Though he was guilty of many things, he had never been one to panic.
Naturally, there was a first time for everything.
Chapter Twenty-One
The sun woke him up rather than his alarm. Christian groaned out loud as he quickly got ready then stepped out into the hall.
As per their earlier arrangement, Nick was lying across the floor in front of Christian’s door. And Duncan, bless his twisted little heart, was sleeping with his paintball gun across the threshold of Kessen’s door. Both of them snoring in unison as if they had been spent many years as an old married couple.
Christian’s sluggish mind began mentally calculating how long it was before his coming nuptials. Five days didn’t seem far away, and the ever-present panic began welling up inside his chest before he had time to stop it.
Marriage was inevitable, love was—oh no. It always came back to love, didn’t it? His chest suddenly constricted. He felt as if Kessen had shot him three times in the front rather than the back. Whatever this feeling was, he needed to keep it to himself, or she would be on the first flight back to Colorado. He was just panicking, that was all.
He carefully stepped over the sleeping guards, opened Kessen’s door, and peeked in.
“Kessen,” he whispered “Kessen, are you in here?”
No response.
He looked toward the made bed then glanced at the bathroom door just as she was coming out, with only a towel on.
He panicked, not because of the towel, but because he didn’t want her to think poorly of him for sneaking in her room twice within the past twelve hours.
“What are you doing here?” she squealed. “Nick’s a light sleeper. If you don’t watch out, you’ll have more paintball welts than you can count.”
“Your concern for me is endearing,” he drawled. His mouth suddenly went dry as he noticed the sunlight reflecting off of her shiny skin.
He slowly turned his head to fully face the water nymph, clad in nothing but a giant towel and a scowl. Both of which looked more brilliant on her than anything he had ever seen in his life.
“Uh,” he started to say, eloquently. “I was just looking for you.”
Kessen grunted. “I figured you weren’t lost.”
He bit his lip, silently praying the pain would take away the already increasing desire to see her out of the towel and onto her bed.
His thoughts were not his own.
She lifted a questioning eyebrow in his direction as if to say, “Are you going to speak or just sit there and stare at me like an animal in heat?”
“I wanted to apologize and say I’m glad we came to an agreement last night.” He suddenly felt twelve years old, which was further proven by the fact he broke eye contact and suddenly found grand interest in the way his shoe rubbed against the carpet.
His averted eyes didn’t slow the ramming of his heart within his chest. Could she at least put on a robe or something?
Christian swallowed convulsively when he noticed the shadow on the floor creep toward him. She was moving closer; he began to smell the lemon soap she had so expertly applied to her body. He closed his eyes for a brief second before holding his breath.
“I need to get dressed.” Her lips were inches from his.
Now she was just being cruel. He was obviously stronger than her; all he needed to do was take her by surprise and—
“Stop,” she said, half smiling. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“Oh dear girl, you have no idea what I’m thinking. If you did, you’d lock yourself in that bathroom and pray for my black soul.” He broke into a wide grin, obviously throwing her off balance.
“Well, I—” She cleared her throat. “Nevertheless, I need to get dressed, and you shouldn’t be in here. All I need to do is scream, and Nick and Duncan will implant paintballs into your already damaged back. We wouldn’t want an accident now, would we?”
“You wouldn’t dare,” he challenged.
She cleared her throat again and opened her mouth.
Christian slapped his hand across it and whispered into her ear, “Scream, and I’m pulling your towel off right now; I don’t care who sees.”
Her eyes molded into tiny slits.
“Good girl. Now get dressed. We have a big day ahead of us.” He strolled out of the room, leaving a bit more confident than when he arrived.
He had the upper hand; he just needed to keep it that way.
Christian left Kessen’s room and carefully maneuvered himself so his foot would smack the top of Duncan’s head. It worked splendidly. Duncan cursed as Christian removed the boot, and before anyone knew what was going on, Christian had shot the gun in the direction of Nick’s chest. He only meant to graze him, but unfortunately his thoughts had been elsewhere, same as his aim.
It ended up knocking Nick in the arm, sending a stream of expletives into the air that Christian silently hoped nobody else could hear.
“What’d you do that for?” Nick yelled.
Christian laughed. “Duncan, I can’t believe you would shoot a sleeping man!”
Duncan just stared between the two, flabbergasted as to what just happened. He was still rubbing his head when Nick lifted his paintball gun.
“Not in the house!”
Duncan’s speech was cut off by a howling of gigantic proportions. Nick’s shot was spot-on. And Christian figured by the looks of it Duncan would be walking funny for about a week; hopefully the bruising to his kneecap wouldn’t be substantial. But then again, both of them had interrupted his sweet interlude with Kessen the night before.
And one of them had had the audacity to call him a raw-boned high schooler, as if they hadn’t ever had an impure thought in their lives.
He chuckled and skipped down the stairs before either of them could figure out what just took place. His laughing was put to a bitter end, though, when he plopped into his chair and his spine made contact with the back.
A scream of pain that was anything but masculine escaped his lips just as Kessen graced the table with her presence.
