We were soaked—drenched to the core as we tried to struggled to control our breathing, our foreheads pressed together as I stared into her post-orgasm tainted eyes. The water beat down all around us, our chests bouncing as I held her body beneath mine on the tiled floor of the shower.

“Are you okay?” I asked, choked and out of breath.

She tilted her head to one side as her hands pushed through the soaking wet ends of my hair. “Just when I think you’ve already given me everything you’re ever going to give…”

“You go and seduce me more,” I finished for her. “Let me get you off this hard floor, though. My guilt chip is kicking in.”

“The pain is worth it. Don’t move.”

I smiled down on her, giving in and letting my hips rest against hers again as the water poured down over my arse. Danni’s eyes were searching mine, and her fingers were trailing slowly over my shoulders, up my neck, through my hair before repeating the cycle over and over again.

I loved her after sex. She became so thoughtful, so dream-like. It was never just about the thrill, and then the two of us moving on. She wanted to hold us together, keep us in place, and let the moment linger just that little bit longer as the pleasure faded away from our skin.

“Isn’t life weird?” she asked quietly. “How one minute a person isn’t really in your life. They’re just there on the outskirts, out of reach, minding their own business. Then somehow, without either of you realising it, you’re bound together in a way you never thought possible. You can’t imagine a life without them in it. You can’t believe you survived so long without them loving you the way they love you now.”

“There’s a difference between surviving and living, though, right?” I whispered back at her, dropping my lips to her delicate jaw and kissing her softly. “You don’t know what happiness really is until you’re swimming in it. Drowning, almost.’’

“Oh, we’re definitely drowning.”

“The pain is worth it,” I repeated back to her, moving my smirking lips to hover over hers.

She pushed my shoulders up, and in a ninja-like move, spun me around until I was the one lying naked on my back, and she was the one straddling me. Every man’s fantasy stared down at me, her body wet, her eyes alive, her love shining out just for me. I made a mental note to tear down all those old posters that lined my bedroom walls at my parents’ house. No matter how much nostalgia they held for me—no woman, no fantasy, no memory could ever compare to what I was seeing right there, right then, in that perfect moment.

“This hurts more than I realised,” I croaked out. “Your pain threshold must be way higher than mine.”

“Nah, I just have this really hot guy in my life that always makes the pleasure more noticeable than any pain he inflicts.”

“He sounds like a god.”

“He definitely thinks he is.”

She leaned down to kiss me, her arse in the air which I grabbed hold of immediately, squeezing it tight and pulling her closer. Always closer.

I was convinced we were about to go for round two, when the room’s telephone started to ring out, forcing the two of us to pull away and look up in the general direction of the door.

“Leave it,” Danni said quietly.

“Yes, boss.”

She looked back down at me and smiled when the phone stopped ringing, only for it to start up again immediately, bringing an instant frown to her face.

“Doesn’t sound like something we can leave this time, Miss Pretty.”

“Dammit.”

She pushed herself off me, her naked, wet body marching out of the bathroom while my eyes followed her until she was gone. I used that as my opportunity to take this little sex fest of ours to a comfy bed, turning off the shower, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around my waist quickly. I couldn’t hear what she was saying until I made my way out of the bathroom with a towel in my hand for her, but the moment I saw her face, I knew it wasn’t good.

Her cheeks—which had been rosy and satisfied just a few moments before—were now pale, and her eyes were filled with sadness as she held the telephone to her ear and stared at me. It wasn’t a good stare, either. It was cold. Lifeless. It was terrified.

Moving instinctively, I marched across the room towards her, wrapping a huge white towel around her shoulders before crouching down in front of her, parting her legs and slipping into place. My eyes reassured her that I was there for her, even though I didn’t have a single fucking clue what pieces I was about to have to pick up.

“S-sorry,” she pushed out. “My phone is still switched off from the flight. I haven’t had time to… I mean… I didn’t know… I just…”

I ran my palms over the tops of her thighs and waited.

Panic was never a good thing to hear in a woman’s voice. Panic in Danni’s voice was an entirely new kind of devastating. She just wasn’t that kind of girl.

She closed her eyes slowly, and a small scowl appeared above them as she slid her free hand over one of mine and squeezed tightly.

“Berti, please, slow down a minute.”

I could hear Roberta speaking in a rush on the other end of the line. I just couldn’t make out what the hell she was saying.

“How did this…?” Danni started, sucking in a sharp breath. “When did this break?”

I sucked in a breath, too, and waited.

“I had no idea,” Danni eventually answered in an eerily quiet voice before she opened her eyes and looked straight into mine. There were unshed tears there. I swallowed the huge lump in my throat and continued to rub her thighs.

“Danni,” I mouthed, begging for some kind of information—some relief from the fear that was clawing its way into my chest.

“And my parents… they’ve already spoken to you?”

Parents. Her parents. What the…?

