Page 148 of My Real Love Affair

She smiled against my chest. “Good. Because I’m completely gone for you too.”

“How did this happen?” I wondered aloud. “How did we go from a fake arrangement to this?”

“I don’t know. It just did.” She propped herself up on one elbow. “Does it matter how?”

“No. I guess it doesn’t.” I pulled her down for a kiss. “All that matters is that it did. That you’re here. That this is real.”

“It’s very real.” She yawned, snuggling back against me. “Sorry. That was incredibly rude to yawn right after sex.”

“You’re exhausted. Sun, beach, emotional conversations, bath, sex. That’s a full day.”

“We fit a lot in.”

“We did. And we have five more days to fit in even more.”

“Five more days,” she repeated, sounding wistful. “Then back to reality.”

“Reality won’t be so bad. Not if we’re in it together.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.” And I meant it. “Did you check in with Cleo? I don’t want to wake up with pirates storming the yacht.”

“I texted her. Are you afraid of her?”

“Yep. Do you blame me?”

“She’s terrifying when she wants to be.”

“Tomorrow, I’m tying you to this bed and not letting you up until noon.”

Melody snorted, her breath warm against my collarbone. “One-track mind, Bancroft.”

“Guilty.” I tightened my arm around her. “But I’m serious. No seven a.m. sunrise yoga. No eager-beaver crew member packing us a picnic. Sleep in. The world can rotate without us until we’re good and ready.”

She lifted her head just far enough to prod my chest. “Isn’t that just a normal morning for you?”

“That was the old Austin. New Austin wants pillow creases on his face and a gorgeous woman who smells like coconuts using me as her personal mattress.”

She smiled. “I can work with that. Except I want the beach version of sunrise yoga. Beach makes everything better.”

“Debatable.” I brushed a knuckle over the pink patch on her shoulder. “And this needs another lather of aloe before you turn into a lobster.”

“It’s fine,” she said with another yawn.

“Tomorrow’s schedule is simple: sleep, repeat, maybe a champagne brunch in bed.”

She propped herself up on an elbow. “We could snorkel the reef. You promised earlier.”

“We can do that.”

She lay back down beside me. Her face rested against my chest. Her lashes tickled my skin. “You really think you’ll want five whole days of nothing but me?”

I swallowed. I didn’t want to sound like some pathetic lovesick teenager. “The only reason I’m limiting it to five is that Cleo will actually hire those pirates if we’re gone longer.”

She giggled. “True.”

She snuggled closer. Her breathing evened and I felt her body falling into sleep. I tightened my arms, feeling the crazy, impossible certainty settle in my bones. Tomorrow and the next tomorrow, and the one after—I would get to wake up with Melody in my arms. No family meetings, no PR clean-ups, no walls of phone notifications. Just her.