by Cathryn Fox
“I’m good. You?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” His voice hitched, so uncharacteristic of him, that she lifted her head to see him. Was he feeling this thing between them, too, or was she getting in over her head here? He splayed warm fingers over the small of her back, and her heart tripped over itself. As she tried to breathe, to refill her lungs, she gave herself a quick lecture.
It’s just a brief affair, Holly.
Then why does it feel like it’s so much more?
Chapter Ten
After slipping out of Holly’s bed in the wee hours of the morning, Josh awoke inside his own room. As much as he hated to sneak out under the cover of darkness, he needed to keep this affair secret for numerous reasons.
Holly. Sweet Holly Fairfax. Or rather Holly Sinclair.
As pleasure warred with duty, a wave of guilt nipped at his gut. He sucked in a sharp breath and let it out slowly as he scrubbed his hand over the growth on his jaw. If she ever found out who he was and why he was here, she was going to hate him. Fuck. He never should have touched her, kissed her, taken her to bed—repeatedly. It went against everything he was trying to do, and complicated his mission. But Christ, how could he walk away when she asked for more?
He turned, and when he saw the time, he kicked the covers off and jumped from the bed. Shit. He’d overslept—not that he’d gotten a whole lot of sleep—but he was supposed to meet the rest of the staff at the Capture and Escape rooms in twenty minutes.
As a SEAL, he’d been trained to keep the water flow under two minutes while he showered, so he was used to hurrying. Moving at breakneck speed, he took a “navy shower,” dressed in a pair of board shorts, and tugged on a T-shirt. He ran to the buffet to grab a quick bite and made it to the rooms at the far end of the resort with minutes to spare. His coworkers all stood outside a big, gray building that looked like a military airplane hangar, blocking the glaring sun from their eyes, and when he caught Holly’s glance, his body tightened, his mind rewinding back to yesterday and all the things they did together.
This morning she was dressed in jean shorts, and a purple tank top that showcased her bare arms and creamy skin. Impatience to have her between the sheets again thrummed through him. She slid her fingers through her hair, left loose and tumbling down her back, and he instantly remembered the way he’d tugged on it, forcing her mouth to his.
Stifling the growl rising from the depths of his throat, he reined in his lust and marshaled his cock into submission. But from the blush crawling up Holly’s neck, he guessed she knew all about the storm going on inside his shorts. Colin stepped up beside her and a burst of possessiveness moved through him. He fisted his hands and forced the unwanted jealousy to the pit of his gut. When it came right down to it, this was just sex, and he had no claims on her after this week. She could date whoever she wanted, Colin included.
Why the fuck does that bother me so much?
“Everyone ready?” Jeff asked. As heads bobbed, a man with graying hair stepped up beside Jeff. He looked to be in his forties and wore a white polo shirt with a green “Capture and Escape” emblem on the left chest.
“Welcome to the Capture and Escape rooms,” he said. “I’m Daniel Boyd, and I’ll be your guide today. Before we get started, I need you to break into groups of four. We have numerous adventures, and I’ll be giving you your assignments shortly.”
Gravel crunched beneath Josh’s sneakers as he stepped closer to Holly and Colin. Then Anita joined him, her eyes wide and flirtatious as she blinked up at Josh.
“Morning, Josh,” she said, standing close, crowding him.
“Morning,” he responded and angled his head to see Holly as she stood silently beside him. Arms folded, eyes straight ahead, she stared at Daniel, like she was completely indifferent to the way Anita was flirting with Josh. And why wouldn’t she be? She only wants you for sex, dude, so keep your shit together. Inching away from Anita, he followed Holly’s gaze and mimicked her stance as they waited further instructions.
“Your task today is to work as a team to escape the rooms,” Daniel explained. “What you must do is follow clues, solve puzzles, find the key, and escape the rooms. The first team out wins.”
“What do we win?” Stanley asked.
“A trip home, I hope,” someone in the group said, and everyone laughed.
“You have one hour,” Daniel explained when the laughter died down.
