I couldn't help it. I giggled.
Liam shot me a glare, his face flushed with irritation. Clearly not high on his list of fun challenges. I smothered my laugh and tried to look sympathetic.
The judge shook his head and blew the whistle. "No. I'm sorry,” he told Liam. “Try again."
The man let Liam up, and my partner got to his feet, adjusting his pants and brushing the long black hair out of his face. He shook himself off, then gave a nod of readiness.
The judge blew the whistle again.
It was clear that the wrestler Liam faced was trying to go easy on him. He held his hands out, ready to counteract a move, but he also wasn't exactly being aggressive. He waited for Liam to move, and then when Liam lurched forward, grabbed him by the pants and slammed him to the ground again.
This time? I winced. That didn't look like fun. Liam wasn’t quite sure how to handle his oily opponent. He rubbed his gleaming shoulder and rotated it, as if the muscles ached, and dragged himself back to his feet again.
Someone ran up beside me. A backpack dropped and Brodie flopped down beside me. "Hey."
I watched as Tesla dropped her pack next to Brodie and stepped forward to receive her clue. This was her challenge. Oh, this was not going to go well for them.
Brodie squinted and watched as Liam went down for the third time. "Did that dude just shove his hand in Liam's pants?"
"Turkish oil wrestling," I explained. At least, I hoped that was part of the schtick and not just an overly handsy wrestler.
"Ah," Brodie said, as if that explained everything.
"So what took you guys so long? You left the same time we did."
"Tesla needed a few minutes to recharge her chakras," Brodie said in a deadpan voice. "She insisted on doing some yoga to align her spirits or some shit."
"Seriously?"
He twirled a finger near his ear, indicating his partner's insanity. "She's lucky she's hot."
"Yeah," I said in a snide voice. "It's so much better to have a hot partner than a capable one." Speaking of hot partners…I looked over at my greased-up rock star and felt a familiar quiver in my loins when he grappled the man he was wrestling, his muscles flexing. Oooh, he was getting better at this.
A moment later, he flew over the man's shoulder and thumped onto the ground. The man turned him over and shoved a hand down his pants again.
Liam cussed under his breath.
Brodie howled with delight, clearly enjoying Liam's discomfort.
I shoved my brother. "Shut up, already."
"Maybe you should have done this one, Katy," Brodie said, but it was loud enough for Liam to hear. He glanced over his shoulder at us, and the look on his face was narrow-eyed.
"Quit being a jerk," I told my brother, and clapped my hands to encourage Liam. "You've almost got it," I called to him. "Just ignore everything but your opponent."
"Holy mother," Brodie breathed, and I turned to where his gaze was centered. Tesla had moved out into the ring with her opponent, dressed in her yellow team sports bra and a pair of the odd leather pants. The judge seemed to enjoy pouring the oil on her, and her opponent ran slick hands over her, looking rather pleased that he'd gotten the job. The other wrestlers were watching her get oiled up, too.
And then the whistle sounded, and she faced off with her opponent. Tesla danced around him, bobbing and weaving in light motions that surprised me. Maybe when she had her chakras aligned, Tesla was light on her feet. Or something. Either way, she managed to slid behind her wrestling partner and almost pinned him to the ground before he grabbed her and flipped her over.
The moment Tesla hit the grass, Liam hit again.
On the next round, though, she got it. My jaw dropped as I watched Tesla slide over her opponent and shove her hand down the man's pants. And that guy looked like he was enjoying it. Yeah, he probably hadn't been trying too hard to fight her off. Who'd want to fend off a beautiful oily woman that wanted to get her hands on you?
"Winner," the judge announced, and handed Tesla her disk.
"Yeah!" Brodie leapt to his feet, pumping a fist in the air. "Hot damn, way to go, girl. You rocked that."
"It's because her opponent wanted to be touched by her," I grumped. "He wasn't exactly running away."
I winced as Liam slammed into the ground again. Tesla hadn't been that much better than Liam, or faster. It seemed like her wrestler had gotten the 'go easy' memo, though, and Liam's hadn't.
