Stuck on You by Heather Thurmeier Page B

was smokin’ hot.
    A vision of Paige standing in a steaming shower, rubbing a soap-filled sponge across her chest flickered to life in his brain. A shot of heat spiked through him, hardening him to half-mast instantly. Good thing his jeans were of the baggier variety tonight or his fantasy-induced semi would be on display for the neighboring tables to see.
    Not something he wanted wandering eyes to find. Unless those eyes were deep brown and belonging to the fantasy-inducer herself — she could look all she wanted.
    “Convince me of what?” he asked, addressing everyone at the table and not focusing solely on Paige. She could probably convince him of anything she wanted and all it would take was another moment between her thighs like the other night in the kitchen.
    And there’s full mast.
    “Well,” Paige started, turning her attention on him, “we have a little proposition for you.”
    Yes, sign me up.
    He cleared his throat. “I’m intrigued.”
    Ben gave him the look that said he knew exactly what kind of proposition Miles was hoping for. “They want our help.”
    “It would be a mutual agreement actually. One in which both teams would benefit.” The bitchy tone in Zoe’s voice had disappeared. Good. He was sick of hearing that voice.
    “We thought since both of our teams seem to be falling a little behind the other teams, maybe we’d all benefit from … an alliance.” Paige whispered the last part, leaning in even closer as she did.
    Miles found himself leaning forward too. Intrigued at the thought of an alliance or intrigued because of the beautiful woman?
    “We’re not that bad off,” he said quietly, hoping Ben would back him up. “We checked off another six locations in our logbook today alone.”
    “That’ll help you catch up to the firefighters who are well over a hundred at this point.” Zoe rolled her eyes, like he’d seen her do so many times before. “Well, if you want to keep losing, don’t let us stop you.”
    “You’re not winning either, if my count is correct. You have what, five or ten more than we do.”
    “That’s enough not to come in last.”
    “Possibly. But they said it would come down to point value in the end.” Miles took a swig of his beer and shrugged. Zoe really knew how to get under his skin. “So let’s say I’m entertaining this idea. How would this alliance work?”
    Paige perked up. “We’d work together to find the caches neither of us have done and along the way, if we drive near any caches either of our teams have done, then we’ll stop so that the other team can collect it too. And we’d have four sets of eyes looking for each cache instead of only two. That’s bound to make them easier to find.”
    Miles nodded. Hearing Paige talk strategy was surprisingly hot. He enjoyed watching her take on the challenge of figuring out how their teams could work together and so far, it sounded like a pretty decent plan. Working with another team the way she’d specified could help a lot. And he and Ben had talked once before, earlier in the game, about the possibility of allying with another team. But were the girls really their best hope?
    “We were just discussing how the prizes would work for caches we find together first and it seems like alternating the team who opens the cache would solve that little problem just fine. Then it’s fair.”
    Seemed they’d come to an agreement before he’d even gotten to the table. Nice of Ben to consult his teammate. Although, he couldn’t really be mad at Ben. The alliance did sound pretty good. The girls would tip them off to the caches they already knew about, they’d find the rest of them together, hopefully faster, and they’d still get a chance to find some prizes.
    He glanced toward Paige where she sat quietly, waiting while he weighed the possibilities. An alliance with the girls would mean more time spent putting up with Zoe, who was already sufficiently annoying at base camp each night.
    But it also