Danni stared at me for an eternity. At least, that was what it felt like. Her chest bounced, and her breathing got heavier as her eyes searched mine, her body unmoving.

I didn’t want to pull away, but as the noise of the others drew closer, I realised I didn’t have a choice. Not without some serious questions being asked—questions neither one of us would be able to answer.

I was just about to stand when she spoke.

“Those guys know how to ruin a good thing, huh?” she whispered through a sarcastic grin.

“Pains in my arse. That’s what they are.”

She sighed softly, her smile turning sad for a moment, which only made me want to wrap her up in my arms even more. Before I could blink, though, Danni had pushed herself off the bed with a groan and was making her way down the small corridor before she turned into the living area and greeted the gang.

Leaving me standing there to push my hands through the unruly lengths of my hair and turn on the spot a few times as I tried to remember the exact moment when Daniella had gone from being a friendly face and a voice I liked to hear, to being someone I wanted to devour with all the aggression I possessed within me.

I didn’t have long to think before Natalie was walking towards me with a smile on her face and a light in her eyes.

“Hey. You’re up on your feet. How are you feeling?” she asked, coming to a stop in front of me, her white T-shirt hanging loosely off one shoulder.

“Better.” I smiled flatly. “The rest has done me good.”

“Danni just told us that the day went well for her.”

“It did.” I nodded. “Really… well.” I cleared my throat, blew out a breath and tried to look normal, but it had the exact opposite effect. Natalie narrowed her eyes and tilted her head to one side.

“So,” I started, pointing behind her. “Everyone out there had a good day?”

She hesitated before she answered. “We did. We missed you and Danni, though.”

“Me and Danni,” I repeated back, liking the way it made us sound like a thing.

Natalie raised her brow, unable to hide her amusement. “You guys seem to be getting closer lately.”

“We do?”

“Yes.” She laughed. “And you know it, Marcus.”

Turning my smile down, I faked a breeziness I didn’t feel before shrugging my shoulders and avoiding eye contact. “It’s probably just because she’s the only single girl here besides my sister.”

Nat sighed, reached up to pat me on the shoulder and shook her head. “Yeah. You keep telling yourself that.”

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out.

“Anyway,” she said, dropping her arm by her side. “We ran into the owners of that little taverna on the beach. Do you remember them?”

“How could I forget?”

“Right. Well, they invited us down for a meal tonight. A freebie.”

“Wow. That’s… generous.”

“Alex helped them fix up their old, beat-up car which wouldn’t start outside the supermarket. They had a boot filled with stuff and were panicking about it all defrosting. They wanted to thank him.”

“He’s good at saving the day, isn’t he?”

“I think he’s trying to make up for the ones he thinks he ruined.” Natalie flashed me a smile before she took a step closer, rested her head against my chest and wrapped me up in a hug. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

“Thanks, little Nat.” I curled my arms around her and laid my cheek against the top of her head.

“Weird,” she mumbled as she began to pull herself away. “For some reason, you smell like Daniella’s perfume.”

“Wh—” I froze, my arms in midair and my eyes wide as I watched that mischievous grin of hers show up.

Natalie bit down on her lip, holding back the giggle I knew she wanted to release, before she shook her head, rolled her eyes and turned to leave the room altogether.

For a girl who refused to see a lot of things, Natalie Vincent sure did have a way of seeing through everything I was trying to hide from the world—and maybe even myself.

The day wore on until night time came around, and before I knew how it had happened, or how so many hours had whizzed by, we were all sitting in the taverna on the beach, about to enjoy our last evening together.

I wasn’t sure if I was avoiding being too close to Danni or if she was the one avoiding me, but we were sitting at opposite ends of the table, taking the position as heads at either end, while the rest of the guys ran in between us. As a group, we laughed, joked, shared good food and wine, and acted like nothing was unusual. But every now and again I would peek up to take a glance at Danni when I thought she wasn’t looking, only for our eyes to catch and her cheeks to blush. Every time I saw that colour rise, I struggled to hold back my smirk of delight. That was usually when I would catch Natalie staring at me with that knowing look on her face, and I would stare down at my food, or fake a yawn.

When it was time for dessert, after an evening filled with the finest local cuisine, Danni’s voice drifted over to me louder than anyone else’s, capturing my attention. She had a delicate flowery hair band sitting proudly around her blonde hair, with small, loose plaits hanging in between the wavy beach curls she wore so well. Her white dress was a glowing contrast against her already tanned skin, but the casual touch of a grey hoodie had me smiling to myself. She looked homely, even though in reality, she was fucking worldly.

