Casual Affair

“Okay, how about you go behind the hay bales over there,” she said, pointing to her right, “and I’ll take cover behind that rock.” She indicated an area to her left. “We go over at the same time, wait about ten seconds, and then open fire together.”

“We shouldn’t separate,” he whispered back. “Isolating ourselves makes us bigger targets.”

Except they needed to act fast now that they were in place. The rest of their teammates were firing but weren’t taking out a lot of the other players, only distracting them. “Attacking from different positions on this side will further divide them. The more divided they are, the less likely they’ll be able to return all our fire.”

He shook his head. “Trust me on this. Just start shooting on three.”

She swallowed her frustration. She never liked being told what to do, especially by a man. But he was the boss. So, she sucked in her pride and followed his instructions.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Ready.” They both took aim.

“One, two, three!”

Chaos.

They opened fire, blasting the enemy team in the back, spraying them with blue paint. Yellow pellets whizzed past. She could hear the puff of air leave the gun every time one of them fired, adding more thrill to her excitement.

“Good shot!” Price yelled when she nailed an enemy combatant in the chest.

One of the players he was aiming at threw his hands up when three blue paint splotches appeared on his torso. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

“Glad you noticed,” he responded smoothly.

She got the feeling he wasn’t just talking about paintball.

They swiftly took out two more players, leaving only three on the other team. One of whom she spotted slowly creeping to one side and up the hill, as if trying to sneak up behind them.

Assuming Price had spotted him, too, she shouted, “I got him!”

“What?” She heard him call, but she was already on the move.

She leaped out from behind a big oak tree that was providing them cover and dove for a large boulder. “Beatrice, wait!” he shouted, but she ignored him. She was focused on the guy easing through the grass, seemingly unaware that she had him in her sights.

Her goal was to make it to a fence-like structure about twenty feet in front of her, which would give her the perfect angle to take the dude out. It was going to be awesome, all badass Xena warrior princess–type stuff.

And winning the game for her team, now that would impress the boss man.

She waited for just the right moment, pushing to her feet when she saw her opening. She was zoned in on her target, gun lifting in his direction—and was suddenly flying through the air.

“Hey!”

Somebody had hold of her and they were going down. She braced herself for impact with the hard ground, but landed on a firm chest instead. A chest that smelled suspiciously like…Zane Price.

She was rolled off his body and found herself staring up at his face. He looked kind of angry. Huh. She wasn’t expecting that. She could feel his package grinding against her pelvis, so she certainly wasn’t mad about anything. A package that was quickly hardening, by the way.

“Did you just tackle me?” she asked in bewilderment.

She saw him swallow as his eyes flew over her face. “I believe I did, yes.”

Their position on the ground was far too sexual—not that she was doing anything about it. His upper body was hovering over hers so as not to crush her, but their lower bodies were in close contact.

Very close contact.

She cleared her throat. “Why?”

“Because you were about to become a casualty,” he whispered. “I saved your life.”

“My hero.” She’d meant it to sound sarcastic. But her voice came out a lot huskier than she’d intended.

He noticed.

His eyes darkened in response.

Everything below her belly clenched with need, a reaction that his own body mirrored. She felt him grow thick against her thigh, and though he didn’t say anything, she knew they were both aware of what was happening south of the border.

“And you’re still on top of me, why?”

“Because part of me is quite comfortable here,” he admitted. “And a different part of me is about to be in a world of pain once I move. I’m trying to decide which part I should listen to.”