Rowan had both and more. I had to walk in front of him so I didn’t stare, and even then I was hyper aware of those muscles as they walked behind me.
Strode behind me.
Rowan didn’t walk. That was something else I’d unfortunately noticed. That and his size.
I’d ignored him as much as possible all week, trying not to land my attention on him. I got why his face – and body – was on so many fan accounts on social media, there was a good reason for it. He was attractive.
I found him attractive, judging by my body’s reaction.
I didn’t want to find him attractive.
I wanted him to find a cave and hibernate in it, then I wouldn’t have to keep not looking at his muscles.
“We’re not lost. The next marker should be in the trees over on the left.” Rowan sounded completely confident.
I frowned. I was pretty sure it was the trees on the right when I’d been looking at the map. I stopped walking and waited for the other three to catch me up. Izzy had spent most of the trek so far trying to get into Ryan’s pants. At some point I was going to have to say something to stop her from making a fool of herself, but I wasn’t sure she’d listen, or if it was actually my problem.
“Are you sure it’s on the left?” I looked at Rowan, keeping my eyes on his, not letting my gaze drop below the neck, for that was where the madness lay.
He raised an eyebrow. “It’s on the left.”
“Can we check the map?”
He now had both brows raised. “We can. But we’re losing time. Stevo’s team are two markers ahead of us now.”
I frowned. Stevo – or James Stephens – was in a group with Lissa and Kaylie, two of our defenders. I’d had a couple of disagreements with Lissa around the team last season, and I didn’t want her to win as she’d crow over me.
“But if we go to the wrong place, we’ll end up losing time.” The over-cautious teenager in me produced a niggle of worry. “We’re better checking now.”
I thought Rowan would mock me or make some big deal over me questioning his navigation, especially when I’d already confessed to getting confused over left and right, but he didn’t. He pulled out the map instead, and opened it up, refolding it to help show where we are.
“That’s the next marker. We’re here.” He pointed to a spot that bore no resemblance to anything comprehensible. “So down to the left. But the next one is just to the right, down there and by the stream. If we split now, we could bag these two quick, and then meet up here.” He pointed to another dot on the map.
“Is that cheating?” I looked at Ryan, who probably had a reasonably sized moral compass, because I was pretty sure Izzy and Rowan didn’t.
Ryan shrugged. “I bet that’s how Stevo’s gotten ahead. He was on about getting on the golf course.”
I heard Rowan chuckle, a low sound that vibrated through the air and made my spine twitch.
“Little Miss Perfect doesn’t want to cheat. If it makes you feel better, Sparkles, no one said we had to stick together. Ryan, fancy a jog to the marker near the stream?”
He didn’t even give me time to argue against his nickname choices.
Izzy shook her head, linking her hand around Ryan’s arm. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Dee manages to get lost on her way back from the supermarket, and I ended up driving up the motorway the wrong way once, so I think we’re each best with one of you.”
I glared at my so-called friend, and she just sweetly smiled back, her hand still on Ryan’s arm. He did not look comfortable and I suspected that at some point when they were on their own, he would end up setting her straight. I had no intention of saving her from that now.
I expected Rowan to look as pissed off as I felt. I knew I irritated him; he’d made no secret of that. But he didn’t look annoyed. In fact, he looked almost pleased.
“Sensible idea. And it’ll give me and Sparkles here a chance to get to know each other better.” His smile made it look like he wanted to eat me.
I couldn’t think of anything worse.
“Have you tried…”
“Still no reception, Sparks.”
“What if we go back towards the river…”
