsite.

“I cannot believe you did that,” I say, turning to Beau.

He shrugs, playing it off. “It’s actually fun to let my hair down. I didn’t realise how uptight I was until this weekend with your family.”

Uh-oh.

“Please don’t let them rub off on you.”

“Why?” He gives me his charming, boyish grin.

So not going to help right now.

“Because I already have a bunch of hooligans in my family. I don’t need my… my….” I pause, wondering what Beau actually is to me.

Still grinning, he takes my shoulders and shakes me. “Don’t worry, they aren’t rubbing off on me. They just brought the old me out to play.”

“Seriously, that really doesn’t help.”

He laughs at my expression. “Come on, let’s go get ready. I want to kick your cousins’ arses at archery.”

“You’ve done it before?” I ask, shocked.

He winks at me. “No. But it will be fun to make them squirm thinking I have.”

 

*** *** ***

 

Turns out, archery wasn’t for everyone—okay, it wasn’t for any of us. We all figured that out five minutes in to trying to aim and shoot.

Personally, I think I sucked because I couldn’t keep my eyes off Beau’s arse, or his bulging biceps. It was distracting. The instructor found it hard to take his eyes off him too, so I wasn’t the only one affected.

Katniss Everdeen had made it look effortless in The Hunger Games.

As for rock climbing… Well, for us girls, it was a blast. For the boys, however, it was a competition, one that ended with us breaking up four fights.

The next activity is something none of us expected. Lily booked the wrong course. Instead of the jungle challenge, we are now doing the jungle mud course, which is going to get freaking messy.

We’re all put into teams of two, and thankfully, I got paired with Beau.

“At each flag point, collect your team’s colour and proceed to the next obstacle. The winners are whoever finishes the course first and manages to get all their flags.”

“We got his,” Imogen hoots, high-fiving Hayden.

Yeah, those two are the ones to worry about. Landon and Charlotte too, and maybe Maddox and Lily. The others have no hope against me and Beau. We’re both active in our lives.

Mark scoffs, turning towards her. “You wish. See you at the finish line.”

“Yeah, you’ll see us waving to you from our winner’s throne,” Hayden sasses.

“Um, there isn’t actually a throne.” The instructor bites her lip.

“Right. More like waving at us to slow down,” Liam laughs, goading his sister.

“All right, get into position.”

I pull my coveralls over my clothes. When the instructor had offered them to us, I’d jumped at the chance. There is no way I’m going to ruin my Juicy Couture tracksuit. Not a chance in hell. 

I pull my goggles over my eyes and high-five Beau, before stepping into place at the start of our first course.

Which happens to be a net of rope with thick, wet mud underneath.

“Ready, steady…” The horn blasts and we move.

I’m under the net first, laughing and squealing at the feel of the mud already seeping through my clothes.

So much for protecting my Juicy Couture.

Beau is behind me, shouting at me to hurry, to move as fast as I can. But I’m sinking into the mud, which is making it hard to move anywhere.

The instructor never gave us rules like the other guides did, so I turn on my back, grabbing the rope above me, and use it to pull me across the mud. I slide easily and look down at Beau, a few feet behind me. He’s grinning, already covered in mud, and does the same.

We’re first out, but a quick glance shows Maddox and Landon’s teams aren’t far behind us. The next is a wooden log, already covered in mud, with a rope above to help guide you along. We make it over with only a few slips before coming to a wall.

“I’ll go first. Once I’m at the top, I’ll help you up.”

“Is this a sexist thing?” I ask, narrowing my eyes.

He laughs. “No, this is a me wanting us to win thing.”

I don’t get chance to argue because he’s already leaping up the wall and grabbing the rope. I watch his firm arse until it’s out of sight. He reaches down, and after a few steps backwards, I run and then leap to catch his hands. He easily lifts me to the stage, and I gasp, falling on top of him.

“Well…” he grins, grabbing my arse.

I giggle into his throat. Then Landon jumps up next to us, startling us. He reaches down to grab Charlotte, so I roll off Beau and down the other side.

I want to groan and rethink this whole mud challenge. I’m wet, and my muscles are already burning. But one look behind me, at a gloating Aiden, makes me forget the aches and move forward. If I lose to him, I’ll never hear the last of it.

The first flag is just on the other side of the next course, which happens to be a lot of elastic rope and a puddle of mud. First, we run across the bridge, and then dive into the thick mud.

