“What the hell was that?” Roberta spat through gritted teeth, pulling Danni and me to one side as the rest of the room picked up where they’d left off ten minutes earlier. It blew my mind how unaffected they were. Maybe this shit really did happen all the time around here.

“Roberta, don’t give yourself a hernia,” Danni huffed.

Roberta’s big, worried eyes looked between the two of us repeatedly before she shook her head and sighed. “You just don’t get it, do you?”

“What? What don’t we get?”

“I want what’s best for you, Danni.”

“You think I don’t know that, Berti?” Danni’s face softened, her head tilting to one side while she kept her arm around my waist. “I know you do, but I’m not a reckless tearaway who’s going to purposefully throw this opportunity down the drain. That doesn’t mean I’m going to let some arsehole like Johnny Miller take advantage of me, either. You and the agency put me in that position with him. Not me. You guys. Marcus sorted that out for both of us, so before you come over here and try to pin even more guilt on him, you better realise that you’re going to have to go through me… because I love him. And guess what? When I love someone, I don’t back down or weaken for anyone.”

The hit of emotion I felt smacked me in the chest like an iron spade. I stared down at her wrapped around me, and even though it was incredible to feel so worthy to someone, I also began to realise just how dangerous this was.

For her. Not me. Her.

She was willing to throw herself under the bus to make me happy.

Wasn’t that the very thing I’d done for Natalie and Alice?

Look where that had gotten me in the end.

I knew I’d never hurt her, but I also didn’t want to be the shackles around her ankles in this big old life she had waiting at her feet.

I must have been lost in thought for too long, because Roberta’s intense gaze began to burn holes in the side of my head, forcing me to look her way. When our eyes connected, it was obvious she knew what I was thinking. Her silent pleas to let Danni go came in relentless waves, washing over me until I had to break the stare and look away.

“I’m going to leave you two to it,” I eventually croaked, kissing Danni on the top of the head before I went to find Natalie and Alex. If I didn’t give Danni time, she couldn’t argue. It was easier than having to tell her why I suddenly felt uneasy.

Alex and Nat were waiting for me. I’d barely even looked up when I felt the press of a cold glass against my hand.

“You’ve never deserved a beer more in your life,” Alex said, giving me a subtle nod before he retreated and wrapped his arm around Nat’s shoulder.

I stood there, looking at the two of them.

It was the kind of love that you couldn’t turn away from. He was the song, and she was the lyrics. He was the paper, and she was the pen.

You’re the moon, and Danni is your sun.

“What’s wrong, Marcus?” Natalie asked, taking a step forward to reach up and touch my arm.

“How do you to do it?”

“What?”

“Be so certain of each other.”

Natalie scowled in confusion before she glanced up at Alex and held his gaze. They didn’t speak, just stared at one another. Some form of silent communication passing between them as they spoke in a language the rest of the world could never understand.

“I don’t know,” Natalie answered quietly, turning back to look at me. “I just feel like I’m lost without him.”

“Marcus, don’t let what just happened screw with your head. Do you know how many times I did what you’re doing now? How many times I second-guessed reactions, emotions, the future? And look what happened to me,” Alex reminded me.

“I’m just scared of holding her back.”

“That’s my fault,” Natalie admitted, her eyes filled with sadness as her hand dropped to mine to squeeze it. “It’s my fault for being with you and making you feel like you were second best. It’s Alice’s fault for making you feel like your best wasn’t good enough and something else was always going to sound more appealing. This isn’t Danni’s fault. Don’t make her pay for mine and Alice’s mistakes.”

I swallowed harshly, hating the way it tasted when that rock of shame hit my chest.

“What do I do?”

Alex exhaled slowly. “You listen when Danni talks.”

I looked up at him. “It’s usually the things the women don’t say that tells us the truth though, Alex.”

“Not Danni.” He shook his head. “That girl doesn’t know how to hold back.”

“Just like you.” Natalie smiled.

“The perfect match, if you ask me,” Alex added.

“You know, Alice once told me that I loved too intensely.” I stared down into my beer, grinding my teeth and tensing my jaw as I thought just how cruel those words had been. “I guess I’m scared I’m going to fuck this up again. I don’t think I’d ever get over Danni.”

