Page 10 of Siren's Game

"Fuck off, Asher. I could outrun you anytime, dickhead." Fair enough, he probably could.

"Why should I? Is your ego as weak as your tackle?" I wiggle my eyebrows at him. God, I love getting on his nerves.

Mozart wrote an opera to make the intended singer move her head like a chicken, and when I annoy Luca, it makes that muscle in his jaw tick that makes him look like a hen clucking. Same thing.

"You're talking big game," he says, challenge flashing in his eyes as he crosses his arms in front of his chest as well. Adam breaks into hysterical laughter behind me and the corners of my mouth are fighting a grin as well.

"Come on, as if that tiny man could take you down. Show him, Asher!" Adam clasps my shoulder, still shaking with laughter. Meanwhile, I narrow my eyes at Luca. There’s no way he could bring me down. What's his game?

Well, I guess I won't know unless I agree, and I'm not known as the kind of man who would back down from a challenge like this.

"Show me what you got, big boy!" I roll my shoulders and get into a stance that will allow me to keep a better balance. Meanwhile, he gets into position. I don't like that look in his eyes. The one where they are twinkling with mischief and the muscle under his left eyebrow twitches. That little asshat is planning something.

Someone gives a sign and he starts sprinting at me. I brace for impact, ready to evade or push him back, but there is no impact.

"What the—" I wonder, confused when that little wanker digs his fingers into my ribs. Shit. Of course, he knows my kryptonite. I can’t believe he’d play me like that, though.

Booming laughter escapes me involuntarily as I try to get his hands off me, but that little fucker is quick. Before I know it, he's behind me and I can't shake him off.

"Mercy!" I beg between laughter and fall to my knees to escape his torturing fingers.

"No mercy for the weeeak!" he shouts and goes right on. I squirm on the ground, until finally, I catch his hand and pull him forward abruptly until he falls to the ground. Got that bitch.

I try to keep him off me, he tries to free his hands and continue the tickle torture, and before I know it, we have an audience. I don't know how he does it, but suddenly I'm eating the ground and he kneels on my back, his hands triumphantly in the air.

"Victory!" he shouts to the cheering shouts of the group around us.

Oh, I'll give him victory. Someone pulls him off me, but before I can say or do anything, Rich's booming voice echoes over the field. "Enough clownery, get back to it!"

Accompanied by loud booing, the crowd dissipates, and I slowly turn around. I'm still trying to catch my breath from all the laughing.

"Come on." Luca offers me his hand and I roll my eyes and swat it away. How is that weakling supposed to pull me up?

When I come to my feet, I glare at him with narrow eyes and anger flowing through my veins.

"I'm going to get you for this," I say lowly, stepping closer to him to continue in a whisper. "When you least expect it, in your moment of weakness, I will be there."

He gulps.

That fucker forgot that I know him just as well, if not better, as he knows me.

I'll get him back. Spectacularly.

From now on, I keep my eyes on him. Unless Adam and I are scuffling, I'm thinking for the best way to get him back, planning my revenge in minute detail.

Pull down his pants? Funny, but classless. Drive off without him? He'd just take a taxi, that's no fun. Break into his apartment when he's sleeping and draw a moustache on his face with permanent marker?

Now I'm getting somewhere.

Just as I'm trying to decide the colour of his future face decor, Rich calls for a quick water break.

And walking over to the side of the field, I get a way better idea. As Luca walks over to the water bottles we threw onto the ground carelessly, right next to the field, he lifts his shirt to wipe his forehead, conveniently walking right by the mats we're supposed to fall on. Blindly. Come on, at this point, he’s making it almost too easy.

It’s one of the first things I got to know about him when we started working together. How easily he gets startled and how fucking high-pitched he shrieks when you jump-scare him.

A grin tugs at my lips when I lean down and start sprinting towards him. I throw him over my shoulder and onto the soft padding. Just as I knew he would, he lets out a surprised shriek as he's in the air, accompanied by curses as he lands.

"What the fuck?"

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