Page 31 of Protected By the SEAL

Benji lets out a little laugh. “You know, you said that in Thailand as well. You’ve said that everywhere. You love every place.”

“I know, I know, but this place is incredible. It’s completely different and unique. I want to stay here forever. It’s so awesome.”

I sigh with sheer joy, still riding on the same high that I’ve been on for the last three months. Finally getting to see the world and doing so with Benji has been a dream come true. It’s been better than I ever thought it could be, which is incredible. Everywhere I go, I feel myself growing and expanding, becoming the person I was always meant to be. Thank God I stayed alive for long enough to discover all of this. And everything else as well. I’m in absolute heaven.

“Well, unfortunately for you, we need to catch a flight later on today.” Benji chuckles, looking and sounding about as happy as I feel inside. “We’re going to Indonesia, remember? We booked it last week and you want to see there as well.”

“Of course.” My heart is wrenched, but it’s like this every time we move anywhere else. It always ends up being a positive surprise, though. I haven’t been disappointed with anything that’s happened, and I just know this will be the same. “Okay, well, once we’ve eaten here, we should go and pack up, don’t you think? Get ready for the next part of everything. Ready to fly once more. Ooh, I do love going on a plane. I know you say that I’m the only one, but I can’t help it. I love it!”

“Are you going to contact your family while we’re here?” Benji asks me cautiously, knowing that this is a touchy subject for me. But it’s something that we need to keep an open and honest communication about all the time. I don’t want to suffer the pain alone, and I know that he doesn’t want me to, either. “Or did you want to wait until we’re moved on to the next place?”

I think on this for a second, wondering what the right move is. I do enjoy speaking to my family. It’s always good catching up with all of them, even my mother and father, whom I wasn’t the closest to before all of this, but I do get a little bit of pressure there when we talk. They want me to come back now, they need me to return to normal life, and I honestly don’t know when I’ll be ready for that. Especially since the media interest hasn’t died down at all. My father has managed to artfully spin it all into more of a success for him, which I’m incredibly impressed about, but I don’t want any part of that. I want to keep on hiding.

“I think I’ll wait,” I tell him decisively. I find it easy to be much more decisive these days. I trust myself more. “I think I just want to relish the last moments that we have here and I’ll call themin Indonesia. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe the next day. I mean, it wasn’t that long ago that I spoke to them last, is it? I’m sure that they aren’t sitting around worrying anymore.”

Although I did used to speak to everyone every single day, so I suppose it’s different on that front. But this is the new normal now. This is my new life. And I feel like it wasn’t so long ago that I last spoke to all of them. It’s going to be fine. They are fine, they all have their own things to focus on, and so do I. Our lives are going in opposite ways, but it isn’t a sad thing.

Benji reaches across and takes my hands, grinning at me. My father isn’t the only man with resilience. It seems that I’m the same. Benji and I have managed to make something wonderful out of such a horrible time. I can barely even remember any of the bad parts now. Here in the bright lights and the excitement of Japan, I can hardly remember being in that jungle, fearing for my life. It seems a little bit like it happened to another person. Although I’ll never forget it because I’ll never take anything for granted again. Knowing that I’m alive and still able to breathe is absolutely everything to me. I enjoy every second.

“Okay, whatever you want.” Benji leans across and presses his lips to mine. “Whatever you need. You know that much.”

The food comes, and I die in the heavenly tastes that Japan has to offer. My God, I really have lived a sheltered life up until this point. I didn’t even realize it. I kinda knew it, but nothing like I see it now. And this is why I might never go home. Ever. I don’t think Benji is worried about going back home, either. He tells me all the time that he doesn’t mind what he’s doing as long as he’s with me, and I really believe him. The look in his eyes as he tells me this much confirms everything, and I love it.

“We should eat up fast,” Benji tells me as he checks his watch. “Because I’m sure you want to have a little walk around before we catch a flight. I know how you like to say a mental goodbye to everything before we fly off. We can’t miss out on that.”

“I do.” God, it’s so lovely how he doesn’t even judge me for that. He doesn’t think it’s weird at all. He seems to enjoy being with me even with my little new developed quirks. How can I not be head over heels with this man? “Let’s do it.”

“Oh, my goodness, look at the white beaches and the lovely ocean,” I groan in delight. “Indonesia is incredible.”

I can’t get over the view in front of me. It’s unlike anything I would ever see anywhere else. Every place in the world has something new in front of it, something amazing, something to make my eyes sing with joy. This is the sort of thing that I’ll never get enough of. I suck in the air, breathing in a brand-new country, enjoying the serenity of it.

“Let me guess.” Benji chuckles. “This is your favorite place in the world and you never want to leave?”

I nod eagerly. “You know it. I could absolutely spend the rest of my life here. This is wonderful. Totally different to Tokyo, but awesome as well. Oh, my God, can we stay here for ages? We don’t have plans to move on yet, do we?”

“Not at all. We have no plans, Cassie. It’s all on you. Whatever you want to do, that’s what we will do.”

There’s a peace in my heart as I glance around at our new home for the time being. I feel settled and calm, like I’ve finally foundthe place I was destined to find. There’s something special about this place, and I justknowthat we are going to make the best memories ever here. I can’t wait to start exploring a brand-new world.

“We’re having dinner on this beach tonight,” Benji tells me seriously with a giant smile. “I already sorted that for us. I hope that’s okay. I just saw this place online before we came and knew that it was going to be near, so I thought it would be nice…”

I spin him toward me and kiss him hard, loving the feel of his lips against mine. “That is so sweet. I can’t wait.”

“There’s more,” he tells me before I can get too carried away. “We’re going swimming with dolphins today.”

“We are?” I scream top-note, unable to contain myself. “Oh, my God, that’s incredible. That’s so exciting. I can’t believe it. Swimming with dolphins? That’s like a dream come true. The sort of thing that most people don’t get to do.”

He envelops me in a deep hug and kisses me some more, making me feel special and like a princess. His treatment of me is something to seriously be admired. I can’t believe that I almost went through life without knowing what this is like. I was never treated so well by anyone I dated before, but that’s because I didn’t know what it was like to be with a real man. Now, I have a real man in my life and I’ll never let him go. I don’t even want to stop kissing him right now, but we have to swim with dolphins.

“This has officially been the best day of my whole life,” I tell Benji seriously as the stars twinkle above our beautifuloceanside dinner. “Honestly, everything about it has been perfect. I’ve enjoyed every moment. I don’t even want to go to sleep because I don’t want to end it. I just want to sit here with you until the sun rises and we can have more fun.”

The feelings have been circling around in my heart more intensely than ever before. I could explode under the intensity of what I’m experiencing for Benji right now. We have been growing closer every single day of our travels, but today is special. I can’t explain why, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but Iknowthat there’s something I need to say.

“Benji, can I tell you something?” He looks at me with his stunning, curious eyes. “I want to say something to you. It’s something that I’ve said before, I’ll be honest about that, and I meant it when I said it, even more than I realized at the time. But I’ve never said it without our lives being in danger and now I think it’s time. The perfect end to a perfect day.”

Benji sits up a little straighter in his seat and stares at me intently. I can almost see the cogs ticking in his brain while he tries to work out what I’m going to say. It’s obvious, really. As soon as it comes out, he’ll realize how clear it was, but this is sweet.

“Benji Mason.” A giant smile spreads across my face, practically stretching from ear to ear. “I love you, so freaking much.”

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