There it was: the muffled sound of Danial’s voice, and the feeling of her hand on his arm, and the breathless orgasms she had brought herself to the night before. She imagined what he must have looked like on the other side of that wall: the exquisite movements of his face, his long, lean, deeply tanned body against his crisp white sheets. Even the way he looked on top of Enzo—sweating, angry, without any of his usual poise—was strangely beautiful. His behavior was wrong, yes, and it had embarrassed her, but the sheer physicality of it still drew her in.

She fumbled to put her headphones back in, to replace her racing thoughts with the pulsing sound of house music. As she scrolled through her playlists, a voice called out from behind her, bright and crisp as the sunrise itself. The shock of hearing her own name nearly made her drop her phone into the sea.

“Miss Onassis, hi!”

“Oh, hi,” she said, turning around to see Melanie standing just behind her. It was the first time Alex had seen her without her polo shirt, but her blonde hair was still neatly slicked back into a tight knot at the base of her neck. “I didn’t expect to see anyone up here.” She pulled out her sport earbuds again, this time holding them in her hand along with her phone.

“I have a little time to myself, so I wanted to take in the city while I can. Are you enjoying the view?”

The question almost felt like a joke: they were standing in front of an old church on a magnificent stone piazza overlooking the Mediterranean. Of course it was gorgeous.

“It’s incredible, I can’t believe this place is real.”

“Right? It’s always one of my favorite ports to stop in.”

“I bet!” Alex didn’t quite know how to speak to her as a peer, outside of the context of the boat. The rest of them might have been intrinsically comfortable being on the receiving end of 24/7 service, but she was decidedly not.

“I must recommend that you visit the Greek Theater while you’re here, I’d be happy to schedule you for a visit later this afternoon or tomorrow.”

“Oh, I already got my tour reserved for tomorrow morning.” She smiled. “I promised my parents I would FaceTime them from the ruins.”

“I love that.” Melanie checked her watch. “I’ve got some personal errands to get to, but I’m happy to pick up anything you might need while I’m out?”

“Thank you! No, that’s fine, I’m all set.”

“Glad to hear it.” She paused, looking over her shoulder briefly before continuing. “Also, I hope this isn’t strange, but I wanted to tell you something—something not strictly Verseau-related.”

“Yes?”

“Well, I saw your video on my feed the other day, the one about affordable housing? And it was really good!”