Page 41 of Matched Up

‘Oh, Shane, that must have been so hard,’ I said.‘I’m sorry you had to go through that.’

‘It was.But he’s been OK for ages now, so fingers crossed it won’t come back, but it’s not his fault, so if it does, we’ll just deal with it again.’

I squeezed his hand and then he broke the moon’s gaze to look down at me.‘Aren’t you cold?’I hugged myself, wishing I’d worn something more than a cardigan and a summer dress.

‘Wee bit,’ I lied, my chattering teeth giving me away.

‘You can have my clothes,’ he said.

‘What do you mean?’

Shane stepped back from me and took off his shirt.He threw it into my arms.

I laughed.‘What are you doing?’

He didn’t answer, just smiled, then bent down to take off his shoes, socksandtrousers until he was standing on the beach in his boxers.

I hugged his warm clothes.‘What the hell!Are you crazy?’

‘Come with me.’He held out his hand.

‘What?In there?No chance.It’s Baltic.’I shook my head.‘No, nope.No way!’

‘You’re missing out.’

He jogged towards the water and inhaled deeply as it splashed around him.But he kept walking until it was up tohis waist.The moonlight caught all his angles, the smooth dips of his abdomen and the sharp set of his jawline.

‘Shane!!What are you doing?’I shouted, still laughing.

‘Lexie, come in.It’s warm, I promise.’He turned and held out his hands, trying and failing to hide the fact that he was gasping for breath.

‘Liar!’I shouted.Then: ‘Fuck it.’I put down his clothes, dropped my cardigan and pulled my dress over my head, thanking myself silently for my choice of underwear.I squealed from the cold and ran towards the lough, towards Shane, and even though I knew it would be freezing, the temperature still shocked me.This wasn’t me.I didn’t do stuff like this, not without planning.It was Shane, pulling me willingly out of the cage I locked myself in.My feet were numb, and my skin was covered in goosebumps.I was almost beside him.

‘I can’t, I can’t, I need to get out,’ I said, turning back towards the shore.

‘Wait,’ Shane said.

Then I felt his hand on my arm pulling me back.He put his arms round me as the waves swelled around us.

‘This is insane,’ I said.

‘Doesn’t it make you feel alive?’he shouted into the night.

I leaned against his shaking chest and looked up at him, how happy he seemed.And it was contagious.

‘You make me feel free, Lexie Ryan.’

But before I could ask what he meant, Shane had my face in his hands and we were kissing in the freezing salty water, warm tongues colliding, skin against skin.And either my feetwere numb, or he took away the pain, because all I felt right then was him.

‘Maybe we should go before we get hypothermia,’ I whispered.

We picked up our clothes and ran back to the house, rinsing the sand from our feet before Shane followed me upstairs, my body still shaking from the cold.

‘In here,’ I said, pushing open my bedroom door and walking into the bathroom.

I switched on the shower and my bathroom filled with steam.

‘I’ll wait out here,’ Shane said, barely audible because he was shaking.He was standing awkwardly in my room in soaking underwear, looking cuter than ever.

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