We spent Christmas in New York, and on Christmas Eve I took her to the Rockefeller Center. The two of us kissed under the famous glittering tree, our toes and noses freezing, our hands pushed into each other’s coats.

Christmas morning was spent in our hotel room. I’d bought Danni some crescent moon earrings to match the necklace she rarely took off. She accepted them with the biggest grin on her face. The morning was magical, just the two of us locked in our own little New York cloud, the only people stopping by being Roberta and a few other contacts from Danni’s agency. Roberta was leaving that same day to fly back to England, which marked a Dear Diary moment for all of us.

She would only ever be a phone call away, but from then on Berti trusted me to take care of one of her greatest assets for her. Danni had learned the ropes enough to take care of herself for a while. It was like a parent letting their child walk home from school by themselves for the very first time.

The two of us were excited and simultaneously shitting ourselves. For all Roberta had given me grief over the months, I’d actually grown to love her and to feel reassured by her constant nagging. Some people pretend to hate you when they care. If you look beneath the rough surface, you’ll see that they’re usually the ones who love the hardest.

In exchange for me promising to be Danni’s personal bodyguard, Roberta swore to look after the two of us in the media. I didn’t feel like I needed any kind of protection, but Danni and Berti insisted, and I just wasn’t strong enough to refuse them when they forged a wall of solidarity together.

Danni met up with Vincenzo in the first week of the New Year, the two of them talking about what the next twelve to twenty-four months would bring, while I sat on the sidelines, smiling at their unlikely friendship. For some reason, Vincenzo had taken us under his wing, acting like a parent we never expected. I already had a good father figure in my life, but I couldn’t deny how good it felt to see Danni have one that genuinely cared for her. Steve Marston had no idea what he was missing out on.

Neither did Georgia.

I watched as Danni leaned over a folder Vincenzo had spread out in front of them. He continued to pull huge pieces of paper out of God knows where before he spread them out in front of her. Their heads were practically touching, and the concentration on their faces was amusing. I glanced back down at the image I was bringing to life of our Christmas Eve together under Rockefeller’s festive lights.

“It all feels like it has been done before,” Vincenzo said, a little exasperated as he leaned back in his chair and raised a hand to his temple. “I gave them the concepts, and yes, they delivered, but it still doesn’t feel right.”

“I think they look great, Vincenzo,” Danni said with encouragement.

“I don’t want great. I want unforgettable.”

“Maybe you’ll feel better once you see the pieces on a model.”

“No. Nothing feels right. My instincts are telling me something is wrong. I’m not as inspired as I was with my last collection.” He raised his eyes to take a peek at me before glancing back at Danni. “Back in Greece, you two made things come alive that day in the villa.”

“There’s inspiration all around. We just have to keep searching until we find it for you.”

“You are too good to me. Patient. Kind.”

“I’m loyal to those who are loyal to me.”

I looked on, watching as she waved her hands over several drawings, her enthusiasm as alive as ever.

“Listen, I know I’m nothing but the person you’re going to be dressing, but if you want my opinion, maybe you should get rid of the yellow tones and focus on something new. With the night and day collection you’ve already showcased, maybe the repetition of the theme is what’s making you doubt everything.”

“I don’t know,” Vincenzo muttered, leaning forward to rest his chin on his hand. They both studied the drawings some more. “The colours they used don’t offend me. I think it’s the designs themselves. The drawings feel flat. The shapes feel bland. Repetitive. Mundane.”

“You’ve got to be kidding. They’re classics.”

“Exactly. Classic is overdone. Everybody wants to deliver classic. I’m sick of it. It’s repeated every single year. If I hear the word classic in another newspaper, blog, or magazine article, I’m going to vomit on my Italian shoes, Daniella. I’m over classic. We are the future. The future is what I want to represent.”

Danni glanced up at him, a small smile playing on her lips. “Then what are you waiting for?”

Vincenzo stared at her, his thoughts bouncing around behind his narrowed eyes. “Are you encouraging me to go rogue?”

“I’m encouraging you to go with whatever is in your heart. Any work you put out that comes from there surely can’t fail.”

“This could be dangerous.”

“It should be.” She grinned.

Vincenzo looked at the boards behind him—boards filled with swatch samples, colour charts, sketches, pictures of models on runways, pictures of models behind the scenes.

“I don’t have my sketcher with me,” Vincenzo muttered to himself.

My pencil froze over my pad, my eyes widening before Danni even had the chance to turn and look at me. The little minx. She was setting me up. She was getting me involved.

She…

“Lucky for you, Vincenzo, I brought one with me.”

God damn that woman and every one of her schemes that fell into place.

I closed my eyes, wrinkled my nose, and waited for it.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One…

“Of course!” Vincenzo cried. “Markoos, my darling muse saves me again.”

