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

8. After hours action

[RECAP: Cara and Matt had a narrow escape when his teammates came round to his room, and Cara had to hide as their relationship must be kept secret.]

There were three highly sober and contrite players at breakfast the next morning. To say they looked the worse for wear would be an understatement. Figuring that having to play for hours in the sun with a hangover would be punishment enough, and buoyed with relief over not being discovered, Matt let it go. "Just hold off until the end of the week next time," he told them.

Regardless of the drama last night, Matt was feeling content. Happy, even, though his focus on the test series tended to keep his mood serious. His game was better than it had been in ages. The team was in form. The press were supportive. There were no heavy politics distracting him behind the scenes.

And he hadn't heard from Miggy in days which was a welcome break for his peace of mind.

Not only that, he was enjoying the most amazing nights with an incredibly sweet and beautiful girl. He knew it couldn't last, and he knew it wasn't serious, but occasionally he smiled just thinking about her. She might not have Miggy's worldly sophistication but she was fun to be with and at times when he had been momentarily stressed, she had made him laugh. Lifted his mood.

Miggy used to be able to make him laugh. She would endlessly regale him with anecdotes of various famous people who moved in the same circles she did. At first he had found it fascinating, amusing. But after a while it started to pall. So what if another eighties popstar had got into a fight with a TV actor at a party? Or a peer of the realm had been caught with his trousers down in a lap dancing club? After a while it simply wasn't interesting any more.

Cara didn't know anyone and instead of finding this dull Matt found it refreshing. Being with her was an escape, a relief. It was real. She may not have had Miggy's experience, but she was generous and willing in bed. He found himself lost in her in a way that shut out the rest of the world and any stress or worry he had.

With Miggy it was all about her. They talked about her thoughts, her friends, her problems, never his. She understood Matt couldn't drop what he was doing cricket-wise to be with her, she wasn't that self-centred, but everything else they did was her choice, her preference. She'd also drop their plans like a stone if a last minute job came up, such as her trip to Peru during the previous test series. Which Matt figured was fair enough as she had her own career to think of, but he sometimes felt taken for granted.

Whereas Cara had been interested in him. Genuinely wanting to know about him, and what he thought about things. She was smart. She could talk about science, which Matt appreciated as his own degree had been in engineering.

He shouldn't be comparing them, he supposed, it wasn't fair on either of them. It wasn't as though it was either or. It was Cara now, a brief and enjoyable overseas fling, and then back to Miggy and regular life when the tour finally ended.

But standing there, on the pitch, thinking about what he wanted to do afterwards to unwind, it was only ever Cara that came into his mind.

* * *

Cara was still pinching herself daily, feeling as though she was in some wonderful and forbidden dream. She knew that she absolutely must not fall for Matt but trying to discipline her thoughts and feelings to stay platonic was not easy. They were taking a huge risk regardless, as the intrusion in Matt's room the other night had demonstrated.

Matt wasn't available. He had been clear about that. He was in a high profile relationship with a famous model, and when Cara went back home she would have to put all this behind her and move on. Wrap her memories up in a box and store them away, like putting old photos in the attic.

"Every girl should have a secret affair," an elderly aunt of hers had once said.

Aunt Diana probably hadn't intended a full blown affair in the sense it was understood today though. She had meant something far more chaste and reserved, carried out through love letters and dances at chaperoned balls, tragically ended by some misfortune or forced separation. Leaving nothing behind but a few billets-doux and dried rose petals to grow misty-eyed over in old age.

What would Cara's mementoes be? A few faded photos - none directly of Matt, of course - and the ticket stubs to a long-ago test match.

But right now it wasn't time to think about that. It was time to simply enjoy the moment.

They couldn't be seen together by other people, since although Matt trusted his team mates, the more people who knew about it just made it riskier. Plus there were journalists around the place. If he had been single, or even just one of the team, it might not have mattered. But as captain he was under more scrutiny.

So late each night Matt would come to her room, as his was now too much of a risk, and they would make love and lie in each other's arms until morning.

He slipped off to his own room at dawn, and Cara would sleep for a couple more hours before getting up herself. She breakfasted in the company of the Hilliers, with whom she had become firm friends - they had invited her to visit them in Surrey - and the three of them set off to the cricket together.

A week of sheer joy. A week of being thrust into a world she had never experienced.

"I've always thought cricket whites look very dashing on a man," Mrs Hillier said to Cara one day at the play. Cara privately agreed but did not dare say so. She would never have considered it were it not for her awareness of Matt's rippling bronzed muscles beneath his white shirt.

Mrs Hillier had asked Cara about her own romantic situation and Cara had told her the truth, that she was recently single and concentrating on her studies for the time being.

It was more or less the truth, anyway. Cara was trying not to give anything away: her crashing disappointment when Matt was finally caught out. Her use of the field glasses to view him when he was fielding, rather than the action on the ground. Her heightened tension when he was opening the second innings.

She tried to keep her reactions neutral but it was hard. Her connection with him brought her into the game, it made everything far more charged.

It didn't help that Matt was one of the players that Mr Hillier particularly admired, and frequently praised. She just hoped nothing showed on her face when Mr Hillier yet again lauded Matt's "outstanding performance" and "aggressive strokes".

* * *

Matt was so fired up after scoring another half century in his second innings that Cara had barely let him through the door before he was all over her. Hungry to celebrate, hungry for release he practically ripped her clothes off and threw her on the bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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