Jeff grinned. “Sounds pretty easy.”
“If it’s so easy, why aren’t you joining us?” Adam asked.
Jeff toyed with his earring. “I’ll be watching from the cameras,” he said. “I’ll be monitoring closely, looking for the best team players.”
Holly shifted uneasily beside him, and he nudged her. She cast a glance his way and he winked. “We got this.”
“You’ve done this before?”
“More or less.”
“Is there anything you haven’t done?”
He put his lips next to her ear. “Yeah, and it involves scarves, but I’m hoping to rectify that tonight.”
Her mouth curved, and her eyes widened in what looked like anticipation. She breathed deep as enough sexual energy to light up the island in a blackout arced between them. Josh stole a quick glance around. Could the others feel the tension?
“Okay, let’s begin,” Daniel said. He walked up to each group and handed out information written on postcards. Josh took the missive for his team and read it over.
“Zombie room,” he explained. “We have sixty minutes to get out of the room or we’ll catch the zombie virus.”
Anita snuggled up to him and pouted. “I hate zombies.”
“Not me,” Holly said, squaring her shoulders.
“Yeah?”
“I love scary zombie movies, games, and haunted houses.” She rubbed her hands together. “This should actually be fun.”
He grinned at her and she smiled back. Holly liked zombie movies? He couldn’t have been more surprised. She really was keeping him on his toes. Flipping the card over, he read the rest of the instructions. “Okay, the zombie is chained at the back of the room, and every ten minutes the chain will lengthen and he’ll gain two more feet of reach. If he touches any one of us, we turn into a zombie and can no longer help solve the clues, and if we don’t get out of the room in time, we all turn and never escape.”
Once everyone had their instructions, they were led into the big building and guided to different doors. Josh stepped over the threshold, and after the others followed him in, the door was shut and the lock set behind them. A dank, musty smell reached his nose as he looked around, taking in what appeared to be an office that had been ransacked during the zombie apocalypse.
Papers and debris were scattered across the floor, pictures were dangling from broken hooks, and claw marks were all over the walls. Someone had put a lot of thought into the design. A fan kicked in overhead, blowing cooler air onto them.
“So much for a week on the beach.” Anita sulked and coiled her long blond hair around her fingers. “What are we supposed to do?”
Josh picked up a stapler from the desk beside him and looked it over. “Look for clues, something that doesn’t belong or looks out of place,” he said. “The clues could be anything from this stapler to that file on the desk.”
A noise sounded at the back of the room and Anita nearly jumped into his arms. Chains rattled as the zombie—the makeup quite well done—grabbed at them. Right now he couldn’t reach them, but they needed to work the back area of the room before the first ten minutes passed and the chain released.
Colin moved past Josh and stepped up to the frothing zombie. “Cool,” he said as he examined the makeup. “If you like zombies, come check this out, Holly.”
“Why don’t you look for clues in that cabinet,” Josh said through gritted teeth. “But keep an eye on the clock. We don’t want you taken out in the first ten minutes.”
“Keeping an eye on the time shouldn’t be hard,” Holly said. She po
inted to the wall behind Josh and he turned to see a row of clocks. “There are four of them.”
The lights dimmed again, and the zombie went quiet. Anita grabbed Josh’s arm and he knew he needed to give her a task if he wanted to get any work done himself. “Why don’t you sit here at the desk and go through the drawers.” He pulled the chair out for her and she reluctantly sat.
She twisted in the chair. “But there are no handles on the drawers.”
“Look through the papers on the desk, then. Go through the files.”
“You won’t go, far will you?”
“Can’t go too far. The room is only so big.”
“Look at this,” Colin said and held up what looked like a water gun. “I can’t imagine an office would have a water gun.”
“Put it here,” Josh said. He cleared off a portable folding table. “Let’s collect everything out of the ordinary, and put it in one spot.”
They worked the room, everyone going off on their own to gather odd items and what might be clues. Ten minutes in, the clocks all started chiming, and Anita yelped when the zombie’s chain slackened.
