Best Served Cold

I gave up. I threw great globs of wet paper at him, and he did the same to me. They flew through the air with the accuracy of a five-year-old with a Nerf gun shooting at a moving object.

I ran out of paper and found myself backed into the wall. The dispensers were out of reach, but Chase wasn’t. He had a handful of soaking wet tissue paper, and he wasn’t shy about it.

He threw clump after clump at me. I was defenseless. I swat out at the stupid little clumps as they came at me, but it did nothing except make them splat onto the floor in a mess I’d have to clean up.

“No, no, no, stop it!” I hit away a huge wad of the yucky paper towel and flattened my hands against the wall. “Chase Aarons, if you throw that at me, I’ll never speak to you again.”

He stopped a few steps away from me. His eyes flicked between the wet glob of paper in his hand and me. I even widened my eyes and added a little drama to my expression so he knew I was serious.

Seriously.

Hollywood needed someone like me.

I was wasted in Key West.

Jennifer Garner, eat yo heart out.

Chase took a step toward me, fingers clenching around the tissue paper.

“I swear—” I held up a finger. “I will never speak to you again! I mean it!”

He shrugged, and instead of throwing it at me, planted it right in my face.

My jaw dropped, my mouth forming an ‘o’ in shock as the ice-cold water trickled out from the paper over my face.

It was fucking freezing.

I peeled the paper from my face and threw it to the floor with a slap. “What the hell?”

“You said don’t throw it.” His eyes danced with laughter. “I didn’t throw it.”

“You little—” I launched myself at him, balling my hands into fists. I got a few lame-ass thumps into his chest before he grabbed hold of my hands, laughing through everything I chucked his way.

“Whoa, spitfire. Calm your ass down.”

“Dick! Jerkface! Asshole! Douchemonkey!”

He laughed no matter how many insults I tossed his way.

“Fuckhead! Shitbag! Cockshit!”

Still laughing, his fingers curled around my wrists, and he pulled me close to him. “Go ahead. Keep shooting shit at me. See what happens.”

“What’ll happen?”

“It’s no fun for me if I tell you, is it?” His blue-green eyes still shone with laughter, and I realized how close we were.

Inches.

There were only inches between us.

I could feel his breath fluttering through my hair. My skin tingled where his fingers held my wrists just tight enough that I knew there was no escape, and shivers tickled up and down my arms, making the hairs stand on end.

Goosebumps. They were all over my arms. There wasn’t an inch of skin not covered by them.

Chase was right there. Touching me. So close that one twitch would have my lips on his.

So close I couldn’t handle it.

I cleared my throat and stepped back, dropping my arms. He slowly let go of my wrists, letting his fingertips trail across my skin as he released me. I fought against the shiver that threatened to wrack my body.

I couldn’t let him see how badly he affected me, especially when I still didn’t know what to do with him right now.

“I hope you’re going to clean this up.” I folded my arms and raised my eyebrow. “Since you started this.”

“You threw the first bit of tissue!”

“You squeezed water down my face. You started it. You can finish it by cleaning up.”

Chase took a deep breath before he sighed it out. He even added a roll of his eyes, like this whole thing was just too much for him. “Fine. I’ll clean it up. But it wasn’t just me. You threw your fair share of wet tissue, Raelynn Fortune.”

I bent down and grabbed a handful from the floor, then hit him in the face with it before he could react.

He wiped it off with one hand, and it fell in a splatter between us. “What was that for?”

I shrugged a shoulder and backed toward the door. “Do I need a reason?”

“No. But I want you to have one.”

“Okay. I did it because you did it first.” Another shrug. “Don’t give it if you can’t take it, Chase.”

“I can take it.” His lips quirked to the side. “Can you?”

“Is that a declaration of war?”

“Maybe.” He paused. “Depends how you wanna fight.”

I drew my lower lip between my teeth and ran it between them as if I were picking at a dry bit of skin on it. Chase’s bright eyes dropped to my mouth, flashing with a darkness that looked an awful lot like desire.

“I see,” he mused, dragging his gaze back up so his eyes met mine. “You’re playing dirty.”

“If you think that was dirty,” I said, opening the door and looking him up and down, deliberately making my gaze linger on his groin area. “Then you’re about to get a goddamn shock.”