I wrinkled my nose in disapproval. “Why? It’s a surveillance shot, isn’t it?”

Jared’s eyes grew soft as he scanned my face. “I was taking some of the pictures that are now in Cynthia’s safe. I snapped that one of you in the same afternoon…I wasn’t sure why at the time.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the water to him. “I took that the day I fell in love with you.”

I felt a surprised grin spread across my face as my eyebrows rose. “You failed to mention that.”

“You’ve never asked me to replace it before,” he pointed out, pulling me out deeper into the water.

After another hour, Jared talked me into returning to the sand to borrow the bottle of sunscreen Cynthia had purposely left behind when returning to her cabin.

I sprawled across the lounge chair and reached for the sunscreen bottle. It instantly disappeared from my hands and Jared squirted a large white dollop into his palm.

“I don’t want you to miss anything,” he said, trying not to smile.

I leaned back, gesturing for Jared to proceed.

He began at the tops of my feet and massaged the lotion up one leg, and then the next. I’d had several massages before, but Jared’s hands were significantly different as they pressed into and over my skin with the perfect amount of pressure. I bit my lip when he covered the skin bared by the cutout of my suit with his hands, his fingers occasionally slipping ever so slightly under my suit. He finally made his way to the rest of my body and kissed my lips when he was finished with my face.

“Front’s finished,” he prompted.

His head created a block to the sun that was directly above us, making his face black out and lining him in a brilliant halo of light.

I turned onto my stomach and Jared repeated the process again, this time beginning at my neck and working his way down. Once he finished with my ankles, I sat up and criss-crossed my legs. “Your turn.”

“I don’t need it.”

“You’re going to burn,” I warned in a sing-song tone.

“I don’t burn, Nina. Even if I did, it wouldn’t hurt…the redness would go away in seconds.”

I thought about that for a moment and then grimaced, looking out on the water. “Can you drown?”

He rolled his eyes, amused at my question. “I don’t know. I’ve never tried.”

“But if you did…wouldn’t that kind of negate the whole you-only-die-when-I-do theory?”

“I’m an excellent swimmer, Nina. And I seem to float easier than humans, so I’m going to say no.”

“How on earth would you know that?”