“Okay.”
There was one more thing I needed her to know before we moved on. “Zoey, I can promise you that you can trust me. I have never, nor would I ever, cheat on a woman. I’m just not built that way. I want to see where this goes, and really hope it goes far, but if that changes, I’ll let you know. The last thing I want to do is hurt you.”
Her lips tilted fully then and she said, “Okay,” before leaning down and kissing me sweetly.
Her tongue ran along my bottom lip before she pulled it between her teeth and sucked, causing the sweetness to leave me, a burning need in its place. Taking control of the kiss, I tilted my head and shoved my hands in her hair, holding her to me as I ravaged her mouth with mine.
When she pulled back, lips swollen, cheeks flushed, and eyes heavy, I asked, “Do I look bored?”
Zoey grinned broadly as she shook her head. Then she jumped me.
Chapter Eighteen ~ Zoey
“Are you ready to get your asses kicked?” Reardon shouted.
“Puh-lease,” Jasmine answered with a smirk. “You couldn’t kick our asses if you had a rocket strapped to yours, Ass!”
“Yeah, Rear, you’re going down,” Serena added, getting into the competitive spirit.
“You’re cute, Rena,” was Dillon’s reply as he settled into a lunge, ready to run.
I was quiet as I watched them trash talk each other. It was interesting to observe, but I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. It was my first time being in any sort of sports day competition. It was the Saturday before camp, and from what Gabe said, they did a run through of the course every year, because each Saturday of camp the campers would get to compete on the same course. There were spotters stationed throughout the course, and a medical team on hand just in case there were any injures, which I had to admit, scared me a little bit. Yes, I kept myself in pretty good shape, considering I spent most of my day sitting, but this was totally out of my comfort zone.
“Enjoy your talk,” Gabe said calmly as he stretched out his magnificent body. “You all know who’s going to be the first one to cross that finish line.”
Apparently Gabe was always the winner of the cousins’ competition, and while I found his confidence sexy, at the same time, his arrogance was a little annoying.
I decided to try and get in on the action.
“I hate to break it to you, but I’m going to put a foot up all of your asses,” I said haughtily.
Wait … I’m not sure that came out right, I thought, and I looked around to see them all grinning at me.
When Gabe chuckled and gave me a wink, I scowled at him and muttered, “Whatever.”
“All right, guys, follow the course, be safe, and may the best man,” the announcer guy stopped when Serena cleared her throat, “uh … person, win. On your mark, get set, go.”
I jogged at a comfortable pace, happy to stay at the back of the group, since I really had no idea where we were going. Gabe had showed me the path and tried to explain it all to me the night before, but I had to admit, I’d been so mesmerized by the shape of his mouth and tone of his voice, that I’d barely paid attention to what he was saying anyway. Regardless, I wasn’t concerned about winning; I just hoped I could finish in one piece.
When I arrived at the ropes course, Serena was following Jasmine up the ladder that climbed a tree, while the three men were already across the first length of rope. I climbed, trying to block out the fear that was starting to take hold. When I got to the top of the platform, Jasmine was almost across and Serena was just stepping onto the rope. One of the helper guys told me to step into the harness and buckled me up, then clasped a rope to my belt and handed it to me.
“Just focus on balance and the other side. Don’t look down, and don’t worry, if you fall off the harness will hold and we’ll pull you across.”
“Son of a bee sting, are you serious?” I asked after I made the mistake of glancing over the platform. “Kids do this?”
The man chuckled and replied, “All the time. They love it. Now, off you go.”
I looked up and across, just in time to see Serena give me a thumbs up and yell, “You’ve got this!”
I tried to smile, but my lips were trembling just as much as my legs. I took a deep breath and stepped gingerly onto the rope. After what felt like a lifetime, but was only moments, I made it safely to the other side. I sidestepped around the platform to get to the other side of the tree, even though I was scared to see what was next. I almost peed in my running shorts when I saw the zip line disappearing into the trees.
“What kind of camp is this?” I asked under my breath, then looked up when the next safety guy started to chuckle. He walked through what I would need to do once I neared the other side in order to stop, and I watched his every movement as if my life depended on it.
Because it did.
“You’ll be fine,” he assured me. “Once you get to the other side, you’ll repel down the wall and be back on solid ground, then you’ll jog to the next leg of the course.”
“Oh, sure, no big deal,” I replied a bit nastier than was necessary, but when Gabe said they were doing a sports competition, I’d imagined more of a triathlon than a freaking death course. I guess that would teach me to pay attention to what my boyfriend was saying, rather than imagining what his lips could do to me.
Whoa, boyfriend? Slow down, sister…
Before I could chastise myself any further, I was hurtling across the sky, screaming my head off, with no end in sight.
I finally saw the platform, with another big guy waiting for me. He waved his hand, indicating I should follow the directions to slow down and stop. Once I was safely in his arms, he walked me over to the side where I would repel down and indicated what I should do.
As I looked over the edge, I vowed that I was going to make Gabe pay for putting me through this. I wasn’t sure how yet, but it sure as hell was going to happen.
