SAFEHOUSE

, twirling my fork around in the pasta before scooping it up and bringing it to my mouth. I groaned—it tasted like heaven.

Julien cleared his plate off, his brown eyes sparkling at me. "I was thinking of fishing. Have you ever been fishing before?"

I snorted. "Not exactly. Does involve putting little wriggling worms on hooks? Because if it does, no way. Not a fan of injuring poor little worms just to catch a fish. But that's just me."

He comically rolled his eyes at me, shaking his head in mock indignation. "It's the circle of life, Amira. And no, we will use lures, not live bait. I'm not looking to catch anything big. Marlin are off-season right now.

"I guess there's always a first time for everything." The very idea of fishing kind of seemed boring to me, to be honest, but if it meant something to him, that meant something to me, too. It would definitely be interesting to see where tomorrow would bring us.

After finally making it to the first level deck, I took in a breath of fresh air, enjoying the breeze that whipped around my blouse. It felt good to be out in the open again, even though watching the waves undulate had a certain ill effect on me. I tried not to think about it, but it was hard not to notice how my stomach roiled in on itself. Hopefully I could keep it from Julien, because Lord knows he would bring me right back to land if he knew I was getting seasick.

And I was having way too much fun on the yacht, anyway.

Julien came around the corner, equipped with two large fishing poles and that amazing grin of his. God, how could I say no to that? It was completely impossible, if you asked me.

"This one is for you," Julien said, handing me the smaller pole, "And this one is for me. It looks more complicated than it is, believe me. So just follow my lead and you should have no problems."

I raised my brow at him. "Yeah, we'll see about that." I wasn't putting too much faith in the fact that I could actually fish. That would be the day.

We set to work rigging up our fishing poles, me falling more than anything else. Julien made quick work of his, before stringing mine up just right. He tried to get me to practice a couple different baits, but I resisted, already feeling nervous about swinging a long line with a hook hanging from it around.

"Aren’t you worried you’ll get hurt? I'm afraid that if I whip this baby around too much, it will end up snagging into your beautiful mouth. And I couldn't do that, no way," I explained.

He just laughed at me. "We're not going fly fishing, Amira. We’ll drop the line into the water and wait. Easy, no?"

I felt my cheeks reddened. “I guess.”

Julien cast his line in first, coaxing me to do the same, as he stood behind me with my hands wrapped around the pole. It felt nice having him close against me again, but I was letting my mind wander off way to quickly before I gave myself a chance to focus.

I finally dropped my line into the water with a soft plink. Hmm, I thought to myself. Maybe that wasn't so bad after all.

It turned out that fishing was way, way easier than I thought it would be. I felt a huge tug at my fishing pole line almost instantly. Julien coached me on as I quickly tried to roll the reel back in my hand. As I reeled it in, Julien looked over the side, his eyes wide.

"You did it! Take a look at this," he shouted, helping me bring up the last few feet of the line. At the end of it was the strongest little tiny fish I’d ever seen swinging and swaying in the wind. I immediately felt bad.

"How much would you hate me if I wanted to let the fish go?" I asked, feeling silly that my lip was trembling looking at the poor fish. I hated seeing the hook hanging out of its mouth.

"Ah, ma chérie, you have a kind heart. I understand if you do not want to keep it. Here, I'll show you how to let it go."

I didn't want to touch it, but he insisted, so we unhooked the fish together and I was happy to toss it back into the sea.

Now that I was looking out at the water, it was kind of hard to remember being scared of it. It was so calm, almost as if the surface was glass and not liquid.

A few more hours passed, with Julien finally catching two more fish and handing them off to the cabin boy before the sun sunk past the horizon line. It was a relaxing day, and I couldn’t have spent it in better company.

When we finally went downstairs to the cabin, I found that his chef had made some sort of special treat for us. Pulling the tray open I saw the fish Julien had pulled from the ocean. At least I knew it was going to be fresh

Dinner was short and sweet because it was pretty obvious we were ready to go to bed… If that's what you want to call it. I hadn't even made it to the bottom deck before Julien's hands were firmly around my waist. There was no mistaking his intentions.

His lips grazed my earlobe, before trailing down to my collarbone, sucking on the skin between his teeth. My head lolled back, and I bit back the moan that rose in my throat. He was so good at pulling these noises from me. My body practically sang with feeling when he dropped down and yanked my pants and underwear down to my ankles. His tongue lingered over the apex of my thigh, so patiently. But I was nowhere near as patient. I needed him, and I needed everything he was about to do to me. I needed it more than the breath that kept escaping my lungs in quick little pants.

His hand found purchase over my upper abdomen, following upwards until he was cupping the curve of my breast, squeezing the tender flesh there. His tongue darted between my folds so gently. When I looked down at him through hooded eyes, I was brought back to the moment he told me he loved me.

We were in the bed before I knew it, me rising up over top of him, crying out as his hips met mine over and over again. I reached my arms behind myself, arching my back as I rode him faster. I would never want to stop doing this. There would never come a time where there would be somewhere else I'd rather be. And every time he whispered to me as he slid back inside of me I wanted to drink in the words. They were my drug of choice.

I didn't know my plans past this temporary placement that had become my life, but I knew the future had to include Julien. It just had to…

I fell asleep in his arms, happy…