Page 42 of Those Who Are Bound

But he clenched his jaw tighter, a pained sound escaping him as he sat back. He was frustrated. Well, why wouldn’t he be?She’d been writhing under him like a woman possessed, dry humping him in a public park.

“I’m…” She was about to apologize when he cut her a look.

“This is my fault,” he said.

“I didn’t help.”

All of a sudden, he laughed. “Well, sort of, you did.”

“Jonah!” She moved to her knees, then rocked back to squat on her feet. “This is only a game; we don’t have to finish.” Her gaze flicked toward the parking lot.

Jonah shook his head. “We’re finishing. I’ll watch you from here.”

As she stood, his eyes still roaming over her, she said mischievously, “Old ladies playing bridge, fish heads stinking at a street market,kittens having a tea party, toddlers with puppies…”

Jonah put up a hand and managed a chuckle. “Kittens having a tea party?”

“So I hear.” At his inquisitive look, she answered, “One of my brother’s marine buddies; he’d talk graphically even when the kid sister was there—sometimes I think it’sbecausethe kid sister was there—to see the shock on her face, and to see how much it would take to get Gage riled up. But that was a conversation on how to… defuse a situation.”

Jonah grumbled humorously, “Nice turn of phrase.”

Elliott picked up her Frisbee and backed away, returning to the concrete tee. She cast a mock wary look at him to be sure he stayed put; he made a gesture indicating that he wasn’t going anywhere. She threw her disc, pleased to see it skitter to a landing near a basket.

Jonah stood up and stepped onto the concrete pad.After a minute of staring at his options, he sent his Frisbee out in another aggressive throw.And once again, it collided with the chains of a basket.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Elliott protested.

He grinned over at her. “You’re my Lady Luck.”

Elliott stared at him, dumbfounded. “But you’re my kryptonite; how is that going to work?”

Throwing his arms wide, he said simply. “You’ll have to surrender to me.”

Yes!

“Ha!” She started out toward her Frisbee to toss it into the basket. The tees were a lot closer now, so they were practically on the fourteenth tee as they left the baskets.She challenged, “Do it again here.”

“It will kill me to repeat what we did here.”

Laughing, Elliott shook her head. “That’s not what I meant.” Although she’d take it and be a willing partner, even if it risked putting them on a sex offenders list. “I meant throw another hole-in-one.”

Jonah contemplated the baskets and shook his head. “Here, I can’t.” He looked over at the fifteenth hole. “I can on the fifteenth. Seventeenth and eighteenth, too. They’re close enough without obstacles.”

“You can?”

“Yeah, that’ll be easy.”

“So, you’ve either been holding back or hustling me,” she accused lightly.

“Not holding back,” he assured her emphatically.

“Hustling.”

He looked at her sheepishly. “Maybe a little. The eighth wasn’t planned, but I knew I could do it.”

“You’re terrible.”

“I’m strategic.” He motioned her toward the tee. “Come on, let’s get this over with. No point in putting off the inevitable.”

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