Captivate me a dark capt.., p.1
Captivate Me: A Dark Captive Romance, page 1
Copyright © 2023 by Harmony West
Cover Design © 2023 by Beholden Book Covers
Published by Westword Press
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
ISBN (paperback): 979-8-9881181-2-1
To the readers who want the prince and the beast.
Now turn the page, princess.
CONTENTS
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Harmony West
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This is a dark romance that features two separate couples and romance arcs: a captor/captive romance and a friends-to-lovers romance, told in four POVs.
Please be warned that the heroes and heroines of this story are morally gray characters. While the two major storylines may seem separate for much of the book, please rest assured that they do intersect by the end in a way that I hope is satisfying.
Content warnings and more information about my books can be found on my website: www.harmonywestbooks.com.
CHAPTER ONE
CASSIE
Every day, I have to watch the man I love kiss my best friend.
Theo St. James. Whose face I see in the constellations. Who I’ve been in love with since eighth grade.
When he smiles and bends down to kiss Noelle lying in the grass, I turn away, hoping Addison and Piper don’t notice how I can never seem to stomach watching the love birds.
Maybe they’ll assume I’m jealous that Noelle and Theo are in love while I’m perpetually single. Maybe they’ll miss that I’m only jealous because it’s her he’s in love with.
The sun beams down on us, an uncharacteristically warm day for March, hence the dozens of students stretched out like cats on the quad.
Theo plops down next to Noelle. “Hey, pretty girl.” Ugh. Gag me.
Actually, I wouldn’t mind Theo gagging me.
The light catches his profile, illuminating the sturdy edge of his jaw and the skin that’s already tan from baseball practices. His sandy hair falls in adorable curls over his temples and down the nape of his neck. His bicep swells as he props himself up with one arm. My mouth goes dry, but I have to pretend like it doesn’t. Four years later and I’m getting sick of pretending.
“Sorority girls only,” Addison’s nasally voice teases him. Her black dress clings to every curve—the one she’s wearing for Kyle when she sees him in class later, the guy who’s been leading her on since her freshman year. He takes her on a date, fucks her, then ghosts her for a week until she finds him in bed with another girl. She throws a tantrum, dresses hot to make him regret his decision, and the cycle begins anew.
“Leave him alone.” Piper swats Addison’s arm, batting her long, Disney-princess red hair over her shoulder. Then she coos at Noelle and Theo, “They’re in love.”
“We’re not nearly as bad as you and Neal,” Noelle objects, propping herself up on her elbows. A couple of guys passing by check her out. She gets so many looks that she doesn’t even notice. Meanwhile, girls like me, who would give anything to be noticed, stay invisible.
My outfit is cuter than usual today. In high school, I lived in ripped, faded jeans and frayed sweatshirts. Now that we’re in Chi Omega, I’ve upgraded my wardrobe, swiping my card knowing that the haul would cost me a whole paycheck. Today’s Instagrammable outfit is a gray skirt and black scoop neck blouse. But no one notices. Not when Noelle van Buren is beside me.
She’s in a white crop top and jeans. Though the outfit would look average on anyone else, she could pass for a glamorous French model. Her bleached blonde hair falls in perfect waves as always, and her makeup is just minimal enough to make you wonder if she’s wearing any at all.
Piper pretends to pick at her nails, but a little smirk plays at her lips. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“We can hear you two through our wall every night. Right, Cassie?” Noelle’s piercing blue gaze lands on me.
“Totally.” I do my best impression of Piper’s high, whiny moan, and Theo flushes crimson.
I bite back the smile that threatens to curl at my lips. I want to see him blush when he makes me moan for real. But I shake the thought away. He’s not mine.
When Noelle does an impression of Neal’s brutish grunts to accompany my moans, our friends laugh. Moments like these, I almost think Noelle and I are a good match. That it makes sense we’ve been best friends this long.
Then I remember everything she’s done.
Still, being close to Noelle means being close to Theo. I love everything about him. I love how easily he smiles. The happiness that always seems to glow from his perfect, bowtie lips to his sparkling green eyes.
I just wish he was smiling for me.
After high school, Theo and I were supposed to get into Westbrook University—one of the best STEM universities on the East Coast—and study for our respective STEM majors together. Noelle was supposed to attend Yale or some other Ivy League her parents bribed her way into. Noelle and Theo would realize long distance isn’t for them and break up.
Leaving Theo St. James all mine.
