The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max) novel Chapter 25

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.