“Enjoy the angle while you can,” she said back. “It’s the last time you’ll get this close.”
She yelped as a palm smacked her behind, just as she made her way into the next chamber.
“You spanked me,” she sputtered as she found herself in a pit of plastic balls that went up past her waist.
“No, no,” he said, looking around for the passageway out of the chamber. “I was just helping your hips fit through that narrow opening.”
She let out a little growl as she struggled to push through the sea of plastic balls, wading toward some sort of shaky-looking ramp. “Hey, no fair!” she exclaimed. “You’re taller, so you can reach higher.”
“Just like it was way easier for you to wiggle through that last tube because you’re smaller. Well, except for your hips.”
“My hips are fine,” she said, self-consciously touching the offending body part.
“Yes, they are,” he said matter-of-factly as he hoisted himself up the ramp using the strategically placed handles. He’d already shimmied up the squishy slope by the time she’d pulled herself to the base of the ramp.
“See you at the end,” he hollered as he moved out of sight.
Snarling obscenities at him, she struggled to reach the lowest handle, wondering how children had managed this thing. Then again, kids were like monkeys. Twenty-eight-year-old women? Not so much.
Grateful that this particular part of the challenge was out of sight of spectators, she tried unsuccessfully to levy herself up to the next platform before she slid down again and again into the plastic balls.
She finally managed to get a decent grasp on two of the handles, and was debating where to make her next grab when she saw a hand extend in front of her face. Glancing up, she saw Gray’s laughing eyes stare down at her.
“Need some help?” he asked casually.
“No,” she said primly, conscious that her face was red and sweaty and that her arms were beginning to shake from the effort of supporting all of her weight.
“Come on, Soph,” he said, wiggling his fingers at her. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Sophie knew she had plenty of faults, but pride had never been one of them. When faced with the choice of dealing with a gloating man or languishing among plastic balls, she’d tolerate the testosterone overload. Grasping his arm, she allowed him to pull her up. When she lay gasping at the top of the platform, she paused a moment to catch her breath. “Do you think that’s that hard for everyone?” she asked him.
“No,” he said simply. “Guess you shoulda stretched your arms in addition to your quads, huh?”
She punched his shoulder. “You’re not supposed to help me, you know.”
“Yeah, well, it was either that or listen to you bitch in the office on Monday, so I was really doing the company a favor.”
“This is ridiculous,” she said as they began crawling on their hands and knees through a tunnel toward the next horrible challenge. Suddenly the roar of the crowd got louder and she realized that they were in the part of a tunnel that was visible to those watching. Fixing a smile on her face, she grinned and pretended to flex her muscles, while horribly self-conscious of how foolish she must look.
“Somebody get the tissues ready,” Gray called to his laughing employees. “Sophie’s going to need someone to comfort her when she loses!”
“Oh, so you’re making jokes now,” she muttered, as they cleared the tunnel and found themselves in a chamber surrounded by nets.
“I just wanted to give Jeff a man-to-man heads-up that he’ll have a chance to cheer you up when you emerge a sulky loser.”
“I’m not sulky. And I’m not going to lose. And why would Jeff care?”
“Oh, come on,” he said. “You’re going to tell me you two aren’t dating?”
“I don’t have to answer that,” she said stiffly. “But…no, I’m not dating Jeff.”
“Well, he’s interested,” Gray muttered as he began testing the nets for support.
Sophie had suspected as much herself, but wasn’t about to admit it to her boss. “I’m not so sure I like this chatty Gray. I think I liked you better in Vegas when you were all hostile. You weren’t so annoying.”
“I think you like me annoying,” he said with a wink before he began to climb up the side of the wall. “It ensures we have more in common.”
Rolling her eyes, Sophie followed him, finding this particular hurdle much easier than the previous. In fact, her lighter weight made it easier for her than it was for Gray, since there wasn’t as much pull on the net. Neither of them spoke as they concentrated on getting to the top.