“How are you feeling?” Dani asked, coming up to him and wrapping her arms around his waist.
“Honestly, I’m still in shock. This is happening, right? I’m not imagining this?”
“No, you’re not imagining it,” she said, smiling.
“I guess I’m wondering, what if this is all a ruse, too?”
“I suppose we won’t really know until the morning. But this feels different than before, no?”
“It feels different,” he said. He then smiled and leaned down to kiss her, pulling her up into his arms as she wrapped hers around his neck.
Finally, things felt…good.
“Mmm…” she murmured once her lips parted from his, “I never get tired of kissing you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She planted another quick kiss on his lips. “I’ve still got beach on me. Shall we go get clean so that we can get dirty again? That bed is definitely a mattress tostada, not a taco.”
“Sure,” he said, smiling. “You know what’s funny?”
“What’s that?” she asked, linking her fingers with his and guiding him to the bathroom.
“I’ve been in Greece for over a year, sleeping on a mattresson the floor in a one-room cottage with Maurice and Louis, yet in the last week since you got here, I’ve stayed the night in the two nicest houses I’ve ever set foot in. Of course, I was being held hostage both times, but still. I mean, have you ever seen a place like this before?”
They entered the bathroom with a wall of windows on two sides and a large bathtub big enough for two in the corner facing out.
“Theo, you seem to forget I haven’t seenanythingbefore this excursion,” she said with a bit of a chuckle. “Um, do you really think no one can see in?” she then asked, motioning toward the windows.
“Here, let’s try the switch.” He flipped the switch, and the tint of the windows changed slightly, but they could still see out perfectly well.
“I’m not sure I believe people can’t see in. What if they’re only saying that so they can spy on us when we’re naked?”
“Why don’t I go down there and see?” he said, wrapping his arms around her from behind and nodding toward the outside area below their room. “I’ll give you a thumbs-up if it’s opaque and come back.”
“Okay. I’ll start the water.”
He gave her another quick kiss, then left her alone in the bathroom and closed the door. As he was about to exit the bedroom, however, he stopped by her beach bag and dug around for the condoms. There they were. He loved that she was thinking about that when they were in the store. He grabbed a few, putting two in his pocket just in case and another couple in the nightstand so they’d be prepared for later.
Once that was all settled, he made his way outside to thegardens. He looked up at their room. If Dani was standing there, he couldn’t see her. So he gave a thumbs-up and waved, hoping that she saw him. He then turned around, staring out at the sea, feeling a sense of relief for the first time in months. No, it wasn’t that. It was something else.
Happiness.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Dani
Once Theo gave her thethumbs-up and she’d needlessly waved back, Dani stripped off her clothes and climbed into the tub. She wanted to be ready and waiting by the time he returned.
She closed her eyes as she settled into the bath, releasing all the tension and burdens from the last few days. There may still have been danger lurking, but at least they were no longer directly under Pierre’s watch.
The warm water enveloped her body, soothing her soul. What a trip. Dani couldn’t say her first time out of the country was thebestexperience, but if she’d been given the choice to do it all again with option A being that things would happen exactly as they had—with Vautour, the kidnapping, and all—and option B being what she’d originally planned—a group tour of all the sites with nothing eventful—she’d choose option A every time.
She’d choose Theo.
Speaking of…
