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

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[RECAP: Student Cara has been kidnapped by her deranged ex-fiancé Declan, who's deluded himself into believing that he's the father of her child. Meanwhile England cricket captain Matt is devastated because he's in love with Cara, and wrongly thinks that she and Declan are back together.]

Declan was "not in the office" when Fiona showed up at the insurance company to try to speak with him. She had been there before with Cara a couple of times, when Cara had been meeting Declan and Fiona was shopping, as the office was near the main precinct.

Fiona had already tried going round to Declan's house. No amount of knocking on the door got a response, his car wasn't there, and a neighbour she spoke with said he hadn't seen or heard him come in the previous evening.

It was all starting to add up in a rather horrible way. Even without any knowledge of what Declan or Cara had been up to the previous day, the fact that they were both mysteriously absent was alarming.

The receptionist at Declan's company was a young girl with cheaply streaked hair and long plastic fingernails. Fiona wondered for a moment if she was the infamous Lucinda but her name turned out to be Mandy.

Mandy tried to be evasive for the sake of being difficult as it made her feel important to delay people's requests. She also didn't like Declan and wasn't inclined to help anyone who apparently knew him.

She met her match in Fiona. Within a few minutes, Fiona had wrested the information from her that Declan had not shown up that day despite not calling in sick, nor had he been seen since leaving for a meeting the day before. She also discovered that Lucinda no longer worked there.

"I need to know where she's working now. Plus her home address." Fiona didn't bother to ask, she simply demanded.

"I really shouldn't be giving this out. I don't have permission." Mandy looked nervous.

"This is urgent and I don't want any more of my time wasted." Fiona didn't have to fake impatience, her fears for Cara were growing and the urgency sounded in her voice.

The girl crumbled as Fiona knew she would, and wrote down an address on a post-it note. "But don't say you got it from me."

* * *

Will had no idea where Matt lived but he got hold of a newspaper and figured out that he would be playing a county cricket match in Surrey that day.

Traffic allowing he would get there during the lunch break, and if not there was the afternoon tea break. If he had to stake out the ground until night he would do so. He didn't know or care what reception he would get. He was relying on announcing himself as "Cara's brother" to be enough shock for Matt to agree to see him.

Even if the guy had no intention of seeing his sister ever again, and had merely used her which was what Will currently assumed, he would probably be hoping to avoid exposure. It was Will's only leverage though he hoped to gain access to him without threat.

He found a parking spot by the ground, bought a ticket and made his way in. It felt somewhat absurd to be buying a ticket in the circumstances. He had a very slim hope that perhaps Cara was here, watching the cricket, and he looked out for her just in case.

By the time he was inside play was once again underway so he had to wait until the next break, which was mid-afternoon. Being midweek the ground was fairly empty since only retired people had the leisure to watch most county games.

When the players finally went inside again Will made his way to the pavilion and found some kind of official who referred him to someone else. Despite his intense efforts at persuasion he was met with a brick wall, but by chance one of the county players was walking by and heard him arguing with the staff member and giving the name Matt Curran.