Before Jamaica Lane (On Dublin Street 3)

I ignored the attention my outfit was getting – something Nate would be pissed at, considering I was supposed to be throwing flirty smiles around – and my hand tightened on my new clutch as I searched the bar for my friends.

I found them in the corner, already sitting on the strange leather cuboid that was supposed to be a couch. Ellie was her usual sophisticated chic in a pale pink shift and silver stilettos, and Jo was her usual sexy glamour in a figure-hugging electric blue dress and matching high-heeled sandals. They were sitting with their fiancés, laughing at something Nate was saying as he leaned his elbows on his knees, cradling a beer in his hands. Adam was wearing a designer suit that fit him perfectly, while Cam wore dark jeans and a Ramones T-shirt. Nate was wearing a blue dress shirt and black slacks.

All three of them were droolworthy.

As I approached the table I kept expecting them to look up and smile and welcome me. Instead, Ellie, Jo, and Cam looked up, stared right through me, and glanced away before sharply turning back to me with sudden recognition. Adam’s and Nate’s eyes soon followed.

Jo’s stunning face broke into a massive grin. ‘Oh, my God, Olivia, you look … amazing.’

I fidgeted, completely uncomfortable under their perusal. ‘Uh, thanks. Moving on.’ I grinned goofily and was about to make my way to Ellie’s side to sit down when Nate grabbed my hand and maneuvered me beside him. I smiled at him and then instantly shivered at the way he was checking me out. Finally our eyes met.

‘You look insanely f**kable.’

I laughed, trying not to flush. ‘As always, I’m charmed by you, Nathaniel.’

‘You have such a way with words, Nate,’ Ellie agreed dryly.

Adam grunted. ‘He’s worse than Braden.’

Nate shrugged and took a swig of beer before replying lazily, ‘I say it how I see it.’

Attempting to let Nate’s blunt compliment bolster my nerves, I began to search the bar for my victim.

Target?

Okay, that didn’t sound any better.

I need a drink.

I gestured to their glasses. ‘Another round?’

Adam immediately stood up and edged past the small table we were crowded around. ‘I’m buying. Corona and lime?’

Usually that was my drink, but tonight I decided I needed something a wee bit stronger. ‘Talisker and ginger ale. On the rocks.’

He set off to the bar, and I felt Jo’s eyes on me.

‘You okay?’ I asked.

‘Aye. Are you? Whisky?’

‘I just feel like something a little different tonight.’ I looked away again, searching. There had to be a guy who elicited some kind of visceral reaction in me. Enough of one anyway that I’d want to strike up a flirtation with him.

The smell of Nate’s cologne drifted over me as he leaned in to murmur in my ear, ‘See anything you like?’

It took a lot of self-control to stop myself from turning to him, raking my eyes over him pointedly, and purring back, ‘Definitely, baby.’

However, I wasn’t ballsy enough or cool enough to do that. Maybe later, with a few fingers of whisky in my bloodstream, I’d be ballsier.

‘I’m looking,’ I told him quietly. ‘I feel like I’m going to throw up all over my new shoes.’

‘Please don’t. I know how much they cost.’

I grinned, my eyes roaming the bar. ‘I’ll try not to, for your sake.’

‘Appreciated.’

For the life of me I couldn’t see anyone, but I wasn’t actually concentrating too greatly. With Nate’s thigh pressed alongside mine, and his cologne lingering in the air around me, I found myself distracted by how aware I was of him. Of course, I was always aware of him, but now I was aware of him in a way I was always aware of someone I was attracted to.

I stiffened at the sudden realization.

Oh, boy.

‘What?’ Nate’s fingers curled around my wrist, drawing my gaze to his face again. He was so close I could probably count every single long thick eyelash that framed those seductive eyes of his.

I scrambled for a reason to explain the sudden tension in my body, my eyes flying back to the bar. They stopped on a tall blond guy who bore a mild resemblance to Benjamin. ‘I found him.’ I jerked my head in the guy’s direction. He was standing just away from the bar, drinking a pint of lager and laughing with two of his friends as they checked out the girls around them. He wasn’t amazingly gorgeous, but he had an attractive smile and nice broad shoulders.

‘Good. Now, go up to the bar to retrieve your drink from Adam, and start flirting with the guy you’ve picked out.’

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jo studying the two of us carefully as Ellie and Cam chatted loudly over the music. Feeling the blood heat in my cheeks at the thought of Jo, or anyone, discovering what we were up to, instead of asking Nate for advice on how to start up a flirtation like I really wanted to, I just nodded mutely and stood up.

I smiled at the girls as I passed them, ignoring their inquiring eyes. I threaded my way through the crowd, trying to put a swing in my hips like Jo did when she was wearing heels. My heart was pounding so hard that the blood whooshed in my ears, and I was pretty sure if I said one word it would come out in a trembling garble. On shaking legs, I approached Adam, who was standing near the end of the bar and near my target.

‘Hey.’ I slipped in at his side and spotted my glass of whisky on the bar. ‘Mine?’

‘Yeah, I was bringing it over.’

‘No need.’ I grabbed it and tipped its contents down my throat, my eyes watering with the burn. I patted my chest and gave a little cough. ‘Woo!’ The burn began to dissipate, leaving a nice heat that rose in my chest. Leaning over the bar and ignoring Adam, who was staring at me like he’d never seen me before, I tapped Alistair, Jo and Joss’s ex-colleague, on the shoulder. He turned from pouring a pint and smiled in recognition.