Danni nodded against the phone, closing her eyes once again and forcing a small tear to drip down her cheek. I reached up to wipe it away with my thumb without thought, and she opened her eyes to look at me.

“How do I feel?” Danni whispered, choked and confused as she looked back at me again. “I don’t know,” she answered Roberta. “I can’t… I don’t…”

“Danni,” I said softly that time.

She let out a long breath, her chest rising and falling in slow motion. “Can I pass you over to Marcus? I… I need a minute.”

Holding out the phone, Danni stared at me, unblinking, giving me nothing but the opportunity to find out for myself what the hell was going on. I took it from her and watched as she rose to stand, wrapped the towel around her chest, and walked out onto the balcony to get some air. I took a seat in the chair next to the phone.

“Berti…”

“Marcus, thank Christ you’re with her.”

“What the fuck is happening?”

“You didn’t hear any of that?”

“No, I…” was too busy cleaning the sex off of me in the other room to get in here straight away. “Tell me everything.”

“There’s going to be a story going live tomorrow that could draw a lot of attention to Danni.”

“Tomorrow? She’s got her big shoot with B Fashion tomorrow.”

“I know.” Roberta’s voice was stiff, rigid and full of uncertainty. “Which is why I need you to handle this like the man I fucking know you can be, Marcus Anderson. I need you to take care of her. Shelter her in that little bubble of yours. Reassure her that I will be dealing with all this shit, and she shouldn’t speak to anyone about anything unless I give her the go ahead, okay?”

“Berti, you’re scary the shit out of me here. What’s going on?”

She took a moment’s pause before she exhaled loudly. “How much do you know about Danni’s parents?”

“Hardly anything. Only that they never really wanted her in this lifestyle and they don’t speak to her much.”

“Well, there’s probably a reason they didn’t want her in the limelight, and that’s because they know that once people are interested in you, shit gets dug up.”

“What kind of shit?” I frowned.

“The illegitimate child kind of shit, Marcus.”

“The… what?” I gasped, my eyes wide as I stared at the blank wall ahead of me.

“It appears that Danni’s father isn’t as much of a stiff as we all thought. Well, he is, but just a different kind of stiff. The kind that gets a raging hard on every time he sees a pretty woman. The kind who has had affair after affair after affair, and it’s all coming out of the woodwork now that people have connected the name Daniella Marston to Steve Marston—male sleaze ball extreme-o.”

I was pretty sure I forgot how to breathe as my mouth fell open.

“Marcus,” she started. “Danni has a sister.”

“A fucking what?”

“Her name is Kacey. Her mother—Steve’s mistress for God knows how long—is being interviewed by The Daily Mail tomorrow. Well, she’s already been interviewed, but it’ll be in the papers and all over the Internet within the next few hours.”

I spun around in my chair, quickly seeking Danni in my line of sight, for no other reason than to make sure she was still there. Still with me. Still my Danni. Her shoulders were sagged, and her head dipped as she rested her arms on the balcony railing. A woman I’d never seen defeated suddenly looked strung out.

“Does Danni’s mother know all about this?”

“Has done for years, apparently. She stayed with him the whole time and tried to keep it all under wraps.”

“And they never thought to tell Danni…”

“Unbelievable, right?” I could hear Berti’s anger. I could hear her motherly instincts and her need to protect Danni kicking in.

“No, actually, for them it’s not. I guess it explains a few things,” I whispered.

“She’s going to need you, Marcus. Holy shit, is my girl going to need you. You’re the only one with her right now. I need you to promise me you’ve got her best interests at heart. I need you to promise me that you’ll do whatever I tell you to do with her, her social media, her work. I’m putting you in charge if she can’t handle it. Do you understand me?”

“Yeah,” I answered calmly. “I really fucking do.”

“So we’re on the same page.”

“Same page. Same chapter. Same plot. Whatever the hell you need from me… Just tell me what you need me to do.”

“I always did like you, Anderson.” I heard the small smile in her voice. “Now listen up…”

I put the phone down and made my way out to the balcony, taking a few seconds to study her in the silence of our shock. She hadn’t moved. She hadn’t so much as flinched. She was weighted down by her thoughts, anchored by her shame and disgust, no doubt.

“Danni…”

Nothing. No reaction at all.

I stepped out onto the balcony, the two of us wearing nothing but our towels, with beads of water still lingering on our skin. The moment I reached her, I wrapped my arms around her waist, lowered my chin to rest on her shoulder, stared out at Puerto Rico, and waited.

It took five minutes for her to speak.

“The worse thing is… I’m not even surprised,” she whispered.

“No, the worse thing is definitely seeing you in pain.”

“That, too.”

I curled my arms tighter around her, breathing in through my nose before releasing it through my barely parted lips. “What can I do?”

“Just hold me.”

“That doesn’t seem enough.”

“It’s everything.”

So I held her a few minutes more. I held her and squeezed her. I breathed my life into her skin in the hope that it would somehow help. What I wanted to do was make her laugh, but humour wasn’t always the best medicine. Right then, she needed to let me let her grieve a little.

