The flight goes by faster than I expected, but I stress out the whole time. I still don’t know how I feel about Axel being back again, or what this could mean for us. There’s something different between us now, though. I just don’t know what.

He’s sitting in the seat beside me. Lark is in my lap. She’s the excuse I use—I’m just checking to make sure she’s comfy and nothing might be poking against her, or anything—every time I turn my head to the right of me to look at Axel.

Sometimes I swear he’s looking back.

We haven’t talked yet, not really. He tries a few times, but I cut him off.

Maybe I shouldn’t do that, especially because when I do he uses it as an opportunity to chat up Lark instead, and she’s busy talking away with him.

I’m about to say something to him when a voice comes over the speakers. There haven’t been too many announcements during this flight, and by the time I process the flight attendant’s words, the plane is descending.

I glance over at Axel again. He stares back, his eyes meeting mine. I don’t want to look away, but I can’t help it, and I feel his eyes still burning into my skin. What is he’s thinking?

After the plane lands, everyone stands to remove their bags from the overhead bins, and then we get off. We’ll take a car to get to the cruise. I didn’t plan for Axel to come with us so I’m not sure there will be enough seats. I blush, wondering if this means I’ll wind up sitting in his lap.

It will take us about two hours to drive to where we will catch the boat. The cruise will last five days, touring Italy and a bunch of islands on its way to Greece.

In the end, it turns out either me or Selena has to double up and sit on Axel’s lap. I surprise both Axel and myself by volunteering.

At least the car ride doesn’t include Jason and Becky. They will be there for every other leg of the trip, though. And it’s ruining everything. I can see them just ahead of me as we board the ship, and I’m about to go up to them and say something when I feel a strong hand touch on the small of my back and pull me away.

“Don’t.” Axel smiles down at me comfortingly. It’s funny, since he was the one who hit Jason at the airport.

Not that I’m defending Jason, but this is the same thing. I wrench myself away from him, knowing that with the difference in our sizes and strength the only reason I got away from Axel is that he chose to let go of me.

I scowl at him.

“You. Are. A. Hypocrite.” I punctuate the words with a finger pointing to his chest, and it only infuriates me more when he laughs. Just a day ago, these roles were reversed.

Why had I let him come on this trip again?

I know why, but I don’t even want to think about it.

Right now I don’t want to think about anything besides the way he crosses his arms over his muscular chest, which makes his biceps press against the sleeves of his cotton T-shirt that’s so sexy I have to swallow hard.

I groan, and he knows he won.

“Come on,” he says, returning his hand to the small of my back. He’s carrying our bags in his other hand, but soon one of the ship’s employees takes those from him.

Axel’s free hand finds Lark’s, and he guides her aboard the ship. I’m in awe watching them. Lark’s blabbering away, busy telling some story to the man she has no idea is her father.

But I’m too annoyed to think about that, watching my least two favorite people in the world ahead of us.

I groan again, looking at Jason and Becky, wondering if they’ve even noticed us.

They haven’t.

They’re too engrossed in something. Becky leans over to look at something while Jason stands behind her, his arms around her the way he used to hold me.

Axel turns my body again, steering me away from them and onto the ship. It’s beautiful, just like I expected from the photos I saw on the site when I booked the trip with.

“Stop it.” Axel narrows his eyes at me, telling me with his silence that he knows exactly what I’m thinking and that I need to “cut the shit.” I wasn’t even going to think of Jason and Becky, or how they will be cuddling just a deck’s length away. I just didn’t expect Jason to have the same idea as me, and to bring her along with him.

“I said stop it.” Axel’s tone is deeper, more authoritative than it usually is, and it jars me, makes me want to obey. “Don’t make me punish you, Olive.”

The words send chills up my spine, and I wonder exactly what he means by that. I don’t think he means it sexually, but maybe knowing Axel it will be …

“Look.” He’s still talking and I fade back into the conversation, wondering if he knew exactly just where I disappeared to.

He winks at me. He totally knows.

“Let’s do dinner,” he says, and I agree. Soon we’re in my room together, sharing the meal Axel brings back from a buffet he saw on the way in. Somehow, he’s found apples, a knife to cut them with, a loaf of bread, ham, grapes, and some cheese. It’s not much, but at the same time, it’s everything.

I’m suddenly so tired I can only smile up at him. He cuts everything for Lark first, I notice, and with the way he’s looking at her makes me think I should tell him he’s her father.

I should have, a long time ago. He needs to know.

But now isn’t the time. So I just watch—the slices he cuts for us are thick and chopped down like you’d expect them to be, but Lark’s are cut into small little squares so she doesn’t choke. The care he shows for her plasters a smile on my face, especially when Lark giggles up at him as he keeps the loaf of bread from her.

“You’ve got to reach it first,” he says. Is he really this good with children? I didn’t expect it from Axel Reign, of all people.

Earlier, I’d seen him angry at Jason and Becky, but now he was playing peacemaker.

And father.

He keeps the bread loaf just out of reach of her little arms as she goes for it, and he shakes his head at her. “Like this,” he says, and he puts the loaf just far down enough for her to reach it. Her little teeth dig into the dough and she squeals with excitement.

She doesn’t even eat bread. She’s so picky.

Lark tries to take a huge bite out of it before he takes it from her, and pulls it into little pieces.

And then he passes me the small, messy sandwiches he made for me just a second ago, and we all eat together. I barely notice as we leave port. I feel the boat rock as it moves through the gentle waves, but my attention is on Lark and Axel.

“I need to check something,” Axel says, and I wonder if I should be concerned, but I’m not. He smiles at me, a tender smile, not one of his flashy grins, but just as lovely. I nod, letting him go. “I’ll be right back.”

And it doesn’t occur to me to be concerned until I hear the shouts just outside our door.