“Fuck, we need to go under, otherwise we could get caught in the elastic.”

I push back the hair that has fallen over my goggles and nod, now realising why we needed the goggles and were instructed never to take them off.

As we head under the first part, trying not to put our heads all the way beneath the mud, something catches my leg and tries to pull me back. I kick out, hitting something hard, and keep moving forward. I don’t bother turning back to find out if was one of the boys. Instead, I follow Beau, as he makes it easier for me to move through the mud. A quick glance to my side reveals Landon assisting Charlotte, laughing at her expression. Her face, her hair… Everything is covered in mud.

I start to giggle as we get out of the net.

I’m actually having fun. Even if I am getting filthy in the process.

We grab the flag as we reach the post. Once it’s sealed safety in our pouch, we run onwards, following the arrows to the next course. It moves around, deeper into the forest. Footsteps running behind us let me know the others are close.

But once we exit a copse of trees, I gasp. I’m out of breath and startled by what is in front of us.

A water mudslide, so steep I’m concerned about how we’re going to make it up there. Why couldn’t it be a slide we went down? Now that, I’d flipping enjoy. Instead, we’ve got a single rope, for each group, to help us up.

“Shit.” Beau laughs. “Come on, let’s go.”

I gaze at the top and find another flag sitting on a post by a tree. Another two to go before the end. That’s if we make it up this hill.

I grab the rope and climb, using both my feet and hands. It’s hard, and a few times I slip a little. More than once, Beau pushes my arse to keep me going.

I’m near the top when I hear Beau yell out. I look behind me to find him sliding down, Aiden next to him.

Damn my brother.

We were so close.

I keep moving until I reach the top, my arms burning from pulling my weight. I’m thankful I didn’t slip and have to do it all again.

My body is like jelly as I slump towards the flag post. Once I’ve grabbed our colour, I look down the hill, keeping away from the edge, so I don’t slip.

Beau is climbing up our rope again, Aiden to his left and Maddox to his right. The girls are further up, nearly at the top, thanks to the men below them.

Hayden falls down next to me, breathing hard. She grins, her eyes dancing with delight. “This shit is awesome.” She pauses, squinting behind me. “Hey, what the hell is Beau doing?”

Laughter bubbles from my lips when Beau kicks out at Aiden, making him fall back down.

“Hey, you fucker,” Aiden screams, sliding down on his side.

Beau moves to do the same to Maddox, but Maddox catches on and shoves Beau in the shoulder. He falls and slides down the slope, laughing. I should be pissed. We could lose. But it’s so funny to watch as they all fight to get up here first.

Maddox, having looked away from his primary goal, misses Lily slipping, and they both slide down in a heap.

“Shit!” he yells.

“Oh, my God,” I laugh, my hand covering my mouth.

“Come on, Imogen, we’ve got this,” Hayden shouts.

Liam, hearing his sister, grins. He swings the rope he’s on and dives on Immy. Both of them slide down. Hayden and Immy both start cursing, but Liam just laughs, moving back to his rope. Immy, pissed at Liam, pushes him over. He falls on the floor, grunting.

“I’m so going to drown him.”

“We’re never going to make it to the finish line if they keep this up.” I’m still giggling when Charlotte reaches us. She’s still covered in mud, but the splatters on her face have dried up.

“I’m going to kill Lily when we get back.” She tries her best to move the fallen hair out of her face, but fails.

“At this rate, we won’t have any family members left,” I tell her, laughing hard.

My eyes fall to the slide again. Beau and Mark are now tying. The muscles in their arms bulging. I’m glad Beau only wore a T-shirt now, because seeing him like this is seriously hot. He looks like he’s in his element.

The others are scrambling in the mud to get back to the rope, falling down the mudslide leading up to it. It seems to be getting wetter and wetter every time one of them falls. It’s turned into a stream of muddy water rather than actual mud.

I start laughing when Aiden tries to punch Maddox in the face for pushing him off his rope, but instead of hitting him, he hits Ashton. Ashton curses, pushing him a few feet down to where the water and mud are gathering. Clearly, they’ve forgotten they’re on the same team.

“Ashton,” Aiden screams, spluttering muddy water from his mouth.

