Ocelot led both teams on a short trek into the woods. Our final destinated appeared to be some sort of ropes course – there were nets and ropes and boards nailed into every tree in sight.
Wait a second. Ropes.
“Why are there so many ropes?” I asked Tanner. “Please tell me the salmon ladder isn’t a BDSM thing. I’ll freak out if raw salmon starts flying around and I don’t have all my extremities free to dodge. And aren’t the salmon back by the lake?” The further we got from the lake, the more worried I’d been getting that the salmon would be all sorts of rotten. The Society trying to get me naked at every possible turn was one thing, but their wanton disregard for food safety was despicable.
“There are no salmon,” said Tanner.
“Then why is it called the salmon ladder?”
“I think it has something to do with the fact that it looks like a fish ladder.”
I stared at him. “You’re saying words, but they have no meaning.” There were definitely salmon involved in this. I wasn’t going to fall for his lies.
“You know…the thing that helps fish swim past a dam?”
I stared at him blankly.
“Just look,” he said, pointing to where Ocelot was standing.
“For the salmon ladder,” said Ocelot, “each team will field two women and three men. The team that climbs the highest total number of rungs wins the event. And if it’s a tie, then whichever team finished faster wins.”
Cole stepped up to the front and tore his shirt off.
My God.I knew he was going to look good shirtless, butdamn.Those abs. And those pecs. And those tattoos… I couldn’t decide which I wanted to touch most. But then a horrible thought occurred to me. Why was he stripping!? He should have been putting on a hazmat suit, not getting naked!
As it turned out, no salmon were involved. Instead Cole had to hang from a metal bar as if he was doing a pull-up. But instead of doing a pull-up, he had to somehow jump the bar up to a pair of rungs a foot above him. And then again, and again. Seven times.
It seemed like whoever designed this particular stunt engineered it so that it would make a man look as sexy as humanly possible. I was devastated when he got to the top and stopped.
But Tanner ripping his shirt off to go next softened the blow. In fact, he looked just as sexy. His muscle was leaner than Cole’s and he didn’t have any tattoos, but that didn’t make him any less delicious. I actually preferred it. Because as much as I hatedTanner Rhodes, there was a piece of me that still really freaking loved him.
Tanner easily worked his way up to the top of the ladder. I gave him a big high five when he came back to the group.
“Ready to go next?” he asked.
I looked at him like he was crazy. “Hell no. No girl could do that.”
Tanner raised an eyebrow and pointed to the salmon ladder. Chastity had stepped up to go next. It didn’t even look like it took any effort for her to jump her way up to the top. And then she came over and handed me the metal pole.
“How?” I asked.
“It’s easy,” she said. “You just have to engage your core to create a moment of zero gravity. Then you can move the bar to the next rung.”
Huh.“For real? It looks so hard.”
“Na. You got this.” She leaned in and whispered. “And if you play your cards right, maybe you can give the boys an accidentalnip slip.” Then she smacked me on the ass to send me on my way up to the ladder.
What?! No!I didn’t want to give anyone an accidental nip slip.
I retied my top to be a little lower and tighter and then jumped up and hooked the bar on the first rung. Just like Chastity had said, it was nice and easy. And I hadn’t even had a nip slip.
Ha! Easy peasy!
Now what came next? I looked up and tried to figure out how I was going to get the bar up to the next rung. I just had to engage my core to create a moment of zero gravity, right?
I tried to do that and… The bar moved about half an inch off the rung and then just fell back to exactly where it had been a second ago.
Minor setback.I adjusted my grip and got ready to try again with more force.