I held tightly to my rope as I lowered myself over the side, then brought my feet up and began pushing off the wall of the rock as I lowered myself to the ground. I actually enjoyed the repelling. Maybe because I knew I’d soon be safely on solid ground again.
By the time the last guy helped me out of my harness and set me free, I was able to smile at him and say, “Thank you.” Then I took off jogging.
I caught a flash of pink from Serena’s shorts, and was happy that I hadn’t fallen too far behind. When I was almost caught up to her, my glee fled as I noticed the obstacle course waiting before me.
“I thought this was football camp, not boot camp!” I shouted as loud as I could through pants when I reached the wires that Jasmine and Serena were low-crawling under.
I don’t know how, but Jasmine found it in her to laugh as she came through the other side and stood.
“I know it’s tough, but it’s a great workout, and the kids love it. It’s usually their favorite part of camp.”
“They’re nuts,” was my reply as I lowered to my belly and began to move.
Okay, that wasn’t so bad, I thought as I made it to the end of the wires and jogged to where the girls were swinging on a rope over a small pool of water.
Maybe it was because I wasn’t up in the trees, or maybe it was because I could see the guys, neck and neck, going over the last couple obstacles while I caught up to the girls, but as I swung on the rope and landed on the other side of the pool, I had a grin firmly in place as I jumped through the tires and passed Serena.
Jasmine was struggling to pull her body over and under the ladder of logs when I passed her, taking off at a sprint when I saw the guys going over the wall. Gabe hopped down and ran, the path leading him back around so he passed me as I got to the base of the wall. I looked up at it, groaning at the thought of having to scale another high obstacle.
I grabbed the rope and tried to climb, but my already sore arms shook with protest.
“I don’t think I can do it,” I moaned as I tried to brace myself against the wall with my feet a
nd pull myself up.
“You can.”
I looked over, startled at Gabe’s words, and saw him running over to me. He grabbed the rope next to me, his position mirroring mine.
“Pull!” he yelled, and I dug deep and listened, walking my feet upward as I used every ounce of energy I had left to pull myself up the rope.
“Pull!”
“Pull!”
“Pull!”
Gabe reached the top and swung his leg over, then offered his hand to me. I grasped it gratefully, and he helped pull me up enough so I could swing my leg over.
When we were both seated, facing the opposite, he turned to me and said, “We jump on three.”
I was too winded to answer, so I simply nodded.
“One, two, three.”
We pushed off and landed in the dirt below, then he held out his hand to get me on my feet and we started running. I heard Jasmine, then Serena, hit the ground behind us, and that fueled me on.
“We’re almost at the finish,” Gabe stated, then asked, “Finish strong?”
Rather than answer verbally, I kicked up my heels and gave it my all. When we reached the finish line, Dillon was drinking water, and Reardon was grinning so broadly that I knew he’d won.
I kept walking, even though all I wanted to do was collapse, and accepted the water bottle that someone offered me.
“Congratulations,” Gabe said as he clapped Reardon on the back, then walked toward me with his hands on his hips. “You okay?”
“I hate you,” I answered, causing him to chuckle.
He wrapped his sweaty arms around my equally sweaty body and dipped his head low.
“No you don’t,” he said, then brushed his lips softly against mine and added, “I’m proud of you.”
“Me too,” I admitted. “Thanks for coming back for me.”
“Always,” he said sweetly, causing my stomach to turn to goo and my heart to pound happily in my chest.
Then I thought about the ropes course and promised myself, I’m still going to get him back, as I smiled sweetly and leaned in to kiss him more thoroughly.
Chapter Nineteen ~ Gabe
It seemed like all of a sudden we’d entered warped speed.
Time was going by too quickly. We’d already had the sports day, my counselors had all arrived, and we’d been working all day on finishing touches for tomorrow’s Opening Day.
I hadn’t seen much of Zoey. She’d spent the day with Jasmine and Serena in the General Store, stocking shelves and making sure there weren’t any last-minute items that needed to be ordered for the first wave of kids.
Now we were getting ready to meet up for a game of two-hand touch, before having a big barbecue to welcome the counselors and say goodbye to Dillon, Jasmine, and Serena. It was always bittersweet for me when my cousins left and the campers arrived, but at least I still had Reardon for another week.
And Zoey…
She’d be with me for one more week as well.
My camp was co-ed, but unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of girls in the twelve-to-eighteen age range who still played football. Which meant there was only one cabin dedicated to the females, and the rest were for the males. I had one female counselor on staff, and she, as well as the women, like Zoey, who came to chaperone would stay in cabins together with the female campers.
Zoey had decided to just move her stuff to the cabin at the main site where she’d be staying for the rest of her trip, that way the counselor who’d be staying in the one she had been sleeping in could move his stuff in right away.
That meant she wasn’t just a few doors down from me, and she’d have roommates for the duration of her stay here. I’d tried to talk her into moving into my cabin for the rest of her trip, but she’d turned me down right away.
“No, I couldn’t do that,” Zoey had insisted when I’d made the suggestion.
“Why not?”
“We don’t know each other well enough to live together,” she’d hissed, causing me to chuckle.
“It’s not like we’d really be moving in together, Zoey. Think of it more like … going on vacation together.”
