Deciding he could always stop me if I wasn’t allowed, I climbed the ladder, and instead of using the bars, turned to face the cage and began sidestepping around the outer wall of it. With my eyes on my path, I only chanced one glance back in Austin’s direction.
He smiled and winked before turning away, a serious expression back on his face.
I picked up speed as I went, surpassing Vivian and Angela, who were still trudging through the mud to climb back up. When they spotted my progress, Vivian’s eyes narrowed.
Angela whooped. “Yes, Quinn! Great idea!”
She pushed through the mud with more determination, climbing up the other side and taking a page out of my book. Vivian huffed, but even she couldn’t deny I’d had a good idea.
“What, Vivian?” I taunted, too pleased with myself to be annoyed. “They didn’t have monkey bar cages in your fancy rich kid school?”
“Of course, they did,” she snapped.
I peeked over my shoulder as she followed Angela.
Lips pursed, she glared over her shoulder at me, but her voice lacked its usual derision. “We were just expected to do them the right way.”
“Ah.” I nodded, smirking as I reached the other side and climbed down. “Guess all that love came at a price, huh?”
Angela snorted, shaking her head with a laugh, and even Vivian tried to fight a smile.
That was good enough for me.
Turning away from them, I proceeded through the woods to where Max waited.
My heart raced, and palms grew slick. Arousal coiled in my belly despite the gravity of the situation. Despite his fake fiancée closing in behind me.
The second he came into view, the urge to run straight for him, jump into his arms, and wrap my legs around his waist hit full force. I wanted his arms around me. I wanted his voice in my ear, calling me Princess, and telling me what he’d shared last night as we’d fallen asleep.
I had to drag my feet as I walked to keep from running over to him. And the look in his eyes, unguarded and out in the open for the first time since the challenge started, assured me he felt it, too.
When I reached him, he shoved his hands in his pockets.
I clasped mine behind my back, teasing to break the tension. “I’ll share mine, if you share yours?”
He glanced over my head, and I peeked over my shoulder. Vivian and Angela were closing the gap, almost out of the cage. When I turned back to Max, his pained expression nearly broke my restraint.
“It’s even harder now,” I admitted. “Not that I thought it’d be easier or anything, but?—”
“Quinn—” His voice broke, and his expression hardened. “Quinn, I can’t let myself go there. Not when she’s here. Not when this isn’t over. If I?—”
“I know.”
Tears threatened to spill, but footsteps behind me told me we were running out of time.
I forced a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “Tell me what to do. What’s next?”
“The ropes.” He gestured to where they hung from branches within the trees. Spaced apart, the only way to get from one to the other would be to climb up and step on the branches to move from rope to rope. “You start here and need to make it to the end of the forest. Make sure you hit each rope in the middle.”
“Oh, great.” I exhaled a shaky laugh. “Easy enough.”
He huffed a laugh, giving me one last meaningful look before schooling his expression.
“You’ve got this, Princess.”
Waiting for my nerves to settle, I shook out my limbs. “You know, when I win this, they say that will make me Queen.”
He shook his head. “Not to me.”
