A whistle sounded. “Obstacle course racers: to your marks!” Nancy yelled.
“Come on,” Eliana said, her brows cut into a determined line. She slipped her hand into his and tugged him to the starting line. Her hand was so soft, so delicate, it made his mouth dry. He took his shirt off and tossed it on top of their towels near the judges table.
“We’ve got to come up with a strategy before we …” Her voice drifted off. He turned around to her to see why she’d stopped talking. Her train of thought had been derailed by—the sight of his abs, based on the direction of her eyes. He bit back a pleased grin. Maybe it wasn’t just him.
She paused on his tattoos, first the octopus and then the one on his ribs. She looked up at him with a question in her eyes, but he didn’t want to talk about it right now. Not when they were having so much fun.
“Ready?” she asked, a competitive glint in her eye that relaxed his shoulders.
“You’re not the only person who likes to win,” he said. “We’ve got this.”
“There are two prizes for the obstacle course,” Nancy yelled. “One is a surprise, but it’s good. Trust me. The second one is that you’ll get to name the sea turtle we’ve adopted through the Southern Florida Wildlife Conservation Center. It was rescued last week after a shark attack, and most of the proceeds will go toward caring for it and other turtles that come through the SFWCC.”
“I have the perfect name,” Asher said, rubbing his hands together. Her gaze flicked down to his bare chest again, then back up as if it was an effort not to stare at his skin. He didn’t hate her reaction at all—it just surprised him. He was attracted to her—how could he not be?—but he’d never had any indication that she was attracted to him too. Until now.
“What is it?” She blinked a few times as if trying to focus.
He gave her a determined smile. “We’ll have to win if you want to find out.”
Everyone would go through the course separately, and their times would be taken at the end. The winner would be whoever had the fastest time. They watched as the people went before them, noting what things they got hung up on and where they excelled until it was their turn.
“On your mark. Get set. Go!” Nancy yelled.
Asher and Eliana took off toward the inflatable obstacle course. At the first ridge, he made a step out of his hand for Eliana to use to reach up for a pull up bar and hoist herself up the seven foot-high ledge. He then jumped to grab the bar, and pulled himself up after her. They jumped over huge inflatable balls, and had observed that the less thinking you did—and the faster you went over them—the better off you were. Neither of them fell, so they moved on to the next obstacle, which was climbing side by side up a wide ladder to get to a slide that would dunk them into an ice-cold pool.
He lost his breath as he landed in the water, every part of him burning like he’d jumped into a fire, but he pushed himself up and toward the platform. Eliana was already waiting for him, and she reached out a hand to help him up when his legs didn’t want to work.
He shook the chill out of his brain, and they raced to a set of monkey bars that were extra hard because their hands were wet, but they both made it across on their first try.
After that, they had to balance on an unstable foam platform that would drop them into another ice water bath if they mis-stepped. Both of them made it through to the very last challenge, another inflatable slide, this one taller than the last.
They clambered up the ladder as fast as they could, but near the top, Eliana slipped.
His heart dropped in his chest as she glided down to the pad at the bottom. He reached toward her and snagged her hand in his, jerking his shoulder and almost losing his hold. She scrambled back up the ladder and got her footing.
“Thanks,” she said, breathless, as they hurried to the top. Once there, she took his hand, and together, they flew down the slide into a pool of foamy water. As they emerged, Nancy yelled, “Time!”
The next contestants went while he and Eliana stepped to the side. She was shivering, so he wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged her into his side. He tended to run warm, and even an ice bath couldn’t lower his temp for long.
She tucked herself into him, her chilled skin pressed against his warm chest. Could she feel his heart thudding? Want thrummed through him as she snuggled even closer, and her hair brushed against his mouth. “I could have sworn I had our towels right here,” she said.
He didn’t care where their towels were, if it meant they could stand like this for the rest of the afternoon.
“I don’t think we won,” Eliana said. “I lost us time when I slipped.”
“Not that much time,” he murmured against her temple. She shivered, and he didn’t know if it was from the cold or his closeness, but he definitely wanted to find out.
“But enough, maybe.”
“We have a winner!” Nancy announced too soon.
They held their breath. “Eliana and Asher! Come claim your prize!”
They looked at each in shock, and then Eliana jumped and cheered. “What did we win?” she asked Nancy.
“Salsa and salsa,” Nancy said. “Bruno is going to teach you to make four different kinds of salsa, and we have a dance instructor who’ll teach you to dance the salsa.”
“Wow. That sounds fun! Are you up for that?” She gave Asher a brilliant smile. He was such a goner. She could have asked if he was up for swimming with the sharks that had attacked the rescue turtle, and he’d have said yes.
