I could be crazy, but I could swear that she looked down at my belt when I said the word package. And that has me thinking about my package and how much I want to give it to her. Christ, Rose has me all twisted up and I’ve only spent twenty minutes with her. I need to get my shit together.
“Probably not for me. I’m clumsy and I have terrible balance,” she says.
“Don’t worry,” I say. “We have you harnessed up for this, too. Even if you fall, you won’t hit the ground.”
“How?”
I walk over to the shed that houses all the harnesses and open it. “You’re in one of these.” I hold it up. “I know it looks messy at the moment, but it wraps around your whole body. Shoulders, legs, chest, and you’re attached to the top in the back. Then if you fall, you’re held up by the suspension system we have in place.”
Rose looks up and snaps a picture of all the ropes, and then a picture of the shed with all the equipment in it. Her friends must be really safety oriented. Or she’s got someone that’s afraid of heights. I’ve seen that before.
I wait until she’s done with her pictures before we move on. “Over here we have an archery range. All our bows are examined and tested before anyone uses them in a session, arrows replaced regularly.”
Rose looks like she’s suddenly lit up. “I’ve always wanted to try this.”
Giving someone a lesson on archery range isn’t something that I usually do on a tour, but I can’t resist the urge. It gives me a reason to be close to her. “You want to?”
She nods.
I grab one of the bows and string it while she takes her pictures, and just like I told her we did, I inspect the bow and fire a test shot at the target. We always do. The last thing we need is an improperly strung bow breaking and snapping a guest in the face. “Here.” I hand her the bow and another arrow.
“Will you show me?”
“To show you, I’ll have to touch you. That all right?”
Her cheeks flush pink, but Rose nods. I could make a career out of making her turn that color.
Stepping up behind her, I wrap my arms around and guide the bow into place. My hands are over hers, and I don’t think she realizes the soft way that she’s pressing back against me. I know she doesn’t realize how hard I’m concentrating so I don’t get a hard-on while I’m flush against her ass. Because my cock is practically begging for it and it’s on a very, very short leash.
I squeeze the hand that’s on the bow. “Relax this hand as much as possible. Tension will fuck up the shot.”
“Okay.” Her voice is breathy, and I do my best to ignore what that means. I’m not very successful.
Together, we pull back the arrow. It’s a light bow, so it’s almost too easy with us both on the string, but I like the feeling of us doing something together.
“Are you familiar with the archer’s paradox?” I ask.
“No.”
We’re so close that my cheek is against her hair. “In order to hit the mark you want, you can’t aim at it. You have to aim higher because of gravity. So while I’m holding it steady, you aim where you think you need to to hit the bull’s eye.”
She moves, raising our hands together until she finds the spot. “There.”
“You sure?”
Rose nods.
“Okay. I’m going to let go of the string, and you fire when you’re ready.” I let my hand drop from hers on the string, and seconds later the arrow flies. It’s not perfect, but it’s damn good. Just above the bull’s eye.
“Oh my God.” She turns to me with a smile on her face and realizes just how close we are. Her breath catches, and this close I get to see the crystal blue in her eyes, the little darker parts around the center of her iris.
We hang in the moment. I shouldn’t kiss her. Especially after Leo made the joke about me and sleeping around. But fuck, her lips are beautiful. Full and pink and I want to feel them under mine.
Fuck that, I want to feel them everywhere.
“Thank you for showing me,” she says quietly.
“You’re welcome.”
I take the bow, quickly unstring it and put it away. The tension between us still hangs in the air even though the moment itself is broken.
I point across another one of our green spaces. “We have a stable over there and are hoping to offer horse excursions soon. We’re still in the process of getting the actual horses, though.”
“That would be fun.”
All at once, her voice is drowned out by the sudden sound of rain. A summer storm—the kind that comes hard and fast—is dropping and it goes from nothing to a straight downpour in seconds.