“I’m not frustrated,” I repeated, but the words came out sharper than intended. Blowing out a breath, I grabbed the card from Ellie and put it against her lips to make her be quiet. “Let’s go again. I’ll suck first.”
The plan was solid, but it went terribly. As soon as we parted, I swear a breeze picked up and knocked the card off my mouth—causing Ellie to snort a laugh while I retrieved the stupid thing.
“You’re not used to being bad at something, are you?” she asked lightly as I straightened.
My eyes narrowed, which only made her laugh harder.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I actually think it’s cute that you have a weakness.”
“Weakness?” I scowled. “This is a meaningless game.”
Her smile tripled in size. “A meaningless game that we’re not very good at.”
That did nothing to help whatever frustration I may or may not have felt.
“Again,” I said shortly before placing the card against her twitching lips.
We failed again. And again. And again.
Twenty more times, the card dropped as soon as we tried to pass it around the first tiki torch. The more we dropped the card, the more I wanted to crumple it up and hurl it over the yacht’s railing.
By some stroke of luck, the other couples weren’t doing much better.
Something changed around our thirtieth attempt. By then, Ellie was laugh-drunk and erupted into giggles at every bump of our lips.
I found myself thinking less about the game as time went on.
So the next time the card dropped and caused our lips to meet, I only had one thought:
Screw it.
Maybe it was temporary insanity, or maybe I’d spent too much time in the sun, but I left the card on the ground and caught Ellie by the back of her head, turning the harmless bumping of our lips into a full-blown kiss.
Ellie’s entire body stiffened, and I knew if I opened my eyes, hers would be bugging out.
But the giggling had stopped.
Her hands snared my wrists, and she pushed up on her tiptoes to return the kiss. My free hand found its way into her silky hair, my grip tilting her head back for a better angle. It was messy and chaotic and sweeter than a kiss had any right to be.
For the first time in my life, I forgot all about winning. I forgot about the competition. And the deal. And everything else aside from how soft and pliable Ellie’s lips felt against mine.
“Quit messing around, boss!” Mac hollered from the sideline, shattering whatever spell I was under, and I froze with my fingers tangled in Ellie’s hair. “Get your head in the damn game, or Harry’s gonna take the lead again.”
He sounded genuinely annoyed, which made me smile against Ellie’s lips.
She pulled away first, cheeks reddening, laughter still sparkling in her eyes.
The only thing that stopped me from tugging her straight into another kiss was me spotting Harrison and Madison halfway down their row of torches from the corner of my eye.
Time was running out.
Instead of wedging the card between our lips right away, I lowered it and locked eyes with Ellie. “Hey. This is it. We’re getting it on this run. You ready?”
A soft hiccup escaped as she schooled her features and nodded gravely. “Ready.”
She sounded serious enough, but her eyes still gleamed with leftover laughter. I leaned down with the card against my lips, and she pushed up to meet me.
Ellie sucked the card like she was on a mission—flooding my brain with thoughts that had nothing to do with this race—and we transferred the card between us like pros. We passed the firsttiki torch. Then another. The third and fourth. We flew past the fifth, then a sixth and seventh?—
