When Emily, Becca, and I pulled up to the soccer fields, there was an old yellow school bus parked near the entrance and a few of our teammates were already lingering outside talking with Coach Davis and... Liam.
"What the hell is he doing here?" I asked with furrowed brows.
Emily swiveled to see what I was talking about. "Oh, Liam? I'd imagine all of the 183/890
coaches are coming since it's a team bonding thing."
Becca turned toward me with a devious grin. "Maybe Liam can show you what 'team bonding' really means."
I threw the car into park and gave her a pointed stare. "It's too early to decipher what that even means. Bonding as in… having sex?" I asked, grabbing my bag and adjusting my spaghetti strap workout tank.
She waggled her eyebrows. "It means he could teach you some really good bondage techniques."
I shoved her arm. "You're supposed to be a prude, Becca."
She scoffed. "Just because I haven't had sex doesn't mean I'm a prude. I'm repressed, 184/890
and therefore even less of a prude than other people."
"Well maybe you should hook up with Liam then."
She arched a brow. "I don't think I'm the one he wants."
I hopped out of the car before she could say anything else. My face was already flushed from her comment about team bonding, so when I glanced up and saw him slowly perusing me from top to bottom, my heart thumped wildly in my chest. Stop picturing Liam as a dom. Stop it. Damnit, Becca.
Liam kept his distance as I went to join the group, but that didn't stop me from peeking at him from beneath my lashes. His soccer shorts hung low on his hips and I could 185/890
see a sliver of his boxer briefs. Calvin Klein, of course. A shiver ran down my spine and I had to shove my gaze away before I started awkwardly panting.
Dear Mr. Klein or should I call you Calv,
It’s me again, Kinsley. Thanks so much for designing your underwear line. If you ever need a focus group for future designs, I’d like to be included. I’m a very good package inspector with excellent attention to detail. Attached you will find my list of references.
"All right, girls, let's load up!" Coach Davis said, clapping her hands. We all shuffled onto the bus, groaning about how early it was. After I took my seat, I tilted my head to the side and watched in horror as 186/890
Tara took the seat beside Liam in the front. I wanted to slow time and push her away before her bony butt could touch the seat. But, I wasn’t a wizard, so instead I crouched low in my seat so that I could no longer see them sitting beside one another.
Did he want her to sit next to him? Why the hell did it matter?
"She's a sleeze-whore," Becca whispered next to me. I hadn't realized that she'd sank lower in her seat as well.
I couldn't help but smile at how ridiculous we looked. Our knees were hiked up against the seat in front of us and our chins were tilted down onto our chests.
"Should we ride like this the whole way there?" she asked.
187/890
"I'm not watching that the whole way. So yes..."
Just then, Tara's shrill laughter rang out throughout the bus.
"Is he up there making her laugh?" I whispered.
"No. He probably asked her to scoot away from him and she thought it was a hilarious joke," Becca said, trying to make me feel better.
"What if he invited her to sit beside him?"
Becca shot me a pointed stare. "Not possible."
The bus ride didn't take too long after that. Still, Becca and I stayed crouched down, joking and trying to exist in our own world. It was easier that way. Seeing Tara 188/890
and Liam talking affected me in a way it definitely shouldn’t have if I thought of him only as my coach.
I was in deep trouble.
The bus pulled to a stop, and I finally sat up enough to see that we were outside of a giant army camp. My eyes widened. Were we going to have to work out with soldiers? Did people do that?
Coach Davis stood up at the front. Her grey hair was pulled into a high ponytail and she was smiling bright. “Team, we’re going to do an obstacle course today. Not an ordinary one. This is a course used to train top-level recruits for the army."
A few girls groaned.
189/890
"The goal will be to work together. We aren't done until everybody crosses the finish line."
Tara stood up to stand behind her.
"That's right, we're only as good as our weakest player," she added, staring directly at me with chilling blue eyes. I made a decision right then to kick her ass at the obstacle course. Team bonding would have to take a rain check.
Becca raised her hand and Coach Davis pointed at her. "Are we allowed to have hunky army guys help us? Like if they wanted to give us a boost over a super tall wall?" Of course she highlighted her point by cupping her hands as if grabbing an ass.
The entire bus started cracking up, and even Coach Davis cracked a smile.
190/890
"Becca, this is about team bonding, so no, there won't be anyone around to give you a boost unless it's one of your teammates,"
Coach Davis said before turning and heading out of the bus. Everyone else started filling out behind her.
Becca sighed as if exasperated. "All right, Kins. Then it's all you, bud."
I acted disgusted. "I'm not touching your butt."
"Oh please, your hand has been itching to touch my ass," she said, making a big show of smacking her butt. I laughed and pushed her forward. She was blocking the middle of the aisle with her ridiculousness.
As soon as we hopped off the bus, the obstacle course spanned out before us. Although the term obstacle course didn’t seem 191/890
fitting. This was some kind of ninja warrior bullshit.
We all lined up at the very beginning and stretched out so that we wouldn't get injured trying to hurl ourselves over various objects. Becca did her best to spot any avail-able army guys, but they must have cleared the area for the day… probably in anticipa-tion of her arrival.
It started off easy enough; we took our turns going over each obstacle and eventually spread out across the course. Even the coaches were participating, which meant our dear Liam was off somewhere doing something manly. I was too busy trying not to die jumping through tires to notice.
Mid-way through the course there was a mud pit so narrow that only one person 192/890
could crawl through at a time. The goal was to crawl beneath barbed wire across the entire field without scratching your back.
When it was my turn, I slid down to my stomach, feeling the cool mud slide between my fingers. I was adjusting into a good pose when a heavy shoe dug into my back and my entire body fell into the mud, face and all.
Ew. Ew. Ew.
"What the?!" I coughed.
"Oh my gosh, my bad! I must have tripped," Tara's voice rang out overhead.
I twisted my upper body to stare up at her and she started bursting out laughing.
"You have mud all over your face!"
Correction: I had mud everywhere: my mouth, ears, and nose included. Instead of responding to her, I used a clean part of my 193/890
shirt to wipe my eyes, but it hardly helped.
That's when I saw Liam standing behind Tara looking royally pissed. His sharp features were masked in a furious scowl, and I couldn't help but wonder if he was going to tell her off. I didn't bother sticking around to find out. I crawled through the mud pit imagining an elaborate dream sequence that included Tara falling onto barbed wire while Liam carried me off into the sunset. Weird, David Beckham was there too and he also wanted to help carry me, and then for some reason they had to take their shirts off...