A waiter was currently trying to push a plate of cheesecake in front of her, but Danni was waving it away, laughing at him as she tried to assure him her stomach was full.

“I can’t, honestly. I can’t eat that,” she said through a small, almost nervous laugh.

“Nai, nai,” the young server said, his face alive as he tried to tempt her. I slid back in my seat, kicked out my feet under the table and watched her with amusement.

Her eyes rose up to his. “No, don’t tempt me, you wicked man.”

“One bite,” he said in his over emphasised English accent.

“I can’t. A moment on the lips,” she said, pointing at her mouth. “A lifetime on the hips.” Her finger fell to her waist as she continued to stare at the young guy. “I don’t want to get fat.”

“Oxi,” he growled out, wearing a deep frown all of a sudden. “Fat. No. You never. You beautiful as you are.”

“Give it to someone else.” She grinned. “Please.”

“One bite,” he repeated. “What bad can happen?”

My own smile grew and grew as I got lost in the two of them arguing, and before I realised what was happening, I was shouting down to the other end of the table. “Yeah, Danni. What’s the worst that can happen after one taste?”

Her head shot up, her eyes lingering on me as the rest of the room and the people in it fell away.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s just one bite of the apple.”

“Apple?” she asked, arching a brow.

“I mean cake.”

“One taste is all it takes to get addicted,” she hit back.

“Only if you have no self-control.” I smirked, rising to lean forward and rest my crossed arms on the table in front of me. “You have self-control, don’t you?”

“Depends how good the cake is.”

“If you don’t taste it, you’ll never know.”

I heard Paul’s confused mutterings beside me, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

“And what if it tastes so good I end up finishing the whole plate off and then regretting it later?”

I shrugged. “You should never regret something you once enjoyed.”

Danni’s eyes drifted to the cake the waiter had set down in front of her before she looked back up at me with a fake angry look on her face and shook her head. When she picked up her fork, jabbed it into the small slice and scooped it into her mouth, the whole room was silent as they watched her.

It was only when she closed her eyes and I heard the soft moan of delight rumble in her throat that I realised the whole room had suddenly turned to stare at me as my whispered release of “Oh, fuck…” was apparently heard by all of them.

I turned to look at the faces staring back at me, and every one of the rat bastards wore a look of amusement.

Clearing my throat, I raised my brows, pushed my chair back and thumbed over my shoulder. “Just going to go get some air,” I mumbled, not daring to look up at Danni at the other end of the table.

Paul made some comment I couldn’t hear, thankfully, while Alex started up a conversation to cover up my discomfort—something I was hugely grateful for as he pulled Natalie, Sammy, and Suzie’s focus from me and onto him.

Jumping down the wooden stairs of the restaurant, my feet landed on the cushion of the sand, and I made my way over to the shoreline. The sound of the ocean waves crashing against the earth was instantly relaxing, and as I pushed both my hands into the pockets of my jeans, I let out the air I had held in my chest and stared up at the moon like it was an old friend I hadn’t seen in far too long. The bright white reflections of it rippled on the ocean’s black surface, dancing around in a hypnotic stream of twinkling light that was enough to lull a crying baby into a world of calm. I took a deep breath in, feeling the salty air float through me, and just as soon as I inhaled, I exhaled it all back out in one long stream.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” her voice whispered quietly as it pulled up beside me.

I didn’t need to see her fully before the smile rose on my face. “Sure is.”

We both stared forward, facing the moonlight again, soaking in the calming vibrations of the world around us.

“You know, that cake was fucking good.”

“Glad I made you try it?”

“For now,” she answered, not hiding the smile in her voice. “I might feel differently in the morning.”

“Live for the moment,” I breathed out quietly. “If the world ends tonight, you might be grateful in the afterlife that you had the cake.”

She huffed out a small laugh before she, too, let out the air in her chest. “The world has ended a thousand times for all of us before… but tomorrow always arrives to make us pay for our sins.”

“That’s deep.”

“I have many layers.”

“You sure as hell do.”

The silence lingered between us for a while as we both continued to watch the ocean waves ripple and fizzle out in front of us.

“I love the night,” Danni eventually whispered. “I love the stars and feeling how small we are down here. I love the power of the moon. I love the way it seems to calm me in ways the day can’t.”

I narrowed my eyes, tensed my jaw, and nodded in agreement. “It’s the ocean for me,” I told her. “I love the way it calms me. I don’t know if it’s the smell, the sound, or just the fact that it’s such a mystery, but when I’m in front of it, I feel better. Does that make sense?”

“So much sense. Do you want to know what one of my biggest wishes is?”

“Tell me,” I urged her.

“I’d love to be standing in the ocean when it’s pouring down with rain.”

