A Silver Summer

Chapter 31

Chapter thirty one

"What? You think I'd let you fall?" Ryleigh's laugh, so close to her face that his minty breath fanned her cheeks, made her peek an eye open. 

"No..." Anika smiled. He had caught her. Quite smoothly, in fact. One minute she was in the air and the next she has her legs wrapped around his waist with her arms around his neck and her face pressed into the warm crook in his neck. She lifted her neck, expecting him to put her down and raised a brow when he didn't. Ryleigh spared her a glance and shrugged casually as if he didn't notice all the stares they were getting as the songs switched mid beat. 

"Need a drink?" he asked her as he stopped by the beverage table where he and Skinner had spotted the girls out on the dance floor a few minutes prior. 

"Uh, sure." Anika nodded, feeling a little breathless from the dancing, singing and the jump. Her heart pumped wildly in her chest with excitement and adrenaline coursing through her veins. 

Again, Anika waited for him to put her down but he just shifted her to one side of his hip so he could free up a hand as he continued to support her back with the other so she wouldn't fall. 

"Alright, so you're pretty strong even though you might not look it, but this can't be comfortable for you." Anika gestured to their position. 

"I'm a man, Nick. Men are strong." Ryleigh sent her a wink before he grabbed a bottle of water after Anika had pointed to it. 

"Are you not comfortable?" he held the water bottle for her as she unscrewed the cap and then took the bottle from his hand to take a long gulp of it before she replaced the cap and met Ryleigh's dark blue eyes again. 

"Not really. You can put me down if you want to." she looked down at his chest to avoid his observant gaze, which was even worse than looking into those intense blue orbs. Why?  Because he was shirtless making her bikini top the only material separating their dewy skin for the upper part of their bodies. 

"What if I don't want to let you go? I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one thinking that you looked pretty hot up on that table dancing like that." Anika blushed even darker and was thankful that the black lights wouldn't pick it up. 

"Can I have a piggy back then?" Ryleigh chuckled at the shy edge in Anika voice, and helped her move around to his back without ever having her touch the ground. 

"Better?" Ryleigh half turned his head to see Anika's face right beside his. 

"Much. Now, where are we off to?" Anika picked her chin up off his shoulder so she could look around them. A part of her mind wondered where Mel and the rest of her gang went, but another part of her pushed those questions out of mind and brought her back to the present. 

"How about we go check out those obstacle courses and visit every food machine until we can't eat any more." Ryleigh suggested. 

"Well that's one way of discreetly trying to keep me from getting fat. Sure, let's go to the obstacle course so we can eat whatever calories lost after that." Anika joked. 

"You got me..." Ryleigh chuckled and Anika could picture him rolling his eyes. 

"Whatever. I bet I can still whip your butt at both." Anika replaced her chin on his shoulder and looked sideways at him. 

"Maybe with that," Ryleigh jerked his head in the direction ahead of them where the obstacle course was blown up in the corner of the clearing, "but there's no way you can beat me at a food eating contest." he scoffed. 

Anika gently squeezed her arms around his neck for a second before slacking her grip again. "I beg your pardon. This girl can put away a few wands of cotton candy." Anika struggled to hold in her laugh.