“Constipated?” she asked sweetly as she took a cup of coffee.
He felt hot tears welling up in his throat as he paused to catch a breath. Who knew paintball bruises could be so painful?
“No, just thinking about kissing you.”
“Aw, how sweet. You’re so desperate for my touch you scream. I’m honored.” She winked as Christian thought about several different ways to cause her physical harm without being found guilty in a court of law.
In desperation, he threw a muffin at her face, hoping it would at least shut her up while he wallowed in more pain. She ducked, and the muffin hit the wall.
“Food fight at eight a.m.?” Duncan limped into the dining room.
Nick walked in with an ice pack on his arm and pushed past Duncan, causing him to nearly trip. Kessen quickly got up to help him to his seat.
“Oh, Kessen. Thanks. It’s kind of you to help me.” Duncan smiled sweetly at Kessen, and then kissed her on the cheek.
“Are you hurt badly, Duncan?”
He nodded and made eye contact with Christian.
“It hurts here.” He pointed to a spot on his leg.
Kessen bent down to look at where he was pointing.
Christian’s thoughts turned murderous as Duncan’s face took on a whole new form of smugness. “Yes. Right there, Kessen,” he said, as if he were on the verge of crying. Kessen leaned down and kissed Duncan’s knee.
Christian cursed, and Nick was still refusing to make eye contact with anyone. In his defense, he did have a bruised head and arm from Christian, even though he assumed it had been Duncan.
“Does this feel better?” Kessen asked as she lifted Duncan’s leg and rested it on a chair.
“Much. Thank you!”
“Let me see.” She lifted up his pant leg then grabbed some ice from the nearby cart. She applied some of it to his knee and put a towel over it.
“Your touch is all the healing I need,”
Duncan said huskily as he grabbed Kessen’s hand and kissed it. In Christian’s opinion, he basically mauled it. Was that tongue?
He pushed back his chair just as Duncan dropped her hand and began eating. Christian looked around for something sharper than a knife, but not before Kessen came to his side of the table and removed all pointy objects. “I think it best to keep these away from you in your current state of imbalance.”
“She means you’re a fool.” Nick piped up.
Duncan laughed, and Kessen patted Christian on the head as if to say, “Good boy. Now eat your food.”
Christian sat down and scowled.
“By the way, everything’s in order,” Nick said to no one in particular.
“Good,” Duncan answered.
“Oh, so we are talking now?”
Duncan threw a grape in his direction. “Yes. I have a suspicion Christian was somehow involved in the latest attacks.”
“Agreed,” Nick said, nodding his head. “Today we have badminton set up, as well as a hike around the grounds, and trivia questions in the evening. Any questions?”
“When did we sign up for the senior citizen cruise?” Christian ridiculed.
“Well, you are losing your hair,” Duncan said, not answering his question.
“Am not!” he shouted, and then looked to Kessen for help. The little traitor shrugged and sipped her coffee. Christian suddenly felt the need to look into a mirror and make sure nobody had shaved his head in the middle of the night.
Not able to handle the averted eyes any longer, Christian jumped from his chair and found the nearest mirror. He heard high fives and laughter in the background.
“Told you he would fall for it!” Duncan snickered.
Every hair was in perfect place. Christian hated to admit he was worried they had removed his favorite physical attribute. It had always been a great fear he would one day lose his hair and teeth. Only Duncan knew that.
He should guard his secrets a little better.
Walking back to the table, he took a detour and slapped Duncan behind the head, then took his seat.
“I expected that, therefore fully braced for impact,” Duncan said sternly.
Nick nodded his head, giving the impression that he was saying “Good man, good man.”
And Kessen found sudden interest in her pudding.
“No!” Nick shouted as he jumped across the table. Dishes went everywhere, tea was on the floor, and the coffee was now searing Christian’s hands.
The whole thing happened in slow motion. One minute Nick was eating silently, the next he was shouting and slapping pudding out of Kessen’s hands.
“What the—” Christian looked at the mess. Nick was sprawled across the table with Kessen’s spoon in his hand, and Duncan’s mouth was formed into the biggest smile Christian had ever seen.
“You know, Christian, I think we should have brought in Americans a long time ago! This is fun!” Duncan clapped his hands, and then straightened as Christian sent him a searing look.
He closed his eyes. “Do I even want to know?”
Nick was the first to answer. “She’s allergic.”
“To pudding?” Christian mocked.
Nick rolled his eyes. “No, genius. Not to pudding, to bananas. She breaks out in crazy hives and starts sneezing, then gets basically wasted out of her mind on allergy medication to get rid of the side effects.”
“Attractive,” Christian commented, locating his tipped-over chair and tea.
Kessen pushed the pudding away. “I thought it was vanilla.”
“Sure you did,” Nick said hotly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she yelled
“It means, Kessen,” he said her name with disdain, “last time you ate banana pudding you used the same excuse, and it was to get out of going on that field trip to the cheese factory. The same field trip I was forced to partner with Brady Johnson; he nearly killed me!”
Kessen shook her head. “He exaggerates.”
