Page 33 of Cruising for Christmas
He tilted his head toward the door. “Think it’s late enough to bang on Shay and Ryan’s door?”
Norah giggled. “Probably.”
They opened their door and peered out into the hallway. It was empty. Ian held their door open.
“You do it this time,” he said.
Norah walked across the hall and poised her hand in front of their door, looking back at Ian first to make sure he was ready.
“Ready.”
A gasp down the hallway had Norah’s head snapping toward the elevators.
“You,” Shay said. “It was you two all along?”
Norah’s eyes widened. She pounded her fist on the door, not even knowing why she bothered, before making a mad dash back to her own room. She laughed in glee, and Ian wrapped her into his arms to help propel her through the door before closing it behind them.
“I could have seen this coming from you, Ian. But not Norah. You’ve corrupted my friend!” Shay’s voice rang out. She banged on their door loudly before retreating to her own room.
Norah was still wrapped in Ian’s arms and giggled against his chest.
“Why did you still knock? We probably could have come up with an excuse to pretend we were knocking for a different reason,” he asked, while chuckling.
“I don’t know. My hand was there and ready, so I just did it.”
She rested her chin on his chest as she looked up at him. He pressed a kiss to her nose.
“We’ll still do it again tomorrow,” he said.
Norah giggled. “Yes, we will.”
When they finally slipped under the covers, Norah hoped they wouldn’t maintain their invisible barrier that had been put in place since day one.
She smiled into the darkness when she felt his hands come around her waist and tug her against his chest. The hard planes of his body and the heat radiating off him had her wishing she hadn’t gotten in her head about Shay.
This was all Shay’s doing, after all.
15
Norah woke up in Ian’s arms, and to her surprise, it felt completely normal. It feltright. He leaned over and kissed her nose lightly before hopping out of bed and excusing himself into the restroom. She took that time to get out of bed and get dressed for the day. They wouldn’t have much time before the ship was docking in the Bahamas.
Once they were ready, they met up with Shay and Ryan where they had breakfast before heading off the ship and to a nearby beach. Shay gave them an earful about making her and Ryan lose sleep on their vacation, but Norah and Ian only laughed and pointed out that what she had done with putting them in a room together without their knowledge was much worse.
Although Norah wasn’t sure of the truth of the statement. If Shay hadn’t done it, Norah wouldn’t have gone on the cruise and met Ian. She really only had Shay to thank at that point.
The day went much like their day in St. Maarten. Shay and Ryan spent most of their time together, leaving Norah with Ian. But she didn’t mind. Chatting with Ian about life was quickly becoming one of her favorite things. She only dreaded what would happen when they got off the ship tomorrow to go back to their normal lives.
On the walk back to the ship later that afternoon, Shay pulled Norah aside and raised her eyebrow.
“So, are you going to finally tell me what’s going on between you and my brother?”
Norah rolled her eyes. “Was this your master plan all along? Force us to share a room until we fall madly in love with one another and get married?”
Shay raised her hands in the air innocently. “You said it, not me.”
Norah almost questioned Shay to ask if that’s why she put them in the same room, but that would have been too convenient. She did it because there wasn’t an extra room on the ship and it was the only way Norah could go. It had just been a happy accident.
“So you weren’t kidding when you said you hoped we would get together?”