“This is interesting,” Holly said. Josh turned to find her holding up a huge rusty nail. “I think this is the key to getting out of here.”
He stepped up to her to examine the nail, and her sweet scent fell over him. Now was certainly not the time or place, but dammit, he wanted to kiss her. He glanced over her shoulder to find Colin and Anita with their backs to them as they searched for clues, then he brushed his knuckles along hers. “Can’t imagine it would be that easy.”
“You’re right, it’s probably a lot…harder.” Pleasure forked through him. Jesus, she was such a vicious tease. She stepped into him and pushed against his cock, and it instantly thickened. The chiming of the clocks snapped him back, and they separated. “I’ll put this with the other things.”
He placed the big nail on the table, and started to look for more clues. A few more minutes passed, and the lights flickered again. Everyone froze as a pinging sound reached their ears.
“What the hell is that?” Colin whispered.
“Shh.” Josh held his hand up to silence them and listened harder. The code repeated, and Josh hurried to Anita. “I need a pen and paper.”
Anita ran her hands over the desk and produced a pen. He grabbed a sheet of loose paper and flipped it over. Holly came over to see what he was doing and leaned into him as he wrote out the code.
“What is it?” she asked quietly.
He glanced at her to find her big eyes wide, alive with curiosity. It was all he could do not to kiss her. “Morse code.”
Anita flipped her hair. “How were we ever supposed to know that?”
“Yeah, really,” Colin said.
Unease moved through Josh. Good question. Who the hell knew Morse code today, anyway. “I don’t know. Maybe if no one knew it, we’d get the clue another way. Guess we’re just lucky I do.”
“How do you know it?” Holly asked, but there was no suspicion in her voice, just intrigue.
“Boy Scouts.” He decoded the sounds and said, “Okay, we need to find a phone and dial this number. Let’s split up and look.” The clocks chimed and the Zombie came halfway into the room. “We’d better hurry.”
They rushed around, a little more frantic as time slipped away. “There is no phone in here,” Colin said. He rapidly pulled items off a shelf and tossed them onto the floor. “I got nothing.”
Holly spun to face him. “Wait, we didn’t check the desk drawers.”
“But they don’t open,” Anita said, hopping from one foot to another, panic all over her face.
Holly picked the nail up off the table. “Maybe they will with this.”
Josh grinned at her. “I like the way you think.”
She held it out to Josh. “Since you’re good at jimmying locks, why don’t you try.”
He took the nail, hurried to the desk, and dropped to his knees in front of the bank of drawers. Poking the big nail into the hole, he jimmied it, and pulled out the drawer. Sure enough, there was an old dial phone inside. He grabbed the antiquated item and set it on the desk. The black cord dangled. “We need a phone jack.”
Colin pulled the desk out. “Here.” He grabbed the jack and plugged it in.
The dial tone kicked in, and with a nod Josh, gestured to the sheet of paper. “Read me the number, Holly.”
The zombie growled louder as she grabbed the note. “Five. Four. Four. Four. Eight.”
Josh punched in the number and waited. “Nothing.”
“Shit,” Colin said. “Are you sure you got the code right?”
“Yeah.”
“Try it again,” Anita said.
He dialed it again and waited. “Okay, what are we missing? This obviously isn’t working.”
“Wait,” Holly said quickly. “Look at the dial. There are three letters with each number, right?”
“Right.”
“Tell me what they are.”
Josh listed off the number and Holly wrote them down.
JKL.
GHI.
GHI.
GHI.
TUV.
“I don’t get it,” Anita said, tapping her long, manicured nails on the desktop.
Josh met Holly’s glance and smiled. “It’s a puzzle. We have to figure out the right combination of letters to get our clue.”
“Everyone grab a pen.”
Anita found more pens and distributed them. They all began to play with different letter combinations. Another ten minutes passed, and the zombie came that much closer.
“Light,” Josh said. “I think the code is light.” Just then, the lights overhead flickered.