“I am most certainly not exaggerating! He pushed me, Kessen, pushed me into the giant tub of cream. I couldn’t breathe, Kessen, and you know I’m lactose intolerant!”
Duncan snorted in the background.
Kessen rolled her eyes. “Nick, I think you’re making a big deal out of it. Didn’t you get special treatment from Nurse Betty for a month?”
Christian coughed. “Nurse Betty?”
Nick turned towards him. “Yeah, she was hot.”
“Sounds like it.”
Kessen groaned. “Men are pigs.”
“Am I truly that bad of an option that you would rather choose allergic shock over spending the afternoon with me?” Christian asked.
“He has a point,” Duncan said.
“I second the point made by Christian and agree with Duncan,” Nick said, saluting both men.
Kessen looked stuck. “Fine! But I hate hiking.”
Nick’s smile turned smug. “She really does. One time this bee followed her the entire way up the mountain, and then the entire way down. She finally found her courage and forgot about it, then it stung her in the a—”
“As I was saying.” Kessen cleared her throat. “I don’t like hiking. But then again, I’m the only uninjured party. How hard can it be?”
Nick winked. Christian licked his lips, avoiding eye contact, and Duncan gave her an innocent shrug.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kessen hated being wrong. Hated being the key word. Her heart was filled with hate as Christian whistled next to her, as if he hadn’t a care in the world, when at any moment they could plunge to their deaths. Did nobody care?
“Careful,” Christian said as he pulled her closer to the rock.
“This isn’t hiking.” Her teeth were clenched, so she was surprised he actually understood the words coming out of her mouth.
“What makes you think that?”
“I live in Colorado, Christian! I know what hiking is. I know what mountains are! There are trails, and birds, and trees and—”
A rock suddenly slipped from beneath her foot, causing her to momentarily stop talking.
“And?” he prompted.
“And I don’t know! You don’t have to wear special harnesses, and it’s actually fun, and you don’t sweat, and you don’t get gross, and … oh no! Christian, don’t move!”
He paused and looked at her as if she had lost her mind. Which for argument’s sake, she was getting ready to admit to. Who in their right mind would actually scale a rock wall in hopes of seeing a waterfall that was merely rumored to exist?
Oh, that’s right, Duncan and Nick.
The same Duncan and Nick who, upon further inspection, were never planning on climbing in the first place, considering they forgot their gear and could only send two people up at a time.
She closed her eyes and willed the tears to stay inside her lids.
“It’s so big!” she yelled, still clutching the rock wall.
She felt Christian’s hot body pressed against hers. “I do get that quite a lot, in fact—”
“Stop talking!” she yelled.
“It’s an ant,” he whispered into her ear.
“It’s huge.”
“It won’t bite you.”
“It’s red, Christian!”
“At least you have your sight. Bravo,” he mocked behind her. She could still feel his body pressing hers against the rock. If she hadn’t been so freaked out, she would have enjoyed the feeling. Instead she was trying to remember the documentary she had watched on the history channel about fire ants.
“Kessen,” Christian whispered into her ear again.
She shook her head.
“Kessen, do you think I would let anything happen to you?”
She hadn’t thought about it; she shook her head no, because honestly, he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He would rather let himself get hurt than see her even cry. He was just that type of man—a man she could respect, and possibly even…
It
always came back to love.
But he would never love her back, and he would say she was crazy. Love after only a few days? Maybe she had lost her mind.
“It’s gone.” He released her body from his hold, leaving her suddenly feeling cold and alone. She had half a mind to find the ant and demand it torture her, so she could feel Christian’s warm embrace again.
A quick glance down at Duncan and Nick, both of whom were eating licorice and playing with sticks as if they were swords, infuriated her. “A little help up here!” she yelled.
“Oh, sure,” Nick answered from below, giving them more rope, so she could walk along the hazardous edge.
“Remind me why we are doing this again?” Her voice was cracking with fear; she hated heights.
Christian’s hand went firmly around her waist. “We are here scaling this monstrous rock, because our friends thought it would be a good team-building exercise, since you are so prone to physical violence in regular sports.”
“In theory a good idea,” she said dryly.
“In theory,” he agreed, laughing. “I think we only have a few more steps before the rumored waterfall.”
She nodded and felt him give her another nudge up the rock as she pulled herself to the top and sat. It was a breathtaking view of a ridiculous amount of landscape. It wasn’t breathtaking enough to help her forget just how high they were, but it was enough for her to appreciate the feat she had just accomplished. How was it that Nick and Duncan had managed to find the one giant rock wall in an area covered with more rolling green land than hills was beyond her. A very small part of her mind said there was no waterfall at the other end of their little adventure, and they merely did this to vex her.
Christian pulled himself up next to her. She couldn’t help but admire the cords of muscle which lined his biceps and forearms. Maybe he took drugs, or maybe he had good genes. Hmm … good genes meant good bloodlines, which equaled strong, healthy kids.
Her eyes widened in shock as she mentally scolded herself. What she needed was a good slap. What was she thinking? Kids? With Christian? She blushed as he turned to throw her one of his devastating smiles.