Diving Deep (UK Crush #2)

Chapter 32

And we stepped out and entered the pub, which was so loud we could hear it from the curb. Teddy reached for my hand and kissed it, smiling at me, and I could feel myself getting lost, in a beautiful smile with dimples, and wide set gray eyes.

We were hit by a solid blast of noise as the doors opened, and it took a minute for my ears to adjust. It was almost like being at a UKC concert. Teddy led me through the crowd, and we passed through a corridor and into a room which was relatively quieter, though just as crowded. Others needed a VIP pass, but apparently for Theo Shelley, a pass was a superfluity; his face was his pass. It was a huge room, filled with many flat screen TVs, showing the match we'd just watched. A bar ran along one entire wall of the room, where four bartenders were working full speed, doing nothing but pouring drinks.

I heard many cries of "Theo!" as we entered, and we were pulled bodily into a group of people, pints of beer thrust into our hands. I set mine down on the nearest flat surface, hoping I could get something else to drink.

Teddy leaned close to my ear. "Whatever you do, don't let go of my hand, okay?" He shouted. I nodded. I saw Matty and Janelle across the room and I waved. He waved back, smiling, but they disappeared into a sea of people before I could do anything else.

I noticed that a lot of the family members who'd been at the match didn't seem to be here. This place was filled with many more young people, a lot of them young women; there was much more of a party atmosphere, or a pub atmosphere, which made sense. Probably the bouncers had orders to let pretty girls in, that was SOP for these kinds of functions.

And I was definitely warm. I let go of Teddy's hand, and he turned to find out why I was disregarding what he'd said so soon after he'd said it. I grabbed the collar of my sweater and pulled it over my head, and he grabbed the bottom of my tank top to make sure it didn't come off, laughing.

"I didn't realize you were such an exhibitionist," he said into my ear.

"I'm not, I'm just so fucking hot," I responded.

"Yeah, that too," he said, kissing my neck, sending shivers down my back. Wow, I was really in a state.

He pulled his sweater off too, revealing a shirt I'd never seen before, in an unusual shade of green, with blue and scarlet hummingbirds all over it. He leaned in to talk to me again. "I wore this for you," he said with a little grin.

I love it," I said softly, kissing him.

He looked at me for a few seconds, then pulled me out of the room, down a hallway and out a back door to a delivery area. We left our sweaters on a chair.

He grabbed the base of my jaw with his hand, long fingers on one side, thumb on the other, turning my head and pulling me in even closer, for a kiss so deep and intense it made me forget where I was. He rubbed my scar with his forefinger, causing shivers to go through me.

He put his other hand at the base of my spine, pressing, knowing how this made me feel, then moved his hand down to my bottom, feeling first one side, then the other, then my back, under my tank top.

"I am a gentleman," he murmured against my mouth. "I would never ask you to have sex in an alleyway behind a pub. At least that's what I've been saying to myself for the past few minutes. So let's get back inside before I forget that fact, okay?"

"Okay," I said breathlessly, pulling my hands away from under his shirt.

We went back inside, where Teddy managed to get me a glass of wine and himself a whiskey or something, and he found me a chair at the bar.

"Stay right here, okay?" He said. "I'll see if I can find the guys. Be right back." And he disappeared into the crowd.

I sat and watched the rebroadcast of the match. The part where Geth's nose got bloodied had just been shown, and I was horrified all over again when I felt a hand on my shoulder.