Chapter 20
twenty
VAL
“Trouble, trouble, trouble,” I muttered again in the Death by Paintball facility’s bathroom.
I shoved my legs into my gray sweatpants and pulled on my navy t-shirt, grateful that Amantha had at least suggested I bring a change of clothes.
Though she could have warned me that they would soon be covered in gross, slimy paint.
In fact, Amantha hadn’t stopped laughing since we arrived.
I could still hear her cackle as I walked out of the bathroom and met her outside on the grass.
“I’m sorry.” She gasped. “I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to see you get all messy.”
I did my best to feign annoyance, though I couldn’t stop grinning at that laugh of sunshine and chaos. “As long as there are no birds or ponds, I’m in.”
She only laughed harder at that.
We approached the grassy compound, surrounded by a chain link fence. A pimpled Death by Paintball employee handed us folded stacks of thick white fabric. Gratitude swelled in my chest at the sight of the protective jumpsuit, and I swear I almost hugged the guy.
Rustling and zipping ensued as we pulled the jumpsuits over our clothes and listened to the rules and regulations. My zipper froze mid-chest as I saw Amantha sliding hers over her curvy hips. She caught me staring and winked.
I swallowed.
She tied her loose waves into a ponytail and I helped her put on her goggles.
Satchels hung around our torsos, brimming with fragile paint pods that would burst on contact.
I lifted my goggles to kiss her soft cheek, which flushed as I pulled away.
Rolling a blue paint pod between my fingers with a sinful smile, I shrugged.
“You’re screwed, Adams.”
Amantha loaded her hands with yellow ones from her bag. “Shut up, Russo.”
The employee opened the compound gate and counted us down. On three, Amantha shrieked as she bolted to the far side of the field, aiming for a smattering of barrels.
What sweet, naive Amantha didn’t know was that I had been quarterback of my high school football team. By the time her perfectly round backside had disappeared behind a barrel, I had already pelted it with four splotches of blue.
Okay, fine. This is kinda fun.
Amantha’s head peeked over the barrel before disappearing again.
Plan forming, I snuck to the left and vanished behind a large hay bale. I moved stealthily on the balls of my feet, making no sound. Approaching Amantha’s back, a wicked grin spread across my face.
“Boo.”
Amantha shrieked and spun, wildly throwing pods in all directions. I doubled over with laughter. Smack, smack. Thick yellow paint oozed down my chest and arms. Smack. Amantha’s third pod struck gold, dripping from the crown of my head and down my face.
I straightened up. “You are so dead.” I hooked Amantha around the waist and used a free hand to pop a blue pod over her head. An ocean wave of paint crashed over her hair, splattering her surprised expression.
“You jerk!” She laughed and attempted to shove my chest with the heels of her hands.
All it did was knock us off balance, sending us toppling over onto the soft grass. Yellow and blue paint blossomed at random as we ferociously crushed pods against the other’s jumpsuit.
Side by side, we called a truce, laughing up at the brilliant summer sky. Amantha rolled over and propped herself up on my chest. The mere contact had my pulse quickening. She swiped the now-green sludge coating her goggles, still breathless.
“You enjoyed that way too much,” she accused with a grin.
“And I’m not sorry one bit.” I lifted my goggles before gently lifting hers. Those shimmering pools of mercury stole my breath. My world. Nothing mattered more than to keep looking. To keep this infuriating, beguiling woman in my life.
That was the moment I knew.
I pulled her to my lips with such force, the satchels between us imploded in a torrent of paint. My body was slicked with repulsive goo, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was her.
Without skipping a beat, I rolled Amantha against the grass, kissing her with all the weak power I possessed. I threaded our fingers and pressed them hard into the ground, because I wasn’t sure gravity could hold me with how light I felt.
“Ahem.”
We instantly broke apart, lips swollen, blushing like two frisky teenagers. The Death by Paintball employee towered over us, kindly asking us to vacate the premises.
I had never laughed harder in my life.
AMANTHA
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I pulled the only swimsuit I had left at the house out of my bedroom drawers and cursed. A skimpy black bikini lay across my hands with barely enough fabric to cover my palms. It had been purchased for a trip to Cancun with Ryan before Anthony had even been a thought.
I pictured my closet in my studio apartment, brimming with decent swimwear. Which I had completely forgotten to pack. I cursed again.
