Sinners' Playground (The Harlequin Crew #1) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,103

I offered.

"You've got yourself a deal - I don't mind beating your little ass twice in a row," he replied, making me laugh.

"My ass is perfectly round, thank you very much," I objected, tossing my rainbow hair. "There's nothing little about it. I do a sets of squats like...every few weeks."

"Oh girl, you should up your routine if you wanna be able to crack a nut in those cheeks."

"What?" I laughed, but Di had finished announcing us and was calling everyone onto the stage one by one to take their soaking and we were both distracted by watching.

I moved to the back of the queue with my new friend, laughing at the ridiculousness of this game. If I won, it would seriously be the easiest five hundred bucks I ever made.

"Girl, do you happen to have a tall, blonde, jealous type boyfriend who wouldn't want you participating in this contest?" my new friend asked me, pointing through the crowd.

I turned to look and spotted Fox storming across the terrace with his gaze locked on me and murder in his eyes. Oh hell no. He was not gonna cash block me.

"I'm next!" I yelled as a blonde girl finished getting drenched and moved off of the stage.

I hurried forward - stumbling a little but not too much thanks to the cherry things - then pushed the next guy in line aside and moved out onto the stage.

The crowd all started cheering as I put my hands in the air, my white shirt riding up to expose my midriff as I locked eyes with Fox who had made it half way towards me.

"Rogue," he snarled, a clear command in his tone.

"Come on then boys!" I called loudly, smiling at the two men holding the hoses. "Make me all wet."

I bit my lip as I looked at Fox again just as the two hoses were turned on and aimed at me. I made a good show of squealing and bouncing about, flicking my rainbow hair like I was making a noughties music video and thought I was Rihanna with that Umbrella or Usher singing U Got It Bad. I probably looked like a total jackass, but the crowd were cheering and I had a nice buzz going so I was pretty much living my best life.

Or at least I was until I was attacked by a mad man who lifted me off of my feet, flung me over his shoulder and yelled something about heads rolling when he figured out who had let this happen before carrying me away.

Mutt was barking and Fox cursed in response to what I was fairly sure were little dog teeth in his ankle which made me love the little critter more.

The crowd cheered even louder as I was hauled all the way around the side of the club to the parking lot and out of sight while I laughed and enjoyed the ride.

Fox dropped me down to sit on the hood of his truck and placed his palms flat either side of me so that he could snarl in my face.

"Oh, hey Badger, I didn't know you were here," I said brightly, winding a finger through a strand of wet, pink hair as I looked up at him innocently.

"Are you purposefully trying to make me angry?" he demanded, glaring at me with fury in those green eyes of his.

"Why would you think that?"

"Because you're actively going out of your way to draw the kind of attention I don't want on you. I don't like other men looking at you like that. I don't want anyone to see-"

"Do you remember when we went down to Sinners' Playground and climbed all the way to the top of the Ferris wheel during that lunar eclipse?" I asked him, leaning back onto my elbows and looking up at him with my wet shirt sticking to my skin and showing my black bikini top though it.

"What about it?" he grunted, but the way his eyes lit said he knew exactly what I was talking about. They lit even more as his gaze slid down over my transparent top with a fierce hunger that made my breath catch.

"You brought me a rose."

"I found that on the pier," he muttered, almost exactly the same way he had when he'd given it to me. But I’d known it was bullshit even then.

"I left that thing in a vase until it dried out and turned all crispy. I didn't even throw it out after that. I