There it was. I peeked an eye open and let it roam between the two of them. Before I could protest, I was being positioned around the table, forced to sketch away as Vincenzo stripped Danni down to her underwear and began to drape different materials over her shoulders, wrapping them in loads of crazy methods around her waist, her back, her neck.

By the end of the very long night, I knew the difference between A-line and Empire Line. I knew what a sweetheart neckline was. I became an expert on cotton versus silk, organza, recycled cottons and linens.

It was after midnight when Vincenzo sent us away in one of his fancy limos. I was exhausted beyond all measure.

“That went well,” Danni whispered in the back of the car. She wrapped her hands around my bicep as she rested her tired head against my shoulder.

“Because you’re so incredible.”

“I wasn’t the one who saved the day.”

“Oh, you were. You literally have one of the world’s most famous designers using you as his confidant. His muse. His inspiration.”

“Strange, isn’t it?” She sighed.

I rested my head on top of hers, running my hand over her thigh as I let out a small breath and stared at the New York roads ahead.

“Strange can be a good thing,” I told her quietly.

“I know.”

“There’s no going back to normality for you now, Danni. This is it.”

“Yeah,” she said softly, her hands curling tighter around my arm.

“Does it scare you?”

“A little bit.”

“Me, too.”

“But I have you, so I say let’s feel the fear and do it anyway.”

I heard the grin in her voice, and I felt my own smile rise.

“I’ll sleep to that.”

We drove back to the hotel, taking in the twinkling lights of a city we’d never forget. We’d made memories in New York—so many memories. It was time to move on to our next port and make some more. In the morning, we flew to Puerto Rico.

For someone who hadn’t ever travelled too much in his life until a year ago, I sure was making up for wasted time.

“Welcome to Puerto Rico,” the taxi driver said as he navigated his way around the old part of San Juan, which Danni had been desperate to see. The small, narrow streets were lined with houses of every colour you could imagine, making it look like a fairytale land that shouldn’t exist in a world where the majority of us were used to grey buildings and lifeless brick.

“How magical…” Danni whispered to herself, one hand clinging on to the edge of the open window, her other hand resting on her head as she took in the new world around her, smiling that smile of hers.

“Beautiful,” I mouthed so she couldn’t hear.

Her head turned my way, anyway, as though she’d heard me, sensed me, listened to the thoughts going on inside my head and curled herself up in them.

“Did you say something?”

“No.” I shook my head and turned my smug smile downwards.

“Liar.”

I shrugged and slid my hand across the seat to rest it on her thigh. “You happy?”

“Embarrassingly so.” She glanced back out of the window, her attention taking on a million different directions as we passed so much vibrancy and life all around us.

Compared to the freezing cold temperatures of New York, Puerto Rico felt like stepping out of the freezer straight into a lit oven. I was already sweaty and desperate to find a pool, but Danni looked unaffected by the change. She looked like the poster girl she had become. Fucking perfect.

We eventually arrived at our hotel in San Juan, The San Juan Marriott, sitting on Condado Beach. I made myself useful and went to grab our cases while Danni paid the cab driver. I tried to take care of the luggage by myself to earn manly man points, but my girl was my girl, and she refused to adhere to those old stereotypical roles… and I just wasn’t that brave enough to stop her. Grabbing a case, she took two steps with it before the hotel staff came running out to protest, ripping them from our grips with a smile on their faces. Danni began to protest, but the argument that never really started was soon over.

Turning to me with a cute little small scowl on her face, she blew all the air out of her cheeks and huffed.

“The bigger you get, the more you’re going to have to get used to people wanting to do everything for you.” I grinned.

“I’m becoming well-known, Marcus. Not pregnant. People don’t have to do shit for me and I’ll win those wars. Don’t you worry about that.”

I scooped her into my embrace, spinning us around and staring down on her incredible beauty as her wavy strands of hair fanned out behind her.

“So feisty,” I muttered, curling my arms around her waist.

“Like a little tiger,” she purred in response, the subtle roll of her tongue in her mouth capturing my attention completely.

“Oh shit.”

Danni smirked smugly, swaying her hips from side to side.

“You. Me. Check-in. Get naked. Cold shower. Right… now,” I demanded, soft and low.

Her chest expanded as she pulled in a slow breath, and I watched as the blush crept into already rosy cheeks.

“I love it when you get bossy.”

“Less talking, more walking.”

I tugged her through the foyer, tapping my fingers a little too impatiently as the friendly receptionists checked us in. I growled when Danni started to wander away from me, quickly grabbing her hand and sharply yanking her back by my side, enticing a small, mischievous giggle to fall from her lips. I practically ran to the elevators once the concierge said they had left our luggage outside of our room. I actually did drag her along with me when we hit the top floor and ran down the corridor together.

