Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
I reach up, massaging Caroline’s shoulders a bit to loosen her up. “Remember,” I say in her ear. “Catch, drive, finish, and recover. Just focus on those four parts of the stroke, and we’re golden.”
“Sorry, what? That feels so good I think I blacked out for a second.”
I smile, even though I really wish she had her eye on the prize right now. Then, an idea strikes me. “If we win this race, we can pick this massage back up after Walker’s asleep tonight. With less clothes. And a happy ending.”
“Oh. Oh,” she says a moment later as understanding dawns on her. “I hope this isn’t how you motivate your teammates, but I think it’s working for me.”
Paisley never does find the starting gun. She settles for popping a balloon she found. Except she can only find one of the small ones, so it takes her a few minutes of violently sitting on it before it gives with a weak pop.
All the boats take off. Immediately, the boats with me, Nolan, and Jesse pull ahead of the pack.
Our boat starts to pull ahead of the others, but I realize it’s partly because Nolan and Mia are steering toward us. What the hell?
“You guys are drifting!” I shout, raising my voice over the sound of splashing oars and rushing wind.
“Attack!” Mia shouts, pointing one arm forward as Nolan pumps the oars like his life depends on it. I realize his plan. He’s going all out right now with no intention of saving energy for later in the race. They’re trying to sabotage us to help Andi and Jesse win.
“Cheaters!” Caroline shrieks.
“Keep pulling,” I urge. Our best chance to avoid their boat, which is streaking diagonally toward us, is to pick up speed.
I push until my legs burn and the muscles in my arms stand out. We’re slicing through the water, but Nolan’s face is red, and his eyes flash with deadly intent.
Mother fucker. I’m going to get him for this.
“A real winner does whatever it takes!” Jesse shouts from our right side. He’s a little ways behind, but I can hear him fine enough.
“You’re dirty cheats. You don’t deserve the wedding games cup!” I roar. Admittedly, I can feel myself taking this all a little too seriously. But damn. These assholes are supposed to be my teammates. Is this how Julius Ceasar felt? Et tu, Nolan?
Caroline is too busy angrily shaking her fist as Nolan and Mia’s quickly approaching boat. They ram us with about as much deadly force as a toddler head-butting its mom’s leg. I’m laughing triumphantly when I realize the real plan.
“Nice try!” I shout. “But you didn’t tip us!”
“That wasn’t the plan!” Nolan shouts back.
Nolan grabs one of my oars, and Mia grabs one of Caroline’s, tossing them far out to our left. I’m still watching in disbelief when Jesse and Andi slip in from our right and steal the other pair of oars.
They both row off, cackling and shouting taunts over their shoulders as we’re left dead in the water.
Our boat rocks gently from side to side and it’s a few moments before we’re left in relative silence, nothing but the sounds of my heavy breathing and water lapping at the sides of our boat to keep us company. The slower couples drift past a minute later, giving us an occasional curious look.
I’m fuming. Partly, it’s because I really wanted to win. The other part is that I know being so upset over a meaningless competition is stupid.
“Sorry,” Caroline says, breaking the silence. “I should’ve maybe rowed harder instead of shaking my fist.”
“It’s alright. It’s just a game for fun.”
“You wanted to win, though.”
“I did,” I admit.
Caroline carefully gets up, bracing herself on both sides of the boat so we don’t tip as she turns around to face me. She lifts her head, looking over her shoulder toward the harbor’s shore. I turn my head to look, and I’m surprised by how much distance we’ve already covered. The people watching from town look like specks of dust from here. They probably can’t even see that we lost our oars and wonder why we’re stopped.
“I want to make it up to you,” she says, eyes flicking down to my waist as she bites her lip. “Since we’re stuck here for a little while, maybe I could keep you entertained.”
I look over my shoulder again, but who am I kidding? I won’t pass this up, even if there’s some distant chance that somebody back there can see. “What did you have in mind? Were you going to sing for me? Dance, maybe?”
“I was thinking about sucking your cock, actually.”
Her directness makes me instantly hard. “If you want to so badly, I guess I won’t stop you.” I’m teasing, expecting her to flirt back and try to play hard to get.