Page 66 of The Wisteria Tree Cottage

She lifted her arms like a child wanting to be picked up and Bear took a step back. ‘No, sorry, I, umm… excuse me.’

He turned and walked out the patio doors onto the terrace, leaning on the wall as he looked out onto the view.

‘That’s a bad sign. If a man who had just been sniffing me walked out the room that quickly, I’d be worried about my body odour,’ the woman said. ‘He’s clearly gone out for some fresh air.’

Meadow couldn’t even find it in her to be pissed off by that comment, she was too busy committing every touch, every feeling about that wonderful moment to memory. She could still smell him on her clothes, on her skin. Her heart was racing, she could barely catch her breath, and from the way Bear had been looking at her once he’d put her down, he felt the same way too. A huge part of her wanted to go after him, to talk about this, but she would respect the fact that he needed space right now.

Meadow flashed the woman a polite smile and moved off down to the end where the blue bags were currently being sniffed.

One woman was staring at her as she approached. ‘Wow, that might have been the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. I felt like I was watching a porn film. The way he was holding you with his hands splayed out across your back, the way he was closing his eyes as he was sniffing you. That was as hot as hell,’ the woman fanned herself. ‘Please tell me you’ve just met and you had this instant love at first sight connection?’

Meadow smiled. ‘I’m afraid not. We’re best friends.’

‘There was nothing friendly about that. He definitely doesn’t see you as a friend. Trust me on that.’

Meadow was starting to think that might be true and that filled her heart.

She turned her attention to sniffing some of the shirts. Some were nice or OK, some were deeply unpleasant but none of them made her think of dragging the owner straight off to the bedroom to have her wicked way with him.

Although the instructions were to wear a white t-shirt, there were a few coloured shirts, presumably because those men didn’t own a white t-shirt. She’d seen Bear bring a very pale blue one and she started casually looking through the bags trying to find it. She suddenly spotted one and she picked it up and opened it, taking a whiff of the soft fabric. The resulting kick of desire that slammed into her stomach confirmed it was his. God, this shirt was a hell of a lot more potent than just his skin, presumably because he showered on a regular basis, whereas this shirt had been worn for at least three nights. It smelt divine. She could sniff this all night and never get bored.

She glanced around to see Bear had returned to the pink end of the table and was smelling the different shirts at quite a speed. She quickly scanned the barcode on Bear’s shirt and returned it to the bag.

‘Is that his?’ The curly-haired blonde woman was back and practically snatched the t-shirt out of her hand so she could take a sniff. ‘Good lord, I want a piece of that.’ The woman went in for a bigger, deeper sniff and then rolled her eyes to the sky as if she was completely turned on it by it. ‘Christ that’s magnificent.’ She scanned the barcode with her scanner before taking another sniff.

‘Let me have a go,’ another woman joined them.

‘And me,’ said a different woman.

‘I want to smell this man myself,’ said the woman who had spoken to her when she’d arrived down the blue end of the table.

Meadow took a step back to accommodate the women who were starting to gather round them. Suddenly everyone wanted to sniff Bear’s t-shirt.

She glanced round in time to see Bear scan one of the women’s t-shirts, then he put the bag back on the table and walked away. Had he really sniffed all the bags already? How many had he scanned?

He spotted her hanging back and moved over towards her.

‘What’s going on?’ Bear gestured to the small frenzy that was happening at the table.

‘Umm… some poor guy’s t-shirt is being mauled like a piece of meat thrown into the lion’s den. Maybe he’s one of the ten percent of super-high androsterone people.’

Bear looked over and his eyes widened as he realised it was his shirt.

He turned back to her. ‘Look, I’m kind of done here. I’m happy to stay if you want to stay a bit longer, but I’m keen to get back for Star. I don’t want to let her down.’

Meadow smiled with complete love for him. ‘I’m done here too.’

They walked back towards the entrance table where they had collected their wristbands and scanners but, before they got there, their wristbands beeped to say they had been matched. Her heart leapt. Bear had chosen her too.

‘I’ve been matched to number fourteen,’ Meadow said, looking up at the number fourteen label on his shirt.

Bear smiled. ‘And I’ve been matched to number eight.’

Meadow grinned.

‘Do you want to stay and see if you matched to anyone else?’ Bear asked.

‘I only scanned one t-shirt.’

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