I didn’t take anything in—not even the beauty of the room—as I threw the suitcases onto the suite sofas to sort out later, and I definitely didn’t appreciate our surroundings as I felt the sweat trickle down my back and my lust for her grow.

When I eventually came to turn on her, I stopped in my tracks. Her hands were clasped behind her back, her long, bronzed legs crossed over as she swayed her shoulders adorably from side to side and stared up at me through her long lashes. Her white shorts were tight. Her flowing blue vest with the thin straps was low enough for me to see the top curves of her breasts. The blues of her eyes popped, and her hair hung down in front of her as she tried to hide behind it.

This was a side of Danni Marston no one else got to see.

This was the side no one else would ever know. I’d make damn sure of it. She may not have always been mine, but there was no doubt in my mind that she always would be.

Pushing the hair away from my face, I began to make my way over to her slowly. Our eyes never disconnected as I came to a standstill. We were so close. Not close enough. Closer, closer, closer… until, eventually, my lips fell to hers in one swift movement, and I wrapped my entire, overheated body around her. She moaned her sensual moan, and I growled into her mouth, wishing I could survive off the taste of Danni alone. She was everything to me. Everything and more.

I wanted more.

Picking her up, I held her arse cheeks in my hands as she wrapped her legs around my waist, and the two of us kissed like it was the first time all over again. There was no urgency now I held her. She was where she was meant to be. In my arms… I always wanted her in my arms.

Walking us in the direction of the bathroom, I didn’t even bother to hit the lights, leaving the door open to let the daylight stream through as I led us both into the walk-in shower that took up most of the small space. I led us both inside, pushing her back against the cool tiles of the wall and pinning her in place as I twisted my head in every direction to kiss her with a hunger that was making me ache inside.

I moaned and I groaned as I tasted her, one hand slipping free and sliding under her top to stroke the smooth skin of her stomach. Danni hitched in a breath, her stomach dipping at my touch and a spattering of goosebumps coming to life beneath my fingertips. Her reactions were the biggest turn on a man could ever have. I pushed my palm up until it grabbed her breast, stroking her hard nipple with my thumb in slow, sensual circles.

“Marcus,” she breathed between our kiss, her hips rocking forward.

I smirked against her lips, riding my erection between the seam of her shorts in a rhythm designed to bring us both to breaking point. Her head fell back against the tiles, her mouth opening as she closed her eyes and left me to trail kisses along her jaw and down her neck. She began to ride my through her shorts, her pace picking up with urgency as I tried to stay in control.

Fuck, she made it so hard to stay in control.

I pushed her breast out of the edge of her vest, quickly wrapping my mouth around her nipple and biting down carefully, swirling my tongue around the bud of it as her hands squeezed my shoulders tight.

“Marcus,” she gasped.

Pulling away, I stared down at her nipple, blowing a smooth stream of cold air over the moisture I’d left there. Her entire chest broke out in goosebumps, her hips picking up pace, too.

“I want you.”

I kissed her breast again, leaving it with a nip of my teeth before moving up to the small curve of her neck. “How badly?” I whispered, just under the sensitive spot below her ear.

“More than I’ve ever wanted you.”

“That much?” I breathed.

“Put me down and let me show you,” she said suddenly, her chin dropping to her chest, her eyes finding mine with determination.

I didn’t want to let her go, but there was a devil coming to life behind her eyes, and that was one of my favourite things to see.

Kissing her mouth one last time, I lowered her carefully, her feet landing on the tiled floor. I didn’t have time to breathe before she had spun me around and was slamming my back against the wall. What air was left in my lungs poured out in a grunt as her fingers got to work roughly removing my T-shirt before she tossed it aside and dragged her nails down my chest.

“Am I in trouble?” I asked her with a smile on my lips.

Her eyes met mine again. “So much trouble.”

“Bring it on.”

Glancing to the side, she reached over to turn the shower head on, a stream of water pouring down all around us in an instant, soaking through her clothes entirely as she bent down on her knees and slowly began to pull down my shorts and underwear.

I stepped out of them when she told me to, not saying another fucking thing as the sight of her on bended knees in front of me, wet and wanting, left me more speechless than I’d ever been in my life.

My dick was raging, begging to be touched, and when she finally curled her delicate fingers around it and took the tip in her mouth, her eyes wide and watching my reaction, I thought I was about to die and fuck off to Heaven.

Nothing could get better than this.

No one could ever make me feel the way she felt when her mouth worked its magic and her fingers took ownership. It was my turn to let my head fall back against the tiles, my neck strained and my eyes closed as I arched my back, curled my fists into her hair and screwed her mouth. Her free hand up and down the inside of my thighs, her nails scraping over my skin, making it feel like she was everywhere. She was fucking everywhere. Especially in my soul.