Against All Odds

Chapter 53

KILLIAN

Stella sat on a small, elevated bench at the bow of the huge, luxury catamaran, her face turned forward into the wind that blew her hair from her face so that it trailed behind her in wild, dark ribbons.

There was a content smile on her lips, her cheeks pinkened by the sun, her shoulders kissed with freckles- revealed by the thin straps of the billowy, long white dress she was wearing.

She had gasped in pure delight and surprise when I had led her onto the beach a couple of hours after breakfast, revealing the large, pristinely white vessel docked to one side of a pier and waiting for us, its huge striped sails gleaming in the morning light. We were assisted onboard where, inside the tasteful cabin, a spread of food and champagne awaited us. Stella had gushed, insisting I had done too much, but I could tell she was enjoying the 'surprise' as much as I was.

Yup... this was vastly preferable to putting myself in a position that could possibly maim me or take off my balls.

After a brief tour of the catamaran which included the comfortable seating area and dining table inside, and another adjoining cabin with a made-up bed covered in rose petals (the resort certainly had an abundance of them) and a toilet and shower, Stella had snatched two glasses of champagne and pulled me outside where we currently sat in the wind and the sun as the vessel began its tour of the surrounding islands, an occasional salty spray from an errant wave hitting the hull and sending droplets of water to cool our skin.

I was content, remarkably so, as I put myself beside her and drew her against me. She didn't stiffen or resist, but melted into my body as if she belonged there and rested her head against my shoulder and the hand that wasn't clutching a flute glass on my thigh.

"This is amazing, Kills," she sighed. "I can't express how much this means to me. I owe you one."

"You owe me nothing." I dropped a kiss to her temple, my fingers squeezing her waist tightly. An errant pang of yearning stroked tentative fingers over my heart, and though I tried to ignore that unwelcome ache, I found that I couldn't.

Because we weren't talking about whatever this thing we were doing was, which meant that there was an expiry date.

A three day expiry date.

And, if I was wholly honest with myself, I didn't want an expiry date.

This week wasn't real, Killian.

Did she still believe that? I wondered as my mind drifted over the night of the wedding. Was she still losing parts of herself in favour of me, in favour of sharing her body with me?

The notion made something bitter and hard pull at my chest.

"I do," she insisted beside me. "This must have cost... a lot. I can't let you take on the expense- it isn't right."

"Stella, I'd much rather be doing this than having you anywhere near something that could take off my dick," I told her dryly. She grinned up at me, affording my thigh an apologetic squeeze where her hand lay upon my skin. "You don't owe me anything since I wanted to do this." What I didn't tell her was that I wanted to do a whole lot of other things for her, too.

Like be the man who could love her the way that she needed to be loved.

Dom had been right- I wasn't ready before to give Stella what she needed, to make the sorts of compromises we both needed to make us work. But I saw them now.

I felt my body grow hot, the muscles in my forearm flex around her back, as I tried not to think about whether I was too late, whether I didn't stand a chance in hell at ever having her as mine and me as hers again.