Chapter 18

Marie’s POV

Day Two

I wake up before he does, sun already slanting hard through the gauzy curtains, and for a second I just lie there watching him sleep — face slack, one arm thrown over his eyes like even unconscious he's dodging the light. It's a strange kind of peace, watching someone when they don't know you're looking. I let myself have it.

By the time he wakes up I've already made coffee, badly, in a machine that clearly hates me, and he wanders out onto the terrace squinting like the whole ocean personally offended him.

"You're a morning person," he says accusingly, dropping into the chair across from me.

"I've been up for an hour."

"Doing what?"

"Watching you drool on a four-hundred-dollar pillow."

"That's not drool, that's dedication." He steals my coffee, makes a face at it, drinks it anyway. "God, this is terribl