Playing Games (21 page)

Ugh. I got anxious just thinking about all
this. "So are you going to tell me the clue?"

Brodie dragged my smaller form against him
and noogied the hell out of my head. "You know I would have told
you either way, right?"

"Jerk," I said, squirming out of his grasp.
And no, I hadn't, but it was good to know now. "Just tell me the
dang clue."

He pointed at a section of the distant hills.
"There's a circle with several race flags set up over there. I
imagine we'll pass by it again when we come in to land the balloon.
And there are words spelled on the ground. 'Time for your partner
to get oiled up.'"

"Oiled up?" I stared at the area Brodie had
mentioned, but couldn't see anything. "I bet you're looking forward
to that."

"You have no idea," he said with a dreamy
grin.

Yuck, again. I elbowed Brodie…but then I
imagined Liam all oiled up, and my grin was probably as dopey as
Brodie's.

~~ * * * ~~

Sure enough, I saw the area Brodie had
mentioned when we circled back. My brother hadn't been lying, which
I was thankful for. I raced out of the balloon and back to Liam,
who had both of our bags on his shoulders. Tesla was stretched out
on the ground, a shirt tossed over her eyes as she either napped or
tried to kill her hangover. I stepped past her and flew into Liam's
arms. He grinned at the sight of me, spinning me around.

"How was it?"

"Spectacular," I told him, though I couldn't
quite muster an enthusiastic smile. Giving the ace to Brodie was
bothering me, though it did appear that he hadn't been lying about
his partner having a bad day. I nodded back to Tesla's prone form.
"What's with her?"

"Hung over," Liam said, leaning in to whisper
it, and then nipped at my ear. "You find our clue?"

"I did," I told him. "Come on."

As we left, I glanced back at my brother and
Tesla. She still hadn't moved from her spot on the ground, though
Brodie was slinging backpacks onto his back. And I felt a twinge of
pity for my brother.

They were still at the head of the pack at
the moment. Maybe he wouldn't need the Ace at all. Maybe all my
worrying was for nothing.

~~ * * * ~~

We arrived first at the makeshift stadium. It
had been set up like a Greek amphitheater amongst the rocks, but at
the center was a large circular grassy area, and a row of five,
burly men in stiff leather pants. Off to the side was a small
changing tent. This was going to be the oiled up challenge?
Weird.

Liam left our packs with me, and I sat down
on them and drank a bottle of water as he bounded to the flag. He
glanced over at me as he received the disk, and then began to read.
And then groaned aloud, looking back at me. "Turkish Oil
Wrestling," he called at me.

I gave him a thumbs up. "Go get oily!"

He raced to the changing booth, grabbed
something from the ground, and disappeared inside the booth. I
glanced around, looking for Brodie and Tesla. The stadium was only
a short walk from where the balloons had landed. They should have
been here by now.

A moment later, Liam stepped out of the
booth, wearing the strange pants. They were thick, the material
bulky, and reminded me of old fashioned football player pants. It
looked as if they were made of leather. He wore no shirt, and I
could see the tattoos dancing along his skin, his arms dark with
black lines.

He grinned at me, rubbing a hand on his flat
belly, and then moved toward the row of waiting men. He pointed at
the first one and the man stepped forward. They both moved into the
grassy circle.

I tilted my head as the cameraman stepped
past, zooming in, and the judge moved forward, a carafe in hand. He
began to pour the oil over the thickly muscled chest of the short,
stocky man directly across from Liam - his opponent - and then on
Liam's chest. His opponent reached forward and began to spread the
oil on Liam's chest. Liam hesitated, then awkwardly returned the
gesture.

My jaw dropped a little, and I leaned
forward, fascinated by the two men as they oiled each other up.
Then, they stepped forward. As they did, two other men came out and
demonstrated the proper way to wrestle.

I tilted my head even more when one man stuck
his hand down the other's pants and hovered over him,
squatting.

That was…weird.

The man continued to hold the other man by
his pants. It was also apparently legal, since the judge nodded
approval at the pair, and they got up and clapped hands in a
sporting gesture.

Oookay.

Then it was Liam's turn.

