3. Marnie

Marnie

“Ithought maybe we were in one of those pods you can get on an international flight. I never dreamed…” I stare at everything this plane has to offer—a bar, an entertainment area, what looks like a workstation, and there’s even a bed and bathroom with a shower. It’s more like a mini apartment than an airplane. I feel… out of place.

“Do you like it?” My beautiful man reaches out and pulls me into his lap, and the softness of his voice and the kindness in his green eyes tell me he’s gone out of his way to do something really special for me—for us—and I’d hate for him to have a moment where he thought I wasn’t appreciative. It’s just that when I see such opulence, my heart tightens in my chest as my mind does long division, subtraction, and percentages all at once. How are we supposed to pay for all of this?

“I love it,” I say, squashing my concerns down as I run my fingers through his messy brown hair. It was styled when we left the apartment this morning, but our orgasmic take-off has made him look like he just woke up. To be honest, I like this look best on him because waking up next to the man of my dreams is the best part of every day since we met.

Danny presses a soft kiss to my lips. “Good. Because I intend on spoiling you. For the next few weeks, all you have to do is lie back and relax while I shower you with everything your heart desires.”

“Oh, Danny,” I whisper, wrapping my arms around his neck and drawing him closer. “As long as you’re beside me, sharing my life, I’ll be the happiest woman in the world.”

“That’s all I want, precious. To share my life with you.”

* * *

When we land,it’s on a tiny airstrip along the coast where we’re quickly shuffled over to a seaplane before taking off again. This time we don’t have as much space. We’re squished up against each other, my broad hips pressing into Danny’s firm side. It feels right the way the softness of my body melts against his muscular frame. When I was growing up, I had all manner of hang-ups about my weight, but when a big, brawny ex-marine thinks you’re the most beautiful and sexy woman he’s ever seen, all those hang-ups seem to melt away. With Danny’s eyes on my body, I feel like a goddess. And with his strength, I feel protected—especially in this moment where I’m clutching onto Danny’s hand for dear life as the winds jostle us about.

I imagine none of this frightens him a bit. He signed up for the marines when he got out of school since his parents couldn’t afford to send him to college. And he used the opportunities a military life could provide to learn security and analytics, which is why he’s such a great entrepreneur now. From what I understand, he has his own business that provides data security or encryption services to some big corporation or something. It sounds very complicated to me, even though I’m a college grad and know the Dewey decimal system like the back of my hand. I can tell you where to find information on any topic you can think of, but coding and the like are a whole other language I can’t even pretend to understand. The best I can do is point you to a book about it so you can learn it for yourself.

“We’re landing just there,” Danny says, his voice activating in my ear through a headset. The pilot tells us we’re in for a bumpy landing and to hold on tight. And he isn’t wrong, water sprays up in great waves beside us as the plane bumps and grinds across the surf until we’re up against a jetty.

“Wow,” I say as I’m helped from the plane by a smiling man and woman who are right there waiting for us. This place looks like a tropical paradise taken from the pages of a fancy magazine spread.

“Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Cardiff,” he says, gesturing for me to move along the jetty. “Your cabin awaits.”

I grin, throwing my smile over my shoulder toward Danny. “You got us a cabin in paradise?”

He jogs a step, so he’s right by my side, sliding his arm around my waist as he pulls me in close. “Just you, me, and a great big bed,” he says, echoing my comments from earlier in the day.

I sigh with happiness, feeling even more in love than I was ten minutes before. How is it possible for one person to understand you so completely that they can make a dream you dare not wish for out loud come true?

As we’re walking toward our cabin, I imagine a quaint little place with only one room for everything that overlooks the ocean—the kind you see in those travel brochures with cerulean blue water surrounding them and bathtubs on the deck. But I think there might be something that gets lost in translation because the building we’re taken to looks more like a mansion than a cabin. In fact, I think I’m on the private island the Cullens own in Twilight.

“Holy shit, Danny. Are you…. Are you?” I can’t finish the question as I step inside and spin around in awed circles.

“Say it,” he says, stepping a little closer as I try to find my words. “What do you think I am?”

“A…a vampire?” I ask, in my one true Bella moment. For a split second, I’m actually worried he’s going to say yes, then his face cracks into a smile, and he throws his head back and laughs. “What’s so funny?”

“A vampire?” He holds his belly; he’s laughing so hard. “Of all the reasons I could own this place, you think it’s because I’m a vampire?”

“Well, the Cullens in Twilight have a place just like this, and they’re all vam— Wait.” I step back for a moment, locking eyes with him. “Did you say you own this place?”

“I did. But not just this place. I own the whole island. Well, we own it.”

“What the fuck? How the hell can you? I… don’t understand.” And I also don’t want to be rude and ask him how much money he has. Even though he’s my husband, it feels like prying. But I suppose it isn’t prying when what’s mine is his now and what’s his is mine too. Holy shit. Does that mean….I’m rich? “What is going on?” I ask instead. My stomach is churning. This morning, I thought I knew everything there was to know about this man. I thought that my heart had mingled with his and I’d peered into his soul and understood all there was to understand. And now…now I find out he owns an island?

Who the fuck did I marry?