Kyan didn’t slow despite the curses that sprung from his lips as he caught a face full of the burning spray and his arms locked around her before she could escape.
They hit the ground and the pepper spray fell from her grip, rolling towards me. I leapt forward to snatch it as she fought to escape Kyan.
She hadn’t managed to get me with a shot to the face, but the air was thick with the fucking spray and I battled a cough as my eyes began to burn.
Saint ripped his helmet off, snarling and cursing as he scrubbed at his eyes, momentarily blinded by her attack.
I tossed the pepper spray into the fire and Kyan grunted as Tatum managed to kick him in the balls and scramble out of his grip.
She darted around Saint, her wild eyes falling on me as she found me blocking her path and I let her go with a dark smile.
“Three…” I called after her, reaching out to the control panel to shut the music up. “Two…”
She shrieked as she darted towards my room, leaping over the legs of the dining table where it still laid beside the door.
“One!” I leapt into motion, head down, shoulders braced for impact and my helmet still firmly on my head.
Tatum screamed again as I chased her down, vaulting the table legs just as she slammed the door to my bedroom shut behind her.
I ripped it open and found her standing on my bed, two of my trophies in her hands as she ripped them from my shelf.
“Stay back!” she warned, her hair wild around her shoulders as she panted, holding my trophies hostage.
“Have you got her?” Saint bellowed from the front room.
“Yeah,” I called back.
“Keep hold of her until I’ve had a shower and washed this shit out of my eyes!”
“You’ve really done it now, Cinders,” I purred, taking a slow step towards her.
“What are you going to do to me?” she demanded, raising my trophy higher as I took another step.
“I’ll make the others go easier on you if you give yourself up quietly now,” I promised.
She eyed me in my full football uniform and I held my hand out for the trophies.
“I haven’t done anything to you guys that you haven’t done to me,” she growled, like I was a judge and she was pleading her defence.
“I don’t remember pepper spraying you.”
“Saint almost drowned me in the fucking font.”
I barked a laugh as she reminded me of that. “Oh come on, you were only under for about ten seconds.”
“You try having a psychopath force your head under water and tell me you’re not pissed afterwards,” she hissed.
“Alright, I’ll do you a trade. You give me a kiss and I’ll make sure your punishment isn’t too bad.”
The sound of the shower starting up came from the bathroom beside us and we could hear Kyan cursing as he washed his eyes out too.
“One kiss?” she asked suspiciously.
“Yeah,” I agreed, tugging my helmet off and dropping it.
Tatum narrowed her eyes then tossed the trophies back onto the shelf before moving towards me. Her movements were tentative, but her eyes shone with victory and it looked fucking hot on her.
She dropped down before me and I leaned in, my eyes on her mouth as she tiptoed up to kiss me.
But before I could grab hold of her and push my tongue into her mouth, she tipped her head and pressed the briefest kiss I’d ever experienced to my cheek. Like, honestly, my great aunt Ava used to offer up more tongue in her kisses than that.
“Are you gonna stick to your word, Bowman?” she demanded, her gaze fierce and I realised this was a test. I’d promised to help her out if she gave me a kiss and it was my own damn fault if I hadn’t specified that I was after ten full minutes, a filthy amount of tongue and the opportunity to slip my fingers into her panties while we went at it.
“You’re the worst monster out of all of us, Tatum Rivers,” I purred, eyeing her appreciatively.
She had the fucking nerve to smirk at me and I snorted a laugh.
My gaze fell on my helmet on the floor and it gave me an idea.
“I think I can get you out of a bad punishment,” I said slowly. “But you’re gonna have to be willing to put on a show for us.”
“What kind of show?” she asked suspiciously.
“Well, you already proved how much you like dancing,” I pointed out. “So how about you climb up on the altar and do it for us. While taking your clothes off.”
Her lips popped open and I grinned.
“I’m not stripping for all of you,” she said, folding her arms.
“Sure you are. We’ve all seen what you’ve got going on anyway so it’s not like we’re asking you to show us something new. And you don’t have to take your underwear off if you don’t want to. Just, play the part and I promise Kyan will have forgotten to be mad at you by the time you take the shoulder pads off and you’ll win Saint over once you’re down to your panties.”
“Shoulder pads?” she asked and I grinned as I hooked my muddy jersey off before removing my shoulder pads too and holding them out for her. “This isn’t sexy,” she protested and I laughed.
“It will be when you’re peeling it off. Plus, I plan on filming it so if it’s embarrassing as fuck I can always release the tape as a future punishment.”
“You’re twisted.”
“Hurry up, Cinders, if Saint appears before you’re ready, he’ll take over with a punishment of his own and
