He gave her a good-natured smile. “Maybe, maybe not. I’m not too familiar with the genre. And I’m also not a creative writer, so you’ll have to explain these things to me.”

Antonia felt comfortable enough. “Alright then, I love historical romances.”

“Bodice-rippers.”

“Right, but I’m writing a contemporary romance because I never see myself in what I read.”

“Hm, what do you mean?”

Antonia shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “I guess I like reading about Victorian women who sneak off to the gardens to kiss suitors, but they’re all white women who have ‘pale porcelain skin and flaxen locks of gold.’ And the problem with contemporary erotica is that there’s fucking every twelfth page.”

Aiden exploded with laughter, spraying whiskey into the fireplace. “Jaysus, Mary, and Joseph,” he howled. Antonia almost tipped over as she dissolved into giggles.

“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her eyes.

“Dear me,” he said in between gasps. “You’ve a mouth on ya.”

“Only sometimes,” she said. “But this is my first book and I’m not ready to write the ‘in your face’ erotica. Maybe later I’ll have the courage, but for now...do you get what I mean?”

He took another drink. “Aye, it makes sense,” he replied. “You want the sweeping romance of the past, but with a touch more diversity. You also want some global politics and adventure, but without the whole Fifty Shades business.”

“That’s exactly what I want. Is that too much?”

“It’s your book, Antonia. You’re meant to have whatever you want.”

A smile played on her lips as she stared into the fire. “It is my book,” she murmured. And she’d just shared it with him. He listened to her without judgement and even asked critical questions about it. She didn’t feel like her dream was ridiculous when she was around Aiden. “My fiancé didn’t think my writing was very important.”

He raised a dark brow as he peered over his glass. “Your fiancé?”

While she was revealing intimate details about her life, during a thunderstorm, one more detail couldn’t hurt. Antonia smiled sadly. “There was another reason why I ‘escaped’ to Ireland,” she began.

Chapter Fifteen

And the plot thickens.

Aiden sat and listened to Antonia recount what it was like to find out her fiancé was cheating on her. He did his best to contain his anger as she described running away from his apartment. If the prick was arrogant enough to pull something like that off before his own wedding, who knows what life may have been like after two years of marriage. He admired her though. Antonia may have been a little buzzed, but she talked about Derek stoically. She wasn’t on the verge of tears this evening. He knew there was something more to yesterday’s washing machine panic. This was the pain that lay just below the surface.

“How did you two meet?”

She chuckled. “Oh god, I was at a sports bar for a work colleague’s birthday. He was there with his finance buddies and talked me up at the bar.”