Alec hugged me to him. "Thanks, kitten."

I looked at him and smiled. "We're totally bondin'."

Alec grinned. "Yep, bonding while we're almost naked. It's the best moment."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up."

He rolled his eyes back at me. "Yes, sweetie."

I burst out laughing. "You sound like a man agreein' with his wife just to keep her happy."

"I suppose I am."

"So we're actin' like a married couple now? Great."

He snorted. "We have been bickering since we met so we're practically already married."

"There is more to marriage than just bickerin', you eejit."

"Yeah, like what?"

I gave him a look that told him he was a moron.

"Eh love, maybe? That's why people get married - they are in love with each other and want to spend the rest of their lives together. I don't think the bickerin' starts until a few years after marriage."

Alec grinned. "Let's say we get married in the future, okay? I give it an hour before you and me are bickering," he paused then laughed. "Actually, I guarantee that you would find something to argue about at the altar."

I punched him in the chest making him wince then howl with laughter.

"Just because I fight with you all the time doesn't mean I do it with everyone else. No one gets under my skin like you do, Alec Slater."

"Really?" Alec beamed.

I stared at him slack-jawed. "You seem proud."

"I am," he replied.

"Well don't be, I'm a dangerous person to those who get to me, a very dangerous person."

Alec smiled at me. "Good thing we're datin' then, wouldn't want you to harm me in some way."

I laughed. "You're an eejit."

"An eejit who is dating you, but doesn't fully know you. Let’s rectify that now."

I was curious. "How?"

"Twenty questions, obviously."

I smiled. "Okay, I'll go first. What is your favourite colour?"

"Green."

"Mine is pink, you go."

Alec scratched his chin. "What is your favourite thing to do besides writing?"

"Easy, reading. What about you?"

Alec ran his finger through my hair. "Being at the DSPCA with the animals."

I sighed. "You know it's really not fair that you're hot; you just have to help underprivileged animals as well, don't you?"

Alec chuckled. "You'd love it, I'll bring you there sometime when we go back home."

I felt my stomach burst into butterflies.

"Yeah, I'd like that."

Alec gave me a little squeeze then said, "Who was the first person you had sex with?"

"Ask me a different question, I'm not answerin' that one."

Alec grinned. "It's twenty questions, you have to answer. As Bronagh would say 'It's like, the law'."

I turned my head so he wouldn't see me smile.

"I don't have to do anythin' I don't want to, playboy."

Alec pinched my calf. "Answer it, you big baby."

"Fine... it was with Jason... and I was twenty-two."

Alec stared at me for a long time without blinking.

I lowered my head. "I know, it's embarrassin'."

I looked up when Alec touched my cheek.

"It's not embarrassin', he manipulated you."

I shrugged. "I'm over it."

"Are you?"

I chewed on my inner cheek and shrugged my shoulders. "I'm over any feelin's I had but I'm still mad at him. He used me."

"Look on the bright side, at least it's your cousin that is stuck with him and not you."

I know that was a good thing but I found it hard to find the bright side of anything.

"I'm not that much of an optimistic person Alec. I don't look on the brighter side of things"

"Why?"

"Because growing up I had no bright side to look at and I didn't imagine about a different life because that would have just been teasin' meself."

Alec placed his hand on my intertwined ones. "You had it tough grown' up?"

I slightly smiled. "I had everythin' growin' up. I lived with a parent who was wealthy and would buy me nice things. I was never hungry, thirsty or cold. I had a roof over my head, and a good education. On paper, I had a great childhood."

"And off paper?"

I chewed on the insides of my cheeks for a few seconds before I spoke. "Off paper I grew up in a loveless home. My mother is just a woman who gave birth to me, nothin' more. She doesn't love me, and she never has. She loves her money, all her materialistic things, and she loves Micah."

I spat out Micah's name and looked away as my eyes filled with tears.

"Keela," Alec whispered.

I shook my head. "I'm not jealous over my mother favourin' Micah instead of me. I am just so mad about it. I mean, I'm her daughter and she doesn't want me, she never has," I whispered then quickly wiped my eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm bein' stupid."

"Stop that. If this is how you feel, then it's not stupid. I'd be pissed off if my mother loved one of my brothers more than she loved me, but like you, my mother loved things she bought, not the beings she created."

I blinked my eyes and turned to Alec who was lying on his side on the hotel room bed, watching me.

"Your ma wasn't lovin'?"

Alec humourlessly laughed. "She was loving, just not to me or my brothers."

I blinked again shocked that someone who was so different to me shared something so personal in common with me.

"And your da?"

Alec shrugged. "My dad wasn't loving in the traditional way, but he showed his fondness for us by keeping us around I guess you could say. My mother ignored us and probably would have giving us all up for adoption had my dad not needed sons for the business."

I frowned. "You mentioned the business before. What business?"

Alec stared at me for a long moment before he said, "I don't want to tell you, you will think less of me"

I felt my shoulders slump. "Alec, I'm sorry, I hate that you think that. I don't, and won't, think less of you. I actually like you."

"You like me?" Alec smiled.

I reached over and playfully shoved his shoulder. "I wouldn't have agreed to be your girlfriend if I didn't like you is some way, even if it is only tiny bit."

Alec stuck his nose up at me. "You only like me for my voice, eyes, and my ass. I remember that conversation on the plane."

I burst out laughing and rolled forward onto his body. He laughed and rolled onto his back while pulling me onto his chest. I grinned as I sat upright and made his groin my seat.

"I like this view," Alec murmured as he trailed his eyes from where I sat on his body until they reached my eyes.

I snorted. "Because you're a dirty man."

"You love that about me," Alec said, his eyes burning into mine.

I looked away from his gaze. "I'm fifty-fifty on that right now."

"Oh, really?" Alec asked, his tone playful.

I smiled and looked back to him. "Don't even think about whatever you're thinkin'."

Alec's eyes crossed. "You confuse me."

I laughed and leaned down until my face was an inch from his. Alec straightened his eyes and smiled at me, but he didn't move.