Page 36 of Billionaire Protector

“You’re welcome.”

A throat cleared, and Cole turned back to an audience sporting speculative gazes again.Oh no.“Is it time for the next event?” he pressed forward. “We have some points to make up.”

People nodded and moved on, yet the speculative looks never fully left.

From then on, they acted like a team. They gave an impressive showing in the freeze dance and didn’t break a single egg in the spoon race. They pulled heartily during the tug of war and worked together to build the perfect miniature log bridge. And although they didn’t have enough points to make up for the ones they’d lost, they had something they never expected:

Fun.

They laughed together, cheered each other on, smiled and even hugged. For once, defenses were lowered, the past relegated to where it belonged. And Cole began to wonder if just maybe they did work better as partners than enemies.

Perhaps even something more.

CHAPTER 8

Sarah Sloan’s REVISED Review

Cole Carter:3 stars

Perhaps one star was a little hasty. When he’s not being overprotective, authoritative and dictatorial, he can be a little nice. And kind. And giving and fun and so, so smart. I don’t hate all my time with him.

And those kisses…

“It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The results of the competition are in.”

Sarah leaned back on her feet, at the ceremony heralding the festival’s ending. They stood in a woodsy clearing, filled with tired yet happy townspeople and surrounded by soaring trees, baby-blue skies and tiny critters that scurried, flew and crawled in the brush. The air was sweet and pure, scented with oak, gardenias and roses.

Her feelings were as varied as the environment. Along with the expected relief, disappointment loomed, not unlike the roller coaster of emotions she’d experienced all day next to Cole.They’d stayed far too close, or perhaps too far. Then there was thatkiss.

The worst part was she didn’t have a bad time. Or even a good one. No, she had a great time, which was very dangerous when it came to Cole Carter. He’d been kind and considerate, sweet and thoughtful, and for the first time she wondered whether she’d judged him fairly. Was she still seeing the boy he’d once been and not the man he was? Was she making assumptions, just like she accused him? Yet it didn’t matter. She needed to stick to her original resolve to stay detached from him.

Clearly, he was determined to do otherwise.

He stayed close the entire day. Even as people tried to lure him away, he never left her side. Oh, he had lots of excuses for why he didn’t leave, yet none quite tracked. Even partners didn’t need to stay together the whole time. What was he up to now?

“First place and $100 goes to Ali and Chris,” the announcer reclaimed her attention as he boomed into the microphone. “Leonard and Joan, you’re in second for $50 and Jessica and Peter, you came in third for $25. Congratulations!”

Sarah clapped for the winners. They never had a chance, not with their balloon toss splashfest and the obstacle course debacle. She turned to Cole, who was as usual within two feet of her. “Surprised we didn’t win?”

“Shocked,” he rumbled. “I thought we earned twenty points for style in the balloon toss alone.”

“Really?” she teased. “You didn’t think our performance was less than stellar?”

“I thought it was perfect. We were this close.” He held his arms as wide as they would stretch. And yeah, the muscles did their flexing things again. And yeah, most of the nearby women noticed. And yeah, Sarah wanted to arrest them.

Instead, she said, “I think we came in a hundredth place.”

“Weren’t there only sixty teams?”

“Exactly!”

“Don’t give up hope if you didn’t win a prize.” The announcer held up a fishbowl filled with bright rainbow tickets. “Our generous community sponsors donated dozens of exciting prizes for the raffle. If you were in the competition, you’ve already been entered, and we sold plenty of extra tickets for a very generous donation to the Special Olympics.” He paused for applause. “Our first prize is a month of couples massage instruction.”

This couldn’t be happening.

“And the winner is…” He poked his hand into the fishbowl.

Please don’t let it be us.Please don’t let it be us.Please don’t let it be us.She couldn’t take another round of touch-the-hunk-without-saying-screw-it-and-kissing-him-until-the-sun-turned-red-giant. When the announcer called out a different pair, she pumped her fist in the air. Literally.

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