Chapter 25

The exhaustion and adrenaline of the last few days had finally caught up with Lauren by the time she found Dimitri again at the party, and despite her best intentions, she closed her eyes almost before she’d buckled herself into the rover. She came to groggily when the noise shut off again and she realized they’d returned to Dimitri’s villa. The night sky was an impossibly thick blanket of stars, and as Dimitri came around to her side, she struggled with the urge to pretend she was still asleep, if only to feel his arms around her once again.

She needn’t have worried. “The footing is treacherous,” he murmured as he unbuckled her. “Better for me to carry you.”

“It’s sand.” However, she didn’t protest as he scooped her into his arms , lifting her easily out of the beach rover and swinging her away.

“It’s very deceptive sand. One wrong move and you could slip and fall into it, and that would be very dangerous for you.”

“Oh?” She snaked her arms up around his head, turning him toward her. As he bent, she reached up and drifted her lips against his. “And how could all this soft sand be dangerous?”

He clearly didn’t need more of an invitation. He pressed his lips against hers gently at first, then with greater urgency, as if the intervening hours since their sunset lovemaking had been more like days or weeks. He braced her without any apparent effort, absorbing all her weight.

Desire stirred in her veins, clearing away the confusion of the tsipouro she’d consumed at the party but leaving all its liquid courage behind. “I think if I had a blanket to break my fall, the sand wouldn’t be so dangerous,” she murmured against his lips.

Dimitri barely shifted, balancing her against his hip as he reached into the back of the rover. A moment later, the thick weight of a blanket bumped against her hip. “I think you’re very wrong. But some lessons must be fully experienced to be learned.” He sighed as if he was shouldering a great burden. “I will endeavor to go easy on you this one time. But you must be made to understand.”

She laughed out loud at the ridiculous words, batting her hands against his body. “Let me go, you big ox.”

“Your wish is my command, princess.” And he did let her go, but their hands naturally found each other’s anyway as she tugged him across the sand. The breeze off the water was deliciously cool as they made their way toward the mysterious Aegean. There were villas high in the cliffs down the beach, but along this idyll, it seemed like they were the only people alive. That it was truly an island paradise shared only by the two of them.

Lauren allowed herself to indulge in the fantasy of being someone—anyone else. Not a well-known face from a tabloid-friendly family, but a girl who found herself alone on the beach with a big, strapping hunk of a man who seemed to want nothing more than to be dragged along behind her to a strip of water that surely was as familiar to him as the back of his own hand. With the warmth of the tsipouro smoothing her edges, she didn’t even worry about his is-he-or-isn’t-he-a-demigod status. He was just a man...and that was more than enough.

She stopped as they reached the small ridge that marked the tide line, the break between the deep, thick white sand and the damper, hard-packed sand that ran down to the water’s edge. “How cold is the water?”

“Too cold for swimming at night, I can tell you,” Dimitri rumbled. He dropped the blanket on the sand and kicked off his sandals. “Not too cold for dipping your feet in to feel in touch with its energy.”

She looked at him in surprise as she kicked off her own sandals. “That’s pretty poetic for a captain of the ONSF.”

“We are a surprising military in many ways.” He reached for her hand again, and she slipped her fingers into his. She wasn’t shy, she wasn’t cautious. No one could see them here in this hidden spot. No one needed her —couldn’t reach her if they wanted to. Her purse was all the way up in the rover, and she didn’t feel strange not being connected to her phone...because it wasn’t her phone. Her sister, Maddie, was the only one with access to it, and she also knew it wasn’t Lauren’s own phone. She wouldn’t call it unless something truly important happened. For the first time in longer than Lauren could remember, she was completely cut off. Isolated. It felt deliciously wicked.

Then again, she was cut off, isolated, and unconnected...while walking along the beach with the hottest guy she’d ever seen naked in her entire life. So there was that.

“Do I want to know what you’re thinking?” the hottest guy she’d ever seen naked asked beside her.

“You most definitely do not—oh...it’s warm.” They’d reached the water’s edge, and Lauren sighed with rich appreciation as the lapping tide skimmed over her toes. Her sundress barely brushed her knees, so she waded out farther, pulling Dimitri with her. He paused long enough to remove his pants, and she ogled him. He was wearing boxers, yes but...still.

He laughed at the expression on her face. “There’s no one on the beach but us, Lauren. If you would care to walk around in your underwear as well, the fish and birds won’t mind. And I definitely won’t mind. The sea nymphs, well—they might have an issue. But maybe they won’t notice.”

“I’m good.” Deliberately cataloguing his comment about sea nymphs to think about later, she admired his legs as he splashed into the water next to her. They were corded with muscle, yet he moved with the grace and assurance of someone who had been born to the sea. Once again, she thought about how different he was from anyone she’d ever met. Even the guys she knew who were total gym rats, whose musculature rivaled that of Dimitri’s, were infinitely different—their bodies too tight and blocky. No way could they move with Dimitri’s speed and agility, able to react and redirect at a second’s notice.

“You like what you see?” Confidence dripped from Dimitri’s words, but not in a self-mocking way. He knew she was staring, though she turned her gaze forward again quickly enough. Knew it and accepted it as his due. How many other women did he have pining after him, she wondered. His grandmother acted as if he was some kind of monk, but that was his grandmother. It wasn’t as if Dimitri would share his exploits with an old woman.

She wanted to know those exploits, though. After all, none of this was real. She could discover whatever she wanted, and it wouldn’t affect anything. “I suppose I should have asked this already, but do you have any sort of girlfriend or anything?” She tried to sound arch, but knew she came out sounding a little breathless instead. She didn’t care. Once again, none of this mattered.

Dimitri’s laugh soothed her nerves. “No, princess. No sort of girlfriend or anything. I would be a pretty poor excuse for a man if I had a girlfriend and yet managed to make love with you on my living room floor this afternoon, and once again beneath the stars tonight.”

“You seem very confident of how this evening is going to play out.”

He squeezed her hand. “I am well known for my strategic predictive abilities. You watch and see if it happens, and let me know how I do.”

“Well, your chivalry is noted. I can give you a list as long as my arm of guys I know who would have sex in a heartbeat—regardless of their relationship status—if they found themselves on a deserted island with someone who practically threw herself at them.”

“Miranos is not so deserted as that,” Dimitri said lightly. “But tell me about this throwing of yourself at me. It sounds like something I should be prepared for.” He stopped their walk and drew her close to him. “Like now, for instance. Show me now.”

Lauren couldn’t help herself. She allowed a giggle to escape as she pushed Dimitri away. “Well, to throw myself at you, I’ll need a running start. Don’t you know how this works at all?”

“My training in this maneuver is sadly lacking.”

She burst out with another laugh as she launched herself at him, splashing through the water and then jumping up, planning to push him over into the surf. Instead, he caught her easily, swinging her around in the water and locking her to his body, all heat and strength and laughter as he gathered her close. The water swirled and shimmied around them, the breeze kicking up the waves.

“I approve of this American practice of throwing,” he said. “We shall have to adopt it here in O?ros.”

“Well, you should be careful. You’ll never know what Americans might come flying out of the water at you when you least expect it.”

“I should enjoy that very much.”

Lauren’s breath caught as Dimitri leaned into her, nuzzling her mouth until she opened her lips to him. The warm breeze caressed her skin, the salt from the ocean water tasted uniquely perfect, and she sighed as he deepened the kiss, softening her hold on him until he cradled her in his arms.