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Chapter 12

The pair stared at each other, locked, frozen in stunned silence. Matthew looked as though he had been run ragged. His typically perfect hair was ruffled, curls escaping down his forehead and past his eyebrows. His bloodshot eyes roamed quickly down the length of Eve’s body and then returned to meet her gaze.

Eve suddenly remembered how exposed she was, and felt herself flush as blood rushed to her cheeks.

“Matthew! What are you doing here?” she asked.

He ran his hands roughly over his face and through his tousled hair. “Hiding from the Boy Scouts,” he grunted.

“What?”

“My floor is covered in Boy Scouts. I almost got spotted.” He leaned against the wall by the stairwell. The energy and larger-than-life presence that normally accompanied him to his streams had softened. His trademark mischievous grin had been replaced by a look of raw emotion. Eve felt as if she were witnessing something private, peering behind a veil that was supposed to remain closed.

She leaned over and grabbed the towel out of her pool bag, suddenly overcome with the urge to cover herself.

Matthew took a step toward her, closing the distance between them. “Why are you out swimming in the middle of the night?”

“I had some energy to kill after finishing my articles.” Eve began to towel off, wiping the water from her arms and legs.

“You shouldn’t be out here alone this late at night.” His eyes held a heavy intensity that made Eve feel the need to explain herself.

“I asked Hannah if she wanted to meet me out here; she just didn’t reply.”

“Still, you shouldn’t-” Matthew was cut off by the thundering sound of footsteps on the stairs. Eve could faintly hear young voices chattering as a group ascended the stairs. There was nowhere to go and no time to think.

“Let’s check out the roof, guys!” someone called out as the door to the staircase flew open. Eve whipped off her towel, bunched it up, and held it over Matthew’s face as a stream of Boy Scouts piled in from the stairwell. She caught a brief sight of his panic-stricken face before it was obscured by the gray fabric.

The Boy Scouts ran from one end of the roof to the other, weaving among the beach chairs. A few started to play-fight near the pool’s edge, threatening to push each other in.

Standing on her tiptoes, Eve held the towel against Matthew’s face. Her other hand rested against the back of his head, nestled in his soft curls.

We have to get out of here.

“Wow! That’s a bad nosebleed!” Eve said unnaturally loudly. “We better go take care of this.”

Matthew took the hint and let Eve guide him to the stairwell. A couple of the Boy Scouts cast them curious glances, but most were too wrapped up in their own fun to care. Eve was dizzyingly close to Matthew. Her head perched near his shoulder as she vigilantly watched where they were going, and she could feel the heat radiating from his body. She led him through the roof access door and quickly closed it behind them.

“Sorry about that,” she muttered, dropping the towel from his face.

He took a deep breath with the cloth no longer obstructing his mouth and nose. “No, thanks. That was better than being caught.” He tried to hold in a snicker, a hint of his old energy returning. “A nosebleed? You’re lucky those were teenagers; I don’t think adults would have bought it.”

Eve clutched the towel defensively. “It was the best I could come up with in the moment!”

“Well, we pulled it off; now let’s get out of here.”

The two crept down the flight of stairs, bracing to hear the sound of teenage voices at any moment. Matthew pressed his ear against the door to the hall. “It sounds quiet.” He eased the door open, and they slipped out into the empty hallway. “I’m at the opposite end,” he whispered. Eve and Matthew rounded the first corner without issue. As they took the second turn, they realized to their horror that they were not alone. A row of Boy Scouts sat with their backs pressed up against the wall, a bounty of snacks laid out in front of them. One of them looked up, directly at Eve.

“Go back!” She whispered, wheeling back around the corner.

“Hey, did you guys see that?” The kid asked.

“See what?” Someone else asked.

“I saw a person hiding behind the corner.”

Matthew looked helplessly at Eve. She pointed to a door a few feet in front of them. “That’s my room; let’s hide in there.”

Her hands shook as she tore through her bag to find her room key. Just as several curious heads began to peep around the corner, the green light on the door clicked on, and Matthew and Eve rushed inside the room.

Eve slouched against the closed door. “That was terrible! How do you live like this?”

Matthew bit his lip, his teeth leaving a white imprint where the pink flesh of his lips strained against them. “It can be a lot,” he admitted. “Don’t get me wrong. I usually love spending time with my viewers, but some days I need a little time to myself.”

“Everyone needs a little privacy.” Eve nodded.

“Try telling that to those Boy Scouts. There must be a conference nearby or something.” Matthew's voice trailed off, and his eyes flicked down to Eve’s body. “Did you, uh, want to get changed or anything?” He asked.

The towel hung uselessly in Eve’s hand at her side, her body fully on display. Involuntarily, she let out a snort. “What? Have you never seen a woman in a bikini before?”

A pleasant shade of pink highlighted Matthew’s cheeks. “No! I mean, yes. I just meant that you probably wanted to get out of your wet clothes.”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Eve said, tilting her chin to meet Matthew’s eyes. She held eye contact for a heartbeat longer than a friendly glance, which felt like an eternity. “Make yourself at home,” she finally said, moving to grab clean clothes from the hotel drawer. “I’ll be right back.”

Eve took the fastest shower of her life. Scrubbing the chlorine from her skin, she pictured Matthew Cardhart waiting for her in her hotel room. The thought was enough to send a wave of heat crashing through her body that mingled with the scalding hot water from the shower. She ran a brush through her hair and stepped out of the bathroom.

Matthew sat relaxed at the end of her bed. His brow was creased in concern as he scrolled through his phone. He looked up when Eve entered the room. “I like your shirt,” he said.

Eve had thrown on a pair of shorts and one of the oversized graphic T-shirts that she had managed to sneak into her own suitcase. Jumpscare Maze Deluxe.

“I streamed that last night,” he said.

“I know.” The words had popped out of Eve’s mouth before she had given herself time to think.

A devastating smirk began to tug at the edges of Matthew Cardhart’s mouth. “You know? Were you watching?”

Eve tried to come up with a casual explanation, but the question had caught her off guard. “Yeah.”

The smirk grew wider. “Eve Greenwood, are you a fan?”

“A—are the Boy Scouts gone? It seems pretty quiet out there.”

Matthew stood, crossed the room, and joined her at the door. “You know, someone named Eve helped me with a level of Jumpscare Maze last night. They were pretty clever.”

“What a weird coincidence,” Eve whispered even though they were the only two in the room.

Matthew stepped even closer, bending down to look through the peephole. He was close enough for Eve to feel the brush of his clothes against her bare arms. The heat that Eve had felt in the shower returned and threatened to boil over inside of her. Matthew leaned in, closing the remaining few inches between them, and spoke directly into her ear, his voice low. “Looks like it’s safe for me to leave. Thanks for letting me hide out here.”

“Any time.”