Page 63 of Lovers' Dance: Vol. 2

I placed my index finger on his mouth, shushing his tirade. “It’s fine, Matt, kind of sweet actually.”

Matt jerked his head away. “We’ll see how sweet you think it is if my parents are there.” The grimness of his tone had my back stiffening up immediately. His parents, the last thing I wanted was to deal with that drama.

“Yes,” Matt said dryly, noting the dread creeping into my face. “My point exactly.”

“Ah, we don’t have to go in,” I suggested feebly. “Maybe we could go to my place?”

Matt cocked his head to the side and the twin eyebrows of doom were slowly lowering, until they were set at scowl level. “Your place is here. Have you forgotten that already?”

“Focus, Matt,” I peered out the window and bit my lip. “What arewe going to do?”

“There’s nothing for it,” Matt said in resignation. “We go in, smile and accept their well wishes, then we chase them out our home.”

I grinned at that. He was dead serious. “How long?”

Matt was staring at my lips. “Mmm, maybe half an hour, an hour at the most. Can you bear that long, poppet?”

“If you can, I can.” I said in support.

Matt finally dragged his gaze to my eyes. “Fine then, let’s go.”

We got out the car. Dan got our luggage while Matt opened the front door.

“Will there be balloons?” I wondered. “Streamers and banners?”

Matt’s expression said it all. Then he voiced his thoughts on it. “Don’t be silly. That would be tacky.”

Well, excuse me. I tried not to huff under my breath. There was nothing wrong with party decorations. The front door swung open and I was about to stride in when Matt stopped me with a hand on my arm.

“Wha-hey!” I shrieked as he suddenly swooped me up in his arms. “Matt, what are you doing?”

“Carrying you over the threshold.” he replied blandly.

The glint of humour in his eyes made me smile. I wrapped my arms around his neck, marvelling at how effortlessly he held me, not even a hint of strain showed on his face.

“We did this already.” I kissed his cheek. “Remember? When we came back from the church three weeks ago.”

“Mhmm,” he said as he carried me inside. “You fit perfectly in my arms, poppet.”

I bounced around a bit, testing his grip on me. It didn’t falter so I kissed him again, this time square on the lips. It only took seconds for us to get lost in the kiss. Matt’s tongue caressed mine, unhurriedly and very thorough. It had to be some sort of spell. No way could a simple kiss cause such heat to course through my body. Matt had bewitched me from day one and now I would spend the rest of my life in thrall to him.

“Welcome home, Mr and Mrs Bradley.” George’s greeting intruded on our kiss. With a lingering pace, Matt and I broke the kiss. His grey eyes had darkened to chrome silver and his low sigh of frustrationfanned across my aching lips.

“One hour,” he muttered before flashing a smile in George’s direction. “It’s good to be home, George.”

“Hi, George,” I gushed, wriggling in Matt’s arms so he got the hint. Reluctantly he let me down and I noticed poor Dan stood right outside the front door with our bags. I brushed past Matt to reach for one of the bags.

“Leave those, poppet,” Matt said, absent-mindedly walking further into the foyer. “Dan will handle it.”

My nose wrinkled in slight disgust as I grabbed a bag. Dan tried to take it back and we had a few moments playing tug-of-war.

“Let go, Dan,” I ordered. “I can handle a few bags.”

“But Mr Bradley said-”

The look on my face silenced him and he allowed me to take a suitcase and tote bag. I observed Matt’s startled expression, while George just smiled knowingly. Wheeling the suitcase pass my speechless husband I threw over one shoulder. “It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.”

Matt’s mouth hung open for a second before he asked in disbelief, “Did you just quote Thomas Jefferson to me? A quote about idleness?”

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