Captured and Crowned Read Online Free PDF Page A

strength as attractive as her beauty.
    Yet what good did their desire do them? He despised her for betraying his brother, and she hated him for forcing her to honor her betrothal contract. As if he had a choice!
    â€œIf the wedding is over a week away, then why must I return to Angyra now?” she asked.
    Because he wanted her close by. He wanted to watch her. Touch her. Capture her lips with his and silence her protests for once and for all.
    He just caught himself from tossing out that paternal wave that was coming far too naturally. “There is much unrest with the people over the King’s death and now Gregor’s abdication. They need to see that we are a united front. That they will soon have a King and Queen leading their country again. That Angyra will be stable.”
    And, as his advisors had suggested, his own status among the people was tarnished from his loose lifestyle. They saw him as the wastrel son. The playboy who chose to party over duty.
    As for Demetria—they loved her. She was the fairy princess they’d watched grow up. They’d waited for the day she would become their beautiful young Queen.
    They didn’t know the truth about her—that she was a beguiling tease. A flirt. Thank God it had been him she’d met on the beach that day!
    Just thinking of her doing the same with another man filled him with rage. Had she made a practice of this?
    â€œI assume you’ve discussed this with my father?” she said at last, sounding resigned. Defeated.
    â€œYes. He is aware I am bringing you to Angyra,” he said.
    â€œHe’ll join me there, then?”
    â€œNo. Your father is invited to the palace the day before the wedding,” he said.
    Her eyes rounded. “I’ll be there alone with you?”
    â€œCome, now. We’ve already shared an intimacy.”
    â€œTo my shame,” she whispered.
    â€œWas it, Demetria?”
    Her lips parted the slightest bit, just as full and inviting as they’d been that day. He wanted her still. In truth his desire for her had not ebbed in the least.
    â€œNow, tell me why I found you in a draper’s shop when your father told me you were off shopping for your trousseau.”
    Her cheeks turned a charming pink—proof he’d caught her in a lie. “If you must know, I was buying cloth for my design partner. The Athens fashion show is in two weeks, and it was to be my debut in the design world.”
    He stared at her, unsure what to say to that surprising news. “Your father allowed you to hold a job?”
    â€œIt’s a career. And, yes, my partner and I have designed clothes for the past year and a half.”
    â€œWas Gregor aware of this?”
    â€œHe was, and he advised me a year ago that it must end when I became Queen.”
    â€œBut of course. The very idea is ludicrous. The Queen of Angyra would never hold a job .”
    â€œCareer,” she countered, in the breath of a whisper. And yet he heard the defiance in that singular word.
    That explained why she was in Istanbul shopping for fabric. She was bent on living her life as a designer up until the eleventh hour, when she’d be forced to marry.
    â€œIf there is any way we can put the wedding off until after the Athens show—” she said.
    â€œAbsolutely not. The marriage must proceed as planned.”
    The pleasure he’d thought to gain from besting her eluded him. Not that feelings had any place in duty. He was honor-bound to take up the reins his brother had relinquished.
    â€œYour role is to be my faithful wife and mother to my heirs,” he said, putting emphasis on the importance of fidelity while fighting the overwhelming urge to take her in his arms and remind her that they had been very good together one stolen afternoon.
    The contradictions she dredged up in him made no sense. He hated this off-balance feeling that gripped him when hewas with her, for he didn’t know what to do that