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Tears brimmed in his eyes as raw pain laced his voice. My heart softened, the anger I was carrying seeping out of my body. “It’s okay, Jacob.”

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “No, it’s not, angel. I should have respected your choice. You didn’t want me to finish inside you, but I was selfish. I don’t want that for us; I want to respect your decisions. That’s why…” He trailed off, releasing my hand so he could rummage in the inside pocket of his jacket. When he pulled out two blister packages, my brows creased. “That’s why I had these brought over last night. This one here is the morning-after pill.” He slid the smallest pack to me, which contained one tablet. “And this is the regular pill. You’ll have to take one a day, but it’s the best form of contraception I could find when I did some research.” The second packet he pushed toward me was bigger and contained a lot more pills. Before I could say anything, Jacob continued. “I understand if you say you never want to be intimate with me again, angel. It’s the least I deserve after betraying your trust. But I thought… Well, I thought if you decide you do want to, and only when you’re ready, you’ll be on the pill, so you won’t need to worry about getting pregnant.”

I gaped at Jacob, words dying on my tongue as gratitude overwhelmed me. My own tears filled my eyes; he had listened to me. Not only had he listened, but he’d taken action to correct his mistake.

Launching myself into Jacob’s lap, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. “Thank you,” I said, my voice breaking. “This means so much to me.”

Relief flashed across his face as he laced his arms around me and rested his forehead against mine. He squeezed his eyes closed. “Do you forgive me, angel? I’m trying to learn for you. For us.”

I didn’t need to think twice. This was the version of Jacob that made my heart ache with love. Like me, he’d never had a relationship before; he was learning as much as I was. Maybe I needed to be more tolerant and accept that at times, he would do things that I didn’t agree with. As long as we talked and listened to each other, this marriage could work.

“I forgive you, Jacob.”

His eyes opened, his lips pulling into a shy grin that made my pulse spike. “Thank you. I’m glad; otherwise it would have made our honeymoon a bit awkward.”

“Our honeymoon?”

He chuckled before placing a chaste kiss on my lips. “Yeah, angel. You think I would marry you and not whisk you away so I can spend every minute showering you in my undivided attention?”

The sun was setting on the Italian coastline by the time we reached the harbor after a long day of traveling. We set off from Du Pont Island to the mainland where a helicopter waited to fly us to a private airfield. From there, we flew to Italy on a private jet before a limousine brought us to a harbor in Porto Di Amalfi, where a small boat took us to a superyacht anchored outside of the bay.

Thankfully, I’d slept for a few hours on the flight, but I was glad to finally reach the yacht that was going to be home for the next seven nights.

Captain Louis welcomed us aboard, introducing us to the crew who would be working on the boat during our vacation, before introducing us to Marco, the steward who would take care of our every need.

My mouth hung open in awe as Marco took us on a tour of the boat, explaining that the yacht had four levels. He didn’t take us to the bottom level where the staff lived and slept when they weren’t working, and where our meals were prepped, along with the storage of everything we would need for a week at sea.

The next floor up was used for storing jet skis and other watersport equipment, should we decide to go out on the water. At my reminder that I wasn’t a strong swimmer, Jacob assured me we wouldn’t be going anywhere but on the small boat that brought us to the yacht.

I couldn’t stop my gaze from darting everywhere as Marco led us up to the floor where he said we would likely be spending most of our time. At the rear of the boat was an enormous living room, decorated in sleek black and cream marble and gold furnishings.

A white leather sectional sofa filled most of the space, positioned in front of a cinema-sized TV, and underneath was a flickering electric fireplace. Between two doors that led to the front of the yacht, a marble bar stood, stocked with a variety of alcohol bottles and different-sized glasses.

Jacob clutched my hand in his as Marco took a door to the left of the bar, leading us into a narrow hallway with a cream carpet running the length of it. Up ahead, the hallway opened up to the boat’s decking, but before we could reach that far, Marco opened a door and waved for us to go inside.

I took in the giant bed situated in the center of the room, and a ball of nerves tightened in my stomach. Despite Jacob reassuring me that we would only have sex again when I was ready, a little voice whispered that this was our honeymoon; sex would be expected.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to try again, and now I’d taken the morning-after pill and had the regular pill to start taking; I at least didn’t have to worry about pregnancy. But I couldn’t ignore the fear humming under my skin about how painful my first time was. Would it always hurt like that?

I wasn’t sure if I was in a rush to experience it again.

Lost in thought, my attention was pulled from the bed when Jacob pulled back a thick black curtain covering the length of one wall. My heart soared at finding floor-to-ceiling windows looking right out onto the glistening sea.

After showing us the ensuite, Marco guided us onto the decking at the front of the yacht, and a bright smile took over my face at the sunken hot tub, surrounded by fairy lights. Marco then led us to the top deck, where a circular swimming pool had two sun loungers nearby.

Another bar and a small kitchen area stood at the end, where a man wearing a crisp white shirt and black bow tie waited with a bottle of champagne and two glasses.

“Welcome aboard,” the man said in a thick Italian accent, giving Jacob a polite smile but not glancing at me. “My name is Mattias, and if there is anything you need during your stay, please do not hesitate to ask.”

He popped the cork on the champagne bottle and filled two flutes, handing one to me and one to Jacob before placing the bottle in a bucket of ice and disappearing, leaving the two of us alone.

“To us,” Jacob said, lifting his glass in cheers.

I clinked my glass against his, and we both took a sip, the delicious bubbles coating my tongue. Jacob’s gaze didn’t leave me, his eyes traveling down to my throat as I swallowed. When I moved my glass away, he took it from me, placing his and mine on the bar so he could pull me into his arms.

“We’re going to have an amazing week, angel.”

He lowered his lips to mine, and as I melted into his kiss, I couldn’t help but acknowledge the strange, ominous feeling that settled in the pit of my stomach.