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‘Worse. It appears I might… adore you.’
For a moment he didn’t speak. Or he couldn’t. She didn’t know which.
He stepped closer, visibly swallowing. ‘For the record, I think I might adore you, too.’
Closing the gap between them and kissing him senseless seemed like the right response. It was a forceful move, a bold act on her part, and one that took him by surprise.
He didn’t object. In fact, he kissed her back. He kissed her with such intensity that they stumbled backwards and knocked over one of the pirate dummies… and then another one, sending Blackbeard’s parrot flying… and then they crashed into a beer barrel… followed by another beer barrel… before getting entangled in the rope netting attached to the front of the bar. It was carnage.
And yet the kissing didn’t stop – despite the hazards. Megan and Zac had nothing on them. They’d merely had stairs to deal with, whereas Beth and Matt faced an entire eighteenth-century obstacle course.
‘Are we really doing this here?’ she asked, breathless from kissing, trying to disentangle herself from the entwined rope.
He caught her when she tripped. ‘You don’t find this romantic?’
‘Not really,’ she said, laughing as his elbow smacked against the bar.
‘Okay. Stop a moment.’ He held her steady. ‘We need to think about this.’ He ran his hands through his hair. ‘You’re right, this isn’t romantic. We need romantic.’ He stepped away and dug out his phone, the screen lighting up his face as he scrolled through it. ‘Give me one minute.’
A few seconds later music began to play. ‘Up Where We Belong’, the theme tune fromAn Officer and a Gentleman.
Beth started laughing. ‘Seriously?’
He came towards her.
She stopped laughing when she realised what he was about to do. ‘No way! Not a fireman’s lift again! No!’
But instead of hoisting her up over his shoulder, he simply lifted her into his arms, Richard Gere style.
She slid her arms around his neck and leant into him, knowing she was in safe hands.
For once, she wasn’t going to fight it. She was going to relinquish control and allow herself some fun. She’d closed herself off from relationships for such a long time, convinced they were more hassle than they were worth. They’d never been something she needed, but she now realised this was something she wanted, which was an entirely different thing.
It hadn’t been a lightbulb moment with Matt. There’d been no epiphany, no explosive coming together. It had been a gradual process, a softening of her protective barriers. Her feelings for Matt had crept up on her. He’d infiltrated her thoughts, her dreams, her desires. It had taken her a while to believe that what she was feeling was real. And now she did.
Matt Hardy was the man for her.
And she was definitely the woman for him.
