‘Let’s just go out of the door we came in through,’ he says. ‘We know we did it.’
Would you believe it, that door is stuck too – what the hell is going on? We exchange puzzled looks for a moment before Ethan tries something else.
‘Erm, I think we’ve got a problem,’ Ethan says, looking up at the camera. ‘Both doors are stuck.’
‘I’ll sort it out. Don’t panic,’ the host says, his voice calm – but it’s oddly hard to keep calm when someone says ‘don’t panic’.
While we’re waiting, Ethan silently takes my hand, his grip firm yet gentle, and pulls me to one side. Before I know it, I’m pressed up against the wall, his body close to mine, his lips hovering near my ear.
‘This is a CCTV blind spot,’ he whispers, his voice sending shivers all through my body.
I barely have time to process his words before he’s kissing me, slow and deep, like he’s savouring every second. My handsslide up to his shoulders, pulling him closer, and for a moment, I forget about everything else – including the host who is currently trying to barge his way through one of the jammed doors. I don’t care, the world outside the escape room doesn’t exist – all I’m interested in is him, here, now.
You know what, I don’t care if these doors stay locked all night (ideally if they turn the cameras off, but if they can’t be turned off I still don’t think I could promise I would behave myself). I’m perfectly happy where I am.
7
Ethan and I practically fall out of Thin Aire, the two of us laughing like drunk maniacs.
The city is freezing tonight but my cheeks feel like they’re on fire.
Ethan pulls me close, kissing me, wrapping his arms around my waist.
‘Do you want to go back to your hotel room?’ I ask him between kisses.
‘About that,’ he says, laughing to himself. ‘I got kicked out.’
‘What?’ I reply, pulling away to look at him. ‘What happened?’
‘Well, Lana, we went full Amsterdam in the window this morning,’ he reminds me. ‘They didn’t like that.’
‘I did,’ I dare to joke.
‘Some people are just funny about public displays of affection,’ he adds with a laugh. ‘We could go back to yours?’
‘We can’t,’ I say. ‘My flatmate has her sister and her kids to say, so I said I would sleep on the sofa.’
‘Okay, so definitely no to that,’ he replies.
‘What were you going to do tonight?’ I ask.
He shrugs his shoulders.
‘Stay out all night,’ he says casually. ‘My things are in my car.’
‘Where’s that?’ I ask, in my sexiest voice, because I clearly really am desperate now.
‘Trinity multistorey car park,’ he replies, ‘and I’m pretty sure they don’t let you sleep in there.’
‘I wasn’t talking about sleep,’ I reply. ‘A different hotel?’
‘I don’t think anyone’s going to check in two very drunk, very horny people at this hour without thinking it’s something seedy,’ he replies with a smile.
I bite my lip, laughing.
‘What can we do? What can we do?’
‘We can always call it a night,’ he tells me. ‘I need to head back to London tomorrow so…’
