“This is the best idea you’ve ever had.” Apollo’s arms slide around my neck, and I lift her into my arms and walk us out of the pool and across the terrace for the hammock that’s hanging on the veranda of our cabana.

“Yeah, you might be right. Well, besides going to read in the middle of that lake every single day for two years while I waited for my angel to show up.” I drop a kiss on her mouth before I lay her down in the wide, white hammock. “Slide over,” I tell her and then I jump in. I fold my hands behind my head, and Apollo lays her head on my chest and flings her leg over my hip.

“Look at that moon; it’s beautiful, right?” Her voice is full of the kind of contentment that can only come from twenty-four hours of uninterrupted relaxation, lovemaking, and reading.

“I gaze up at the crescent moon that’s waning over us. It’s a soft powdery white that glows so brightly that it’s all the light we need out here tonight. “So beautiful,” I drawl. My body and mind wrapped in the same soft cloud of happiness as hers.

“Artemis was named after the goddess of the moon. I begged for that telescope because I thought it would help me feel close to her. But, I didn’t even need that. I miss her. But I’ve never felt like she was really gone, you know? And every time I look up at the moon, I feel like she’s looking down at me. Is it weird that I still feel like a twin? Like I still have a sister?” I feel her head tilt upward and I look down at her face.

Her eyes are calm—as dark and luminous as pots of black ink.

“Not weird at all. I’m still Ellie’s brother.” I sigh a deep, heavy sigh and think about my mother. We talked to her yesterday morning. She and Becca are in Sardinia gorging themselves on cheese and having the time of their lives. I miss her, and I’m a little sad that we’re spending what will be her final year apart. But the moon comforts me too. She’s underneath the same moon. She’s still here. But I give voice to a fear I’ve never let myself indulge in before. “Once Mama’s gone, that’s it. My father’s dead. My sister’s dead. And there’s just me, and I don’t know what that will mean.”

Apollo presses a kiss to the center of my chest and covers it with her hand. “Death is weird,” she says as if she’s talking to herself. “One moment, they’re here, and the very next, they’re not. And they never will be again.”

She wraps her arm even tighter around my waist. “There’s this sort of reckoning that happens when someone your very existence was dependent on dies. You don’t stop being, but you’re different. I’ve spent so much time clinging to the things I’ll never experience again—their smile, their smell, their touch. And sometimes, I can’t remember which one of Arti’s teeth was still growing in. Or I can’t remember how Papa sounded when he sneezed …”

I drape my arm around her and rest my hand on the silky skin of her hip and toy with the tassel that hangs from the side of her bright yellow bikini bottoms.

“Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, ‘Truth outlives pain, as the soul does life.’ It’s why I can laugh when I think about my sister. I’ll never stop missing her, but the pain is less acute. The truth of her life was a joy. She existed, and that means she’ll never really be gone,” she muses.

“Truth outlives pain.” I throw the words around in my head. Yes, I suppose. But what about a lie? The lie of my life.

“Are we going to sleep out here again?” Apollo asks, stretching languidly and running her toes up the front of my leg.

“No, not tonight. Come on,” I say and sit up. I slide out, reach for her hand, and we walk to our bedroom.

“I want to show you something,” he says once we’re in the room.

“Sit down on the bed, please.” His voice is still gentle, but I can hear a thread of anxiety in it, and I don’t argue before doing as he asked.

As soon as I sit down, he starts to pull down his swim trunks.

“Uh, what are you doing? I thought you wanted to show me something.” I ask, my eyes wide and my pulse racing.

He doesn’t look away from his button fly and mutters, “I do. Relax, I’m not trying to seduce you Apollo.”

“Oh ...” I say and hear the twinge of disappointment in voice.

He must hear it, too. His fingers stop on the second to last button, and he looks at me with a mischievous glint in his eyes, and he grins. “Unless of course, you’d like me to.”

“I always want you to, Graham,” I say honestly.

“Your wish is my command,” he says and starts toward me. I hold my hand up and scoot back from the edge of the bed.

“Don’t come any closer, Graham. You were going to show me something, and I want to see it. And the minute you touch me I forget my own name.”

He grins like a cat who got the cream and keeps walking until he’s standing at the edge of the bed.

“My stepfather punished me severely when he discovered I’d been reading by the lake.”

I wasn’t expecting that. My throat constricts, and tears prick the back of my eyes. We’ve never talked about this. I couldn’t find a way to bring it up, and he never did.

“I know you came that day. I don’t know what you saw before my mother hauled you off, but I know it was before he did his worst.” He purses his lips and takes a deep breath. “In that town, when someone was caught sinning, or at least sinning according to his law, they were branded.”

