Something Wilder

Bradley leaned forward, nearly launching the crust of his sandwich at Nicole in his rush to battle this out. “Fuck you. I call Leo.”

“You’re all working solo,” Lily cut in, raising her voice over their bickering. “It’s a friendly contest. No teams.”

Amid their overlapping protests—But I’ve never shot a bow and arrow— Everyone knows Leo is the code master— Don’t be so sure, Walt— Puzzles like on Survivor, you mean?—Lily stood and cleared out the lunch spread, avoiding the way her ancient lizard brain wanted to remind them all that no matter who called dibs today, Leo had been hers first.

Chapter Eight

“THERE ARE FIVE stations,” Lily told them as they stood in front of the field full of games. “The slide puzzle, code deciphering, lassoing, archery, and lock picking.”

“What about fire building?” Terry asked. “You’re telling me that isn’t important out here?”

She slowly turned her eyes to him. “You want four amateurs to set fires in the desert, Terry?”

He shifted on his feet, falling silent, and she continued. “There’s a tool kit at every station.” She walked them through the basics, knowing archery would need to be a little more hands-on. With a tilt of her chin, Lily beckoned them over to the archery setup and showed each of them how to hold the bow, how to nock the arrow, how to aim and release. Only Terry and Leo seemed to have any experience with it; as long as Walter and Bradley didn’t shoot the arrow directly overhead or at each other, they’d be okay.

“What do we get if we win?” Terry asked.

Nicole grinned around a toothpick. “A chance to die like a man.”

“An extra clue,” Lily corrected. “And an extra beer tonight.”

That got their attention. Gathering them at the start of the course, Lily blew her whistle and the men jumped into action toward the slide puzzles. All but Leo. He carefully approached his puzzle, observing, but didn’t touch it. While the other three frantically shifted pieces, turning the board to various angles, Leo stood, staring.

“What’s he doing?” Nicole stage-whispered out of the side of her mouth.

“Solving it.”

As expected, Leo stepped forward, leaning down, and after ten decisive moves, stepped back.

“Check.”

Lily walked over; the image of the red rock landscape had been assembled perfectly. Of course. She gave a stiff nod. “Go on.”

With a little smirk, he was at the code. Leo leaned in, pen in hand, surveying again. This time, he tried a few things out, but Lily witnessed the moment it clicked.

“Oh, he got it,” Nicole said.

They watched him write the answer and then flip his paper over so Bradley, who had just finished the puzzle, couldn’t see.

“Wanna check?” he asked, looking up at her with amusement in his eyes.

Lily set her jaw, shifting her attention to the side as she tamped down the unsettling combination of irritation and attraction. “Just go on.”

He struggled a bit with the lock picking but still made it out before Bradley solved the code. Terry made it through the code quickly, but there was no hope for anyone else. Lily didn’t think anyone in the history of Wilder Adventures had finished the sequence of challenges faster than Leo. He had a lasso made and wrapped around his hay-bale steer’s horns in under a minute, and surprised even Lily when he hit his third bull’s-eye in archery and then slowly turned, lowering the bow in his arm as he looked over at her.

“Is that everything?” he asked.

“You showing off?” she replied.

He reached up, scratching his eyebrow and squinting at her, backlit by the sun. “Maybe a little.” His gaze burned briefly, only a flicker of heat, but she caught it. “Had to remind myself that once upon a time I was good at something other than sitting at a desk.”

The unexpected vulnerability in his tone hit her like a punch to the stomach. “And? Are you satisfied?”

“Satisfied?” Finally, a real smile. “Not yet.”

Her breath froze in her chest. Lily had been all wrong; she’d been worried that the pieces of Leo that differentiated him from every other man were gone, muted somehow in the intervening years. But present-day Leo wasn’t cold, he’d just been stunned into silence at their unexpected reunion. That shock was ebbing. She could see with her own two eyes that he was still the paradoxical brew of hot-blooded and restrained she’d fallen for years before.

And heaven help her. It was warm out and he was all male physicality and testosterone. Leo had changed into a black T-shirt and the sleeves hugged his broad shoulders. His jeans hung low on his hips, well-worn and soft. The size thirteen boots Lily had tossed at him only this morning were dusty, soft brown leather.

Lily couldn’t help the laugh that came out of her like a celebration. She wanted to hate him. She wanted to resent this man forever. But how could she? Whether he was aware of it or not, he was looking at her like she was the prize at the end.