And Kessen found sudden interest in her pudding.
“No!” Nick shouted as he jumped across the table. Dishes went everywhere, tea was on the floor, and the coffee was now searing Christian’s hands.
The whole thing happened in slow motion. One minute Nick was eating silently, the next he was shouting and slapping pudding out of Kessen’s hands.
“What the—” Christian looked at the mess. Nick was sprawled across the table with Kessen’s spoon in his hand, and Duncan’s mouth was formed into the biggest smile Christian had ever seen.
“You know, Christian, I think we should have brought in Americans a long time ago! This is fun!” Duncan clapped his hands, and then straightened as Christian sent him a searing look.
He closed his eyes. “Do I even want to know?”
Nick was the first to answer. “She’s allergic.”
“To pudding?” Christian mocked.
Nick rolled his eyes. “No, genius. Not to pudding, to bananas. She breaks out in crazy hives and starts sneezing, then gets basically wasted out of her mind on allergy medication to get rid of the side effects.”
“Attractive,” Christian commented, locating his tipped-over chair and tea.
Kessen pushed the pudding away. “I thought it was vanilla.”
“Sure you did,” Nick said hotly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she yelled
“It means, Kessen,” he said her name with disdain, “last time you ate banana pudding you used the same excuse, and it was to get out of going on that field trip to the cheese factory. The same field trip I was forced to partner with Brady Johnson; he nearly killed me!”
Kessen shook her head. “He exaggerates.”
“I am most certainly not exaggerating! He pushed me, Kessen, pushed me into the giant tub of cream. I couldn’t breathe, Kessen, and you know I’m lactose intolerant!”
Duncan snorted in the background.
Kessen rolled her eyes. “Nick, I think you’re making a big deal out of it. Didn’t you get special treatment from Nurse Betty for a month?”
Christian coughed. “Nurse Betty?”
Nick turned towards him. “Yeah, she was hot.”
“Sounds like it.”
Kessen groaned. “Men are pigs.”
“Am I truly that bad of an option that you would rather choose allergic shock over spending the afternoon with me?” Christian asked.
“He has a point,” Duncan said.
“I second the point made by Christian and agree with Duncan,” Nick said, saluting both men.
Kessen looked stuck. “Fine! But I hate hiking.”
Nick’s smile turned smug. “She really does. One time this bee followed her the entire way up the mountain, and then the entire way down. She finally found her courage and forgot about it, then it stung her in the a—”
“As I was saying.” Kessen cleared her throat. “I don’t like hiking. But then again, I’m the only uninjured party. How hard can it be?”
Nick winked. Christian licked his lips, avoiding eye contact, and Duncan gave her an innocent shrug.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kessen hated being wrong. Hated being the key word. Her heart was filled with hate as Christian whistled next to her, as if he hadn’t a care in the world, when at any moment they could plunge to their deaths. Did nobody care?
“Careful,” Christian said as he pulled her closer to the rock.
“This isn’t hiking.” Her teeth were clenched, so she was surprised he actually understood the words coming out of her mouth.
“What makes you think that?”
“I live in Colorado, Christian! I know what hiking is. I know what mountains are! There are trails, and birds, and trees and—”
A rock suddenly slipped from beneath her foot, causing her to momentarily stop talking.
“And?” he prompted.
“And I don’t know! You don’t have to wear special harnesses, and it’s actually fun, and you don’t sweat, and you don’t get gross, and … oh no! Christian, don’t move!”
He paused and looked at her as if she had lost her mind. Which for argument’s sake, she was getting ready to admit to. Who in their right mind would actually scale a rock wall in hopes of seeing a waterfall that was merely rumored to exist?
Oh, that’s right, Duncan and Nick.
The same Duncan and Nick who, upon further inspection, were never planning on climbing in the first place, considering they forgot their gear and could only send two people up at a time.
She closed her eyes and willed the tears to stay inside her lids.
“It’s so big!” she yelled, still clutching the rock wall.
She felt Christian’s hot body pressed against hers. “I do get that quite a lot, in fact—”
“Stop talking!” she yelled.
“It’s an ant,” he whispered into her ear.
“It’s huge.”
“It won’t bite you.”
“It’s red, Christian!”
“At least you have your sight. Bravo,” he mocked behind her. She could still feel his body pressing hers against the rock. If she hadn’t been so freaked out, she would have enjoyed the feeling. Instead she was trying to remember the documentary she had watched on the history channel about fire ants.
“Kessen,” Christian whispered into her ear again.
She shook her head.
“Kessen, do you think I would let anything happen to you?”
She hadn’t thought about it; she shook her head no, because honestly, he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He would rather let himself get hurt than see her even cry. He was just that type of man—a man she could respect, and possibly even…
It always came back to love.
But he would never love her back, and he would say she was crazy. Love after only a few days? Maybe she had lost her mind.
“It’s gone.” He released her body from his hold, leaving her suddenly feeling cold and alone. She had half a mind to find the ant and demand it torture her, so she could feel Christian’s warm embrace again.
A quick glance down at Duncan and Nick, both of whom were eating licorice and playing with sticks as if they were swords, infuriated her. “A little help up here!” she yelled.
“Oh, sure,” Nick answered from below, giving them more rope, so she could walk along the hazardous edge.
“Remind me why we are doing this again?” Her voice was cracking with fear; she hated heights.