I shuffle backwards on my knees when Beau is close. I’m holding my breath, hoping Mark doesn’t play any tricks on him. The only ones we have to worry about right now is Landon and Imogen, as they are both half way up the hill.

Beau grins when he reaches the top, tagging my arm. As soon as I’m on my feet, we’re running. I’m laughing, not having had so much fun in my life.

This has to be the best getaway we’ve ever done.

 A bunch of tyres come into view and we quickly manoeuvre our way through, laughing at Hayden shouting at us to wait.

Yeah, like that will happen.

“You snooze, you lose,” I yell, running to keep up with Beau.

A long line of different logs at different heights are in front of us. In white spray paint is written whether we have to go over or under.

The first one is low. We slide under, easily slipping through, before crawling to the next one, both of us rolling over it.

I’m laughing so hard I feel weak, and when we go under another one, I feel hands on my ankles once again.

“Oh, no you don’t, bitch,” Hayden laughs, trying to drag me back.

Weak with exertion, I let her, and when we come eye level, I push her away and start crawling over her, laughing.

Imogen is cursing Landon as he starts dragging her backwards too. I’m still a laughing mess as I flop over the next log.

Beau is ahead of me, trying his best to jump for the next one, which is pretty high. He does it, rolling over and landing on the other side.

I’m fucked.

There is no way I’ll reach the log to get over it. Beau must read my apprehension in my expression, because he grins. He walks under the log and links his hands together, to give me a leg up. I giggle, placing my foot in his hands. I’m just getting my leg over when Landon throws himself over easily. I glare when he ducks under to help Charlotte out.

“Let’s go,” Beau laughs, grabbing my hand. Together we run through some more tyres on the ground, again reaching another flag.

Beau grabs this one and shoves it into his pocket. We keep running, following the arrows around another bend.

A wide-roped ladder is against a wall and we sprint towards it, knowing this must be the last obstacle. I look around for the flag, not seeing one, but still carry on up.

Landon and Hayden are right behind us, both jumping as far up the net as they can go. Beau reaches the top first, leaning down to reach for me. A wicked grin on his face as he pulls me up.

I see why once I reach the top. We’re on a massive hill that is soaked with mud and water. Plastic sheeting is underneath, so this part of the course has been built by them. Dirty water runs from small taps on the side.

My laughter is loud as I sit on the edge next to Beau. “Let’s do this.” I grab his hand, and together, we shoot down the slide, screaming and laughing.

“Fuck yeah,” Hayden yells.

We reach the bottom too soon and jump to our feet, before running to the finish line a few meters ahead of us, the flag blowing brightly in the wind.

We grab it together, jumping up and down. I leap into his arms and wrap my legs around his waist. I must take him by surprise because he falls back a step, grunting.

Completely in the moment, I lean back to look at him. “We won!” Then I kiss him, full on the lips, deep and wet. My fingers run through his hair to the back of his neck, where I grip him to pull him closer.

I’m snatched out of his arms and I squeal in shock. “What did I tell you about kissing my sister?” Aiden growls. Mark stands next to him, scowling at us.

Beau grins. “She kissed me.”

That really isn’t helping.

Aiden drops me to my feet and I whirl on him. “Never pull me away like that again.”

His face reddens—with anger or embarrassment remains to be seen. “I’m telling Dad you kissed him.”

“You wouldn’t?” I gasp, stepping back.

What a traitor.

“Oh, I totally freaking would. You wait until we get home.”

“I hate you,” I scream, before turning and going to storming off. I stop short and pivot back to him, poking him in the chest. “And we won! Us. Loser!” I hold my fingers in an L shape against my forehead and stick my tongue out.

He sputters before storming off to lick his wounds. He doesn’t even try to hide that he’s a sore loser.

Beau walks over to me and wraps his arm around my waist from behind. “You told him, baby.”

Turning around in his arms, I grin up at him. “We totally kicked all their arses. I’ve had so much fun, but I’ll be glad to get out of these clothes and shower the mud out of my hair.”

He laughs, his eyes twinkling as he runs his fingers through my mud-covered hair. “I dunno; I think you kind of look sexy.”

I roll my eyes despite the flutter in my stomach. I love it when he says things like that.

“And I’m hungry. Feed me.” I grin, still jumping with excitement from winning. “And losers, you’re paying,” I shout.

They all groan, shaking their heads at my antics.

Next is tobogganing, and I can’t wait to show them up.