Colt’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you happy?”
Oh, here we go. The interrogation begins. “I’m not. Fuck off.”
“You just giggled.”
“Fuck you, bro. I did not giggle.”
Colt snorted. “Like a schoolgirl.”
Dane elbowed Colt, hard, and was rewarded with his grunt. “Not f**king giggling. I’m just enjoying myself.” When Colt still looked skeptical, he added, “I like being out here in the wild again. Reminds me of Alaska. Sometimes I miss Alaska. We didn’t have a care in the world up there, you know?”
It was a half lie. While he enjoyed being out in the wild, the reason he felt so relaxed and calm lately was largely due to Miranda. He liked being around her, liked seeing her smile. Liked feeling her hips rising under his. Liked that flushed, startled-with-pleasure look she got on her face when he licked her. But if Colt knew that, he’d kick Dane’s ass for f**king up their new business. Colt liked a rigid adherence to rules. He wouldn’t understand a deviation. So Dane watched and waited, hoping that Colt would shut up and go back to his team so he could go back to his.
But Colt only grunted. “Alaska was cold. Hated that. Made my dick shrivel.”
Dane grinned and clapped his friend on the back, then leaned in. “I don’t give a shit about your dick.”
Colt punched him, and Dane punched back, back to being friends and ribbing each other like nothing had ever changed.
The bullhorn clicked on and Brenna’s chirpy voice screeched over the trees. “If you two are done beating the crap out of each other, can we please play some paintball?”
Bags full of paintball ammo, bottled water, and PowerBars, as well as other miscellany she didn’t recognize, were handed out, and the teams shouldered their packs and readied to go into the woods. Through her lashes, she watched as Dane stripped his shirt off before putting on his jumpsuit. Watching his naked back gave her all kinds of ideas, and she smiled to herself as he zipped up and then turned to his team.
Oh, she had lots and lots of ideas suddenly.
The blue team set off into the woods as Brenna called instructions after them. “Stay on this side of the stream,” she warned. “Don’t rove out too far. You all have a fifteen-minute start before I sound the air horn that tells you to begin. No stealing ammo…and no nut shots!”
With that command ringing in their ears, the red team set off as well. George was elected the leader—despite his gray hair and a MFA in business administration, George was also a passionate paintball player in his spare time, so he’d been elected the team captain. Miranda had thought Dane would assume the position of leader, but he was happy enough to let the others take charge. Perhaps this was part of his training plan as well—letting others take the initiative.
Clever and subtle. She had to admit, she liked that in a man. Too bad it was Dane Croft who housed those qualities.
George led them over a few hills and through the trees. They ran across a hill—heavily treed and with a sandy ridge that was sloughing away due to erosion—that George declared to be the perfect spot to plant their flag. They did so, and then he began to direct orders. “All right—we need one person to stay at camp at all times to guard the flag. Miranda, that’s you.”
She snapped out of her musings and glared at George. “Why is it me?”
He looked as if he was going to comment that it was because she was female, and then thought better of it. “All right, Pete, you can stay at base this round. We’ll take turns. Plenty of time to score points. All we need to do is get to ten first.”
That seemed fair enough. Mollified, she listened as George laid out a battle plan—but she was only half paying attention. Evil Miranda needed to make a play today to win back Dane’s attention, she had decided. She had tried walking next to him as they’d marched out to plant the flag, but he’d slowed down, acting as if he were re-lacing his boots. Painfully obvious.
Was he afraid that just being seen with her meant that someone was onto their little midnight trysts? Or was he regretting their rendezvous? Or simply done with her?
He didn’t get to be done with her, she thought with a scowl. She got to decide who was done with whom, not him. And today, she’d just have to up the game a little. No problem.
And if her plans failed, well, she could always resort to one of the nut shots they’d been warned about. That stirred a thought in her mind. A dirty, naughty little thought that made her a bit scandalized…and a lot excited. She shouldn’t…
But she really, really wanted to.
She peeked over at Dane, his paintball gun resting on his shoulder. He slouched, leaning one shoulder against a nearby tree, and avoided looking in her direction. That decided her. Dane Croft wouldn’t stand a chance against Evil Miranda.
After a few minutes, the team split up to take positions for the game. Some of the team would be sniping from secluded positions, and others would attempt to take out the camp. Miranda had volunteered to snipe from a vantage point. She grasped her gun, put on her helmet, and began to stalk through the woods. Once she was out of sight, she cut through the trees. She was supposed to guard a lookout point a good quarter mile away from the flag, but screw that.
Instead, she cut across the forest back to the trail that she’d passed on her way out of camp and headed down it, and after Dane.
He was a decent clip ahead of her, and she lagged behind to make sure that he didn’t see her. If he did, he might warn her away. She trailed him for a bit, and when he arrived at his location, she ducked behind the nearest bush and unzipped her paintball jumpsuit. She stripped off her clothes—all of them—and then put the jumpsuit back on again. The air was definitely crisper without that second layer of clothing, and she felt her br**sts bob and jiggle with every step she took. She put a gloved hand on her br**sts and held them still against her chest. She hadn’t thought about the bouncing. Hopefully the others wouldn’t notice if they should run across her.
She buried her clothes in a pile of leaves and arranged a branch over it so it would be easily recognizable when she came back. Then she went to find Dane. She found him a short distance away, crouched behind one of the taller trees in the area and scanning the distance. His helmet was on, but she remembered that he had the only one that was a solid black. Plus, nobody else out here had those broad shoulders or that ridiculously tight ass. She moved toward him from behind. He hadn’t noticed her yet, which was good. She liked the element of surprise.