Page 18 of Going for Gold (Sweet Cravings 3)

"Why?"

"Sorry. Classified."

"Oh yeah? How about now?" I reached up with one hand and tickled his armpit. It seemed like a good idea. It wasn't.

He laughed and pulled his arm down to block me from tickling him, which in turn pulled the handlebars sharply to the right. As the front wheel turned at a 90 degree angle from where it should have been, the scooter stopped dead and Bryce and I flew over the handlebars.

I went airborne for a few seconds and then came to rest in a bush directly on top of Bryce. My face was an inch away from his.

"Ow," he muttered.

His minty breath wafted up to my nose. I locked eyes with him for a second. The twinkle in his baby blue eyes was enchanting. Even though I had just caused him to crash his scooter and flip into a bush, there wasn't a hint of anger in his eyes. Only amusement and a bit of desire. Shit, what am I doing?

I quickly crawled off of him and wiped the leaves off myself.

"Oh my God, Alina!" screamed Kristen as she pulled her scooter up next to me. "Are you okay?"

"Codenames only!" yelled one of Bryce's friends.

"Really, dude? They just flew into a bush and you're worried about code names?" Kristen scanned me for any major injuries. "It looks like you're okay."

"Yeah, I think I'm fine," I said. Nothing was in excruciating pain, so that meant no sprains or breaks. A quick glance confirmed that I had a few scratches on my arm, but that was about it. "No thanks to Bryce's driving..."

"My driving?" said Bryce. "Sorry, I must have missed the part in the scooter manual about how to deal with a spontaneous tickle attack."

I smiled and tried to look innocent. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Green Tiger, " said one of Bryce's friends, looking at his phone. "The eagle is in the bird bath."

"Huh?" asked Kristen.

I looked over the guy's shoulder at his phone screen. He was looking at a video feed of an empty dorm room similar to the one Kristen and I shared.

"What in the world are we doing?" I asked.

"No time to explain," said Bryce. "We've gotta move."

The handlebars had broken off our scooter during the crash, so Bryce just took off running. I

chased behind him, but he was sprinting way too fast. Luckily we only had to run one more block before we arrived at Dorm 16.

Bryce's friends grabbed the scooters and hid them in the bushes out front and then we all huddled up.

"Alright," said Bryce. "Red Wolf, you'll stand guard out here. Pink Ocelot, you're my eyes in the sky..."

"Pink Ocelot?" I asked, looking at the guy who had just been addressed by that name. He was the one with the perfectly coiffed dark hair. "Is that seriously your codename?"

He shrugged. "I thought it sounded cool..."

It doesn't. "Interesting. So what are Kristen and..."

Pink Ocelot cleared his throat. "Codenames only, please."

"Geez, okay. Sorry. We'll get codenames. Kristen, what do you..."

"God damn it!" yelled Pink Ocelot.

I jumped when he yelled at me. Bryce glanced at me and laughed.

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