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I ran.

I still don't know exactly why I did it. Maybe because nobody had ever invited me to do something that stupid just because it would be fun.

I ran into the Hollow Wood with my cardigan flying behind me, my boots slipping over pine needles, and my breath turning ragged almost immediately.

Behind me, Jax kept counting in a voice that sounded much too cheerful.

"Eight. Nine. Ten. Ready or not, reina."

I heard him coming after me a few seconds later.

The Wood felt different that afternoon. Sunlight moved through the branches, the air smelled of pine and damp earth, and somewhere behind me I could hear Jax moving through the undergrowth.

He wasn't hurrying.

He was taking his time because he knew he could catch me.

I ran harder.

I ducked beneath a fallen trunk, scrambled up a narrow bank, crossed a shallow stream, and doubled back the way I had come. Somehow, for nearly a minute, I lost him completely.

I stopped beside a birch and bent forward, trying to catch my breath while listening for any sound of him.

Nothing.

I straightened slowly, grinning despite myself.

Then his voice came from directly behind my left ear.

"Found you."

I shrieked and spun around, but he was already there.

He caught me around the waist when I lost my balance, and as we went down, he twisted at the last second so that he hit the ground first. I landed on top of him, but the momentum carried us both over the edge of the small slope behind us. We rolled through a thick layer of dry leaves, half laughing and half trying to stop ourselves, until we finally came to rest at the bottom.

I ended up on my back with Jax above me, braced on one arm so he wouldn't crush me.

For a few seconds neither of us could say anything because we were laughing too hard. Leaves had tangled themselves into my hair and caught in the folds of his shirt, and at least one had somehow worked its way down the back of my sweater.

Jax looked down at me, still breathing hard, with an expression that made it clear he was far too pleased with himself.

"Caught you."

"You cheated."

"I'm a jaguar," he said. "We don't cheat. We're just better at this than you."

I laughed, and he laughed with me, but somewhere along the way the laughter faded. I couldn't have said exactly when it happened. One moment we were grinning at each other like idiots, and the next I was suddenly aware of how close he was.

He had shifted his weight onto his forearms, one on either side of my head, keeping most of his body just above mine. The last of the sunlight came through the trees behind him and caught in his dark hair. There was a leaf stuck in his eyelashes, and I reached up without thinking to brush it away. My fingertips lingered against his cheek after the leaf was gone.

His breath left him all at once.

"You told me," I said, "that the next time you caught me, we would do as you say."

"I did." His voice had dropped.

"So what now?"