I wasn’t ready for Val to see so much of me.
Maybe I could borrow my mom’s swimsuit?
I pictured myself in her polka-dotted granny one with ruffles and cringed.
I could wear a t-shirt on top?
Ugh. I was no prude and didn’t want to seem like one.
Taking a deep breath, I slipped into the suit and stepped in front of the mirror. I’d always had an hourglass figure with a decent chest and curvy hips. But since having Anthony, I always carried some extra padding around my midsection and sides.
Even with Ryan, I had always felt self-conscious. And his constant “encouragement” to cut carbs and exercise more wasn’t easily forgotten. My imagination sparked Val’s chiseled body, pool water dripping in rivulets down his six-pack…
I wanted to lock myself inside a snowsuit and throw away the key.
Rolling my eyes to the ceiling, I cursed again.
I was acting like a wimp, and I knew it.
Val had already seen me with no make-up, wearing sweats, and still kissed me like the world was on fire.
So I instructed myself to get over it, wrapped my near-nakedness in a towel, tossed back my paint-splattered hair, and marched outside.
Val had just finished a lap, still somewhat freckled from the paint pods. His dark, wet hair was glossy and slicked back. My eyes took in the rivers of water that were, in fact, dripping over his six-pack. Poseidon himself was probably cursing somewhere and dropping into a pushup.
Val frowned, taking in my expression and towel-clad body as I sat on the edge of the pool.
“What’s wrong?” He moved through the water, stopping and framing my bare legs with his hands on the pool’s edge.
“Can I be honest for a second?”
“Of course.” He lifted one of my hands and kissed it. My heart tripped over itself.
“You look like…” I gestured to Val’s torso with a lingering look. “That.”
Puzzled, he looked down. “Okay?” He squinted. “You’ve already seen me half-naked, remember?”
“Like I could forget! But... you haven’t seen me.” I bit my lip.
Realization dawned on his face, which softened into a sincere smile.
“Amantha,” Val said gently. “You don’t understand how wildly beautiful you are. Whatever’s under that towel isn’t going to change that. If anything”—his voice darkened—“I’m positive it’s going to confirm what I already know.”
“Which is?”
He kissed me then, slow and hard, before whispering against my cheek. “That you are one of the most infuriatingly magnetic, confusing, alluring, sexy women I’ve ever met.”
Goosebumps spanned the length of my body as I tried to inhale and exhale properly.
Val held my gaze as he reached toward me, eyes asking permission, until I nodded. He tentatively tugged the top of my towel, pulled it down and across my body, and laid it behind me.
My nerves were on fire as I watched him.
Val’s gaze roamed my body as if it were a work of art in the museum. His lips pressed to mine again for a long moment before he pulled away. “You’re incredible.”
Val wrapped his arms around my waist and hips, easing me into the water against him.
He sank deeper, pulling me down until water lapped at our shoulders.
I hadn’t noticed before, but fields of scattered freckles graced the top of his.
I traced the constellations with slippery fingers, trying to ground myself.
The feeling of his bare skin against mine was an entirely new sensation. I shivered.
“Are you okay?” His eyes hadn’t strayed from my face.
“I will be. After having Anthony, it’s always been difficult for me to feel confident…like this.” I gestured to my bikini.
Val nodded, though his eyes blazed with an intensity that sent heat prickling up my neck.
“I can respect that, even though my perspective of you is, well, entirely different. You are—and this is putting it weakly—insanely attractive to me.”
He closed the space between us with a kiss that tasted of sunshine and chlorine. His hands grazed my lower back, equally teasing and tantalizing. Gathering a fistful of my damp hair, he gently tugged backward to expose my throat, which he fervently kissed.
A gasp escaped me. “Okay, okay, I get it.”
“Get what?” Val rasped, his lips traveling to my bare shoulder.
“You think I’m hot.” I tried to regulate my breathing and failed.
“Smoking hot.”
I breathed out a chuckle and unwound myself from him. I gave three feet of space between us for good measure and splashed a handful of water at his face.
Val gave a wicked smile before disappearing beneath the surface. Seconds later, he lifted me and slung me over his back.
I shrieked, laughing and kicking.
Val playfully smacked my behind, which only made me laugh harder.
“Consider this my paintball payback.” He grinned, then dunked me under the glittering surface.