“Then don’t fuck it up,” Danni piped up behind me.

I froze before I looked up, and when I did, Nat was smiling her warm smile, and Alex was wearing that trademark smirk of his.

It was only when I slowly glanced over my shoulder that I saw the one face who could bring any light to my eyes.

She didn’t look cross. Danni was issuing me a challenge. The know-it-all purse of her lips and the arch of her brow said it all.

“But it comes so easily to me,” I whispered through a half-smile.

“No. You never fuck up. You just hadn’t found anyone who could handle you before I came along.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Hell, yeah. And I win, Marcus. I don’t lose. So, if you’re going to be on my team, you better realise that once you’re with me, you’re stuck with me. Failure or doubt is not an option.”

Fuck me. I was screwed.

“What do you say?” she asked, tilting her head to one side even more.

“I say we get out of here.”

“That’s my man.”

I took a slow sip of my drink, making sure I remained looking at her over my shoulder. If I took one step out of that front door, I was going to be thirsty from desire. The longer I kept her waiting, the bigger her grin grew, until it was all too much for me and I caved. Slamming my beer on the bar, I gave Natalie and Alex a nod of thanks before I spun around on the spot, groaned with love for the girl in front of me, picked her up, and threw her over my shoulder.

Her squeal of surprise had everyone turning my way, but we were lost.

Two kids in a crowd, feeling sixteen at heart and ninety-five in confidence.

“Marcus!” she cried, smacking my bum with one hand. “Your legs!”

“I am strong,” I King-Konged the fuck out of my voice.

“Put me down.”

“Never.”

“If you get hurt…”

“… You’ll look after me. Don’t you remember, Danni?”

“Remember what?”

“You’re the rescuer of this relationship. You don’t need saving. You save.”

“Damn right I do.” She giggled, her body going limp over my shoulder as her laughter tore free.

We’d barely taken two steps out of the door when the lights of the cameras blinded me again. I immediately brought Danni in front of me, careful to take care of her modesty. The last thing I wanted were three scandals with our names attached to them. First of all the pack of lies we’d told on the way into the event. Second, the black eye I’d given to Johnny Miller inside the event. Roberta would find a way to hunt me down and gut me like a fish if I flashed Danni’s bare arse to millions of people as my strike three.

“Jesus,” I said through a cringe, pulling her closer as I tried to adjust to the intrusion. Wrapping my arm around her shoulder, I moved the two of us forward, not missing the way Danni kept her spine ramrod straight and began to smile at the photographers.

“Bye, guys.” She waved.

“Danni!” They started crying for her attention again. “Leaving so soon?”

“I need my beauty sleep,” she yelled back. “This doesn’t come naturally to me.”

A few laughed at her utterly ridiculous statement, but she never stopped working her magic.

Me? I found myself playing the part of the voluntary bodyguard as I guided her down the red carpet and tried not to make eye contact with anyone. Danni may have told me she approved of my Ali-style move on Miller, but that didn’t stop me from feeling a slight hint of shame that I couldn’t control myself when control, pretence, and ignorance had always been my forte.

When we made it to the limo that was waiting for us, we slipped inside, shut the door, and I sat back, blowing out a breath and undoing the top button of my collar.

“That was wild,” Danni said, more to herself than me.

I gave her a nod, staring at her stunning profile, memorising every fleck of skin that sparkled as the muted camera flashes filtered through the blacked out windows.

She turned to me and offered a bright, white smile.

There was no anger or upset on her face—only excitement and appreciation.

“You just completed your first public mission as my boyfriend.”

I huffed out a small laugh. “On a scale of one to ten, how badly did I fuck up?”

“Ten being the worst?”

“One being golden.”

Danni caressed my thigh slowly, sliding closer as the car began to move. “You were golden,” she assured me. “But nothing I say is going to reassure you of that, so don’t expect me to sit here and rub your wounded pride.” Her eyes rose to meet mine. “I’m a say it as I see it kind of girl. When I tell you that nobody cares about what you did to Johnny Miller, please understand that nobody cares what you did to Johnny Miller.”

