CEO's Passion: Love by Mistake

Chapter 29

Shane grunted.

Natalie knelt down and began to tie the rope.

After she was done, she clapped her hands before standing up. Feeling satisfied with herself, she asked, “Mr. Shane, try moving a little. Does it feel tight?”

She was worried that her knot was too loose and that the rope would fall off easily. Hence, she tightened it slightly.

Unintentionally, as her words fell upon Shane’s ears, her innocent intention took a whole different meaning.

“Try moving a little, does it feel tight?” Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Doesn’t she know that her suggestive words can be easily misunderstood?

Shane felt a hot flush creeping up to him. Tugging his tie to loosen it a little, he whispered in a low and hoarse voice, “It’s okay. Let’s go with this.”

At this moment, a middle-aged man stood upon the referee’s stand with a starter pistol and jovially announced, “Now, since the children’s group and the parents’ group are ready, I shall count to three. After the count, the race will begin. If the parents’ group loses, there will be a penalty awaiting!”

Penalty?

Natalie was stunned.

After all, there was no announcement whatsoever regarding penalty since the beginning.

“Don’t be distracted. The race has started,” Shane’s cold voice rang in her ears, jolting her from her thought. “He mentions that only the parents’ group will face the penalty. Plus, he has just given us a hinting glance on purpose. That obviously means that he intends for us to lose. If you don’t want to be the loser, the best way is to buck up and get serious!”

“Aight, I understand.” Nodding her head, Natalie became more serious.

She did not want to be on the receiving end of some unknown ridiculous penalty.

“Hug my waist,” Shane instructed. Shane grunted.

Natalie knelt down and began to tie the rope.

Natalie was taken aback, thinking that she might have heard it wrong.

Natalie was taken aback, thinking that she might have heard it wrong.

Glancing at her, Shane caught on to her surprise and flatly explained, “In a three-legged race, the most crucial things are the tacit understanding and cooperation. Since don’t understand each other well, we can only rely on cooperation. Seeing that you are not tall enough to put your arm around my shoulders, the alternative is for you to hug my waist. We shall then walk as one. If we were to go on our own

separate paces, we would definitely lose.”

Catching on, Natalie finally understood his intention. Initially, she had no idea where to place her hand. Now, she wrapped her hand around his waist consciously without hesitation.

Right at that moment, she caught a whiff of fresh mint passing by her nose, causing her to jolt back into old memories.

This scent... where have I smelled this before?

It is so familiar.

“If you’ll excuse me.” As Natalie was still trying to remember where she had sniffed the familiar scent, Shane put his arm around her shoulders and interrupted her thoughts.

For now, she could only focus on the race and put that aside.

“Ready, one, two, run!” The middle-aged man raised the starter pistol and pulled the trigger.

Bam!

Hearing the crisp and clear boom of the gunshot, Shane led the first step with the tied leg and firmly reminded, “Let’s go!”

“Aight.” Natalie quickly responded, focusing on keeping up with him so as to not hold both of them back.

Even though the two started well, they were still not as good as the two children.

Those two were not only of the same height, but they had also grown up together, therefore possessed great rapport with one another. The moment the gunshot was heard, they were already rushing ahead, leaving the two adults behind in the dust.

As Sharon walked forward, she turned her head back and excitedly shouted, “Dad! Mommy! Both of you hurry up!”

“Dad, mommy! You are both going to lose!” Connor echoed his sister as he enthusiastically taunted.

Natalie could sense the two cheeky kids were mocking them, leaving her nonplussed.

“We must hurry up,” Shane said as he squinted at the finish line, which was still far away, before staring at the two children who were nearly reaching the half point of the race.

Natalie knew that they would lose if they did not speed up, so she took in a breath and agreed.

Adults had longer legs than children. After speeding up and taking bigger strides, both of them managed to catch up and raced past the two children.

Seeing their victory was right ahead, Natalie was encouraged. However, her expression suddenly froze.

She had just witnessed the support beam that was supporting the finish line shaking.

In the next moment, a screw came off, and the support beam fell towards both Shane and her.

Natalie’s eyes widened in surprise, and before she even had time to think, she instinctively pushed Shane to the ground. However, her leg was hit by the falling support beam.

This scene frightened everyone in the restaurant. The middle-aged man who was hosting the event was terrified as he quickly called for assistance.

Soon, the restaurant’s guards came and lifted the support beam away.

Shane quickly untied the rope binding their legs together before helping Natalie up. Seeing her bleeding ankle, his heartbeat quickened, almost skipping a beat, leaving him to mutter with a dazed look, ”You...”