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He keeps walking, not a hint of a smile on his stoic face.
“Oh, come on. Are you telling me that wasn’t funny? That was instant Karma.”
His darkening gaze turns malevolent, clenching my insides with a thrill. My smile falls along with my stomach.
“Wait.” I stumble backward, heart beginning to pound. “Don’t even think about it…”
“I suggest you run.” The warning comes out deep, gravelly, and I almost stand my ground.
Almost.
Turning my back on him, I bolt with another squeal barreling up my throat.
Like a predator playing with his catch, Logan bides his time, giving me a few seconds’ head start. My feet slap against the uneven earth as I race toward a cobblestone tower where the next checkpoint will take us higher up the mountainside, to a terrain that’s less lush and more craggy.
Daring a backward glance, I find him barreling after me, and I hook a hard left through the opening, hoping to catch him off-balance. My plan works momentarily, sending him careening into the metal rail at the bottom of the stone steps that I’m taking two at a time.
“Ha!” I holler into the winding stairwell.
Endorphins flood my system as his pounding steps echo behind me, growing closer, no matter how many turns I take. I hold on to my jiggling harness, pushing my tired legs harder up the final flight, but the weight of the thick straps and metal attachments is too much to keep up this pace.
“You’re losing momentum, sunshine.” The primality in his words skates up my spine, but just as I reach the last step, I trip.
“Oof.” Air is forced from my lungs when I’m grabbed from behind.
My arms fly out to brace my fall, but Logan twists, tucking me into him as we hit the packed dirt covering the top of the tower.
We skid a few inches, and when I blink my eyes open, I quickly realize I’m plastered to his upper body, staring down at a pair of blues that are drugged by arrogance and accented by a ray of sunlight streaking through them.
Tiny specks of dust settle around us, swirling in the light, mingling with our breaths, and his heated skin warms my palms through the moisture of his sweat-soaked shirt.
His gaze falls to my mouth, and when it flicks back up, there’s enough desire in that stare to burn this whole place to the ground.
We’ve been here before, haven’t we, sunshine?
He doesn’t have to remind me. Hidden in the jungle, just the two of us, all those stolen kisses and quiet nights in an unfinished treehouse rise to the surface. Along with the soft, pleasure-filled touches we shared the night I naively handed him my innocence—and my heart to boot.
“There’s nowhere left to run, Pen,” he says thickly, and I wonder if he’s reliving those memories, too.
He’s trying to get in your head. Nothing’s changed.
Shoving off him, I clear my throat and dust my hands down the front of my shorts.
I must be imagining the longing that pulls at his brows before he quickly shutters it away.
“We’ve got one race left,” I say, extending a hand and helping him to his feet.
His smirk is positively sinful. “And we’re tied.”
My head swims when he grasps the front of my harness, walking me back toward the cables.
“Logan,” I protest, grasping the straps on his chest when my foot threatens to slip off the stony edge of the tower. “What are you doing?”
Never taking his eyes off mine, he guides my carabiner up to the hook on my side of the track and clips me in. “Better make this one count.”
I gulp lungfuls of air when I sit low, watching as he readies himself before counting us down. “Three… Two…”
“One,” I finish, gripping the straps and pushing off early, but he’s already in motion.
