Billionaire's Captive Complete Trilogy - Stasia Black Page 0,141
the eyes.
“You woke me up. I get to live my life starting now. And I choose you.” She shivers, and I stop fighting my protective impulses and wrap her up in my arms. Or maybe I need it as much as she does. I need to hold her and feel that she’s real. I still can’t believe that happiness like this could actually be in reach for someone like me.
“Stay with me, Logan,” she whispers and I hold her tighter. “I don’t know who I am, or what I’m going to do, or where I’m going, but I want you. Not because of the patents. Not because of our past. Because of who you are …and who we could be.”
Thirty-Seven
Present Day
Daphne
The creaking floor wakes me. I blink in the honeyed morning light.
I haven’t slept this well since…since the last time Logan held me until I fell asleep. The bed is warm but he’s not beside me.
The lights are on. Huh. I squint and look around. My bedroom’s wallpaper is still faded, but the floor is swept clean...and everything smells like lemon cleanser. I sit up and that’s when I notice that I’m not lying on a pile of curtains anymore, but a legit mattress hovering off the ground on some sort of frame. And I’m super warm because I’m wrapped in a brand new looking sleeping bag.
“I thought you’d wake when I moved you to the camp bed, but you must have been tired,” Logan says from the door. I grin at the deep sound of his voice and look his way.
And damn, he’s fine. He’s dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt instead of the suit from last night. He’s holding a bunch of roses. And when I catch his gaze, well, let me tell you, I feel it all the way down to my lady bits.
“Are those for me?” I ask, pulling the sleeping bag up to my chin, feeling ridiculously shy and terribly happy all at the same time.
“Always.” He sits carefully on the edge of the bed and hands them to me. I immediately bury my face in the flowers.
“A bit early for these to bloom.”
“I had them delivered from my greenhouse. Along with…” he leans down and reaches into a giant hamper of food beside the bed. I gape at the full picnic spread laid out on a big plaid blanket. There’s even a mini propane stove with a shiny stovetop espresso maker.
“Oh my gods, Logan. Are we glamping?” I look up at him, excited.
Everything has just been so damn heavy lately. But after last night’s reconciliation…I have to say, I adore the playful spark in Logan’s eyes. I can’t remember the last time I saw it. He seems totally open, finally nothing held back. The boy I once knew in the body of the man I love.
He shrugs and uncaps a bottle of sparkling water. “Just until this place gets cleaned up. I turned the electricity back on. The water, too.” He takes the roses back and trades me the water bottle.
“I wanted you to wake up surrounded by roses. The garden’s overgrown, but I’ve made arrangements for gardeners and contractors to come. They’ll fix this place. I’ll fix everything.”
I lay my hand on his stubble roughed jaw. He turns his face and kisses my palm.
“You want to live here?” My laugh bounces between the bare walls. Only they’re not so bare, because he’s found the old frame for my diploma and awards, and rehung them.
“If you want. Daphne, I’ll give you everything. Just...come back to me.”
Logan
She’s looking at me with the whole world in her eyes. “Daphne?” I can’t bring myself to repeat my plea. I can only hope she’ll say yes.
“Silly man,” she says, “I never left.”
My exhale is half groan. I don’t move, afraid to break this moment. Afraid it will shatter. I’ll wake up from this dream.
“Daphne.” Her name is a light and I’m a lost man, staggering towards salvation.
“Logan. I choose you. I love you.”
Her words send electricity shooting through my body. I’ll never get tired of her saying that. In fact I think I’ll make her say it about a thousand times every day, and maybe two thousand times a day on the weekends. This sleeping bag is brand new, but it’s in the way. I rip it open to free her. I need to be inside her...now.
Daphne lets off peals of laughter, like little bells. Gods, she’s adorable. “What’s the rush? We have time.”