Page 148 of The Unlikely Spare

“That one,” Nicholas murmurs, nodding toward a modest aluminum runabout with an outboard motor. “Keys are in it.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“Because the owner’s that magnificent idiot over there trying to reverse his boat trailer.” He points to a red-faced man performing an eighteen-point turn while a woman gesticulates wildly. “They’ll be at that for another twenty minutes minimum.”

Before I can respond, he’s already moving, walking with aristocratic confidence onto the dock like he owns it.

I follow, heart hammering as we climb aboard the small boat.

The boat shifts under Nicholas’s weight as he steps down, throwing him off balance. My hands are on him instantly, one gripping his shoulder, the other splayed across his lower back.

“I’ve got you,” I say.

“I know,” he says in a quiet voice.

Those blue eyes meet mine, and for a second, neither of us moves.

My hands tighten reflexively on his waist, and his breath catches. The sound shoots straight through me.

Christ, we’re stealing a boat in broad daylight, and all I can think about is how perfectly he fits against me.

Then Nicholas blinks as if waking himself from a trance and steps back cautiously.

“I’ll drive.” He slides into position.

“I don’t think?—”

He fixes me with a look. “Eoin, I’ve been driving boats like this since I was fifteen. Ibiza, Monaco, Lake Como. Rich people’s children and fast boats are practically a rite of passage.”

His hands move confidently over the controls.

The engine starts with a reassuring rumble and Nicholas eases us away from the dock.

We’re a hundred meters out when I hear the first shout from shore. In the mirror, I see the boat owner sprinting down the dock, his wife still by the trailer. But we’re already picking up speed, the shore falling away as Nicholas opens the throttle.

The wind whips his chemically abused hair into even more chaos.

“You realize we’ve now stolen four vehicles in twenty-four hours. That might be some sort of royal Commonwealth record.”

“Not the record you were probably hoping to achieve,” I reply, checking behind us for pursuit.

“I guess, though technically, it’s only theft if we get caught. Otherwise, it’s just aggressive borrowing with a delayed return policy.”

I’m fairly sure there is only one man on the planet who can make me laugh in this situation, and it’s him.

The sound of my laughter makes Nicholas duck his head, but not before I catch the way his whole body seems to soften.

Out here on the water, with the sun glinting off the lake’s surface and the mountains rising in the distance, we could almost be just two men on an adventure together.

These glimpses of what life could be like for us are making me almost ache. Because I want that so much. I want to experience everything in life with this man by my side.

Once we’re solidly in the center of the lake, Nicholas pulls out the burner phone.

“You’ll have to take over,” he says, already sliding sideways. “I need to call Callum and Oliver.”

We switch positions in an awkward dance of elbows and knees.

Nicholas shields the phone from spray as he dials, and I ease back on the throttle, letting us drift while he makes the call.