Chapter 47

Lauren fought not to burst into tears again. Instead, she closed her eyes, willing herself toward calm. Which was why she didn’t see Dimitri as he leaned toward her, didn’t know he was doing that until he brushed his lips against her brow. “You don’t need to compose your face into a camera-worthy smile, Lauren,” he murmured. “There’s no one to see you but me, and I have already seen the truth.”

“You haven’t,” she said, shaking her head. But she opened her eyes again, struggling to see him clearly. “You don’t know anything about the truth of how I feel.”

Dimitri’s own smile was infinitely tender. “I do. You were on your knees and pleading for my life not six hours ago, princess. You don’t do that for a mere bodyguard, not that convincingly.”

She sniffed. “I’m a very good actress.”

“You’re a very good actress to someone who hasn’t held you in his arms and watched you sleep. You’re a very good actress to someone who hasn’t sat across from you as you tried to lie your way out of a conversation time after time after time. You’re a very good actress to someone who hasn’t seen you defend your friends—whether in public or in the bedroom of a castle, or to someone who hasn’t seen your face when you thought all was lost.”

“Really.” She scowled up at him. “And what are you seeing now?”

“I see a woman who’s in love but not sure she should let herself be, a woman so used to disappointment in life—in her precisely arranged and beautifully decorated life—that she pushes away the possibility of great joy if only to avoid the potential of pain or mediocrity. And I see a woman who hasn’t stopped touching me since we met. Who’s been unable to stop looking at me since we met.”

“That’s not true!” Embarrassment flooded her cheeks, but Dimitri picked her up bodily and held her to him, bending her back as he kissed her lips, the unbandaged portion of her neck, every inch of her skin that he could reach.

“It’s not only true, it’s a good thing,” he said, his breath hot against her skin. “Because since the moment you strode into the prince’s circle on the beach just a few weeks ago, I’ve not been able to stop looking at you, touching you, tasting you. And I don’t plan on giving that up anytime soon.” He held her close. “So what’ll it be? Will you give this future a try, or will you return to your pale walls and pale men and pale life?”

“It has to be on my terms,” Lauren said, sounding desperate to her own ears. Desperate—and strangely right too. “My world. My terms.”

“Of course,” he said. “And what are your terms, Lauren Grant, so that I’m sure to get them straight?”

“I’m working on that.” She stared at him, disbelieving but unable to deny the fierce resolve in his gaze, in his body, in his strength. He was giving her...everything. If only she could take it. If only she would. “I do know I want you in my life, though. Here, wherever. Until I change my mind—or you do—or?—”

“We will handle any changes as they come,” he allowed. “But until then...”

“Until then...” She met his gaze head-on, pouring everything she couldn’t say into the only words she could. “Please don’t let go of me, Dimitri. Please don’t ever let me go.”

His sigh of relief was so deep that it sounded like it came from bottom of the ocean, then he grinned and drew her close again. “Your wish is my command, princess.”

Thank you for reading CAPTURED! Lauren’s and Dimitri’s story was too big to be completely wrapped up in one story, but we’ll leave them to learning about each other a bit more and catch up with them in a future epilogue! For now, the adventures of O?ros continue as a demigod spy with ice in his veins reluctantly teams up with a hot-blooded adventure girl in CLAIMED, where Stefan and Nicki lock horns…

I’ve giventhe gods everything. They’re not getting her, too.

As the chief diplomatic ambassador of O?ros, there’s no challenge I won’t accept from the crown. No task too dirty, no op too dangerous. After all, I was committed to serving this country by Hermes himself—and as a demigod of trickery, subterfuge and adventure, I know life is the ultimate game.

Then the crown asks me to team up with a daredevil American who sets my blood boiling and my teeth on edge, the two of us assigned a dangerous mission to find the long-lost royal son. How can I protect this woman who tempts the fates so blatantly, always taking the most dangerous course, the riskiest leaps, and never seeming to care if the next adventure will be her last?

I’ll just have to give her something to live for.