I slowly raised my hand, "Uh, not me."
"Hmm, I swear I counted," she said, when Scarlet walked back in the room, before slowly saying, "an even number."
Scarlet looked around the room at all of us now looking at her. "What did I miss?"
"Um," Olivia said hesitantly. "For tonight's games we need to have partners. Looks like you'll be with Rush."
Scarlet's eyes shot over to me, and I gave her a weak smile and waved.
"Okay," she said as if it was no big deal and walked over to sit next to me.
"There will be three rounds, with each round being a different game," Olivia started explaining. "Each partnership will accumulate points with each round, and whoever has the most points at the end wins."
Murmurs of trash talk immediately started, most of the guys here being extremely competitive.
"Okay, okay," Olivia said loudly, trying to quiet us. "The first game is called Pop the Balloon. You and your partner will place the balloon between your backs to try and pop the balloon. The object of the game is to pop as many balloons as possible before the time is up. The team that pops the most balloons gets eight points, the team with the second most balloons gets seven points, all the way down to the last couple who gets one point. So, let's get started!"
We all stood, and it got loud again. A couple guys started moving the coffee table out of the way, Olivia started assigning who would be in the first group, and Wilder grabbed the balloons from the other room
Scarlet and I hadn't moved from where we'd stood up from the couch. With me standing slightly behind her, I said low enough that only she could hear me, "Thanks for being my partner."
"I didn't exactly have a choice, now did I?" she said, not turning to look at me.
I should have left it alone, but I couldn't. There was something about her that made my cocky side come out.
I shrugged. "I don't know. You could have faked a migraine or come up with some reason why you needed to bail, but you didn't. You want to know why?"
"Please, enlighten me," she said, her voice coming out sarcastic.
"Because underneath all that sass, you're actually really sweet. Just like a Georgia peach."
I couldn't actually see her rolling her eyes at me, but I didn't need to.
"More with the peach pick up lines?" she said with exasperation. "You know I've heard them all, right? You saying them to me doesn't make them any better."
I ignored her comment, wanting to see if I could prove her wrong. She wanted to pretend I didn't affect her, but my ego when it came to her couldn't let it go. Taking a step closer to her and subtly bringing my head down closer to hers, I breathed her in. "You even smell like peaches."
A slight shiver went through her body, and a smile spread across my face as I straightened up. Mission accomplished. Maybe it was a jerk move, but there was a primal part of me that needed to know her body reacted to me as much as mine did to hers.
She finally turned to look at me. "That was not a shiver of pleasure," she said adamantly. "Anyone would shiver with someone's breath on their neck." Her cheeks were slightly pink, giving the truth away.
"Uh-huh, you keep telling yourself that," I said, the smile still on my face.
Before Scarlet had a chance to respond, Olivia called our attention again.
Scarlet and I were in the first group with three other couples: Wilder and Olivia plus Slate and Brayden each paired up with girls I hadn’t met before.
I was surprised to see Brayden here. Last year he'd tried to get with Olivia when she and Wilder hadn't been on speaking terms, and Wilder had come unglued. He'd overheard Brayden talking about Olivia in the locker room, and I'd never seen Wilder move so fast. Brayden had been up against the locker and as white as a sheet, and I'd thought he was going to wet himself.
But all must have been forgiven or forgotten now that Olivia and Wilder were together and only had eyes for each other.
The timer was set for two minutes, and when someone yelled go, I grabbed a balloon off the floor and hurried to put it between mine and Scarlet's backs. We pushed against each other but we must have done it at different times because the balloon was pushed up and out, leaving me to scramble to pick it up again.
"Hurry!" Scarlet yelped.
I quickly placed it between us again and gently pushed against her.
"C'mon, Rush, you have to push harder than that," she yelled.
