Page 53 of The Enemy Plot

“Perfect.” I smirk. “I’m in the mood for caviar and truffles.”

He laughs, taking my hand as we exit the store. “Sounds good. Let’s go.”

Deacon was totally going to bring me to an expensive place that serves caviar and truffles, so I told him I changed my mind and really wanted pasta, just as we were passing an Italian restaurant. It’s a cozy place with a small dining room and few tables. Luckily, a window table at the back of the room is available. We both order some drinks before pulling our phones out to show off our finds.

My excitement level is through the roof. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun on a date. “You go first,” I say, eager to seewhat he picked.

“Let’s go prompt by prompt, and we both show what we found, starting with a book with a character who shares your date’s name.”

“I knew you were going to pickAlice in Wonderland,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Way too easy.”

“Hey.” He scowls. “I still lost, remember?”

I chuckle. “Right.”

“Well, that’s a book I could never read,” he says, glancing at me. “Can you even readAlice in Wonderland,or would you just picture yourself as the character?”

“Yeah. But I wouldn’t read a romance novel with a main character who had my name,” I joke.

Our waiter interrupts us to bring our drinks, then takes our order. When he leaves, we continue our way down the list. I learn that Deacon’s favorite color is blue, and funny enough, we both picked Hawaii as our destination of choice.

“Maybe we’ll even go together some day,” he suggests with that gravelly voice of his, and I get goosebumps all the way to my neck. Deacon Collier is really good at this dating thing.

I remove the little umbrella from my cocktail and take a sip. “I’d love to.”

“Okay, next is the children’s book. Here’s mine,” he says, showing me a picture ofTreasure Islandby Robert Louis Stevenson.

“Oh, is that what gave you the idea of a scavenger hunt?” I ask, taking another sip.

He chuckles. “Yeah, kind of. My mom and grandma loved treasure hunts and scavenger hunts. They used to put them together for us all the time.”

“I love that. It’s such a fun activity. I, for one, had a blast. Thank you.”

He flashes me a bright smile, and I don’t think my heart is equipped to handle those pearly whites. It’s now rattling like crazy in my chest and doing a weird jiggly dance that has me worried for a second, until it settles down. Oof, this man’s smile is dangerous. It should come with a proper warning.

“I had fun too,” he says, placing a hand around his glass. “What’s your pick?”

“Oh, I choseBeauty and the Beast. My mom used to read it with me all the time when I was young. We read it in both French and English. Funny story behind that—my dad is actually a distant descendant of Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, who abridged the original version of the story.”

“No way! That’s really cool. I didn’t know I was in the presence of a literary legend’s relative.”

I laugh, sipping my cocktail through the bamboo straw. “Yep.”

We share our “initial twin” authors and our favorite animals before moving to the book we thought the other would enjoy.

He picked a romcom that I’ve already read by Liz Fox.

“I knew it,” he says, shaking his head. “You’ve probably read the entire romcom section.”

“That’s a definite possibility,” I say with a chuckle. “Here’s mine.”

He glimpses the picture on my phone and nods. “That looks interesting. I could read that.”

“You should listen to it. The experience is even better,” I say, giving a firm nod.

“Why do you love audiobooks so much?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. It just feels more alive, more vibrant, you know? It’s such an immersive experience. And I love voices.”

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