Curling my lip in annoyance, I lifted my walkie. I’d explained to Rhys before the kiss on our fake date that I thought perhaps Pete had it in for me because of my background. Rhys thought Pete sounded like a… well, he referred to him as a dick. He wasn’t wrong. “That’s Creepy Pete. Over.”

No answer was forthcoming. Instead, Rhys suddenly tore out from behind the barrier and sped toward Pete’s position like a champion sprinter, roaring this deep, terrifying bellow.

There was a shuffle of noise and curses from the trees, but Rhys’s tactic to scare the shit out of Pete and his friend Alan worked. I ducked my head out the window to see better and caught sight of Pete, now out from behind the trees, gaping at Rhys in shock, while Alan fumbled with his gun. Rhys skidded to a stop, gun up, and fired continuously until both Pete and Alan were covered in red paint.

Pete looked shell-shocked while Alan cursed in pain.

I laughed so hard, tears leaked out of my eyes.

Rhys lifted his gun and strolled casually over to Pete. He smacked him hard against the upper arm, causing Creepy Pete to wince. “No hard feelings, huh?”

My colleague nodded slowly. “Uh … sure.”

I pulled my gun back and hurried out of the bunker just as Rhys walked toward me. He grinned and gestured toward the tree house. “Go on up, see if the flag is there.”

A small part of me hoped the flag wasn’t in there so I could watch Rhys go all commando on the rest of the yellow team’s butts. Yet, if the flag was there, I could take comfort knowing he’d schooled the two guys in my office who’d upset me that week in a way that wouldn’t affect my relationship with them in the office.

It was all part of a team-building exercise after all.

Giddiness filled me as I hurried up the ladder and through the hole in the floor. Sure enough, lying in the corner was the yellow team’s flag.

I crawled into the tree house, snatched it, and hurried back down. Rhys waited at the bottom, smiling up at me. I jumped from the third rung with a girlish squeal of delight and he caught me with a bark of laughter. I lifted the flag in victory. “We won!”

Our eyes locked, and suddenly the air expelled out of my lungs as the urge to kiss him became almost impossible to hold back.

“Uh, looks like we aren’t needed.” Laura’s amusement-filled voice drew our heads apart.

Rhys slowly lowered me to the ground, and I avoided his gaze. With a smile less genuine than the one I’d given him, I turned to Xander, Laura, Stuart, and David with the flag. “Rhys kicked their butts.”

Stuart grinned at my fake boyfriend. “There’s a surprise.”