“‘Just a building, not a home. You might go there to be alone. You might go there to find a friend. You might go where the creek ends.’”
Aaron blinked. “I’ve no idea.”
Griffin folded the paper and slid it into his waistcoat pocket. “I know. Come on.”
Aaron fell into step behind him as the Griffin led him to the same path where everyone else was racing. But after they’d walked with the others for a while, Griffin turned and stepped off the path and into the woods.
Aaron wrinkled his brow and followed slowly. “This isn’t where anyone else is going.”
Griffin gave him a look over his shoulder. “Well, then no one else has figured out the clue.Iknow exactly where to go.”
Aaron took a few long steps and fell in beside Griffin. They walked in silence for a while, but Aaron wouldn’t have called it companionable. There was tension between them, pulsing and heated, both frustrated and filled with desire.
Why the hell did they have to have been matched?
They’d walked for a good ten minutes, stepping over fallen logs and through brambles before Aaron stopped and folded his arms.
“All right, where are you taking me?”
Griffin laughed before he reached back and caught Aaron’s hand. Their fingers threaded naturally, and Griffin tugged.
“Just a little farther, I promise.”
Aaron could hardly breathe as he looked down at their intimately entwined fingers. Griffin’s hand was warm, and every once in a while he would smooth his thumb over Aaron’s hand, sending shockwaves of awareness through him.
“Here,” Griffin said.
Aaron blinked. He’d almost forgotten their purpose in being here, but now he looked down a short hill to where the creek bubbled toward…
“The icehouse,” he breathed.
Griffin grinned. “Indeed it is. Come on.”
They climbed down the small hill together and stopped just in front of the small stone building.
“How did you guess this?” Aaron asked as Griffin released his hand and began searching around them for their next clue in the game.
Griffin glanced up at Aaron, his dark gaze grabbing Aaron’s for a brief moment. “Oh, it wasn’t hard. The icehouse is where I often went to be alone when my family visited the Woodleys. And it was a meeting place forallthe boys when we wanted to get up to mischief.”
Aaron blinked. “That seems like a rather specific clue to the family. How will the gentlemen who aren’t part of the Woodley clan discover it? And why aren’t all your male cousins swarming on the place?”
Griffin had been bent over a loose rock at the back of the little house, but now he straightened and looked around. The woods were still, they couldn’t even hear the calls of the other players anymore. His brow wrinkled.
“I don’t know. Perhaps each pairing got different clues.”
Aaron shook his head. “That would seem a bit unfair.”
“Well, it’s a game, Aaron,” Griffin said with a long sigh as he went back to searching. “You take everything so damned seriously.”
Aaron stiffened at the accusatory tone that had nothing to do with their search. He took a few long steps toward Griffin, his hands flexed at his sides.
“Don’t judge me, Griffin.”
Griffin stood again and glared at him. “Why shouldn’t I? After all, you’re making decisions for both of us now. I suppose I get to be angry or disappointed or frustrated by them.”
“I’mnotmaking decisions for you.”
“Aren’t you?” Griffin asked, and he reached out to catch Aaron’s hand, tugging him forward. The ground was uneven, so Aaron stumbled and suddenly he was in Griffin’s arms. He looked up into Griffin’s face, taut with desire, and his stomach flipped.
