bit her bottom lip as she pondered his words. Her wet T-shirt clung to her like a swimsuit, highlighting every curve. He pushed back against the inappropriate longing that rumbled up his chest.
He had met hundreds, if not thousands, of women. But none of them had gotten under this skin like Lacey’s combination of fierceness and vulnerability.
“Okay.” Lacey faced the group. “Victor and I were the ones in the canoe, so we’re the ones who have to go.” Her voice caught for a second. “Good luck, everyone. I know you’re going to make us proud.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Lacey had replayed yesterday’s scene over and over like Libby replayed her favorite My Little Pony episode.
She could see it so clearly in her mind. Her crouching down and tying the tent into the bottom of the canoe. She could even picture her fingers tying the first knot.
Then Jen had come and teased her about her evening escapades and the only conclusion, the only possibility, was that she had gotten so distracted thinking about her time with Victor that she had forgotten to finish tying down the tent.
Worse, she had then gone over and checked Victor’s tent but never gone back and checked hers.
And now she was out. Out because she had been distracted by the one person, the one, she’d known she should stay away from the moment she had laid eyes on him.
Sixty seconds of distraction because Victor Carlisle had smiled at her in the moonlight and the very thing she’d worked for for ten years, that was so close she could see Lacey O’Connor engraved on the place plaque around the executive table, was probably gone.
Her fury at herself had propelled every step of the three-hour hike to take to the nearest extraction point. It had robbed her of sleep in the cabin back at the base in Ely. It taunted her every second of every minute.
Not only had she been so distracted that she’d ruined hers and Victor’s chances, but the team were now also a day behind, thanks to Kelvin having to escort her and Victor on the hike to the extraction spot, then hike back to the team.
Better to have been disqualified because Victor had shot himself in the behind with the forgotten bullet in her chamber. The gun! “Crap!” She slammed her foot on the brake of the rental car.
“Argh!” In the passenger seat, Victor flung his arm up in front of his face, his whole body bracing for impact.
The car came to a screeching halt in the middle of the road. Her seatbelt snapped against her torso and held her body back from slamming into the steering wheel.
Victor wasn’t so lucky. His knees—knees that were already situated in tight confines—smacked into the glove compartment. He lowered his arm and rubbed his knees, a grimace running across his face. “Did we hit something?” He looked over his shoulder, searching for whatever had caused her to react like she’d had her license days, not years.
“No. Sorry.” Lacey sucked in a shaky breath and pulled over to the side of the road, the car’s hood nosing into the long grass. Thank goodness they hadn’t seen a car in miles. If there had been someone behind them, she probably would have caused the worst pileup the county had seen in decades.
She checked her rearview mirror. Nothing, except for the black tread her sudden stop had left on the asphalt.
“Did you miss hitting something?”
“I forgot something.” She resisted the urge to bang her head against something. How could she have forgotten about the gun?
Victor tilted his head at her, the scar on his cheek twitching as he suppressed whatever expression was fighting him. “You forgot to off me in the wilderness, so you thought you’d take a shot here, where you have no witnesses?”
Her lips twitched. “Tempting, but no.”
“Okay. Do we have a minute? I’m going to stretch my legs.” Without waiting for an answer, he opened the door, stopping to rub both knees before stepping into the long grass. He strolled up the verge, lifting his arms up and stretching them toward the blue sky. Lacey averted her eyes as his T-shirt rode up, exposing the beginning of a toned torso.
That was exactly what had gotten her in this position in the first place.
She opened her door and stepped onto the road, her bare feet tentative on the cool asphalt. “You should get back in.”
Victor was idly swishing grass with his feet a little ways away from the front of the