“Hang on.” Colin said and came back with a flashlight. “It doesn’t have batteries.”
“The clocks,” Holly said.
Without wasting a second, Josh and Colin grabbed the clocks from the wall, and they pulled the batteries. He shoved them into the flashlight and it lit up with ultraviolet light. The overhead lights dimmed even more, practically dousing them in darkness. He flicked the light around the room. Feeling a measure of panic when his search came up empty, he mumbled, “What the hell am I looking for?”
Holly reached for him, her warm hands closing around his forearm and directing the light to a spot on the wall. “Look.”
The light flashed over a message, visible only under ultraviolet light. He read it quickly. “It’s a riddle,” Josh said, reading it out loud this time. “I might not be an atomic bomb, but my atoms, when targeted, are just as powerful.”
“What the hell?” Colin said, pacing beside him.
“Shit. Shit. Shit,” Josh said, shoving his fingers through his hair. “Okay, let’s think.” He stepped up to the portable table and looked over the items gathered. He toyed with the old radio, the Batman lunchbox that contained an old juice box, and then zeroed in on the water gun. He picked it up and gave it a shake. Water rattled around inside. Water. One oxygen atom, two hydrogen.
“Got it,” he said, excitement racing through his veins. They were close, so damn close, but when the chain released, he knew they only had ten minutes left.
“Holly, use the flashlight and find me a target, a bull’s-eye or something like that.”
“I don’t get it,” Anita said.
“Water molecules,” Colin explained. “Water is made up of oxygen and hydrogen atoms.”
“Exactly.” Holly flashed the light around the room as the zombie’s hot breath reached his neck. “Hurry.”
On the wall high above the door, she found a small target. Josh pushed the lunchbox and all the other items they’d gathered to the floor and jumped up on the table. He took aim and pressed the trigger, hitting the target in the center with the powerful spray. A click sounded, and the door slowly creaked open.
“Yes,” he hissed as Colin and Anita rushed outside.
“Hurry,” Holly said waiting for him.
The zombie stretched and grabb
ed the corner of the table, giving it a good shake, but Josh jumped off and grabbed Holly’s hand. They darted for the door, which shut behind them, and rushed outside to join the other two of their team in the bright sunshine.
“We did it,” Holly said, sounding breathless as she gave him a high five. But there was a fire in her eyes, one he’d never seen before. She really got off on intellectual games. Not that it surprised him.
He leaned down and put his mouth next to her ear. “Nice work in there.”
“Same to you. Great shooting.” She arched brow. “I think we’re really going to have to have a talk about this misguided youth of yours.”
He laughed out loud, even though a measure of unease took up residence in his gut. The less she knew about him, the easier this thing between them—whatever the hell it was—would be to walk away from.
Other teams began to emerge, and Jeff stood with Daniel making notes on a piece of paper. An alarm sounded, signaling the sixty minutes were up, and two teams had yet to emerge. When they finally came out, they were grumbling good-naturedly and teasing one another.
“Well done, everyone,” Jeff said. “It looks like Josh and his team are today’s winners.” They all high-fived each other. “The rest of the day is yours to relax and explore. We’ll reconvene tomorrow morning at the breakfast buffet, and you’ll be given your new assignments.”
“Can we at least know what we’ll be doing?” Colin asked as he shoved his hands into his pockets.
Jeff grinned. “Canoeing and an overnight camping trip.”
Beside him Holly stiffened. He shot her a glance and took in her body language. Over the years, and he wasn’t just talking about his military ones, he’d spent more time sleeping on the ground then he had in a bed. His ex wouldn’t go near a tent, and when things didn’t go her way, she was quick to run home to daddy. Holly, however… Well, when he began this assignment, he figured the minute anything went wrong she’d be gone. But the more he got to know her, the more he realized she was a fighter, game for anything, and failure only made her try harder. Yeah, his mission was to protect her from a threat—one he’d seen no evidence of yet—and send her home, but suddenly he wasn’t so sure that was where she belonged.