Casual Affair

That deep voice of his made her insides feel like they were melting into her toes.

“See that ditch to the left of the building?” she asked around her suddenly dry mouth, forcing herself to focus.

“Yeah.”

“I say everyone takes up positions there and starts shooting, which will draw their team to take cover behind that hill.” She pointed. “Then you and I will circle around through those trees over there,” she said, moving her finger to indicate. “There’s an opening about a hundred feet directly behind the hill that will give us a clear shot at their backs while they’re distracted by the fire coming from the ditch.”

Price searched the expanse of the field, contemplating. “Which would sandwich them in.”

She nodded. “Exactly.”

He looked back at her with both eyebrows raised. “Not bad,” he said approvingly. “How do you know the opening is there?”

She shrugged, secretly proud of herself that she was impressing him. “I saw it earlier, when the game first started.”

If he had thought for one minute that she would be in any way intimated by him, he was about to be sorely mistaken. Well, truthfully, she was intimidated by him, just not professionally. But getting smacked in the face by movie-star good looks and a magnetic personality tended to be a bit intimidating.

“All right, Ms. Paxton,” Price responded. “We’ll try it your way.” The smirk spread into a full-blown smile, his white teeth temporarily blinding her.

She watched as he worked his way over to another shelter where a few of their teammates were hiding and explained the plan. Seconds later, he was back, approaching her on his hands and knees. It reminded her of the way lions stalked their prey in the African bush.

Definitely a beast in the bedroom. Had to be.

“After you,” he told her, waving a hand out in front of him.

Checking that the coast was clear, she quickly crawled out from behind their cover and dashed for the tree line up ahead.

Pop, pop, pop.

Pellets whipped past her face and sailed over her head as she forced herself to crawl faster. She tried to return fire, but her gun strap was twisted under her and she couldn’t get to the trigger. A familiar rush of adrenaline coursed through her body, fueling her movements.

She lived for stuff like this.

She wouldn’t necessarily say she was an adrenaline junkie. She just liked to be active and push her body to the limit. She didn’t want to admit it, but the fact that Zane Price had chosen this—and that it was clearly his type of thing—was a huge point in his “plus” column.

Breathing heavily but unable to wipe the smile from her face, she reached the edge of the tree line and looked down at herself, taking stock.

“You hit?” she asked him after she didn’t spot any yellow paint on herself.

There was a moment of silence before he murmured, “I don’t think so.”

His voice sounded weird—softer, like he was in a trance or something. She peered over her shoulder to get a good look at him and make sure he hadn’t hurt himself in the scuffle.

But he wasn’t hurt.

He was just staring at her.

Or, more accurately, at her ass.

She wasn’t quite sure how to react. On one hand, she didn’t want to set feminism back fifty years and flutter her eyelashes at him in appreciation. On the other, she wasn’t about to deny that she liked him looking at her with growing lust shining in those baby blues. Because she did like it. In a big, pathetic way.

Bad idea.

“Something on your mind, Mr. Price?” she asked with a note of challenge in her voice.

His gaze flew up to hers, looking all sheepish and irresistible. “Oh, I’ve got plenty on my mind, Ms. Paxton.”

Oo-kay. She didn’t quite know how to take that.

Fighting to keep her voice from squeaking, she replied, “All business, I hope.”

But not really.

Those damn lips of his curved up in amusement. “For some reason, I’m finding that rather difficult. Perhaps a change of scenery will help.”

As she was trying to decipher that cryptic statement, he walked slowly toward her. His eyes never left hers as he came closer and closer, his expression heating when he turned his focus to her mouth.