“You know what? You’ve handled yourself like a pro.” Dax stood tall in the water, watching over her. The gentle turquoise swells tickled his waist as Tiana swam around him. Her confidence was growing in the water, but hot damn, he wasn’t helping her concentration with his naked upper body glistening in the sun like that. Every woman on Reduit Beach was ogling him right now. A gaggle of teenage hotties in bikinis had even come over to be near him in the shallows. They swooned whenever he glanced their way.

 

“A pro? You think so?” She swam up to him and wrapped herself around his waist, so he could hoist her up into his arms. It was easily her favorite part of these swimming lessons he’d been giving her for the past three days in St. Lucia. It made her feel special, wanted. And it made every other woman on the island jealous. “It is getting easier,” she added.

 

“That isn’t what I meant,” he said. “Well, not only that.”

 

“It isn’t?” She kissed him full on the lips, quickly losing herself in the heat of his passion. He slid a hand inside the back of her bikini bottoms, exposing half of her butt. She pulled it out, readjusted her bottoms, and at the same whipped her head round to see who was watching. Christ, everyone. Dax laughed hard when he saw how red her cheeks had become. Determined to get him back, she climbed up onto his shoulders and toppled him backwards into the sea. She went under too, but at least she’d gotten the mighty Dax Easterling off his feet, something many of the toughest fighters in the world had failed to do. In fact, he completely upended in the water and wound up with his legs sticking up above the waves.

 

Tiana laughed her ass off and clapped when he resurfaced. The gaggle of teens giggled as he said, “Right, my turn,” and stalked her into deeper water. She swam as fast as she could, cutting through waves, but he caught her in just a handful of strokes. “You’re mine.”

 

She screamed when he dove under and surfaced with her on his shoulder. Dax gently slapped her ass, then cradled her in his arms as he carried her back into the shallows, just like he’d done that night in the Mojave. He’d gotten her out of deep water and taken her to safety.

 

“I meant you’ve handled everything in these past few months like a pro,” he told her. “The way you recovered, the way you handled yourself in the trial, the way you’ve put your life back together. Seriously…I’m proud of you. It took guts to even make it through all that, but you faced it all down and didn’t even blink. Impressive.”

 

“Aw, you’re sweet. But do you want to know something? There was no way I’d have ever given in to those bastards. Thad gave in. He was the coward. I know that now. And there was no way I was going to go down that path. It ends with you hating yourself. At least when you stay strong and stick to your principles, you go down knowing you didn’t give in. I think…if I learned anything from Thad…that was it. That there are no shortcuts to being the best you can be. Sometimes the right path is the hardest path, and that’s alright. It gets you there in the end, and the best thing about it is you don’t lose yourself along the way. I think people forget that part. I know Thad did.”

 

“Amen to that.” He kissed her cheek. “So how does it feel to have buried Martinez and his bloodsuckers like that? Porter reckons it’s going to change the way the whole sport is governed. The financing, the vetting, the medical scrutiny: it’s opened up that can of worms we talked about.”

 

“We had no idea, did we, that our first coffee shop chat was going to have such an impact.”

 

“Um, I kinda did,” he admitted. “I was wanting to nail you the whole time. There was never any going back after that.”

 

“You’re incorrigible!”

 

“Babe, you have no idea.”

 

***

 

That evening, while they were dining in their usual private cabana on the edge of the beach, Dax kept looking out to the ocean. He was fidgety and hadn’t been himself throughout the meal. He had been in and out of the conversation. His wandering mind wasn’t worrying her especially—he’d been through a lot in his life, and there were some things she knew he couldn’t tell her, things from the war—but it was rather killing the romantic vibe he’d gone to all this trouble to create.

 

“Everything okay?” she asked over dessert—a delicious ice cream sundae.

 

A strange, almost nervous frown etched onto his gorgeous bronzed face. Nervous—not exactly a word you’d use to describe Dax Easterling. Something was troubling him, something he didn’t want to tell her.

 

“Is it about us?” As soon as she’d asked the question, Tiana wished she hadn’t. Why? Because he nodded like a little boy who was about to admit to doing something very wrong. He chewed his lip, took a big swig of wine, and then sucked in a deep breath. All very odd and puzzling behavior for him. What was with him tonight?

 

“There’s something I need to say.” He suddenly got up, stepped toward her. “I’ve been waiting for the right time to say this.” He dipped into his pocket. Tiana thought he was retrieving his wallet to pay for the meal, so he could say his piece and make a quick getaway. So it couldn’t be good. He hesitated, closed his eyes, nodded to himself.

 

“What is it?” she asked again.

 

He pulled a small purple box out of his pocket, then got down on one knee.

 

“Oh my God!” Tiana put a hand to her chest and gaped down at him. This was not only unexpected, it was surreal—in the most amazing way imaginable.

 

Is it really happening?

 

“I’ve never asked for anything in my life,” he said, “and that’s because I’ve never wanted anything this much. I can’t promise you a quiet life, but I can promise it will always be up to us how we live it. I’ll never ask you to be someone you’re not, the same way I’ll never be anything other than the guy you fell in love with. I promise to always protect you for the rest of my life. I want to spend that life with you, and I want us to have a family of our own.” He opened the box, revealing a blue diamond ring that caught the candlelight and seemed from another world, a magic world, one she’d only imagined until now. “I love you, Tiana Crowe. Will you marry me?”

 

Tearing up, she glimpsed the candle flame flickering in the corner of her eye. A warm, steady breeze blew across the beach; everything in the cabana seemed to react just a fraction, for a split-second. Then all was still again. And the sound of the waves was the sound of a dream fulfilled.

 

She said yes.

 

He scooped her up and carried her away her across the sand, far away where there were no lights and no memory. Only each other to look forward to. They made love on the beach, and it was unforgettable.

 

THE END

 

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