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Sitting in the car outside the diner after we’ve finished lunch, I can’t stop staring at my mate in the late afternoon sunshine.

Cheeks a little pink from our time outdoors, smiling over at me, relaxed even after our mess of a conversation at the beach, she’s never looked so beautiful.

I may just have to accept the fact that my best laid plans always seem to crumble where Nora’s concerned. Part of me still expects her to run every time I open my mouth and share more than I should, and feeling the weight of her acceptance, having her still here and smiling despite it all, it humbles me.

“Where to?” I ask her, finally starting the vehicle and pulling out of the diner’s lot to head back up the road toward the ferry. We’ll be in time to catch the four o’clock, but where we go from there, I’m not at all certain.

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“Well,” I say slowly, navigating my next few words carefully. “If you’d like to stay at my place until we know what’s going on with Sorenson, that’s perfectly fine.”

Perfectly fine. What bullshit. More like preferred, wonderful, the only thing I want in this wide world.

She looks torn, but eventually shakes her head. “I should go back to my place. If there’s no reason to think Daniel’s in town for anything other than government business… I’m probably overreacting about the whole thing.”

I don’t think she is, and I tell her as much, but she decides to be adamant about it.

“We’ve only been on two dates,” she says with a laugh. “It’s not like I can just move into your house.”

Why can’t you?I want to ask, but she’s right. I’m the unreasonable one.

The ferry ride and the drive back into the city are comfortable. We talk about everything and nothing. Movies and music and TV shows we enjoy. Trips we’ve been on and places we still want to go. It’s normal conversation, getting to know each other conversation, and it’s all wonderfully mundane, the type of ease between two people finding out they have a lot more in common than they realized.

When I turn down her street and park in front of her apartment, absolutely no part of me wants it to end.

Nora fidgets slightly in her seat, like she’s not ready to say goodbye, either. “You could… come in for a few minutes.”

A shot of heat spreads through my veins.

This morning was just a taste, the smallest drop in the vast ocean of what I want from my little siren. And even though today was wonderful, I hadn’t expected anything more.

That is, until I look over and see the unmistakable interest in Nora’s eyes, the promise and temptation. If I had any reservations before, they evaporate on the spot.

Again, Nora waits for me to exit the car and come around to open her door, giving me a knowing grin as she takes my hand and hops down.

“You’re kind of old-fashioned, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I tell her, even as I take her arm in mine and walk up the sidewalk to the front door.

“This,” she says, squeezing my arm. “And the car door thing. Plus the way you pulled my chair out when we had dinner at the aquarium, and put your hand on my back when you walked me to the elevator at your office.”

“You’ve been making a study of me, little siren?”

“I’m just a very observant person,” she retorts. “And I’m not saying I dislike it, either. Especially since I know you’re not so polite all the time.”

I lean down to kiss the sensitive spot just below her ear, enjoying her shiver. “No. Despite my antiquated manners, most of the things I think about you aren’tpolitein the slightest.”

As she reaches for her keys to unlock the exterior door, I crowd in behind her, pressing up against her and running my lips over the back of her neck. She fumbles with the lock, and I chuckle into her hair.

“Need some help with that?”

Her answer is tart, as is the adorable little glare she throws over her shoulder at me. “No. Not if you would stop distracting me.”

“Ah, little siren, but I enjoy distracting you far, far too much.”

Another shiver, and although she finally gets the door open, we take our sweet time climbing the narrow set of stairs to the second floor.

She’s just as much a tease as I am, bumping into me, craning her neck up and back to nip at my lips and feed me more of her sass as we make our way to her door.