The judge blew the whistle and stepped back.
Liam immediately moved into a fighting stance, all oily muscles and
slick tattoos, and I admit, I got a little turned on just watching
him move.

It didn't last long, though. His opponent
gave him a minute, then quickly flipped him with a well-placed leg.
Oily arms grappled and slid against each other, and then Liam
landed hard on the ground, the other man over him.

And the man shoved his hand into Liam's pants
to pin him.

I couldn't help it. I giggled.

Liam shot me a glare, his face flushed with
irritation. Clearly not high on his list of fun challenges. I
smothered my laugh and tried to look sympathetic.

The judge shook his head and blew the
whistle. "No. I'm sorry,” he told Liam. “Try again."

The man let Liam up, and my partner got to
his feet, adjusting his pants and brushing the long black hair out
of his face. He shook himself off, then gave a nod of
readiness.

The judge blew the whistle again.

It was clear that the wrestler Liam faced was
trying to go easy on him. He held his hands out, ready to
counteract a move, but he also wasn't exactly being aggressive. He
waited for Liam to move, and then when Liam lurched forward,
grabbed him by the pants and slammed him to the ground again.

This time? I winced. That didn't look like
fun. Liam wasn’t quite sure how to handle his oily opponent. He
rubbed his gleaming shoulder and rotated it, as if the muscles
ached, and dragged himself back to his feet again.

Someone ran up beside me. A backpack dropped
and Brodie flopped down beside me. "Hey."

I watched as Tesla dropped her pack next to
Brodie and stepped forward to receive her clue. This was her
challenge. Oh, this was
not
going to go well for them.

Brodie squinted and watched as Liam went down
for the third time. "Did that dude just shove his hand in Liam's
pants?"

"Turkish oil wrestling," I explained. At
least, I hoped that was part of the schtick and not just an overly
handsy wrestler.

"Ah," Brodie said, as if that explained
everything.

"So what took you guys so long? You left the
same time we did."

"Tesla needed a few minutes to recharge her
chakras," Brodie said in a deadpan voice. "She insisted on doing
some yoga to align her spirits or some shit."

"Seriously?"

He twirled a finger near his ear, indicating
his partner's insanity. "She's lucky she's hot."

"Yeah," I said in a snide voice. "It's so
much better to have a hot partner than a capable one." Speaking of
hot partners…I looked over at my greased-up rock star and felt a
familiar quiver in my loins when he grappled the man he was
wrestling, his muscles flexing. Oooh, he was getting better at
this.

A moment later, he flew over the man's
shoulder and thumped onto the ground. The man turned him over and
shoved a hand down his pants again.

Liam cussed under his breath.

Brodie howled with delight, clearly enjoying
Liam's discomfort.

I shoved my brother. "Shut up, already."

"Maybe you should have done this one, Katy,"
Brodie said, but it was loud enough for Liam to hear. He glanced
over his shoulder at us, and the look on his face was
narrow-eyed.

"Quit being a jerk," I told my brother, and
clapped my hands to encourage Liam. "You've almost got it," I
called to him. "Just ignore everything but your opponent."

"Holy mother," Brodie breathed, and I turned
to where his gaze was centered. Tesla had moved out into the ring
with her opponent, dressed in her yellow team sports bra and a pair
of the odd leather pants. The judge seemed to enjoy pouring the oil
on her, and her opponent ran slick hands over her, looking rather
pleased that he'd gotten the job. The other wrestlers were watching
her get oiled up, too.

And then the whistle sounded, and she faced
off with her opponent. Tesla danced around him, bobbing and weaving
in light motions that surprised me. Maybe when she had her chakras
aligned, Tesla was light on her feet. Or something. Either way, she
managed to slid behind her wrestling partner and almost pinned him
to the ground before he grabbed her and flipped her over.

The moment Tesla hit the grass, Liam hit
again.

On the next round, though, she got it. My jaw
dropped as I watched Tesla slide over her opponent and shove her
hand down the man's pants. And that guy looked like he was enjoying
it. Yeah, he probably hadn't been trying too hard to fight her off.
Who'd want to fend off a beautiful oily woman that wanted to get
her hands on you?

"Winner," the judge announced, and handed
Tesla her disk.

