The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

The first thing she noticed entering the building was the smell. It smelled of a weird combination of dirt and a woodshop.

"What is this place?" she looked over her shoulder at Max who appeared behind her while Ollie and Johan trailed behind. "A friend of mine from college owns it. He creates landscapes and themes to make a war zone for paintball. He updates it every six months or so. This most recent one is jungle theme. There are lots of places to hide."

The quartet stood in a small glassed off entrance way and waited for someone to answer the buzzer Max pressed.

"So," Max asked as they waited, "how good of a shot are you?"

She looked over her shoulder and grinned widely at Max, "really good. Let's just say Grandpa Gael offered to take me turkey shooting with him."

"He didn't mean turkeys either," Ollie snorted. "He told me it was too bad she was pure as the driven snow because she'd be an impressive sharpshooter."

"I'm realizing now why Ollie suggested this," Johan snickered as Max paled and protectively put his hand over his junk. The door pushed open, and an extremely attractive man stepped into the space. "Max! You made it. Come on inside!" He waved them into the room and walked ahead of them.

Lark and Ollie both exchanged a glance and then boldly looked the man up and down from the top of his head to his heels and back again, both of them pausing to look at ass snugly fit in a pair of denim blue jeans which were worn perfectly. The man was disappearing down a long dark hallway and they were struggling to keep up. His legs went on forever.

"f**k me," Ollie whispered.

"Yes please," Lark whispered back.

Max turned hearing their words and glared at them both and pointed a finger at Lark. "No. You're mourning a relationship." "Best way to get over a man is to get under a new one," Ollie hissed back wiggling her eyebrows.

"If she's getting under a new one," Max jerked his thumbs at his chest.

"Ew no," Lark leaned her head sideways to look past Max who was trying to block her view. "Is he single?" "Yes," Johan grinned broadly as Max shot him a look which should have caused him to die where he stood. "His day job is an investment banker, and he does this as a hobby and he his heart was broken six months ago when his girlfriend left him for his brother," he whispered loud enough for only them to hear. "You have so much in common Lark."

"I'm going to shoot a paintball into your skull," Max pointed at Johan. "Lark, do not even think of it."

"I don't know, Max." she smiled at him wickedly. "He's single. I'm single."

"Last night you were sobbing over Doug."

"That was last night. This is a whole new day." She ducked under his arm reveling in Ollie and Johan's gleeful laughs. She raced down the hall and caught up to the man, "hi, I'm Lark." She looked over her shoulder and made wide eyes at the group taking perverse pleasure in the set of Max's jaw.

"I'm Sebastian but my friends call me Seb. Nice to meet you, Lark. Max said he had a friend who needed to work out some aggression and thought this might be a clever way to do it. I'm presuming it is you who has things to sort out?"

"Caught my boyfriend f*****g his secretary in the ass," she stated boldly.

He stumbled on his feet, "I'm sorry to hear this. Was his secretary a man?" "Nope."

"Huh, you're gorgeous so my mind immediately went to him being in the closet."

"Thank you," she beamed up at him and immediately liked his hazel eyes.

"Seriously. He has to be stupid." Seb looked her over. "Tell you what though, if you have a photo of him, I'll add his face to the pop-ups for you to shoot."

"Pop-ups?"

"Yes. Pop-ups. There are two ways to play here," Seb explained as he led them into what seemed a locker room. "You can come with a large group of people, divide up into teams and take the opposite teams out one-by-one until there is only one team standing."

"Okay."

"Or with smaller groups like the four of you, we have you enter at the east and west sides of the course in two teams. The plan is to capture the flag which is hidden in the middle of the course. The paths all intersect, and you can even hide in some places. Rules are five hits and you're out. We have pop-up characters which are meant to distract and make you think there are more than the small group you are. You can shoot them and if you are really a competitive group, you can play whoever shoots more pop-ups gets extra points. Side bets if you will."

"I love this place," Lark looked to Ollie and jumped up and down and clapped her hands. "This is going to be so fun." Seb was passing out helmets and plastic overalls.

"No shots to the face are permitted," Seb smiled at Lark's exuberance, "unless it's a target."

"You can really print people's faces for the targets?"

"Yes!" he smiled widely at Ollie's question.

Ollie shoved her phone at him, "can you print these two faces?"

Lark giggled at the image of Doug Ollie once took when she visited them at the condo and Doug fell

asleep in front of the television with his mouth hanging open. Ollie would send it to him randomly to make him upset. The other was a photo of Max's GQ cover with his face cropped.

"Hey!" Max protested.

"Do you want to shoot Max's face?" Ollie asked Lark who let out a squeal.

