Page 48 of Fundamentals in Flirting

“What have you hit?”

“My head,” he whispered. “I feel a bit funny, Hannah.”

Arms outstretched zombie-like, I felt my way forwards, grasping at the air, until my hands collided with the wall of solid muscle that was Teddy. I may or may not have copped a good feel of his firmly-ridged abdomen beneath his T-shirt on the pretence of trying to work out where he was.

“Is that you?” I whispered, seriously impressed yet again at how toned he was.

“Who else would it be?” he answered with a sigh. “You know, if you wanted to touch me up, you only need say. I’d be a very willing participant.”

Right, Hannah, engage brain.

I quickly dropped my hands to my sides.

“Shush. Where does it hurt?”

“My forehead. I think I need to sit down.” A chair nearby was scraped back along the flagstone floor and I heard him sit heavily. “There’s a torch in a box under the sink.”

“Right.”

Lightning briefly lit up the kitchen again, while I rummaged around until I found and turned on the torch.

Returning to Teddy and standing between his legs, I gently ran my fingertips over his forehead, sweeping his hair back and finding a small lump appearing above his eyebrow.

“Oof! You’ve whacked it pretty hard,” I exclaimed, and he winced, hissing out a breath as I prodded it. “Sorry.”

“It’s ok,” he replied, cautiously cracking open his eyes and looking up into my face. “When I have a black eye tomorrow, I’ll just tell everyone you did it.”

I smiled down at him, using the pad of my thumb to gently caress the lump.

“Where are the fuses? I can check them for you.”

“Under the back stairs,” he replied, his hand brushing against mine where it rested lightly on his forehead.

Flustered by this brief touch, I pulled away and went in search of the fuse box, but even after flicking everything off and on again, there was still no electric, and I returned to the kitchen.

“We should probably go and check on Agnes,” Teddy said. “Her house will go up like a tinderbox if she starts lighting candles in there.”

“I’ll go. You can wait here, Mr Bump.”

“No, you definitely won’t be doing that on your own. I’m fine.”

He stood a little shakily and reached out a hand, gripping my shoulder.

“Teddy, don’t bloody well collapse. You’re too big for me, and if you go down I’ll never get you up again.”

He sniggered – a horny teenage-boy snigger. “I’m flattered that you think I’m too big for you, but I reckon you’d definitely manage me.”

The dirty connotations were too obvious to be ignored. “Who’s got their mind in the gutter now?”

“I let thegoing down on youandgetting me up againcomments slide. So I’d say my mind is spick and span, actually,” he said, seemingly steadier on his feet, but he left his hand where it was on my shoulder.

“Of course it is. Come on, Mary Poppins. Let’s go and find Agnes.”

ChapterSixteen

Outside, the storm was starting to recede. Its crashing and flashing was now further away, unleashing its wrath on the treeline in the distance, the rain now a steady downpour.

I hadn’t brought a coat with me, and when I stepped into the garden, I turned my face up to the sky and allowed the cool water droplets to splash onto my skin, absorbing the freshening quality that the storm had brought to the air.

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