I lunged forward, aiming for Harvey’s thigh, but he deflected the hit effortlessly, standing tall and straight like he’d…
“You’ve been practicing,” I said, suddenly suspicious.
“Took a fencing class in college,” Harvey smiled, bouncing on the balls of his feet, so obviously pleased with himself.
“That’s cheating.”
“It’s notcheating,” Harvey said. “I was terrible at it, anyway.”
“Oh yeah?” I asked, taking aim again only to have Harvey block so fast I barely saw him move. “You don’t seem terrible at it now.”
“You’re just worse,” Harvey teased, broad grin plastered across his face.
“Fighting words, Kowalski,” I warned.
“See if you can take me, Beaumont,” Harvey responded, flourishing his stick.
I laughed as I charged at him again, our sticks clashing together,thwack, thwack, thwack.Harvey dodged, then feinted, then went straight for my knees, opening himself up for a solid smack to the hip.
He yelped, jumping back and tripping over a fallen branch, stumbling into a tree trunk behind him and grunting with the impact.
“Harvey!” I called out, heart sinking. I hadn’t meant to hurt him, this was supposed to befun.
I saw the flash of triumph in his eyes a second too late, stopping dead as he moved, pushing off the tree trunk to meet me.
Unfortunately for Harvey, the fallen branch was still there. He tripped forward this time, stumbling, grabbing the front of my sweater for balance.
The world spun around as his momentum pulled me down.
Harvey landed with a grunt in a pile of fallen leaves, sending them up in a cloud, and then grunting again as I landed on his chest. He groaned as I started to get my bearings, going limp under me and then laughing breathlessly, hiccupping as he ran out of air.
“Touché,” he coughed, grinning despite being winded.
“Does that mean I win?” I asked grinning right back as I shifted my weight so Harvey wasn’t taking all of it, planting my knees either side of his hips.
“It means ‘touched’, but yeah, in this case it means you win,” Harvey said.
“Whatdo I win?” I asked.
“Other than bragging rights?” Harvey asked, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Yeah, other than that.”
“What did you have in mind?”
I bit my lip, considering my options. Harvey was in a good mood, I could’ve asked for just about anything right now.
But my brain only wanted one thing.
“Iwaspromised kisses,” I said.
“You were,” Harvey murmured, fingers sliding into my hair.
I hummed as he pulled me down, leaves crackling under us as we shifted, bodies molding together like we’d been made for each other.
I laughed into his mouth as Harvey’s other hand landed on my ass, squeezing firmly. “You’re starting to seem obsessed with my ass,” I said.
“Iamobsessed with your ass,” Harvey said between kisses. “It’s great, it’syours, what’s not to like?”
