Page 49 of Claimed By the Crown Prince

She knew she wouldn’t have slept with him unless she trusted him. And she did. Implicitly. She trusted him with her life.

Laia sat down heavily on a chair, her legs suddenly weak. At what point had she fallen in trust with him? She felt dizzy. She didn’t want to have feelings for Dax. He wasn’t the man she wanted to care about. Their lives weren’t aligned. They wanted different things.

Nothing had changed. She didn’t want him for anything beyond the physical. All that was between them was here and now. The present moment. For another day at the most. Twenty-four hours.

She was just feeling something for him because they’d been intimate, and she wasn’t experienced enough to divorce her emotions from the sex. That was all it was. A totally natural chemical response to what had happened.

She stood up again and ignored the fact that she still felt a little shaky. As if she hadn’t entirely convinced herself.

Dax had to be here somewhere.

After searching the media room and the pool, and still with no sign of Dax, Laia decided to put together a little brunch picnic and go down to the beach where she’d found him the other day.

When she emerged from the treeline she saw him straight away. He was sitting near the shoreline with his knees drawn up. His hair was wet—he’d obviously been swimming—and was wearing a pair of short swim trunks.

Laia was momentarily mesmerised by all that gleaming dark olive skin and muscle definition. She’d felt the awesome power in his body last night, and had a sense of how much it had taken for him to maintain control and be gentle with her.

As if sensing her behind him, he turned his head. She left the basket she’d brought under the trees, in the shade, and walked towards him.

She stood beside him, glad of the sunhat she wore. The hurt she’d felt that he’d not waited for her or made her breakfast still stung.

She pushed it away.

‘Here you are,’ she said.

‘You sounded busy.’

Laia frowned. ‘You heard me?’

Dax’s jaw clenched. He said, ‘Don’t worry, it wasn’t audible.’

Laia sank down beside him, guilt resurfacing. ‘You tried the door, didn’t you?’

‘I tested it, yes.’

Laia felt something very delicate unfurling inside her as she took in his tense demeanour. He was hurt.

Because she’d shut him out.

‘Dax, I did it without thinking. Not because I don’t trust you. The truth is that I was talking to one of my advisors about travelling back to Isla’Rosa, making arrangements.’

Dax smiled, but it was tight, humourless. ‘You’ve won—got your way. There will be no marriage.’

‘Not between me and your brother. No.’

He looked at her. ‘So there’s no real reason for me to stay here now, is there? Would you stop me leaving?’

Laia’s gut turned to stone. She knew what she had to say.

‘No, there’s no real reason for you to stay. Or me. Even if you told Aristedes where I am, there’s not much he can do about it now. If you want to leave, Dax, you can. But...’ She stalled.

Laia was ashamed to admit she was suddenly terrified. Terrified of what she wanted to ask and terrified of what Dax would do. This was his perfect opportunity to wreak revenge on her for having upended his life.

That cold blue gaze was so different from last night, when it had burned her alive. Laia shivered in spite of the heat.

He raised a brow. ‘But...?’

Laia dared herself to be vulnerable. ‘But I would like you to stay...until we have to leave.’