Read Online The Girl's Guide to (Man)Hunting by Jessica Clare - Free Book Online

blindfolded, using the team bandanas that we’ve provided for you. The other partner will beinstructing you on where the wood is and guiding you without touching you. When your arms are full, you’ll return to camp, drop off your load, and then the blindfolded partners will switch. You’ll have equal time under the blindfold, and equal time to be the guide. Understand?”
    “How do we know we won’t get lost?” George said. “We don’t know our way around these woods.”
    Dane had been prepared for this, and he pulled out a package of wristbands from his backpack. “These are GPS trackers that emit an electronic signal. If you get lost, I can find you. No worries.”
    He passed them out to the teams and one by one, they strapped the GPS trackers on their wrists. As he handed Miranda hers, he noticed there was a tiny crease in her smooth brow, as if she were unhappy with this turn of events.
    “There a problem?” he said in a low voice to her.
    She looked up, startled. “Oh. No, no problem.” She quickly strapped her tracker to her wrist and turned to Pete. “You can be blindfolded first, though, okay?”
    Pete shrugged. “Fine with me.”
    The teams blindfolded their partners and began to set off in the woods. One of the businessmen—Steve—barked orders to his partner in a booming voice that echoed in the woods. Dane made a mental note to have a chat with Steve later and discuss why it was bad to talk at supersonic levels in the forest, especially when some of the tasks coming up would require stealth and avoiding the other team.
    His ears strained, and he could pick up Miranda’s soft, husky voice. “Left, Pete, left,” she was saying as she guided him past onetree and then another. “Two steps forward—I, no, two, Pete. Pete. Pete! Look out—”
    He watched her cringe as her partner ran into a low-hanging branch. They seemed to be having a bit of trouble, so Dane planted the team flag in the center of camp, and then jogged over to trail behind Miranda and Pete.
    “You’ve got to give me better directions than that,” Pete was complaining to Miranda, stretching his hands out.
    “My directions are perfectly fine,” she argued with him. “Or they would be if you’d actually listen to them. When I tell you two steps, I mean two steps, okay?”
    “Two steps,” Pete agreed. He leaned forward, his hands searching as he moved. “Is there any wood nearby at least?
    Miranda thought for a moment as Pete’s hands flailed. “There’s a fallen limb about three paces to your left,” she began.
    Pete immediately did a complete about face and plunged toward her. His hands landed squarely on Miranda’s breasts.
    Shit. Dane strode forward, ready to break the two of them apart. It was day one and already it was looking like he’d have a sexual harassment suit on his hands. This was bad. This was very, very bad. And judging from the startled—yet pleased—look on Pete’s face, it wasn’t entirely unintentional. That did not surprise Dane. The nerd had been gunning for sexy Miranda since she’d showed up.
    He was, however, completely surprised when Miranda shoved Pete away and decked him square across the jaw.

FIVE
     
    T

his was not shaping up as she’d planned.
    Miranda trembled with anger as Dane stepped between her and Pete. He stretched an arm out to keep Miranda off of the fallen man, not that he needed to. She’d flattened him with one well-placed punch. Her hand throbbed like mad but that was all right—it could swell like a balloon and she wouldn’t take back the hit.
    Pete had totally deserved it. He pulled off his blindfold and stared up at the two of them, his glasses askew over his eyes and his expression shocked. His hand moved up to rub his jaw. “You hit me!”
    She resisted the urge to clutch her collar closed, to make sure that there was not an ounce of cleavage exposed. Instead, she forced her hands down to her sides, and they clenched there like fists. “You grabbed me,”