Man of the Match: hot celebrity romance (FULL NOVEL)

10. Final night

[RECAP: Formerly shy student Cara has blossomed with confidence after meeting England cricket captain Matt Curran and starting a forbidden affair with him. Matt is also finding it hard to contain his feelings for Cara, even though they have to go their separate ways when they leave Sri Lanka.]

Matt had meant to avoid alcohol as much as possible, but he'd had at least a couple more than he intended to just because he was so frustrated with the events of the party. He was also frustrated with himself: why on earth was he letting this girl get to him?

It had irked him in a quite an alarming way to see other men flirt with her. It wasn't as though he was ever going to see her again after tomorrow, so why should he care?

The only thing that had made it bearable, watching some of his teammates chatting her up, was knowing that he was going to be the one spending the night with her.

He finally saw her slip away. From then on he just felt like he was counting down the minutes until he could get away himself and join her.

Most of the other party goers were too merry with drink and celebration to notice Matt's own mood. He could quite rightfully claim exhaustion, and as captain he wasn't expected to party to the bitter end. The opposite in fact.

Letting a couple of people know he was turning in for the night - in case someone went looking for him - he exited the party and caught the lift to Cara's floor.

She opened the door to him, still in the slinky blue dress. It simultaneously made him want to rip it off her so he could finally devour the tanned curves beneath, to have them all for himself, and it also enraged him because he recalled the other men's reactions to her in it.

Cara saw the dark expression on his face though she didn't fully understand it. It was as though a storm was passing over him, a black mood.

There was no gentleness now, no slow seduction.

He took a step towards her.

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To find out what happens between Cara and Matt, please see the full scene in the Mature-rated companion story, Man of the Match: Intimate Scenes. Just click the [External Link] button below right

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She thought he had fallen asleep but then he shifted and moved his head to look at her.

"This isn't what I planned," he said.

"What isn't?"

"You. Everything."

Then his lips were on hers and it was tender, sensuous. Compared to the way he had bruised them before it was as though he was healing them.

He raised his head again, once more meeting her gaze. There was a different light in his eyes now.

Despite what he had done to her, the brink he had brought her to and beyond, he looked resigned. As though there had been a battle, which he hadn't won.

* * *

Cara slept for a while until something awoke her. Matt was resting on his elbow, looking down at her in the semi-darkness. Moonlight and other lights from outside cast some illumination into the room.

He brushed a strand of hair from her face.

"Did I hurt you before?" he asked.

He had, but far less than the pleasure he had brought her. "No, it was wonderful for me."

He looked relieved.

"I didn't mean to take it out on you. I was frustrated with.... things."

He didn't specify what and she couldn't guess. Something to do with his team perhaps.

"You are such an incredible girl. I wish circumstances could have been different," he said. He wished they were different. He was starting to wonder whether they could be.

It was the enormity of it though. To create that much disruption for what was just supposed to be a fling. If she wasn't lying there right now, looking so perfect and so sexy, if he was away from her and had his head together, he wouldn't even be considering the things that his mind was currently toying with.

Cara had no idea what thoughts were running through Matt's head. He had been straight with her at the start so she had no expectations. She had occasional wild fantasies of what could have been, if things were different, but she knew it was over tomorrow. And it was already tomorrow: past midnight.

She felt strangely at peace with it all, lying there with him. It had been perfect, for her anyway, and she could pack it up in her mind and her heart and treasure it. She had accepted that she was going to go home and her current happiness would come crashing down, but she would bear it.

She was grateful. He had opened her world to something other than Declan. There wasn't even pain there anymore, just a shuddering sense of relief that she had been saved from what would have been a miserable marriage. At least she now knew what was out there.

The question of whether she would ever find it again, whether anyone could move her world as Matt had, she buried deep down for now.

"It's been the most amazing week for me, truly," she said. "I never knew cricket could be so exciting." She was teasing him but it was true. She had actually enjoyed the cricket enormously, though it paled in comparison to Matt's off-pitch performance.

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To find out what happens between Cara and Matt, please see the full scene in the Mature-rated companion story, Man of the Match: Intimate Scenes. Just click the [External Link] button below right

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Matt knew it was madness, but he couldn't bear never experiencing this again.

"Maybe we should catch up again, back in England?"

She just felt too good to let go. He didn't know what he was saying or even what he intended. Maybe they could continue the fling back home. Maybe he could do the unthinkable.

Her eyes opened, startled. "But you said..."

"I know. It's all a mess. It's just this... you... it's felt really good." She'd been good for his game too. He had been calmer, more centred. More focused. Which was usually the opposite of what a relationship did to his sporting performance.

"Hasn't it felt great for you too?" he asked her.

"Of course." But she didn't have anything to compare it to. The thought that she might have felt better to him than the average girl, that this felt special to him in some way, filled her with a strange terror and joy.

"You don't want a repeat performance?"

"Yes, but..."

The but was everything. They both knew that. It was the fact he wasn't free. It was the fact that they led completely different lives. It was the fact that if they were found out it would be front page news.

Still, Matt couldn't just let her walk away. "But you'll think about it?"

She looked serious for a moment. "If you think that's what you want, then yes."

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If anyone is finding it awkward switching between the Mature scenes and back, drop me a message with your email and I'll send you the uncensored ePub.

So it looks like this *is* going to be more than a holiday fling...