Page 62 of Call My Bluff
“Mind your own business!” he called back, and then he reached out and shoved her sideways, straight off her platform.
“Hey!” Olivia cried. She scrambled back up and tried to find her place in the song, but her momentum was gone.
“Oh, did I mess you up?” Noah asked innocently. “Here, let me help.” He grabbed her arm and tugged her first to one side, then toward the back. “Look, this is how you do it.”
“Let me go!” she cried, laughing. “This isnothow you do it!” She tried to aim her feet toward the correct buttons, but Noah’s “assistance” always sent her the wrong way.
When the song finally ended, their scores were both pathetic.
“Oh, look at that, I beat you by forty points! I really thought you’d be better at this,” Noah said, his grin wide and his face flushed. He was breathing hard from his exertion. “Maybe you shouldn’t trash-talk so hard. It’s embarrassing.”
“Maybe you should keep your hands to yourself!” she shot back. “That didn’t count. Not a fair game.”
“Totally a fair game. If you fell off, that’s your problem.”
“I fell off becauseyoupushed me!”
“Irrelevant details. Are you hungry?”
“No, I’m not hungry! I want to annihilate you!”
“Mmm, no. The offer has expired. It’s time for dinner,” he answered. Then he bent down and grabbed her legs before tossing her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.
“Noah Campbell!” Olivia yelled, though it was hard to push the words out while she was laughing. “Noah, put me down and let me beat you!”
“See, there you go threatening me again. What have I said about that?” he asked, surprisingly nonchalant as he carried a thrashing woman toward the parking lot.
“Aggh!” she huffed in frustration. Then she ducked her head as he went through the front door and stepped out into the crisp March evening. “I hate you.”
“I know.”
The world seemed to tilt on its axis as he put her down, though everything stilled again when she found herself wedged between his body and the side of his car. He raised his hand and tucked her hair behind her ear, and Olivia was automatically reminded of the last time she’d been in this position.
In a secluded summer house . . .
With the lights down low . . .
And fireworks exploding somewhere nearby . . .
“Tell me you cheated,” she demanded stubbornly.
Noah’s fingers drifted down the back of her neck. “I cheated,” he admitted, his voice soft.
Suddenly, Olivia felt reckless. “So, what’s my prize?” she asked.
The corner of Noah’s mouth tipped up. “You can have it after dinner,” he said, his smile growing as Olivia’s eyes narrowed. Then he reached past her and pulled the handle on her door. “Come on.”
Almost an hourlater, Olivia crumpled the wrapper of a food truck burger and tossed it into the trash can near their picnic table.
“Where did youputall of that?” Noah asked from beside her, his eyes wide, and Olivia raised her eyebrows.
“Excuse me? What does that mean?” she countered.
“It means you don’t exactly have a figure that says ‘I can eat two burgers, a bag of popcorn and a funnel cake in one sitting.’”
“Oh, really? And what does my figure say?”
“Warning: too hot to handle.”