"Or maybe she's just got a bigger set of balls than Liam, there," Brodie said with an obnoxious laugh, and grabbed his crotch at Liam just as my oily rock star was picking himself up off the ground.
With an angry snarl, Liam launched himself at Brodie, flying across the arena.
Tesla backed away even as I shot to my feet.
Brodie tried to push Liam away as he charged, but Liam was covered in wrestling oil and shirtless. There was nothing to grab but slick, ropy muscle. As I watched, Liam gave Brodie a hard shove, and when Brodie sprawled backward, Liam flipped him onto his stomach and shoved his hand into the back of Brodie's pants, grabbing his underpants in the world's largest wedgie.
It was basically the same move that the Turkish wrestler had done to him, over and over again.
"Who's got the bigger balls now, huh?" Liam said in a low voice.
"You fucking son of a bitch!" Brodie flailed, fists flying.
The judges rushed forward to break up the fight. I ran to Liam's side, putting my hands on his oily chest. "Hey," I murmured, wide-eyed. His chest heaved with angry, rapid breaths. "Calm down," I told him. "He's just trying to get under your skin."
"Your brother," Liam heaved between breaths, "Is a fucking dick."
I couldn't argue with that.
Liam's dark gaze turned on me and he leaned in. "We're not helping them in this race. I'd be happy if they went home tomorrow."
I said nothing. Liam would flip out if he found out I'd given Brodie the Ace. So I didn't admit it. What he didn't know wouldn’t hurt him, and this was a bad time to confess. I ran a hand over his oily chest, trying to soothe him. "You're doing great," I murmured, ignoring Brodie's shouting on the far side of the judges that separated the men.
Liam seemed to calm a bit under my touch, though he still looked furious at Brodie.
A production assistant came up to one of the judges a moment later and whispered something. The judge nodded, and approached Liam and I as Brodie and Tesla headed off with their backpacks, presumably to the finish line. The man handed us a disk. It was bright red, with a big "6" on it.
"You have incurred a six hour penalty for fighting," he told us gravely. "You must wait here for six hours after your task is completed before you can receive your next set of directions."
“Six hours?” I protested. “Why did Brodie only get two hours for fighting previously? That’s not fair.”
“Two hours for every punch thrown.”
Liam's jaw tightened.
I hid my disappointment. Six hours? We were going to get eliminated for sure. But it was what it was. I gave Liam's chest a pat. "Don't worry about it," I told him. "Just finish the task. You're doing great."
He looked down at me, then leaned in and gave me a hard kiss, his piercing scraping against my cheek. Then, he stalked inside the ring and faced his opponent again.
It only took two more tries before Liam managed to flip his opponent. Once the man was down, he seemed to concede the fight, and let Liam shove a hand into his pants and pin him.
I whooped and cheered as Liam finished, and the production assistant set a stopwatch. Liam gave me a rueful grin and moved to my side, dragging me against him. I didn't care that he was oily, and sweaty. He was delicious. When he kissed me again, I kissed him back.
"I'm sorry," he told me.
"For what?"
"For losing my temper," he said, his voice gruff. "I've pretty much cost us the race."
I gave a shrug, feigning lightness. It wouldn't do any good to berate him. "The way I look a
t it, we've got a nice vacation in Acapulco to look forward to instead of sleeping in airports."
"Mmm," he said. "Do we get to share a bed?"
"Absolutely," I told him, rubbing a hand on his chest. "I'll even be the one to oil you up next time."
He sighed and pulled me close, just as the next team pulled up. We watched the two Olympian women race forward, our hearts sinking. They hadn't been that far behind Brodie and Tesla, and the balloons carried two, which meant another couple should have been hot on their heels.
That left one more couple an hour after them. No one was going to be six hours late.
We were totally eliminated.
~~ * * * ~~
I lay on the grass, Liam's head resting on my stomach, as we waited for time to pass. Idly, I toyed with his hair and we stared up at the brilliantly blue skies of Cappadocia, watching the occasional balloon float past.
"This place is really pretty," I said softly.
