"You will, though," I say. “You care so much. Not just for your sister, but for all the other women whose voices were stolen. It’s one of the things I admire most about you.”
He tugs on my helmet strap, pulling me closer to him. His stubble brushes against my skin as he presses his lips against mine. It's a hard, desperate kiss.
I let myself melt into it even though a small voice in my head tells me not to.
Somewhere along the way, I pledged my devotion to this man.
I am his, and he is mine.
Both of us are breathless when we pull away.
I tear my eyes from Dante and see that we have an audience.
Both of my sisters are here along with their husbands. Nico Monte, the Italian American man, has joined us on the trip, too.
"Aren't you guys adorable?" Nico says, smirking as he leans against a black bike. "I wish my wife could have come along. This trip would have been so romantic with Luna.”
"Right, because that's what we're here for. The romance," Dimitri, Briar's husband, grumbles.
"I know it's a work trip, but I still like to bring my woman with me if I'm going somewhere nice,” Nico says.
“Do you ever take anything seriously?” Max, Chloe’s husband, sighs.
"I like to enjoy the simple things in life," Nico says. "As should you."
"We're literally here to raid a sex trafficking organization," he says.
"Just another Tuesday for me," Nico says. "I don't know about you, but I do noble shit all the time."
"Okay, this was fun. Let's go check out the club now," Dante says.
"Wait, we can’t go yet,” Nico says. "It's almost sunset."
"And?" Dante asks. The vein in the center of his forehead is pulsing now.
“We haven’t even been to the beach yet,” Nico says.
"With all due respect, I think you can go home now," Max says to Nico.
"Before you get all dramatic on me, hear me out," Nico says. "If all of us show up at a club at five in the evening, don't you think it's going to look a little sus? And we've already done all of our research on the flight over, so there's literally nothing else for us to do."
Everyone turns quiet.
"He has a point," I say.
"Thank you," he says, gesturing his arm in my direction. "Now let's go to my fire dance show before it starts."
"Hold on, adanceshow?" Dimitri asks. "I didn't sign up for this."
"It's a traditional dance that's performed on a cliff," Nico says. "We came all the way here, and we have a few hours to kill. Why is it so hard for you to live a little?"
Dimitri clenches his teeth and steps closer, about to give Nico a piece of his mind.
Before he can say something, Briar wraps her arm around her Russian husband's bicep. She gently turns him until he looks at her.
"I want to see the fire dance," she says to him.
And just like that, all his features soften.