Her face had softened, but before I could celebrate winning the argument she shook her head and said, “Christopher gets here tomorrow. It’ll be weird enough to him that I hooked up with you while I was here; he’d flip if he showed up and we were essentially living together.”
I understood her point, so I placed my arms over her shoulders and leaned my head down, resting my forehead on hers.
“But you are going to tell him about us, right? We’re not going to try to keep it a secret, because I don’t want that…”
Zoey’s lips tipped up as she replied, “Yes, we’ll tell him, but I’m sleeping in the female cabin.”
“I’ll agree to that, if you’ll agree that tonight, you’re with me.”
She flushed at the insinuation of my words, then nodded and replied softly, “Okay.”
Now, although I was excited to kick the asses of the college-aged counselors at football, I was more than ready for the evening to be over so I could spend the night showing Zoey what she’d be missing down in the other cabin.
“Are you ready to get your ass handed to you, old man?” one of my counselors, Antoine, asked as I strolled onto the field.
I didn’t respond. I simply smirked at him as I passed and walked toward my cousins.
The football field was the place where I felt absolutely at home. I’d grown up on fields just like this one. I’d won, I’d lost, I’d gotten in fights and been injured, made great friends, and great enemies. If there was one place where I had one-hundred percent confidence in my abilities, this was it.
“Hey,” I said as I reached the huddle.
“Hey, Gabe,” Dillon said, thrusting his chin out toward the huddle of twenty-something guys. “The tweens are talking all kinds of smack already, say they’ve been practicing for this all year.”
I grinned and replied, “Well, hopefully they at least give us a challenge this time.”
I looked around at my cousins, dressed out in their athletic gear, ready to throw down. Serena and Jasmine had tied back their hair and put black marks under their eyes. We’d been playing the game together since we were old enough to throw a ball, and our girls were always ready to play. The first year the kids had underestimated them, and the girls wiped the field with their asses. The guys never made that mistake again.
“Where’s Zoey?” I asked when I realized she wasn’t in the group.
“Over there,” Jasmine replied, pointing to the bleachers. “She’s not going to play.”
I started to jog over, just as I saw Jeremy, one of my counselors, stop and start stretching right next to where Zoey was sitting.
She looked hot in her tank top and short running shorts, her hair pulled back and her face sun-kissed. I knew exactly what Jeremy was up to, and as I got closer, I knew I was going to have to make a statement to let my hormone-driven counselors know what was up.
“It’s nice to meet you, Zoey,” Jeremy was saying. He leaned to the side as he stretched, then put his hands to the hem of his shirt and lifted it off in one quick move. “You wanna play on our team?”
“No thanks,” Zoey answered quietly, looking over and up at me as I stepped up.
“Easy, killer,” I said, my voice teasing as I clapped a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. “You aren’t putting the moves on my woman, are you?”
Jeremy shot a look between me and Zoey and started backing away, his hands up in surrender and a big grin on his face.
“Definitely not, Coach, just testing the waters. I didn’t know she was spoken for.”
“Spread it,” was my reply, then I turned to see Zoey looking up at me, confusion spread over her face.
“What was that about?”
“I’m letting the boys know that you’re with me, so they can stop flirting and trying to get in your pants.”
“What?” Zoey asked, her eyes disbelieving. “They
aren’t flirting with me.”
Just then Antoine yelled out, “Hey, Ms. Zoey, you gonna play?”
I looked over my shoulder and saw Jeremy run over to Antoine and say something, then Antoine turned his eyes to me and shouted, “Sorry, Coach!”
I turned and looked pointedly at Zoey.
She waved her hand and said, “Stop, they aren’t flirting. They’re just trying to be nice.”
“Babe,” I said, leaning down to keep her eyes on me as spoke. “They’re young, horny, college football players. They’re used to having any girl they want, and right now, you sitting here looking sexy as hell, you’re what they want.”
“But I’m ten years older than they are.”
“Even better. Ask Rena and Jazzy, they’re constantly having to turn these guys down. Doesn’t stop the guys from trying every year though.”
“Gabe,” she said, still disbelieving. “College guys didn’t want me when I was in college, why would they want me when I’m old?”
I ran my finger down her cheek, stopping to brush the pad across her full lower lip.
“Babe, I can guarantee you that the guys did want you in college. With those glasses, that hair, and your body … no question. But now, as a woman? A smart, sexy, funny, quirky, and cute-as-hell woman? I’m going to be the envy of all the guys, young and old-er.”
Zoey’s face turned soft and her eyes grew misty.
“No one has ever said anything like that to me before.”
“Get used to it,” I said, then lowered my head to kiss her lightly. “Now, are you playing with us or do you want to watch?”
“I think I’d feel more comfortable watching.”
“Sounds good, babe. Wish me luck?”
“Good luck,” she replied, then put her hand behind my head and pulled me down for one more kiss.
Chapter Twenty ~ Zoey
I don’t know how it happened … Really, I don’t.
One minute I was sitting on the bleachers, warm from Gabe’s words and wondering how long the game was going to last, eager to get back to my computer, and the next Gabe’s shirt came off and he started playing football.