Despite the fact it was lightly snowing outside, I needed a cold shower because all of these casual touches were lighting me on fire.
Ever since my brief, horror-filled stay at Blood Moon Laboratories, when Simon had used my worst childhood memories against me, I had been a bit standoffish from any sort of sexual contact with the guys. Not intentionally, but the first time one of them initiated something more than just a kiss, I’d had some sort of panic attack, so I had been careful to keep my distance. They had understood, too, never pushing me until I was ready--which made me see just how decent they really were. But from the way my skin lit on fire at every touch, I would say I might be ready again.
“Let’s get this over with,” I muttered, reluctantly pulling away from Caleb’s tempting embrace and yanking the zipper up on my oversized white jumpsuit. It was my first time paintballing, but I intended to put up a decent fight before undoubtedly losing to these vastly more experienced paintball fanatics. I needed to focus on the upcoming skirmish, not daydream about why I was suddenly responding to these touches like a cat in heat.
Head in the game, Kit. Quit thinking about what Caleb’s lips might taste like!
“Let’s head outside, Vixen,” Cole murmured, taking my hand in one of his huge, scarred ones and leading me out into the freezing cold with River close behind us. “All right, now listen closely. We have five minutes before the actual game begins to spread out and make it a bit more of a challenge. In addition to shooting the other team with paintballs, we also each have a flag we need to protect.” He pulled a black and white striped piece of fabric from his pocket and showed it to me. I nodded in understanding, then he continued, “stealing the other team’s flag automatically ends the game, regardless of how many shots you manage to land. Shots are only tallied if no one manages to steal a flag in the allotted time. Understood?”
“Got it,” I confirmed. “Protect our flag, steal theirs, shoot Austin as many times as possible.” Both Cole and River snickered. It was no secret the pair enjoyed the war between Austin and I far too much, even if he had thawed marginally in the time we had been forced to spend together. I was still living with them, and while I’d been working my tail off to complete my early graduation, the twins had been stuck playing teenager in order to keep me safe at school. Not that I needed them. Since Dupree’s death, no one else had made any new attempts to kidnap or kill me.
So far.
Lately it had been feeling very much like the calm before the storm, and something told me trouble was lurking around the next corner.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think you’ll have the chance, love.” River glanced back through the window to where the twins and Wesley were discussing their own game plan. “Austin is the strongest marksman, and he always guards the flag, which means it will be either Wesley or Caleb coming after ours.”
“That’s why you will be guarding ours.” Cole finished River’s explanation as though they were sharing their thoughts. “The two of them will be much more reluctant to shoot you, so you stand a much better chance of keeping our flag safe than either of us.”
They were probably right on that, so I just shrugged and took the striped fabric from Cole’s hand, shivers dancing up my arm where his skin brushed mine.
“Let’s go find our base location. Game begins in two minutes.” River led the way across the snow crusted grass, his boots crunching as he walked and his jumpsuit almost camouflaging him into the surroundings.
They quickly located our easily defensible position, which turned out to be a small raised platform with walls to hide behind and holes to shoot out of.
“All right, you know what to do?” River asked me once more, checking his watch.
“Defend the flag, shoot anything that moves.” I held my gun up with a grin, and he shook his head, a small smile pulling at his lips.
“Bugger, you look too damn sexy holding that gun, Kitten.” His eyes seemed to be turning my insides to molten lava just with the intensity of his stare.
“Find somewhere to tie the flag, Vixen,” Cole said, breaking my focus from River. “It doesn’t really matter where, but most people use that flagpole.” He pointed to the short flagpole sticking out the top of the structure.
“Any rules that it needs to be visible?” I asked, a better idea already in mind. Cole shook his head in response, so instead of tying it to the flagpole I unzipped the front of my jumpsuit once more and tucked it down the front of my v-neck sweater to nestle in my cleavage.
“What?” I shrugged in response to their raised eyebrows, zipping my suit back up again. “It was drafty.”
Cole opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a bored sounding employee’s voice over the crackly loudspeakers, counting down from ten.
“Guys, be careful today,” I said seriously, chewing my lip.
“Love, it’s just paintball.” River laughed and Cole grinned, but it did nothing to ease the twisting in my gut.
“I know I sound paranoid, but I feel like something bad is going to happen…” I trailed off, hearing how silly it sounded. I should have been happy that the last two months had been so uneventful after the madness that Dupree had rained down on us, but I just wasn’t convinced that was the end of it.
“Fair enough,” Cole told me, all traces of joking gone from his face.
“We don’t know enough about your abilities not to take feelings like that seriously, love. We will stay alert.” River nodded, then smacked a quick peck on my lips before jogging back in the direction we had last seen our opposing team.
“You be careful too, Vixen.” Cole frowned, also giving me a quick kiss but holding my face still for a moment in one of his huge hands. “You’re too important.”
He was gone, following River before I had a chance to clarify what he meant, and I was suddenly alone with my thoughts. My teeth worried at my lower lip hard enough to draw a little blood, and my palms were sweating. What the hell had me so on edge?
Twenty minutes later, without a single taste of action, I was regretting having made such a fuss about not wanting to paintball. Being left to defend our team’s base and flag was downright boring. The paranoia hadn’t eased; in fact it seemed to be getting worse. My skin was crawling with the sensation, as though I was being watched, and I had chewed my nails down so badly it looked like I had trimmed them with a cheese grater.
After pacing the small platform for what must have been the seven thousandth time, I had to do something. Anything. Just something that wasn’t this. As I knelt to climb down from our team’s base, I spotted movement coming down the field towards me, ducking from obstacle to obstacle so stealthily that I almost didn’t see him.