The damp neoprene barely wanted to fit. Zita pulled desperately at the suit, unsure who had worn it before. She just hoped that no one had peed in it and that, at the very least, the tight, suffocating jumpsuit had been thoroughly cleaned. Finally, a colleague took pity on her. He stood up on the bench behind the young woman and literally shook her into the suit.
She lay excitedly on the surface of the seven-degree stream, letting the current carry her from one station to the next. Her excitement made her squeeze her eyes shut. She had never gone with the flow before—neither literally nor metaphorically. At first, the water only cooled the suit, but as it gradually soaked through, it chilled her body too. However, just as she started to feel cold, she arrived at the point where the boats were being prepared for rafting.
“What a catch!” David shouted, grabbing Zita’s hand.
The touch and the longing look immediately warmed up her body as she emerged from the icy water. Their hands intertwined tightly, both taking a moment to savor the feeling of their skin pressing together for the first time. Zita looked deeply into David’s eyes, as if afraid he might not understand how much she liked him. She had been planning for weeks to get closer to David during this team-building retreat. She didn’t want to go home without accomplishing her goal.
“We’ll be in the same boat, right?” David asked. “I need someone to paddle for me. I get tired quickly, and you work out three times a week.”
Zita blushed at his words. So David knew she worked out regularly.
“I don’t mind,” she played along. “I’ll sit next to you and paddle for you if you get tired. But it won’t be free.”
“Oh really?” David raised an eyebrow with a conspiratorial smile. “What’s the price of your work? Should I take you out to dinner? There’s an exclusive buffet at the hotel tonight. You could join me.”
“I was thinking,” Zita replied in a sweet tone, “that you could work one day for me in return. After all, we’ll be fighting for our lives soon,” she added, glancing meaningfully at the river. “You can’t repay that with some soup and a platter of roasts.”
Zita enjoyed the gentle banter. It felt better than if David had tried to flirt with her directly. She liked teasing, pushing boundaries a bit. The game excited her much more than dreamy looks. Besides, the attraction between them was fundamentally physical.
Soon, eight boats, each with seven seats, were on the water. David and Zita made sure to sit next to each other so that their knees or arms could occasionally touch. The thrill of white-water rafting, combined with the sexual tension, had both colleagues on edge. Their laughter sometimes became too loud, their exchanges too suggestive.
Zita couldn’t contain herself. During dinner, her shoulder brushed against David’s several times. Flushed and with bright eyes, she studied him, seeking a response.
David enjoyed the hunt more than anything else. Choosing, pursuing, teasing, getting what he wanted, forgetting, and then choosing again… From the moment Zita appeared on her first day at work, he knew he wanted her. Her scent, her skin, the way her hair fell over her shoulder—it all captivated him. David immediately sensed that the attraction was mutual. The air between them was electric.
The knock made her jump. She knew David would stop by after dinner to go to the wellness area together, yet she still felt a wave of fear. Her throat tightened, and her stomach almost ached. She felt like she was suffocating. With trembling hands, she opened the door. The man didn’t say a word; he just looked deeply into her eyes. It was entirely different from when he had helped her out of the water.
The next day, their knees touched again in the boat. But this time, it wasn’t excitement that drove them, but propriety. And a sense that, having spent two nights away from their mundane lives, they might as well make the most of it and sleep together again. Even if David was too fast, and Zita too loud.