I cover my mouth in horror and stare up at him. “Did he do that to you?” He nods, and then, he turns around and pulls down his pants.

On his right buttock is a raised, pale scar in the shape of an S. And next to it is a tattoo in the shape of the sun, pierced by an arrow with a multitude of rays coming from the circle. I crawl to the edge of the bed and look closely at it.

“Oh Graham,” I whisper. He looks over his shoulder at me. “You okay?”

I nod, but really, I’m not. “Can I touch it?”

“I’ve been waiting for you to touch it since I got it.” My fingers tremble as I trace the scar and imagine the pain he went through. “Oh God, how could he do this?” I ask, my voice breaking.

“He thought he was punishing me. But for me, that S stood for Star,” he says, his voice not in the least bit sad. I blinked away my tears and cleared my throat.

“What about the tattoo? When did you get it? What does it mean?” I trace the outline of it.

“Now that is a different story.” He pulls his pants up, sits beside me on the bed, wraps his arm around me and hauls me into his lap. I rest my head on his chest and press a kiss to it. “I’m listening.”

“I got it on my birthday two years ago. It had been a rough month. I had just started filming the second season of my show, and I already hated it. To top it all off, I was spending my birthday without my very best friend.”

“Oh my God. Graham …”

“Shhh, listen.” He strokes my arm absently.

“Okay.”

“I missed you. I was fucking miserable, and I just wanted to feel close to you. So, I went to a tattoo parlor and had that sun put next to the S. Those arrows—it’s the same reason you have yours. I knew I’d never love anyone the way I love you. It made me feel better. My sun was next to her star. Even if it was just on my ass.” He chuckles.

I lean back to look at him, but there’s a lump in my throat, and I can’t speak. What did I do to deserve him?

“I know it was fucking weird, but it made me feel better,” he says, glancing away nervously.

“It’s not weird. It’s so beautiful. I love it. Thank you. I don’t know what to say. I’m just sorry you suffered like that.” I cup his strong jaw and press a kiss to his mouth. He kisses me back and presses me back into the mattress and then balances his weight on his forearms.

“I didn’t show you my ass to make you feel bad. I wanted you to know that you’ve always been it for me. No matter what it looked like, you are my sunshine. My world was dark while you were gone. Just like the day you fell into my life. You being here now makes everything feel like it’ll be okay. You’ve always made me feel that way. Like I was more,” he says, and my heart breaks a little.

“You shouldn’t need me to make you feel that way. Look at your life. Look at what you’ve achieved. Look at what you’ve been able to give your mother. Yourself. Me. Do you think the empire you’re building is all because you’re hot?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. “You’re smart. You work hard. You’re selfless. You love so completely.”

“Hmmm, flattery will get you everywhere,” I tease her before I slide off the bed. I reach down and grab her by the waist and throw her over my shoulder.

“What are you doing?” she shrieks. I squeeze her ample ass cheeks and then swat it. “Ow, Graham,” she says but her voice is a purr now.

“You like that?” I ask as I walk us into the bathroom.

“Why don’t you touch me and see for yourself?” she asks.

“Well, if you insist.” Keeping her balanced on my shoulder with one hand, I slip the other one between her legs and hiss when I feel how wet she is.

“Damn, you feel amazing.” I bring my wet fingers to my mouth and suck. “Taste even better.”

She squirms on my shoulder, her hands roaming my chest and setting off fireworks everywhere she touches.

“Put me down,” she says in a voice that brooks no argument. But I’m not planning on arguing. I’m planning on fucking. I slide her down until her feet touch the ground. She kneels down right where she lands and yanks my shorts down. That hot, soft mouth covers the crown of my cock, and I grip the counter behind me with one hand and the back of her head with the other. When she cups my balls, I gasp and start to fuck her mouth. It doesn’t take long. Her lush mouth as it moves up and down my cock is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. But I want inside her.

I hook her under the arms and pull her to stand.

“Graham, I wanted—”

I interrupt her with a bruising kiss and then wrap an arm around her tiny waist, throw her onto the counter and grip her by the back of her neck.

“You wanted my cock, right?” I ask when I break our kiss. She’s panting and answers me by hooking her legs around my hips. I enter with one sweet, electric slide. And then I fuck her like I’ve needed to. I press my face into her throat and close my eyes and let myself get lost in her.

“This is ours, you hear?” I speak gruffly into her neck. She whimpers, and I slap her ass. “Say it!” I demand.

“Yes, us … ours. Yes,” she says between sharp intakes of breath. That’s all I need to hear, and I’m coming. I spill into her body and pray that by this time tomorrow, she’ll still be mine.