Something Worth Fighting For

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

BRAYLEE

My foot landed awkwardly on some loose stones, making my ankle turn. It wasn't too painful, but it was enough to make me stumble and almost topple into the long grass and boulders flanking the narrow path. If Dom hadn't been behind me, I probably would have fallen off, but he was quick to reach out, his fingers latching onto my outspread arms, and stabilised me.

I turned to look at him, intending to thank him, but before I could open my mouth...

"A solid six out of ten, Brayson," he said.

I huffed a sigh, refusing to smile, and carefully straightened myself and dislodged his touch. "Only a six? A stumble like that should be an eight, at least."

Further down the path, Stella stopped her steady march and turned to me. "Did you draw blood? Depending on the wound, we could award you an eight." She made a gesture to her knee, where a fresh graze had begun to heal over. She had been awarded an eight out of ten for her tumble earlier on in the hike at the start of our descent into the valley. Our little game had originated because of the regular stumbles and trips all of us had been subjected to over the uneven gravel and overgrown path we were following. It was a largely ignored trail along the property, but I had been told that it wound through some gorgeous ravines with plenty of water stops along the way. The idea to rate our clumsiness had come from Stella, of course, who had a leading tally of twenty-five points so far, and the rules were being made up as we went.

"No, but Dom caught me before I could fall," I pointed out, beginning to walk again. The crunch of Dom's boots behind me indicated that he was following.

"Wow, sorry for preventing serious injury," he drawled. "Next time, I won't help you."

"I mean, you'd have to fracture or break a bone for a nine," Stella went on as she traipsed on ahead.

"A very likely scenario for you," Killian quipped. He was in the lead, navigating the path as cautiously as he could. He was, of course, referring to Stella's uncanny ability to seriously injure herself doing just about anything. The girl had once torn something in her leg doing yoga on the beach during one of her travel excursions.

"And you could win the contest by being airlifted to a hospital," she continued, ignoring him.

"Let's mutually agree that we shouldn't deliberately aim for nines or tens," Dom grumbled from behind me.

"Somebody's in a grumpy mood today," I teased. Stella and Killian had now disappeared into a copse of trees ahead that heralded the steep descent into a gorge. I picked up my pace, eager for the relief the shade would provide since we had been hiking in the bright morning sunlight for over two hours.

"Couldn't sleep," he said succinctly. "And I'm not exactly pleased that you're trailing behind Stella in this little competition by two points."

He held back a thorny branch for me before I walked through it. Keeping my eyes on the rocky, uneven trail, I couldn't help the warm feeling spreading over my skin at his words. We hadn't spoken about last night... about the anything-but-tepid kiss. And I wasn't sure that we should. "Aw... are you worried about me?"

He grunted, waiting for me to safely navigate past the tree branches and thorns before answering. "Yeah, Bray. We're three kilometres away from the house and there's no cellphone reception out here. This little game is fun and all, but I don't want anything really serious to happen to you... any of us."

My heart squeezed. I used the opportunity to pull off to the side to enjoy the shade and a sip of water from the flask secured to the side of my backpack. Dom stopped too, close to me. Shorts, t-shirt and a cap didn't ruin his appeal. In fact, I think it amplified it, much to my dismay. It was a bloody good thing the guy insisted on bringing up the rear of the hike because if he had been within my view the entire time, I might have been unable to resist dragging him into the closest bush to continue the kiss from last night.