‘Yep, totally ready now to move on to embracing mud.’
Matt put his phone back in his pocket and they set off hand-in-hand again.
‘There’s no gate. There’s no stile. Just this enormous great bloody hedge,’ Lily panted a few minutes later. ‘This issucha cock-up. We should have gone round by the road.’
‘I think that was about five miles.’ Matt looked at the hedge. ‘Come on. We can get over that together. I’ll give you a leg up.’
He hoisted her up and then followed her and, shit, he’d over-estimated the strength of the hedge, and it wasn’t going to hold them for long.
The hedge buckled, quite slowly, but fast enough for them both to tumble off and land together in a jumble of limbs on the other side.
‘Oh myGod.’ Lily was lying on her back with rain splattering onto her mud-streaked face. ‘I can’t actually believe this is happening. There’s no point eventryingto stay remotely clean.’ She turned to look at Matt lying next to her. ‘We’recovered. I mean, it’s in ourhair. It’s everywhere. It’s probablyinsideus. We’ve probablyeatenmud.’
She was right. She had mud everywhere. Hair. Face. Body. She looked ridiculous.
She looked gorgeous.
Eleven
Lily
Lily could see in his eyes that something had just shifted inside Matt as they were lying there on their – actually very comfortable – bed of mud looking at each other. His eyes had softened. They’d gone from laughing to… to the way he used to look at her when they were just about to kiss.
They were very close to each other. Lily could see the rise and fall of his chest, the movement of his throat as he swallowed. And she could feel his eyes on her body too. She looked into his eyes again and he smiled, very slowly.
She knew that smile like she knew the look in his eyes. She could feel its effect right to her stomach.
Matt sucked in a deep breath, his eyes on her lips.
There was complete silence other than the sounds of the rain and their breathing. It was like they were the only two people in the world. No one at all knew that they were here.
Matt leaned closer towards her. Their chests were touching now. She couldfeelhis breathing pattern, the gorgeous weight of him pressed against her. She reached her arms round his neck and he moved towards her.
Nothing in the world could stop them now. Lily was almost throbbing from head to toe with lust. As Matt reached to kiss her, she licked her lips to moisten them. And, ohGod, that wasdisgusting.
‘Mud.’ She turned her head to the side and spat. ‘Eurgh.’ She spat again. ‘I’m sorry. Butyuck.’
She looked back at Matt. She still had her arms round his neck and he somehow had his arms round her too.
‘Saved by the mud,’ he said, half smiling, still with that incredibly tender expression in his eyes.
‘Well, I hope it was mud.’ Lily barely knew what she was saying and she was pretty sure that her voice was ridiculously hoarse.
Matt moved a little closer and kissed her forehead, very gently.
‘You’re going to have mud in your mouth too now.’ Yeah, her voice wasreallyhoarse now, butwowthat had been a gorgeously intimate little kiss. His lips on her skin for the first time in eight years.
‘Mmm,’ he said.
Lily couldn’t think of a better place in the world to be right now than here. She wriggled a little and wound her fingers into his hair, and Matt pulled her closer.
‘I missed you,’ he said into her hair.
‘Me too.’
They lay there, just holding each other, moving against each other a little, but not kissing, not looking at each other, just being there, still fully clothed, but almost as one. They’d had alotof intimate experiences when they were together, but Lily could barely think of one as, just,perfectas this felt right now. Yes, they’d hurt each other in different ways in the past. Yes, they’d had a big argument last night – was that only last night? – and, yes, they were in the middle of someone else’s wedding-day crisis but right now…
‘Oh God,’ she said, pulling her head back from where it was nestled in Matt’s shoulder. ‘We have aweddingto save.’
