Page 52 of Claimed By the Crown Prince

She didn’t even bother protesting. She was enjoying the view of his muscular buttocks too much. She pushed aside all maddening thoughts of other women aside. She was here with him now, and he was staying because he wanted to. That was all that mattered.

Dax was lying on the sarong that Laia had brought down to the beach. They were drying off in the sun, near the shore.

His stomach still hurt from laughing at Laia’s indignant face after her dunking.

She’d actually said, ‘You do realise I’m about to be crowned Queen?’ And so he’d dunked her again.

He said now, ‘I can’t remember the last time I laughed that much.’

Laia huffed. ‘You’re easily pleased.’

Dax came up on an elbow and looked down at Laia. Her eyes were closed. Lashes long and dark on her cheeks. Her skin had taken on a deeper golden glow. That bikini needed to come with a health warning. It barely covered the firm swells of her breasts.

Her eyes opened and Dax looked away.

She squinted up at him. ‘Whenwasthe last time you laughed like that?’

It hadn’t been with a woman. No woman had ever made him laugh. He knew when, and it made him melancholic. ‘With Ari...when we were kids. Before he had to start going to his lessons.’

Dax put his hand on Laia’s flat belly, spreading his fingers out, revelling in the way her muscles quivered a little under his touch.

Laia came up on her elbow now, and Dax’s hand moved to the dip in her waist. ‘What happened with your mother?’

To his surprise, Dax didn’t automatically feel like shutting down her question. It was as if something had been defused inside him.

He squeezed Laia’s waist gently, and then said, ‘Whatdidn’thappen is the question.’

Laia’s eyes filled with emotion. ‘If you don’t want to talk about it...’

Dax had never spoken about this to anyone. The only other person who knew was Ari, and even he didn’t know everything. Because Dax had kept it from him, not wanting to burden him.

‘She was a broken woman. In emotional pain. She felt trapped... She probably could have left and moved on. But she didn’t. She was too proud. So she hid the pain, or thought she hid it, by taking pills. By drinking. By eating and purging.’

Laia touched the tattoo of the caged bird on Dax’s chest. ‘This is about your mother, isn’t it?’

Dax’s jaw clenched. ‘Love is a trap. It cages you. It caged her. It caged your father...he never moved on.’

‘I never saw it like that, but you’re right. He tried to move on with the affair, but the guilt of it caged him for the rest of his life.’

Laia took her hand away from Dax’s chest. ‘Your mother depended on you, didn’t she? Too much.’

Dax didn’t answer for a long moment, and then he took his hand off her waist and sat up, drawing his knees up. He looked out to sea.

‘I was the only one close enough that shecouldtalk to. Ari was busy. Her husband was taunting her...she had no close girlfriends or family. She was lonely.’

Laia sat up too, curling her legs under her. ‘You were very young to be taken into her confidence like that. She was the adult.’

‘Most of the time I felt like the adult. I was even putting her to bed at night.’

‘Dax...’

‘The day of the crash...she was really out of it. But she wanted to go out. Insisted. I only went with her because she refused to listen to me. I was worried.’

Laia spoke carefully. ‘You weren’t driving the car, were you?Shewas...’

CHAPTER NINE

AMUSCLEPULSEDin Dax’s jaw. He looked at Laia and she nearly gasped out loud. There was so much pain in his eyes. Pain and...guilt.

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