“Kacey,” she whispered.

“Yeah.”

“Younger than me by five years.”

“Barely an adult.”

“That’s one hell of a secret they kept from me,” she said softly, and I had to marvel at the strength and power of the woman I held in my arms. Where most would be on their knees, crying at the injustice of it all and the lies they’d been fed, the false life they’d led, Danni was standing strong. A little deflated, sure, but her voice no longer shook. Her body wasn’t crumbling. Her words weren’t full of woe is me. Her power, even in her weakness, shone.

“Everybody has a secret. Even the people who you think have nothing to hide.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah. But mine are all good ones. Plans for our future. Things I don’t want you to know about yet.”

She released a small sigh. “My kind of secrets.” I could hear the weak smile in her voice. I pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder, letting my lips linger there as I breathed her in.

“Talk to me, baby. Tell me how you really feel.”

“Numb.”

I nodded once, gifting her with another kiss. “And?”

“Disappointed. Cheated. Scared. Uncertain. Let down. I’ve never asked them for anything, you know. I never begged for the attention they struggled to give me. I went out and kinda found it for myself. I never blamed them for being cold at times. I never accused them of overworking or hated them for thinking I could be bought with gifts rather than affection. I let them be who they needed to be. I knew they were people of their own, beyond just being my parents. I knew they had dreams, desires, goals, and all that jazz.” Raising her head, she turned in my arms, pressing her back to the railings and letting me see the tear tracks on her cheeks for the first time. “All I asked for was their honesty, and they couldn’t even give me that.”

It killed me to see her that way. The urge to break apart anyone who hurt her or hurt us was so strong, it scared me a little. But my need to pick up her broken pieces and put them back together with a gentle hand was what screamed at me the loudest, forcing me to hold her cheeks in my hands and brush away her tears with my thumbs.

“Sometimes we keep secrets to protect those we love. Sometimes we’re so scared of the truth breaking good people apart, we decide to live with a lifetime of guilt and shame on our shoulders so those good people never have to know that the world we built around them isn’t what they always thought it would be.”

“Ignorance is bliss?”

“I guess so.”

“I think that’s bullshit.”

“We’ve all done it.”

“You and Natalie,” she whispered softly.

“Not just Natalie. Everyone and me. Alice and me. The secrets I kept from Sammy and my parents. Me and my need to take on the world, shove it on my shoulders, and deal with the load rather than taint the views of people I love the most.” I swallowed and bent my knees until our eyes were level. “But guess who changed that side of me? You, Danni. You did. You’re someone I could never keep anything from. You’re someone I couldn’t ever lie to or be untrue to. You’re that special person who brings people together, who brings out all the truths, lays them out on a table and demands that people acknowledge them. You demand that people deal with their shit, whether it’s ugly, heartbreaking, or sharp. You hold us idiots up and say Hey, look! We’ve all got baggage. We can either handle it like pros, or we can let it crush us. Oh, and by the way, the crushing option isn’t an option at all when I’m in your life.”

Her face flinched, her scowl appearing again as two tears rolled down her cheek, heavy and loaded.

“And, even though you feel let down, that’s what you’re going to do now. You’re going to handle all of this like only you could.”

“How?” she mouthed.

“You’re going to make your parents lay their lives on the table. You’re going to make them stop feeling sorry for themselves and force them to look at the facts. You’re going to make them pick up their shit, hold in their hands, and feel the weight of it, and you’re going to live your life how only you know how to… because Daniella Marston does not get defeated. She doesn’t let anyone ruin anything for her. She’s the most real, reliable, solid, breathtakingly strong woman the world has ever seen, and I’m the lucky bastard that gets to love her and make her even stronger. You hear me? You don’t have to do anything alone right now, because, baby, the moment you feel weak, I’m gonna be right here to pick all your pieces back up and squeeze them back together again… just like you’ve always done with me.”

Two more tears fell, but her scowl faded away to nothing as a small, barely-there smile tugged at her lips.

“Don’t let people ruin who you are and what you’ve become,” I whispered. “This might hurt now, but we’ll find the good in it somehow. We’ll find the beauty in the pain of it all because that’s what we do. You and me, baby. You and me.”

“I love you,” she breathed back at me, her face scrunching up tighter again as more tears fell. “I fucking love you so much, Marcus.”

Her body folded around mine, her tears falling freely now as she buried her head against my chest and let me see her weaker than I’d ever seen her before.

And I couldn’t have loved her more for it. I couldn’t have respected her more if I tried.

I’d always had Danni marked as strong.

What I knew then was that every strong woman had to be allowed to be weak, too.

I would let her be whatever she needed to be through all of this. We had some uncertain times ahead, but one thing she never had to doubt was my love for her. I’d be there… I’d be there like the superhero she needed me to be.

Except she’d be my only rescue.

I was selfish enough for that.