“If this comes back and hurts your career...”

“It won’t. If it does, I’ll handle it.”

“Doesn’t anything faze you?” I asked, my eyes narrowing slightly as her hand slid closer to my dick.

“Only one thing,” she whispered. “You.”

“Me?”

“You’re the only one I worry about losing now. Everything else is dispensable.”

“You think too much of me,” I breathed back at her, low and hoarse, my attention falling to her mouth.

“You think too little of you.” Danni turned on her side so her chest was pressed against me and her quiet, breathy words were falling into my ear. “Let go of the past, Marcus. Stop worrying about what has gone wrong and who left you. Stop panicking that everything you do is going to make me see you differently. The only thing I could ever do now is love you more. You don’t know how much I appreciate the girl you’ve woken up that was buried deep inside. I never thought I’d say these kinds of things to a man so long as I lived, but here I am saying them to you, and I mean them. I need you to believe that I mean them. I need you to let me enjoy loving you.”

I closed my eyes and let my mouth fall open as I let my head fall against hers.

“I’m not them,” she whispered.

“You deserve the best.”

“I’m not them,” she repeated.

“I swear to God,” I croaked, swallowing harshly. “I never thought you were.”

Her hand slid over my groin before she pushed her fingers up over my stomach, reaching higher and higher until she had my cheek in her hand. She turned my face, pressed her lips to mine and gave me her kiss.

It was enough for me. I couldn’t hold back anymore. I flipped her over, pressed her as far into her seat as I could and poured all my love and frustration into her. My trousers were tight, my heart beating with violence and my hands gripping her like the two of us would die if I let go. Veins throbbed in my neck. My jaw was hard. My eyes scrunching tight.

There was nowhere else for either one of us to go but directly into each other.

Danni’s legs parted, allowing me to push my erection against her with force. That low, hypnotic moan rumbled in her throat, and I felt her thighs begin to tremble around me.

“I love you,” she mumbled between desperate kisses.

I moved my kisses, trailing them to her jaw, down her neck, before biting at her collarbone in a way that had her arching her back and rolling her hips against me.

“I love you,” she gasped again.

I slammed into her body once more, forcing her to melt into the seat again before I cupped her breast in my hand and began to tease her through her dress.

There was no thought about whether the driver could see us.

There wasn’t even a care.

All I wanted to do—no, had to do—was feel her, touch her, be part of her, and everything else drifted away. I was coming undone, yet healing at once. The hard shell I’d unknowingly covered myself in began to crack and fall at my feet. My heart grew ten sizes whenever I was with her, and life felt good.

Really good.

I needed to show her exactly what she did to me. Nudging her legs farther apart, I dropped my hand under her dress, yanked her underwear to the side and plunged two fingers straight inside her with brutal force. It was a claiming. A mark. If Danni were an island, I’d just stuck my flag in her and declared that I owned her. She gasped and groaned and moaned and became liquid in my grip. It didn’t take me long, and I was savage in my effort to make her orgasm. When she tried to cry out my name, I gagged her with a kiss and swallowed her pleas. Her limbs shook and trembled, and when she panted and began to climb the heady mountain of her climax, I grew stronger. I grew more demanding of her reactions.

The feel and sound of Danni coming was something I’d never tire of.

A woman so strong, so capable, so unable to bend to anyone’s will—and here I was, making her weak, making her love and feel and happy.

I stilled my fingers inside of her, our foreheads sweating and sliding against one another as our ragged breaths mingled as though they belonged to both of us. We were one like this.

“Did that feel good?” I whispered.

Her mouth hung open, her small nod moving our heads together.

“Want me to do it again?”

“You’ll break me,” she gasped.

“Then I’ll squeeze you back together.”

“I thought I was the rescuer.”

“How about we both save each other from time to time?”

Danni’s slow, seductive smile made me grin back at her with all the happiness I owned.

Thanks to her, I now had a lot more of that than I could ever have imagined possible.

The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, but sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s the kind of green that’s blinding. The kind that makes you forget any other shade ever existed.