“One of us has to partner with her,” Haskell said quietly but not quietly enough for Erin to miss.
Erin glanced at Baker’s face and watched some type of unidentifiable emotion flash across it. He swallowed hard and then set his features. “It should be me. I was her captain for a few weeks. Plus, it shows I trust her.”
She congratulated herself on her self-control to not retort about how being paired with her was not a firing squad. Instead, she said something worse.
“Who doesn’t dream of tying up and blindfolding the Chief?”
Both men reddened, which was more visible on Baker.
Haskell smothered a snicker. “Yeah, she definitely needs to be in the lead, and you’re getting blindfolded, Chief,”
“Let me get this off.” Baker quickly unbuttoned his uniform top and handed it to Haskell. Underneath, a tight white T-shirt stretched across his chest.
Erin focused her eyes anywhere but on him. She was not thinking of the gym incident.
Liar.
Haskell looped their knees and ankles together then passed a black blindfold to Baker, who tied it on his head.
“How’s that feel?” Haskell asked, waving a hand in front of Baker’s face.
“Did Hannah Fitzpatrick send a camera crew?” Baker quipped.
“Excellent, we can get this show on the road.” Haskell clapped his hands together for attention before giving instructions. “When I blow the whistle, there is a quarter-mile obstacle course that you’ll have to navigate with your partner. It starts flat but then there are obstacles you’ll have to climb over and solve. If for some reason, you’re unable to solve an obstacle, move on, and we’ll add two minutes onto your time. No one is allowed to skip the obstacles without an attempt.”
A few teams groaned.
“On your mark, get set, go!” Haskell blew his whistle.
The group started to move, but Erin placed her hand on the Chief’s belt and pulled back slightly, warning him not to move. Ahead of them, four pairs were down after tripping over their own feet.
“Let’s count ‘one and two.’ ‘One’ is the outside leg and ‘two’ is the inside,” she instructed. “We’ll have better balance also if we put our arms around each other’s waists. I’ll talk through any upcoming obstacles before we get them.”
“Sounds good.” Chief Baker snaked his arm around her waist.
Erin closed her eyes briefly; she should not have enjoyed how good it felt to have his hand on her hip. If only they could be connected at the hip…
She turned her attention back to the task at hand. “Here we go. One-two. One-two.”
They moved together at a steady clip. It felt perfectly natural because he seemed to instinctively follow her lead. She didn’t even have to count after the first thirty seconds.
“We’re coming up to the first obstacle. It’s a waist-high maze. We have to go sideways through a narrow part and then forward. It must want us to work together sidestepping. Follow my lead.”
“I await your command.” He sounded unconcerned.
That wasn’t helping her any. There were so many things she wanted to command him to do.
Take back his statement of disinterest.
Fire her new captain.
Strip off all his clothes.
Use his mouth on her lady bits.
Not now, she reminded her hormones. “Okay, we’re going to take three steps to the right.”
“Do you think that’s going to work?” he asked. “I can’t see, but we both can’t step to the right together unless you want me to carry you.”
