Page 122 of Any Port in a Storm

“I promise, you won’t be intruding. And besides…” Nick lowers his voice. “I have something to show you later.”

“Nicholas. I had no idea you were so sultry.”

“I suspect I’m far sultrier than you imagined,” Nick returns. Max issues a string of profanities. “But I wasn’t referring to…that.”

I laugh. “Okay. Well, I’d love to come to trivia. And I can’t wait to see both of the things you have to show me later.”

Nick chuckles, too. “It’s a date.”

The bar is raucous and smells like fried cheese, but I’m in seventh heaven, squished into a booth with Nick’s arm around my shoulders. We’re sharing a plate of nachos, and we’ve gotten a perfect score on every round of trivia so far.

“This day is turning out better than I expected,” I say, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek.

“Wow, you’re easy to please. Junk food and bar trivia is all it takes?”

“Not all it takes,” I say, staring at the table like that will stop Max from overhearing.

“My joy for you two knows no bounds,” he says sarcastically. “But perhaps you could keep your foreplay to yourselves?”

“Excuse me, I had to listen to you and Erin going at it every night for a month,” Nick retorts.

Max mutters something under his breath and scribbles an answer on our scorecard.

“Romance authors would kill for the banter you two have,” I joke.

“What can I say?” Nick offers a lilting grin. “That’s how it is with your bros.”

Max rolls his eyes.

We manage to come in second at trivia, and Nick walks me back to my apartment afterwards.

“Want to spend the night?” I purr, rubbing against him outside my door.

“Is there a word stronger than yes?”

“Indubitably?”

“Indubitably,” he agrees.

We head inside, Nick pulling me against his chest the minute the door clicks shut behind us. “Time for your surprise.”

“Ooh,” I say, running my hands along the waistband of his pants. “I can’t wait.”

“You can have that also,” he says gently. “But I was serious—there’s actually something else.”

My hands still. “Oh?”

He nods; grabs his phone out of his pocket. “Here.”

I track the path of his pointer finger down the screen. “That looks like a map of Dublin.”

“See, this is why we did so well tonight. Your geography skills are top notch.”

“I’ll be honest,” I grin. “That was just luck. My visual-spatial capabilities leave a lot to be desired.”

Nick smiles, too. “I was thinking,” he continues, opening a new tab on his phone. “Maybe you’d like to go with me sometime?”

I notice the document he’s opened says “Laurel’s Ireland Itinerary.” My thoughts sputter, a car engine that’s stalled out in a heatwave. “Go with you?”