She looked to Seb, "I really do. Please?"

"We'll make it happen."

He handed them the rest of the gear including the paintball guns and he gave them a thorough

explanation on how to operate them. He helped show them how to hold the guns and Lark batted her

eyelashes, "can you show me? I'm more of a hands-on kind of girl." She knew it was winding Max up and it fueled her.

As Max gave a growl, Seb wrapped his arms around Lark from behind and rested the gun up on her shoulder. Ollie made wide eyes at her while she gave a smirk.

Lark rubbed his bicep, "you're really strong Seb. Do you work out?"

"Not really. I do woodworking as a hobby and have to carry heavy sheets of plywood and other kinds of wood to make the platforms and scenery you'll find inside." He spoke hotly in her ear.

"So, you're good with your hands then," she flirted boldly.

"Lark!" Max's jaw was clenched tight, "fairly sure you know how to hold the gun. Let's get started."

"Yes, before Seb's gun goes off prematurely," Johan nudged Ollie, both of them giggling.

Seb straightened and boldly looked straight into Lark's eyes, "I've never once lost control of any of my weapons.

"Not ever?" "Nope."

Max clearing his throat made them look to him. "Can we move this along?"

"Sure, sure," Seb nodded clearly enjoying riling Max up as much as Lark did. "I'm going to go out and finish setting up. By the time you're all geared up, I should be ready for you." He walked backwards out of the room his eyes not leaving Lark's.

"What is wrong with you?" Max grabbed Lark's arm loosely, his eyebrows high in his forehead. "It was exactly this behaviour from you in high school which made me a jealous prick."

"She didn't make you a jealous prick. Your inability to control your responses to situations is on you. Remember? We learned this in therapy this week." Ollie butt in with a wide grin.

"You are right." He owned it. "Me being jealous was my response to Lark's flirting with anyone but me. Lark, you never flirted with me. Not ever. I flirted with you all the time. You never once bit on it. Who friend-zoned who?" he towered over her, "you flirted with all my friends, all my enemies and never once with me. It started in eighth grade with Joey Cargo on my swim team. You and Ollie would come to the meets, stare, and make comments about how he looked in his speedos and then wipe off imaginary drool. You," he tapped Lark's nose, "told me I looked funny in my speedos and suggested I wear shorts." "Because his older sister, was always commenting about how you looked in the damn speedos. She was fourteen and we were thirteen and she would talk about how you looked so much older than you were. I knew if I said she was sexualizing you, you would have strutted like a peacock. To get back her rudeness we started talking about her brother to make her uncomfortable the way it made Ollie uncomfortable to hear her talk about you."

He c****d his head, "Suzanne Cargo? I never noticed.

She smacked his chest, "i***t. You're missing the point. I can't wait to shoot you in the ass out there." He laughed and dragged her back, "I get the point. You talked about the other kid because you were protecting me from an older woman and you liked me," he hugged her and rocked her back and forth. "Look at us talking s**t out."

"It's really uncomfortable for the rest of us," Johan made a face. "Can I have my partner now, Max? She and I are going to strategize all the ways to annihilate you both."

"What did I do to you, Johan?" Ollie asked putting her hands against her hips.

"Eleventh grade. You convinced us we needed to break into the school after hours so you could break into the emo girl's locker so you could get her spare phone her mother didn't have access to. We set off the alarms to the school and you," he held her gaze, "ran from the cops."

"The phone had nudes, Johan, and emo girl was using them to extort Ollie." Lark shrugged. "It was imperative."

"I'm not mad we went to get the phone. I'm mad because you ran, got caught, threw punches trying to escape and we got arrested. Accessories to a break and enter. We could have ended up going to juvie." "I'm sorry, Johan." Ollie said quietly. "I shouldn't have thrown punches but I'm grateful to you for being my friend and to, even all this time, still only refer to her as emo girl and not saying her name. Buds for life?" "It would have been much easier if you would date normal people and not immediately want to punch authority figures." He hugged her to his side, "I forgive you, but I reserve the right to shoot you in the ass at least once."

"Just not at close range. Those paintball things hurt."

"You know what else hurts?" Johan gave an evil grin, "handcuffs. I wore them three times because of you Ollie. Time to pay up."

"You do realize we also get to shoot you two."

"Yup. I'm not worried about either of you getting a shot off." Lark laughed. "Ollie is a bundle of nervous

energy already. I'll hear her coming a mile away. Max, I'll be able to see your ego as you're hiding behind every corner."

"You are not nice."

"Nice? This is war, Mr. Villeneuve. Get ready to lose."

As she and Johan headed to their side of the game room, she knew despite what she said, they would all be winners by the end of the night.