"Mmm." Liam's eyes were closed, and I couldn't tell what he was thinking. We'd been more or less silent for the past few hours, simply waiting. Abby and Dean had come and gone, Summer and Polly had come and gone. There was one more team - Joel and Derron - and we hadn't seen them anywhere, which made my stomach jumble into knots as the hours passed.
Liam had put his clothing back on over his oily chest, and his black shirt stuck to his skin, but there was no place to go to wash the oil off. We had to sit at the location and wait for our penalty to be over. It didn't matter anyhow, I told myself. We'd be heading to the loser lodge shortly and would have all the time in the world to shower.
We'd been here for hours on end. I didn't know how much time had passed - the race didn't allow us phones and neither Liam nor I had a watch set to the correct time since we jumped time zones so often. Someone would just tell us when our penalty was over, so we waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Which was why I was so surprised when I heard the sound of running feet. I turned idly and glanced down the path that had led to the challenge.
Joel and Derron had arrived.
I sat up, knocking Liam's head from my stomach, and he rolled away, surprised. We both stared at them as Joel moved forward to do the challenge and Derron came to sit next to us.
"I'm surprised to see you guys," he said, beaming at us. He looked thrilled. Of course he was. We were still at a challenge, hours after it should have been done. "What happened?"
"Six hour penalty for brawling," Liam said, glancing up at him.
"Brawling?" Derron's eyes widened and then he grinned. "Don't tell me. Brodie?"
"How'd you guess?" Liam asked, even as I stiffened in my seat on the grass.
"He and Tesla have been planning on trying to break your game for a while," Derron said. "Told me all about it last flight because we sat near them. Said you're too zen, so he was trying to get under your skin. Figured if he rattled you he might get the advantage."
My jaw dropped. My brother was a low down, sneaky jerk. He’d been sweet and apologetic to me while plotting behind my back the entire time. That little jerk.
Liam snorted. "Yeah, well, it worked."
Derron grunted. "He's kind of a shit." He glanced over at me. "Sorry. I know he's your brother."
"No, it's okay," I told him, feeling more than a little irritated at Brodie. "He is a shit." And he was totally going to hear a mouthful when I caught up to his ass.
He'd deliberately goaded my partner to try and get us eliminated from the race. And then as soon as he got me alone, what did he do? Played on me to get the Ace.
And I'd fallen for it. I felt like an idiot. I gave Liam a guilty look. Maybe it'd take a while for the Ace thing to hit the air. By that time, hopefully he'd have cooled down and he wouldn't freak out.
Though if he did freak out, I couldn't blame him. I'd fucked this up pretty good.
"So what happened with you guys?" Liam asked Derron. "You're hours behind everyone else."
"I couldn't find the stupid signal," Derron said, his face edging into unhappy lines. "I had to ride that damn balloon four times. Finally found it right under my nose." He shook his head. "I thought I'd cost us the race…."
His words trailed off but I knew what he'd meant. He thought he'd cost them the race until he saw us still sitting here. I glanced over at Joel as he emerged from the changing tent, all hard, compact body and stocky legs. He was a soldier, and incredibly fit. I had no doubt he could do this challenge easily. Judging from the smug expression on Derron's face, he thought the same thing.
The judge cleared his throat. "Liam and Katy?"
We leapt to our feet, all tension returning. "Yes?" I squeaked, my voice sounding ridiculous as I straightened.
"Your penalty is over." He held out the disk. "You may continue on to your next task."
I gave Liam a look of excitement, and he grabbed our bags as I raced for the disk. I glanced over at Derron, who'd gone stiff with frustration, his gaze on his partner in the ring. He wouldn't look over at me. That was for the best, since I couldn't hide my excitement.
As Liam came to my side, I read the disk. "Make your way to the finish line for this leg of the race. Return to the Goreme Open Air Museum and look inside for Chip Brubaker."
"Come on. We need to run it. We gotta make up time," Liam said, grabbing my hand just as the judge blew a whistle. Joel had just finished the task. Already.
