The Billionaire Glitch Date - Elle James Page 0,47

approached the mud pit.

The big guy in the back of the other team, turned around, readjusted his grip and marched away from the pit, dragging along his team and Team 5. He didn’t stop until all of Team 5 toppled into the pit, sinking into mud up to their knees.

Mel laughed, wiping mud from her face. She smiled at Dillon. “You’re not muddy enough.” She slung mud at him.

He ducked and the mud hit one of his other team members, and a mud fight ensued.

When he looked around for Ariana, she and her date had disappeared.

“That was fun,” Mel said, mud in her hair and on her arms and light blue tank top. “What’s next?”

“I believe the egg race is next.” He wished they hadn’t signed up for so many. He had to stay to finish the games when all he wanted to do was apologize to Mel, tell her it would never work out between them and then leave.

He walked with Mel to the next station where the egg race was to take place.

Mel leaned in as the referee explained the nature of the game.

One of a pair of competitors would place an egg between his or her chin and chest, run twenty yards to the other member of the pair and pass the egg without using their hands. The other person would run back to where the first person started.

Couples lined up on either side of the short field. Ariana joined the opposite line, picking a spot next to Mel. Her gaze met Dillon’s as her date stepped into position beside Dillon.

Mel and Ariana were given raw eggs. They tucked them beneath their chins and waited.

The referee blew the whistle, and the ladies were off, running with their heads down toward Dillon and Ariana’s date.

Others along the line dropped their eggs and fell out of the competition.

Ariana made it across the twenty yards to where her date stood a few seconds before Mel arrived in front of Dillon.

The swapping of the egg from one person to the other meant getting close. Really close, in order to get chins and chests in the game to make the transfer.

Dillon tried to focus on the egg beneath Mel’s chin, but he was distracted by Ariana’s date laughing as he tried to grab the egg with his chin.

“You got it?” Mel asked.

Dillon grabbed her shoulders and leaned sideways to get his chin beneath hers. “I think I have it,” he said between gritted teeth.

Had Mel been Ariana, he would have stolen a kiss before he grabbed the egg. Hell, he might have said screw the egg and thrown the race just to get to kiss her longer.

He heard Ariana’s squeal beside him and lost his concentration at the same time as Mel released her chin-hold on the egg.

The egg slipped.

Dillon grabbed for it with his chin and crushed it between his chin and chest getting raw egg goo all over his polo shirt.

Mel laughed. “Good effort,” she said. “Now, we’re a pair,” she said, waving a hand toward his egg-covered shirt and hers, which was smeared with mud.

A soft gasp beside him made him glance toward Ariana. She had egg on her shirt and chin. Her date had yet to get anything on him. The volunteers handed out paper towels to the contestants. Ariana’s date offered to wipe the egg off her shirt, but she took the towel from him and did it herself.

“Dillon, I’m so glad we caught up with you,” Emma called out. She and Coop approached with Tag and Leslie trailing after them. After giving Dillon a head-to-toe glance, Emma grinned. “I take it you aren’t fairing so well in the games.”

“You could say that,” Dillon said, forcing a smile.

Emma spotted Ariana, and stepped over to where she stood, working the egg out of her shirt. “Ariana, I don’t think you’ve met Coop and Tag. Come and introduce us to your date.” She hooked Ariana’s arm and brought her and her date over to the others.

“Y’all, this is Ariana Davis, a very good friend of mine,” Emma announced.

Arianna’s cheeks reddened as she turned toward the man in the khaki slacks. “This is my date, Jared Hill. Jared, this is Emma and Leslie…and Dillon.”

Emma took up a position beside her man. “This is Frank Johnson, but we call him Coop.” She waved toward Leslie. “The man with Leslie is Taggert Bronson, or Tag, to his friends.” She turned to Dillon.

He tilted his head toward Mel. “My date, Melanie Armstrong.”

Mel smiled.