Erin forced herself into the present. “Sounds good. Do you know how to sing?”
“Well enough, but humming should work, right?” His brow cocked. Clearly, she was expected to be the one to carry out the tune.
“It should.” She started humming a few bars, and he took it up. In addition to being her ideal, sci-fi loving type, the man could carry a tune. Nothing spectacular, but his light baritone warmed her in all sorts of ways.
It was fucking unfair from start to finish.
At the first chorus, Erin used her hands to guide him. They smoothly danced their way out of the maze.
“You can let go,” she informed him since he obviously could not see the maze had ended.
“What?” His breath brushed across her forehead, fluffing her hair.
“We’re out of the maze. We need to separate so we can move forward again.”
“Sure thing.” He dropped his arms and pivoted on his left foot to return to walking position at her side.
They had no difficulty with the next obstacle which was circling a fence post four times. They worked so well together, they were passing other groups with relative ease.
The next event was to breach the wall with an ax. She spelled out the situation for him. “I get to cut through this wall.”
“Do I get an ax?” This blindfolded non-robot Chief had a sense of humor.
“Only if I’m crazy,” she snorted. “But no. I think the point is that I’m supposed to make sure I don’t mistakenly cut off your hand because you’re blind.”
The last obstacle was to cross a bridge over a water hazard. The bridge was a board wide enough for one person to walk across easily but too small to walk side-by-side.
“We have to step up to walk a plank. Let’s do the same thing we did in the maze,” she explained.
“Pour Some Sugar on Me, okay.” He immediately turned and reached out to her neck and shoulders, aligning their bodies.
Erin was glad he was blindfolded because she was staring at him with such hunger, it could have burned through his blindfold. There was a certain ring of hell reserved for this. If only she had been paired with Theo or any of her regular teammates who had been safely labeled ‘brother.’
Chief Baker could not be less like a brother. He was a complicated jumble of emotions wrapped in the conundrum of him being her ultimate commander.
Yet he was still able to treat her like an equal and a partner. He was her superior officer, but he was letting her give the orders without a trace of attitude.
Now, if only her body understood his message of professionalism.
She put her hands on his hips again. “Okay, stay close, and step to the side.”
She started humming, and he joined in. They sidestepped up the stairs and moved across the bridge. She kept her legs slightly inside of his which corrected for his longer leg length.
They neared the downward stair, and she turned her head to warn him. Sensing her movement, he instinctively lowered his head, and her lips brushed across his.
Which had a completely unintended effect.
A wave of heat swept over her. At the same time, he reared back in surprise, throwing them off-balance. He tumbled backward and, since his arms were wrapped around her shoulders, she followed him into the puddle of water, landing squarely on top of him.
Not only did they make a spectacular splash, but it also turned out that the ‘puddle’ was about three feet deep.
Erin had enough time to take a deep breath before she went under, but she wasn’t sure the Chief did. Instinct led them to struggle ineffectively at the bond around their legs for a moment. Erin rolled off him and pulled him by the T-shirt to help him sit up and keep his head above water.
“I’m sorry, Chief,” she sputtered, reaching to pull the mask off his eyes.
He ducked to the side, spitting out a mouthful of water. “Stop. If you take it off, you get disqualified.”
“I’m tied to the Fire Chief of Cleveland… Cuyahoga Combined, sitting in a pool of water,” she said. “Does it matter if I get disqualified from this non-graded activity?”
