* * *

“What’s the matter with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You seem very…happy, downright chipper.” What the hell is she up to now?

Only this morning she was giving me shit and now she’s all smiles and giggly and shit.

“I don’t understand, don’t you want me to be happy?”

“Gabriella, what are you up to?”

“Nothing, geez, you’re so suspicious. Paranoid much?” She giggled and I tackled her to the bed.

“What are you and your crew cooking up baby? I need you to work with me here. We’re almost done, if you and your girls go off the rails that’s only gonna set us back.” I can’t believe I’m actually afraid of this chick.

When we first met she was my sweet little Georgia peach. The damn girl would hardly ever speak above a whisper.

A few months with her new sisters and she’s morphed into a whole other being. One sent here to keep me on my damn toes.

Swear to fuck I’d rather do another stint in Abbottabad than walk through that minefield she calls a mind.

“Who says we’re up to anything? I’m excited to be on this beautiful island with my man and our friends. Is that so bad?” Oh how I wish I could believe that shit.

I studied her eyes to see if she was telling me the truth, the damn girl is sneaky. “What?” She smiled shyly up at me as I brushed the hair back from her face.

It felt like forever since I’d had the time to just look at my baby. “What-what?” I kissed her nose and felt that familiar clutch in my chest, the one I get whenever she’s this close.

“I want you.” Her eyes went soft and dreamy and she reached her arms up to me.

“I always want you too Logan.”

Fuck! When she says things like that, look at me like that, I want to give her the whole world. And yet I can’t even give her the wedding she wants so badly.

I held her eyes with mine as I made my way down her body, pushing her top up with my hands and mouth as I went.

I kissed her tummy where my baby was the size of a peanut and my heart swelled in my chest. Things have been moving so fast around us that sometimes I forget what my life has become.

“Hello little one it’s your daddy.” I nuzzled the warmth of her tummy and her hand played in my hair, her way of letting me know she liked what I was doing.

I dipped my tongue in her navel before licking my way down her body, removing her shorts as I went. No matter how many times I have her under me, it always feels like the first time all over again.

I gave her my mouth until she was ready to take me before moving up her body and slipping into her heat.

Her legs wrapped around my ass just as I lowered my lips to hers so I could swallow her screams.

* * *

* * *

I didn’t know what to say to her now that we were alone. After lunch everyone had split up and gone their way no doubt to get in some special time with their women before the coming night.

How is it possible for a woman to make you feel so strong and so weak at the same time? I’d brought her back to the cottage because she looked tired, but she was all but bouncing with energy now.

“Are you tired, do you want to take a nap?”

“Can we go to the water?” The question was so tentative, as if she expected to be rebuffed. And again my heart squeezed in my chest at her innocence.

Maybe that’s what bothers me. The women in this family demands shit and know they’ll get it, while she always seems to expect to hear no.

“We can do anything you want baby.” And when this shit’s over I’m going to make sure she does. I can’t shake the feeling that she’d had to live like a prisoner since her birth.

Everything she does, even the way she speaks, reminds me and for some reason it takes me back to my own childhood.

I almost jumped when she took my hand, as we walked out the door and headed down the path to the beach.

Her excitement was almost palpable and when she dragged me along with her to the water’s edge I just followed, never taking my eyes off her.

She was like a child wild and free, the way she laughed and played at the water’s edge. “Let’s go in Devon.”

“Not yet baby, I don’t know how safe it is, plus you need a swimsuit.” I wanted to kiss the pout from her lips; she was so cute.

“Can you get me one then?”

“Sure, I’ll get you one.” She threw herself at me and wrapped her arms around my waist. “Thank you.”

My sisters would’ve insisted and probably raise hell, but not her. She just accepted. She’s going to make me cry. I can’t get over her sweetness, and I must admit to watching her closely to see if it’s an act.

“Let’s build a castle.” Her eyes were like pennies as she pulled away and ran up on the beach before dropping to her knees.

She looked back to make sure I was following and when I didn’t move fast enough ordered me to come. “Come on!”

“Bossy!” I grinned and dropped down next her loving that show of fire. She was very methodical as she gathered sand and patted it into place.

Her tongue was caught between her teeth and she had a razor sharp focus on what she was doing. I watched in amazement as she built damn near a whole village.

