He snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her close as they walked toward the rest of the team at the covered picnic area. “She’s too nice for me.” He dipped his head down so his lips were millimeters from her ear. “I like ’em more bitchy.”
The warmth of his breath against her sensitive skin sent a shiver of anticipation down her spine. The man was trouble to her personal pledge not to end up naked with him again.
“Is that supposed to flatter me?” she asked, quickening her step toward the group of players, wives, and girlfriends sitting around the picnic tables, watching the action and drinking hot chocolate and steaming apple cider.
“Does it?” he asked, looking at her as if he already knew the answer as he easily kept pace with her fast steps.
“A little.” Or a lot, judging by the way her heart was going a million miles an hour and the fact that she had to shove her hands in her pockets to keep from touching him.
“Then, yes. I’m known all across Harbor City for my flattery skills.” Even he couldn’t keep a straight face.
“You’re so smooth.” She rolled her eyes and sat down at the end of the picnic table, close enough to everyone else to still be a part of the group but not so close that they were right next to them. “Of course, we did meet when you were puking your guts up, so there really was nowhere for you to go but higher.”
He sat down beside her, his gaze locking on hers, and the world tilted just for a second. “That wasn’t when we met.”
It wasn’t his words that got her right in the solar plexus, but the way he said it. The way his voice lowered, his eyes darkened, and his entire focus zeroed in on her as if how they’d first set eyes on each other was important. They were on the edge of something here, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready.
Taking in a steadying breath, she tried to pull back and create some mental distance with that old familiar snarky teasing. “Oh, you’re finally ready to admit that you knew exactly who I was when I showed up at your house?”
“You knew I was full of shit, huh?” he asked.
Chuckling, she nodded. “You got all three of my sisters’ names right while you were forgetting mine. Yeah, I knew.”
“And you didn’t make me pay for it?”
She shrugged. “Figured you puking your guts up was punishment enough.”
He leaned in close, his smell enveloping her as his fingers strummed along the length of her inner thigh. “Such a softie.”
When it came to him? It had started to feel like that. There was just a sense of ease that came from being around him. Not that she was relaxed; she was way too turned on for that. But being with Zach just felt right—they felt right together.
“Oh my God,” Cole said, flopping down on the opposite side of the picnic table from them and letting out a huff of annoyance. “Would you two just get a room, already, or go behind a tree or something? Some of us are not in the mood for all the lovey-dovey.”
“Phillips, did Marti come to her senses again?” Caleb Stuckey asked, scooting down to their end of the table.
Cole glowered at his teammate. “She’s impossible.”
“Really? It’s her, huh?” Zach asked. “The woman who has a doctorate, can kick your ass in pool, and is currently wiping the field in this paintball battle?”
“Don’t forget she’s hot,” the team’s center said.
“Shut it, Petrov,” Cole said while flipping off the other guy.
Brain trying to catch up on this kind of conversational whiplash, Fallon turned to Zach. “Do I even want to know?”
“This is a constant cycle for them,” he said, shaking his head. “This time they made it six months, though. That’s a record.”
Cole shrugged and looked down at the spread of three yellow globs of paint across his chest.
“Did she do that?” Fallon asked, wincing because unless she was mistaken, Marti had triple tapped the forward with direct hits to the heart.
Cole nodded, stood up, and turned around to show off his back with an additional two splatters right between his shoulder blades. The rest of them let out a collective groan. Someone had sent a message, and not a particularly subtle one.
“Look, you like her?” Zach asked as the other players looked at him like the team leader he was. “Then find your balls and figure out a way to make it happen.”
And as he finished, his heated gaze fell on Fallon. The air crackled around them as the rest of the team and their significant others fell away and realization jolted through her clear and loud like a lightning bolt in a summer storm. She wouldn’t just fall for Zach if she wasn’t careful. She already had.
So what in the hell did she do now?