Wilder

The cab lurched forward as traffic moved, and I broke the kiss. “It’s going to be okay,” I promised her. “No matter what just happened, we’re going to be okay. Trust me, Firecracker.” I meant more than being left behind, and by the timid smile she gave me, she knew it.

“Okay,” she said.

Never had one word meant so damn much to me.

I tucked her under my arm and leaned toward the cabbie. “Can you change directions?”

“Where to?” he asked.

We needed a hotel for the night, and there was no way I was taking Leah anywhere that wasn’t 100 percent safe. “The Ritz-Carlton,” I answered.

“Pax, I don’t have that much money on me,” Leah whispered.

“Lucky for us, I do,” I answered. She looked down, so I tipped her chin up to look into her eyes. “The money is nothing. Let me take care of you.”

She nodded, and I kissed her puckered forehead.

…

An hour later, we were checked in to a terrace suite at the Ritz-Carlton, and I had never been so thankful that I’d brought my credit card. We’d devoured some room service and calmed down enough to think rationally.

“Okay, let’s see what we have,” Leah said, leaning toward the coffee table and emptying the contents of her travel wallet thing. “I have our passports—”

“Wait. You what?” I picked mine up and verified the goofy smile picture. “Why?”

“Because we’re required to have them in Turkey. I knew you’d probably jump into the river or get yourself blown up, so Hugo gave me yours before we disembarked, thank God. And what kind of middle name is Iskander?”

“Greek,” I answered. “Have you been snooping, Firecracker?”

Her cheeks flushed pink. “It’s only fair. I bet you have an entire file on me, right?”

“Actually, Penna does,” I answered honestly, then tossed the contents of my pocket into her pile. “And she won’t tell me a damn thing that’s in it.”

She sighed in relief, piquing my curiosity.

“Okay, let’s see.” She picked through our pile, then included the teapot she’d stored in her little backpack with a tube of sunscreen. We had two passports, enough Turkish lira for lunch, breath mints, lip balm, a folded itinerary for today’s plans, my credit card, our empty wallets, and a condom.

“Seriously?” She raised her eyebrows at me.

“I keep it in my wallet,” I answered with a shrug. “I guess it’s a good thing since we got fucked over by the ship.”

She rolled her eyes. “We knew the rules. This is our fault.”

“Okay, let’s make a plan,” I suggested, trying to focus my frustration.

“Right. Okay, we have to meet up with the ship by the next port or we’re kicked out of the program.” She opened the laptop I’d had the hotel deliver and slid it between us on the coffee table. As she logged on to the internet, she leaned forward, showing a strip of delicious skin right above her— Holy shit. She was wearing a thong. A pink one. A tiny pink string that led from the little triangle peeking above her jeans to slip between the globes of her perfect ass.

“Paxton?”

I snapped forward. “Sorry. I was shamelessly checking out your ass.”

Her mouth opened and shut a couple times, but she didn’t pull her shirt down in the back, just shook her head and half smiled in a way I couldn’t interpret.

“Okay. Well, the next actual port is Athens, and that’s in five days. Well, five days from tomorrow.”

Perfection. I had five days with her to work this shit out between us, figure out what the hell we were doing before we got slammed with cameras again. And I knew just the place to take her.

She sighed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Other than the obvious?”

Her shoulders dropped. “We’re going to miss Mykonos. This is the week with the optional shore excursions.” She clicked through the ship’s itinerary. “Damn it.”

Out of this entire experience, Mykonos was the one thing she’d wanted. “What day is the Mykonos one?”

“Thursday.”

I could work with that. I put the computer on my lap and started to make arrangements.

Four days with her. Four days to show her who I really was, why I did the things I did. Fate had given me one opportunity, and I was taking it.

“What are you doing?” She looked over my shoulder.

“Buying plane tickets.”

If I turned my head, I could kiss her again. I could set the computer down, flip her to her back, slide over her, and find out what my name sounded like when she was screaming it.

My fingers flew faster, booking us on the nine thirty a.m. flight.

“Mykonos?” she asked, looking at the screen.

“I figured we could spend four days there, then hop back with the shore excursion on the fifth day. We wouldn’t even have to wait until Athens.”

“You’re…you’re taking me to Mykonos?” Her eyes were huge pools of disbelief and wonder.

I clicked the purchase button before I gave her my full attention. “I promised you I would. I know a great house we can stay in, and I know we’re missing classes, but it will give you a chance to re—”

This time she stopped me with a kiss. She didn’t push it further, just a simple press of our lips, but when I felt her smile, it went down in my book as the third best kiss of my life.