Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
R onnie refused to admit that she was impressed.
Breathing heavily, Dallas stood with an expectant look. His abs had to be killing him after that three-minute plank—she even threw in hip dips at the halfway point—but if they were, he was hiding it like a champ.
Planting his hands on his hips, Dallas grinned. “Well?”
She shrugged.
“Come on. Seriously? Not even a high five?” he teased.
Spinning away before he could see her smile, she forced her tone to come out neutral. “Fine. That was…not bad.”
“Not bad?” The over-the-top affront in his tone had her swallowing a giggle.
And he definitely saw.
He jabbed a finger in her face. “You’re just torturing me now, aren’t you? Is this how you get your revenge for that gum prank?”
“I had to cut out a chunk of my hair,” she reminded him with an arched brow.
He had the decency to give her a contrite wince, and she had to work overtime to feign seriousness.
“So, yes. You caught me. I have been quietly plotting and planning for more than a decade.” She threw her arms out wide. “And all to enact this—my evil plan.”
His laugh was…nice. No, better than nice. It was warm and low, soothing and sexy all at once.
It made her want to laugh too.
“I always knew you were no good,” he teased.
She smiled. But then she crossed her arms and looked around pointedly. “Okay. Your turn.”
He looked thoughtful. “Let’s try something different this time.”
She arched her brows, trying not to show just how into this competition she was.
Man, she probably should get back to the snowboarding circuit as quickly as possible if she was looking for an adrenaline spike from some games in a glorified playground.
“A race,” he declared. He pointed to the different equipment in turn. “Five muscle-ups, followed by thirty burpees, then forty push-ups…” He went on, laying out the rules like a guy used to being in charge.
He was bossy.
And you like it.
She pressed her lips together and gave her head a shake to silence the voice in her head. It sounded distinctly like her teenage self, which…was worrisome, honestly. She’d already been worried about her mental state, and now here she was holding conversations with teen Ronnie.
Cool. Nothing to see here.
Once he finished laying out the rules and the obstacles, he turned to her with a gleam of challenge in his eyes. “You ready, champ ?”
She made a show of stretching her neck and cracking her knuckles. “Don’t worry about me, office boy.”
He grinned. “Then on your mark, get set…”
They both crouched down, eyeing each other with barely suppressed smiles.
“Go!”
She shot off, immediately taking the lead. But Dallas surprised the heck out of her by tickling her side, making her stop with a gasp of laughter—and he raced ahead. “Oh no, you don’t!”
She chased him and gave his side a pinch.
“Hey!”
She ran backward. “What, you can give but you can’t take?”
He narrowed his eyes, but he was grinning, and—whew! Either the temperature had just risen twenty degrees, or he was having an effect on her.
Really? You’re gonna blame the weather?
“Better watch yourself, champ!” he called after her.
“Those are some awfully big words for the guy coming in last place!” she shot back.
“All right, that’s it,” he growled, and her belly clenched like it was trying to clamp down the sudden rush of desire flooding her system.
A sound frighteningly close to a giggle escaped when he was hot on her heels and talking trash.
They were side by side as they did their muscle-ups and…well, she hadn’t realized she was into men’s arms until that exact moment. But now she had a new requirement if, and when, she ever had time for dating.
He had to be strong. And he had to be able to keep up with her at the gym, and…he had to have arms like Adonis.
Dallas finished first, by a mere second, but he showed off by plucking her off the bar and setting her on her feet. “Time’s up, tiny warrior.”
She burst out laughing.
Yeah. If she ever got around to dating—he had to make her laugh.
He moved on to the next obstacle, but she beat him to it with a very mature “Ha!”
“Oh, it’s on,” he growled again, sending another sizzle racing through her body.
Turned out, for all her sportsmanlike behavior on the professional circuit, she kinda liked playing dirty. It soon turned into a competition, not just of strength and endurance but of pranks and tickles and shoves and hip checks.
When they were both laughing and panting, and time was almost up, Ronnie saw her chance to stop him from winning, and she took it.
By jumping on his back.
“Hey!” But he was laughing as he swung her around and dropped down so he was crushing her against the ground.
“Ack!” She was wheezing with laughter by the time their tussle ended in a stalemate—her arm was choking his neck, but he still had her pinned.
His breath was hot and heavy in her ear, and the atmosphere was quickly changing temperature.
Stunned by the realization that her need to beat this man was quickly shifting into an overpowering desire to kiss him, she let her guard down for a second and he took advantage, snatching her wrist and pinning it over her head.
She stared up at him, unable to avoid tracing his lips with her gaze, and she could sense the change within him.
He knew. He knew what she was thinking… wanting .
Her eyes bulged. Nope! No, she could not kiss Dallas King! He was Bailey’s brother. He was…annoying! The boy who spent their childhoods pranking her.
He…he couldn’t possibly be this attractive, this…irresistible.
Biting her lips together, she wiggled out from beneath him before she did something stupid. He let her go, his face as pale as hers as he sat back, settling his butt on the cold ground and basically gaping at her.
They sat there like that for a minute, panting and so obviously reeling.
“Uh…” Running a hand through his sweaty hair, Dallas finally murmured, “Truce?”
She took a quick breath. Then another. But her head was still spinning as she nodded, her voice coming out weak and shaky. “Truce.”
He climbed to his feet and then reached down a hand to help her up.
For a second, there was a heavy silence. Not necessarily awkward, but not the easy camaraderie they’d had for the last half hour.
Great. All that happy energy she’d been basking in—that reprieve she’d so desperately needed—was disappearing so fast there was no chance she could get it back.
But then Dallas gave her a lopsided grin and nodded toward the trail. “You done, or do you want to come with me to finish my run?”
A snort popped out of her before she could stop it, and she started jogging to the path, throwing over her shoulder, “Do you even have to ask?”