"Yeah!" Brodie leapt to his feet, pumping a
fist in the air. "Hot damn, way to go, girl. You rocked that."

"It's because her opponent wanted to be
touched by her," I grumped. "He wasn't exactly running away."

I winced as Liam slammed into the ground
again. Tesla hadn't been that much better than Liam, or faster. It
seemed like her wrestler had gotten the 'go easy' memo, though, and
Liam's hadn't.

"Or maybe she's just got a bigger set of
balls than Liam, there," Brodie said with an obnoxious laugh, and
grabbed his crotch at Liam just as my oily rock star was picking
himself up off the ground.

With an angry snarl, Liam launched himself at
Brodie, flying across the arena.

Tesla backed away even as I shot to my
feet.

Brodie tried to push Liam away as he charged,
but Liam was covered in wrestling oil and shirtless. There was
nothing to grab but slick, ropy muscle. As I watched, Liam gave
Brodie a hard shove, and when Brodie sprawled backward, Liam
flipped him onto his stomach and shoved his hand into the back of
Brodie's pants, grabbing his underpants in the world's largest
wedgie.

It was basically the same move that the
Turkish wrestler had done to him, over and over again.

"Who's got the bigger balls now, huh?" Liam
said in a low voice.

"You fucking son of a bitch!" Brodie flailed,
fists flying.

The judges rushed forward to break up the
fight. I ran to Liam's side, putting my hands on his oily chest.
"Hey," I murmured, wide-eyed. His chest heaved with angry, rapid
breaths. "Calm down," I told him. "He's just trying to get under
your skin."

"Your brother," Liam heaved between breaths,
"Is a fucking dick."

I couldn't argue with that.

Liam's dark gaze turned on me and he leaned
in. "We're not helping them in this race. I'd be happy if they went
home tomorrow."

I said nothing. Liam would flip out if he
found out I'd given Brodie the Ace. So I didn't admit it. What he
didn't know wouldn’t hurt him, and this was a bad time to confess.
I ran a hand over his oily chest, trying to soothe him. "You're
doing great," I murmured, ignoring Brodie's shouting on the far
side of the judges that separated the men.

Liam seemed to calm a bit under my touch,
though he still looked furious at Brodie.

A production assistant came up to one of the
judges a moment later and whispered something. The judge nodded,
and approached Liam and I as Brodie and Tesla headed off with their
backpacks, presumably to the finish line. The man handed us a disk.
It was bright red, with a big "6" on it.

"You have incurred a six hour penalty for
fighting," he told us gravely. "You must wait here for six hours
after your task is completed before you can receive your next set
of directions."

“Six hours?” I protested. “Why did Brodie
only get two hours for fighting previously? That’s not fair.”

“Two hours for every punch thrown.”

Liam's jaw tightened.

I hid my disappointment. Six hours? We were
going to get eliminated for sure. But it was what it was. I gave
Liam's chest a pat. "Don't worry about it," I told him. "Just
finish the task. You're doing great."

He looked down at me, then leaned in and gave
me a hard kiss, his piercing scraping against my cheek. Then, he
stalked inside the ring and faced his opponent again.

It only took two more tries before Liam
managed to flip his opponent. Once the man was down, he seemed to
concede the fight, and let Liam shove a hand into his pants and pin
him.

I whooped and cheered as Liam finished, and
the production assistant set a stopwatch. Liam gave me a rueful
grin and moved to my side, dragging me against him. I didn't care
that he was oily, and sweaty. He was delicious. When he kissed me
again, I kissed him back.

"I'm sorry," he told me.

"For what?"

"For losing my temper," he said, his voice
gruff. "I've pretty much cost us the race."

I gave a shrug, feigning lightness. It
wouldn't do any good to berate him. "The way I look at it, we've
got a nice vacation in Acapulco to look forward to instead of
sleeping in airports."

"Mmm," he said. "Do we get to share a
bed?"

"Absolutely," I told him, rubbing a hand on
his chest. "I'll even be the one to oil you up next time."

He sighed and pulled me close, just as the
next team pulled up. We watched the two Olympian women race
forward, our hearts sinking. They hadn't been that far behind
Brodie and Tesla, and the balloons carried two, which meant another
couple should have been hot on their heels.