bus journey, I’d avoided Damon, Alicia and Blake in favour of sitting with my boss. Now we were all standing outside the activity centre as a good-looking guy in his early twenties told us how the session would play out. I suspected he recognised Alicia, because his jaw practically dropped to the floor when she strode out of the changing rooms in her paintballing gear. I imagined a lot of men reacted to her in this way. Particularly since she was most famous for a role she played in a film about sex addiction where she went full frontal. Lots of people in the industry had applauded her for her bravery.
Sensing someone watching me, I glanced to the side. Damon stood several yards away, his eyes levelled in my direction. I quickly dropped my gaze, my emotions too raw right then to maintain eye contact.
In the end it was decided we’d be divided into three teams, to be selected by Jacob, Alicia, and Damon, respectively. Jacob insisted both Damon and Alicia be team leaders, since as the lead actors they were the lifeblood of the show…or something like that. I hadn’t been listening much, too lost in my own head. Alicia pouted sadly at the idea of being on an opposing team to Damon.
God, she was so bloody fake sometimes.
“Rose.”
I heard my name being called and blinked, suddenly realising that almost everybody was staring at me.
“Huh?”
Jacob sighed and shook his head. “Damon’s picked you for his team, silly goose. Go stand next to him.”
My gaze widened as I forced my legs to move. Damon had picked me first – before anybody else. In a small way I felt flattered, but in another I felt like he was overestimating my worth. I was rubbish at paintballing. The last time I’d done this, I’d come home with more bruises than a month-old peach.
“You shouldn’t have picked me. I’m terrible at this,” I whispered to him while Jacob called out his selection.
Damon glanced down at me, his masculine mouth forming an attractive shape. “I’ll always pick you first, petal,” he said, and butterflies flooded my belly.
His words were spoken softly, and with such affection that I thought I might swoon and faint on the spot. Forgotten were my misgivings about how he’d spoken to Blake on the bus. Now all I could think about was the way he was looking at me, like we were alone instead of surrounded by people.
A couple minutes later, we all had our paintball guns strapped to our chests as the game began. I ran through the forest, finding a spot behind a thick log and crouching down. Damon came and joined me, his presence soothing like a protective shadow. Unlike Iggy, he looked way too good in combat gear, way too manly, and I had to make a conscious effort not to ogle.
“Good spot,” he said. I nodded just as a bunch of paintballs went sailing over our heads, splattering with several loud pops on the bark of a tree a couple of feet in front of us.
“Maybe I spoke too soon,” Damon whispered. “We’ve been spotted. Come on.”
He got up and I followed suit, several of our team members joining us as more paintballs flew in our direction. I managed to avoid being hit and took cover behind a tree. When I saw Alicia’s unmistakable red hair peeking out of her helmet as she moved in the distance, I smiled and took aim. I tried not to dwell too long on the satisfaction it gave me to hear her shriek when I hit her in the leg.
Chuckling quietly to myself, I shook my head just as I noticed Damon behind a tree close to mine, watching me.
You’re bad, he mouthed, and I blushed at having been caught.
Blake had been picked for Jacob’s team, and all of a sudden he was there, shooting paintballs at me, Damon, and the rest of our group, like bloody Rambo or something. Jacob was beside him a second later, joining in on the attack. Damon managed to peg our director in the arm, and he let out the most hilarious high-pitched shriek I’d ever heard. I would’ve rolled over with laughter if I wasn’t so busy shooting at them.
I got Blake in the arm, the yellow paint splattering all over his combat fatigues.
“Oh, you’re in for it now, Rosie,” he called, grinning in challenge.
I backed away a few steps, hands clammy on my gun, as Blake advanced. Then suddenly Damon was