Her voice hitched. “But it wasn’t. It never would be again.”
Alexandros’s arms tightened around her. Still silent. Still listening.
“The plane clipped the top of the trees before it crashed into the mountain. I don’t even remember the impact—just the sound. Metal screaming. My body hit something hard. Then pain.”
She paused. Took a breath that felt stale and tight in her lungs.
“My arm was broken, and I had bruised ribs and several deep cuts. I was lucky. My dad…” Her voice cracked. “He died on impact.”
A tear slipped down her cheek, soaking into Alexandros’s skin. He continued caressing her, soothing her. He was her light in the darkness.
“My mom was still alive,” Dani whispered. “A tree branch pierced the windshield. It impaled her side. She was conscious. In shock. Bleeding out. But still fighting. She was calling to him. Reaching for him like… like she could pull him back just by touching him.”
Her breath hitched again.
“I tried to help her. Tried to calm her down. But she just kept… breaking. Her breathing got worse. She said life without him would be too empty. That her heart wasn’t strong enough to stay.”
She buried her face in his chest, her tears burning hot and fast.
“She slipped into unconsciousness shortly before the rescue team arrived. She never woke up.”
Alexandros’s hand moved up to cradle the back of her head, his thumb stroking her temple as she sobbed.
“I was only fifteen,” she choked. “I needed them both, but if I couldn’t have both, at least one. I watched my mother give up because her heart was too broken to go on.”
Her words dropped into the silence like stones in a still pond.
“I’m terrified, Alexandros,” she confessed. “Of loving someone that much. Of losing them. Because I know what it looks like… I know what it feels like when love breaks you. It doesn’t just hurt—it undoes you. And I—I don’t think I could survive that again.”
He kissed her hair. Once. Twice.
She clung to him.
“I didn’t run because I didn’t love you,” she whispered. “I ran because I do. I love you so very much.”
Her words were muffled against his chest, but they vibrated through him all the same.
For a long moment, neither of them moved. He just held her, like he could absorb her grief, her fear—all the years she’d spent burying her pain.
When he spoke, his voice came—low, fierce, and full of devotion.
“I’m not your past, Dani,” he murmured. “You’re not alone anymore. I will love you the way you deserve to be loved. Steady. Certain. Every day. For as long as I can. There are no guarantees in life, but if it’s within my power, I’ll stay by your side for all of it. And… if I can’t, or you—.” He drew a deep breath before he continued. “I want you to know that every single second I have with you would be worth the pain because the love I feel for you is too great to deny.”
He shifted, tilting her face up to his, brushing the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs.
“So fall,” he whispered. “Fall in love with me. Take the chance… I’ll catch you. Every damn time.”
She looked into his eyes—and saw no fear, no hesitation.
Just love.
And this time, she didn’t run.
She let herself fall—and Alexandros’s love caught her.
The gentlechug-chug-chugof the engine blended with the rhythmic slap of waves against the hull ofTheGentle Breeze. Alexandros leaned back against the bench seat, a glass of wine in hand andthe sun warm against his chest. Dani sat next to him, guiding the trawler through the channel. She reached across him for another piece of the peeled clementines he had placed in a bowl for them to snack on.
Her fingers were sticky and orange-scented, and he wanted to lick the juice off. He knew if he did that they would have to anchor out of the channel because it would never stop with him licking just her fingers.
