Longford beauty and former Love Island star Maura Higgins and Joey Essex are reportedly planning their first date after they were photographed sharing a steamy kiss on Monday night.
Maura, 31, and 32-year-old Joey were photographed locking lips after connecting at the Pride of Britain Awards, which took place at Grosvenor House in London.
The reality stars are said to have since swapped numbers after "flirting like crazy" at the awards do.
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And now they are said to be excitedly planning their first date together.
A source has said: "Maura’s really keen for a date with Joey and they’ve been messaging nonstop since."
Meanwhile, the insider added how the pair had a "connection" and were said to be chatting into the early hours of the morning at the event, before leaving in a taxi together.
They told The Sun : "They both fancy the pants off each other — it could be the start of something pretty special."
Although the pair left the swanky event together on Monday evening, the source insisted there was "no funny business" as Joey is a "gentleman" and had Dancing on Ice training early the following day.
Representatives for Joey and Maura have been contacted by the Mirror for comment.
The pair were snapped sharing a steamy kiss on Monday evening.
As the Pride of Britain ceremony came to a close, the pair were seen smiling at each other before locking lips after Joey edged closer to the Irish beauty.
After the pair embraced in a hug, they soon headed off together and grabbed a taxi away from the venue with a number of pals.
Maura and Joey have met before on the celebrity circuit, according to the insider, but things hadn't turned flirty before – until now.
They added: "They were flirting like crazy and all over each other. Eventually, Maura just grabbed Joey’s tie and pulled him in for a kiss, right in front of everyone. He loved it."
After the public display of affection, Maura appeared to make light of the kissing photos as she re-shared a post from her makeup artist pal Krystal Dawn.
MUA Krystal posted a video of Maura going to lick her and wrote on top of the clip: "She's a licker," followed by a shrugging emoji.
As Maura re-shared the footage, she added: "It's how I greet ppl", [sic] followed by a shrugging emoji.
Meanwhile, Joey took to the ice rink as he continued training for his upcoming Dancing in Ice stint.
Joey opted to post a selfie as he he held up his finger wrapped in a plaster as he got ready to train for the new series of Dancing On Ice.
Captioning the pic in which he sports a pink beanie and a black tracksuit, Joey wrote: "Healing good."
The star suffered the injury while training alongside Love Island's Ekin-Su ahead of the ITV show in January.
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