“Why?”

“Imagine the power you’d feel. You’re already wet, right? All there is left to do is look up and let nature show you how incredible it is. You’d feel the weight of the waves around you, guiding you to where they want your body to go. You’d feel the weight of the raindrops landing on your face. I can imagine it being the most grounding thing in the world. I’d close my eyes, drift my palms along the surface of the tide… and I’d see. I’d really see and feel everything, ‘cause in the end, all any of us are is small specks of dust in a universe ruled by a million bigger things. I think it’s important for us to remember that. We should appreciate those higher powers. We should appreciate the rain, just like we should appreciate the stars and the moon and the night.”

“How did you become so incredible?”

“Just lucky, I guess.”

“No, I think it’s self-taught. You see so much. You say things I’ve never even thought of before.”

“There’re a whole lot of wishes behind these eyes of mine.”

“I want to know every single one,” I whispered.

“You already know too much.”

I turned her way to see her profile highlighted by the perfect glare of the moon. Every part of me was losing control as each minute passed. I was seeing all the different angles of this girl, and I liked every single one of them more than I could have imagined possible.

“Being out here solves everything if you let it. It takes away your doubts,” she whispered as she closed her eyes and let a small smile linger on her lips. “It makes you stop thinking so much. It strips you. It lets you just feel…”

I was definitely feeling. You’re beautiful, I wanted to say to her, but all I could do was stare, muted by the vision in front of me and too glued to the spot to do or say anything that would make this moment more heavenly than she was making it.

“Clear your mind,” she whispered, her head falling back and her lips parting. “Don’t you feel that?”

I stared at her, unable to hear anything other than the frantic beating of my heart.

The moon was casting the most flattering glow on her makeup-free skin, and I swear, in those seconds of my unashamed staring, she was the most glorious vision I’d ever laid eyes on.

“Don’t you feel it, Marcus?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I feel it.”

“Doesn’t it terrify you?”

“It scares the shit out of me,” I admitted, feeling my chest swell.

“We’re so small. So fucking small. Yet we always think we’re in control.”

“Definitely…” I paused and sucked in a breath. “Not in control.”

Danni peeked one eye open and looked at me. “What?”

“What?” I blinked.

“Why are you looking at me that way?” She grinned.

“How am I looking at you?” I was unable to take my eyes away from her. It was like I was truly seeing her for the very first time, and the other perfect images I’d had of Danni in my mind paled in comparison to this version of her who was opening her heart and letting the most poetic words of her mind pour free all around us.

“Like…” She lifted her head and turned to face me, her eyes searching my face frantically, a small, confused scowl creating a little V shape on her forehead until her stare landed on my mouth. “Like you want to kiss me.”

My chest bounced as I inhaled and took a tentative step closer until there was only an inch between us—an inch I soon planned on removing if she’d let me.

“Because I do want to kiss you.”

Her eyes rose to meet mine for just a few tiny seconds. She looked vulnerable and caught by surprise. And there I’d been, just moments before, thinking she couldn’t possibly get any more beautiful. Fuck, it felt good to be wrong.

My smile grew with confidence as I realised that I loved being wrong for her. I loved surprising her even more.

“You want to kiss me?”

“You know I do. God, you know I do. I want to kiss you, Danni. I’ve been wanting to kiss you for a while now, but…”

“But?”

“I don’t want to lose you, either. I’ve made this mistake before.”

“You want to kiss me,” she breathed out again, tasting the words on her tongue one more time.

“Hell, yeah, I do.”

Danni’s gaze drifted down to my lips once again, studying them for a few seconds too long before she finally whispered her response. “Then kiss me.”

I didn’t need to hear that twice. In one swoop, I’d pulled my hands from my pockets and wrapped them around her—one pressing into the small of her back to gain control of her body, while the other rested against her face—and then I kissed her. I fucking kissed the most beautiful, terrifying, incredibly honest, ambitious, magnificent woman on the planet like I owned her, not even caring about the fact that she had the ability to break me apart, and probably would. But as our lips twisted and melted into each other’s, I knew she was worth it.

I knew she’d be worth the uncertainty, and if there were any aches of regret the next day, I would handle it. I had to.

There were some girls who were worth kissing with all you had in you, just so you could know that at one time in your life, you experienced what it felt like to hit the jackpot.

Danni’s hands rose ever so slowly to my shoulders, her touch uncertain until I finally felt her relax and lose herself in our kiss when her fingers pushed up through the sides of my hair. Then she moaned that heavenly moan into my mouth, and I was gone.

I couldn’t pull away from her even if I’d wanted to.

And I really, really didn’t want to.