There was something about the way she did that shit that gave me pause. “Have you built a lot of these before baby?”

“No, but I always wanted to. Track showed me how on the computer, but the sand feels so much better.”

She sat back on her haunches and studied her handiwork while I looked from it to her trying o figure out if she was playing me.

She got to her feet and bent her body over to touch her toes in a stretch, and it was fluidly flawless. There was something niggling at the back of my mind, something about the way she moved, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

When she was done she gave me another one of her disarming smiles and held out her hand for mine. I let her drag me down to the other side of the beach, on full alert no matter what Mancini said about the place being safe.

I guess I’m going to be this tense and nervous about having her out in the open until Khalil was taken care of.

So while she played with the water and kicked at the sand, I remained on high alert. She pulled out of my hand and walked ankle deep into the water and I didn’t think anything of the look she gave me, until I got a face full of water.

The shit was so surprising I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. And then she laughed and my whole body came alive.

She had one of those laughs that make you want to laugh with her. “Oh so you think that’s funny huh?”

She squealed and tried to escape when I cupped my hands in the water and went after her. “No Devon, don’t wet my hair.”

Holy shit, she’s a siren. She gave me the most innocent pouty-faced look as she said this, but it was the light in her eyes that gave her away.

“Too bad!” I let her have it and she howled with laughter before taking off again. I caught up with her and lifted her in the air.

She stretched out her arms and pointed her toes like a ballerina and I just stood there with her held over my head looking up at her.

She had her face raised to the sun and I let her stay up there as long as she wanted until my arms grew tired.

When I pulled her down she slid down my chest until our faces met. “Beautiful!” There I go again saying shit out loud.

She blushed and pushed to be let down and I set her on her feet. She took my hand again and we continued our walk in silence.

Was it natural to feel this tied up in knots just from being this close to her? I tried to remember when I’d ever felt like this and couldn’t.

There was so much I could be doing, should be doing to get ready for tonight. But none of it seemed as important as being here with her, letting her have this.

I wanted to ask her a thousand questions but each time I started to, something held me back. I still didn’t know how or when to tell her the truth about who she was.

No, let her enjoy these next few days. I don’t ever want to see that light go out of her eyes. Plus there was something else bothering me.

What’s going to happen when we get rid of Khalil? Will her real father come back for her? I’d never see her again. The thought left me cold.

“What’s wrong Devon?”

“Huh?” She was squeezing my hand and looking up at me as we walked. I’d slipped away in my head and didn’t hear a thing she’d said.

“I asked what’s wrong, you feel sad.” Say what now?

“What do you mean?” She shrugged her shoulders and kept walking but I was still stuck on what she’d said.

How can she tell what I ‘feel’? I’m pretty sure I didn’t give anything away, I never do. So how? I put it aside and just took her in, the way she was taking in everything around us.

She seemed to have a fascination with the outdoors, stopping every once in a while to pick up a seashell or even some driftwood that washed up on the beach.

By the time I talked her into going back to the cottage I was the one who needed a nap. The girl is exhausting. She gets into more shit than Zakira and gets about just as excited about each new thing she finds.

“Go wash up baby, get that sand off you or you’ll be uncomfortable.” She kissed my cheek before going into the bedroom and I stood in the same spot like a heel for a good five minutes.

I looked down at my dick and high tailed it outta there. What the fuck Devon? I walked around the cottage a couple times until I had myself back under control before going back in.

She came back into the room dressed in a robe and my dick came back to life. “I’m not tired anymore I think the shower revived me.”

Uh-huh, something was revived alright. “That’s good honey I’m gonna go take a shower now okay, why don’t you watch TV until I get back?”

I never moved so damn fast in my life. I felt like a bastard when I caught myself stroking my cock to thoughts of her in the shower as the warm water washed over me.

Don’t do this Dev, she’s defenseless and totally dependent on you for protection, you can’t jerk off to her fucking legs and don’t you dare think about her tits.

But no matter how I tried I couldn’t get the sight of her robe opening as she sat, giving me a clear shot up her thigh out of my mind.

My hand stroked faster, out pacing the guilt and I painted the shower stall and almost fell on my ass from the intensity of my orgasm. Once my head cleared I cleaned up and finished my shower before going back out to her.