We exchanged a look, then ran for the museum as if our lives depended on it. Liam’s hand clasped mine so tight that I thought my knuckles would break, but I couldn’t say that I wasn’t doing the same to him. We rushed back to the Air Museum and circled the grounds, looking for the finish line.
“There!” I spotted it just as Joel and Derron turned a corner behind us. Liam cursed and we surged forward.
We got to the finish line seconds before Joel and Derron did.
CHAPTER NINE
"Is it wrong to be so intensely attracted to someone like Katy and hate her brother so very, very much?" - Liam Brogan, Cambodia Leg of The World Races
Twelve hours later
"Make your way to the Angkor Wat temple grounds in Cambodia. There, you must search the grounds for the marked mat and receive your next clue. You have thirty two dollars for this leg," I read aloud, then glanced up at my partner. "Guess thirty two dollars won't get us another hotel room."
"Now that's a shame," he said, leaning in to lightly kiss the tip of my nose. "I'm still bummed about this last round."
We hadn't had enough money saved to cover food and a room, so we'd opted on eating. Liam had taken a quick shower at a local hostel and we'd catnapped in chairs at a movie theater. Not the most restful of options, but cheap with our limited money. Of course, it meant that we hadn't been able to have more alone time together. We'd had to settle for furtive kisses and groping in the dark of the movie theater.
And I'd originally thought I'd be fine with us not getting more privacy, but it turned out I was totally lying to myself. Every time Liam looked in my direction, I got all hot and bothered once more, imagining his mouth on my skin and his cock sinking deep inside me, filling the ache between my legs.
It didn't seem that I was the only one affected by this. Liam constantly touched me, his fingers brushing against my skin, as if he needed those quick, soft touches to anchor him. And of course, those touches just made me all fired up all over again. I got caught up imagining his tattooed body over mine, my hands gliding over the black lines on his arms—
"—Travel agency," Liam murmured in my ear.
"Huh?" I blinked back to reality, my dirty daydreams instantly disappearing.
"We should find a travel agency," Liam repeated. "See what flight gets us closest to Angkor Wat."
"Oh. Yes. Of course." I tucked the clue under my arm and took the hand he offered me, and we sprinted away from the starting line to a nearby row of cabs.
An hour later, we arrived at the airport and booked flights to Siem Reap, Cambodia. We'd just
missed the prior flight a half hour ago, and ours wouldn't leave for another hour.
We were still firmly in last place, and the other teams would have at least an hour jump on us thanks to the flights. And that was on top of the several hours we'd had to wait out for our penalty.
Liam sat down on the floor at the airport and patted his side. I moved next to him and curled up under his arm, pillowing my head on his shoulder and trying not to think of the logistics of things. "We're screwed unless there's a miracle of some kind," I told him, ignoring the camera-man that hovered nearby and taped our cuddling.
"Mmm. We'll catch up," Liam told me, his fingers idly playing with one of my blonde pigtails. "Don't lose faith."
"I won't," I told him, linking my fingers in his free hand. My other traced the lines of one of his tattoos, even as he stroked my hair and then my shoulder. Crap, now I was getting all turned on again. "I just worry that we're going to get booted before we even get started."
"We'll have a chance," Liam told me. "Worst comes to worst, we can just trade the Ace to Abby and Dean for a chance to get ahead or something. I bet they'd do it."
I said nothing, my stomach giving an awful clench of dismay. For once, I was glad that we were the last ones at the airport, because then no one could tell my partner - my sexy, gorgeous, hard-working partner - that I'd screwed us both and given the Ace to my lying brother.
~~ * * * ~~
Abby, it turned out, was right on the money with her advice. Make good TV? The producers will knock themselves over trying to save your asses.
We arrived at Siem Reap on schedule, got in the marked car left for us, and drove out to the Angkor Wat temple grounds. We blew through the first challenge - counting devas listed on the temple walls. It was time-consuming, but not too awful. As we counted, we'd also seen a group of musicians at the center of the temple, and Polly from the Olympian team working on a task. She finished up just as we approached, racing past us to return to her partner.