Page 49 of Matched

Ahead of me, the bike bumped up onto the pavement and screeched to a halt.

Nate grinned at me. Fucking wanker.

“Remember how you accused me of being a mugger the first time we met? Now it’s true.”

I stalked over to him and punched him in the stomach. He cried out, not expecting the blow. I hadn’t put any power behind the punch. I didn’t want to hurt him; I was just…a bit pissed off that he’d given me the fright of my life, and I was also kind of turned on. Not gonna lie, that was a little disturbing.

Rubbing his stomach with one hand, he shot me a warning look but passed my phone back to me before climbing off hisbike. I followed him through the alleyway, drinking in the sight of him in his shorts, Glevum FC shirt, and backwards cap. Yep, I definitely still fancied him. Fuck, he was so hot.

Just friends, Charlie.

Shoving my phone back in my pocket, I cleared my throat. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Turning around, he smiled at me, and butterflies exploded in my stomach.

“You’ve got to stop doing that thing,” I told him, turning my back on him and striding back down the alleyway.

“What thing?” His voice was far closer than I expected, and a low chuckle fell from his throat when I jumped. Stupid sexy bastard.

“That swoony smile thing. You know exactly what you’re doing. Don’t forget our agreement.”

His face sobered as he came up next to me. “Sorry, I wasn’t doing it on purpose. I can’t help smiling when I see you, but believe me, I haven’t forgotten our agreement.”

I groaned, shoving the door to The Game Room open. This was going to be harder than I thought.

“I’ll get this round. Beer okay? What do you want to do first? Pinball?” Nate’s voice was casual, his posture relaxed as he began heading towards the bar. Maybe this was all in my head. He wasn’t acting any differently than normal.

“Beer’s fine. Let’s work our way up to pinball. Wanna start withPac-Man?”

“Yeah, why not.” He shot me an easy grin. “Ready to lose? Or are you going to tell me you’re thePac-Manking, too?”

“Fuck off.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Wait—you’re not the youth clubPac-Manchampion, are you?”

A laugh burst from his throat. “Nope. We didn’t havePac-Manat our youth club. Just a pinball machine and a pool table.Oh, and a dartboard.” Turning to the bartender, he scanned the taps. “Two pints of Carling, please, mate.”

When we had our drinks, we made our way over to thePac-Manmachine, then moved on toSpace Invaders. By the time we’d finished our circuit of the arcade games and reached the pinball machine, we were on our third pints of beer, and each of us had five wins.

Five wins that had involved each of us trying to distract the other. Hands where they shouldn’t be. Heated looks. Suggestive comments.

Trying to act like normal friends with Nate was a lost cause.

“It all comes down to this, Charlie B. If you beat my score, you’ll be the winner.” Nate leaned up against the wall, his arm resting on the high table where we’d placed our drinks.

“No distractions this time,” I told him. “It needs to be a fair game.”

He held up his hands, shaking his head, and I turned my attention to the game. I tried to, anyway, but his presence was too distracting. He wasn’t even doing anything—just standing there—but my entire fucking body was aware of him.

As I began playing, I did my best to tune him out, like I’d just about managed for the other games, focusing only on what was right in front of me.

Muscle memory got me through the game, and I had a decent score at the end, although it was a lot lower than my usual score. Nate raised a brow as he took in the numbers on the board but didn’t say anything as he pushed off the wall and came up next to me.

“My turn,” he murmured. “No distractions.”

I swallowed as his shoulder pressed against mine, the heat of his body and the delicious scent of his aftershave sending my heart racing. “No distractions,” I rasped, moving away from him as quickly as I could.

How the fuck did he make playing pinball look so hot? The way his arms were flexing, that intense look of concentration on his face?—

Stop. I dragged my gaze away from him with difficulty. Not that I’d had any doubts about the realisation that I was no longer as straight as I thought I was, but the way I was reacting to him made it hit home all over again. I’d never reacted to anyone else this way.

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