Except Noelle’s mom pushed her to come here. At least, that’s what she claims. I know the truth: Noelle wanted to trail her boyfriend like a comet’s tail. They’ve been together since ninth grade and her whole personality revolves around being the perfect girlfriend, the perfect daughter, the perfect student. She’s never lived her life just for herself.
Even with Theo’s hand in hers, Noelle’s attention drifts across the quad. If I was holding his hand, I wouldn’t be able to think about anything else. Not about my mounting workload, not about the classes I’m failing, not even about Hunter.
I yank a handful of grass from the dirt. No. I’m not thinking about him. Not now.
A guy in a black t-shirt with messy blond hair saunters down the sidewalk that separates the grassy slope of the quad from the brick bookstore. The front of his shirt reads SECURITY in all caps, and despite the heat, he’s wearing a leather jacket. Pretty sure that’s not part of the uniform, but he’s the kind of guy who doesn’t give a shit.
Beau Grayson. Most people call him Grayson, though the girls who fawn over him call him Mr. Grayson or sir to his face and daddy behind his back, even though he can’t be more than twenty-four or twenty-five.
According to Addison, he got fired from his last job as a corrections officer because he’d roughed up one too many inmates. Piper heard he sells coke to students, but Addison swears it’s pills. All I know is the scowl permanently etched into his face and the scar over his eye makes me stay far away from him.
Not every girl feels the same way, though. If the rumor is true, he’s shacking up in a different girl’s dorm every night.
My fists clench when I spot Noelle’s gaze still following him. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she’d happily have him in her bed too. But she’d be an idiot to throw away someone like Theo St. James for Beau Grayson.
“You know he’s an ex-con, right?” Addison’s voice drips with derision even as her thumbs fly over her phone screen.
I roll my eyes. “I heard he’s also got ten bodies buried in his backyard.”
Theo gives an appreciative chuckle while Piper’s doe-eyes fly open. “Oh my god!”
“She’s being sarcastic,” Addison tells her before her gaze lands on me. “You’ll be glad I warned you when you don’t end up the eleventh body.”
“He’s a security guard on a college campus. He passed a background check to be here,” I point out.
Addison’s gaze falls back to her phone, nails clicking as she types f uriously. “Right, because a murderer has never managed to pass a background check before. Either way, he’s creepy and weird.”
Says the girl who threw herself at him when she drunkenly stumbled home the other night. Beau escorted us back to the house after she puked in the bushes. Sure, he makes me uncomfortable, but we made it home in one piece, not body bags.
“I did hear he stabbed a guy,” Piper whispers. At least, her version of whispering. “And he’s always wearing that jacket. Do you think he’s hiding a bunch of knives under there?”
“Why don’t you go ask him?” Theo teases.
“Oh my god, no way!” Piper squeals. She and Addison are both juniors, but she still talks and acts like a fifteen-year-old sometimes.
“A knife fight would explain his scar,” Addison says.
The scar over Beau’s eye stretches from his brow to his cheekbone. No one knows how he got it because no one’s stupid enough to ask, but my money’s on a fight while he was in a psych ward.
Noelle remains silent, eyes trained on Beau, following him as he heads down the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets. Theo watches her while I watch him, and it’s like some sick love square except no one’s eyes are on me. I’m invisible.
Except . . . someone’s eyes are on me.
His eyes are on me.
Theo’s.
On my bare thighs first. Then the blouse that hugs over my breasts. Before finally resting on my face.
And when our gazes lock, he smiles.
My heart stops.
“We should head to ECV,” Noelle announces, breaking me out of my Theo-induced trance. At the mention of East Campus Village, my favorite dining hall, my mouth waters.
Noelle lets go of Theo’s hand and stands, leading the way.
I get why she was the queen bee of our high school. Why Theo chose her. Why everyone chooses her. Because she is the sun, and when her rays shine down on you, you’re the plant she breathes life into.
But sometimes, it’s hard to live in the sun’s shadow.
CHAPTER TWO
NOELLE
Someone is watching me.
I’m waiting for Theo on the steps in front of Arbor Hall, but I can’t find the eyes on me in the sea of students who rush past on their way out of class. Maybe it’s all in my head.
I return my focus to my sketchpad, shading in the newest drawing. Birds launching out of their pond and heading for the bright, blue sky. Searching for somewhere better.
Sometimes, I wish I could do the same. Find somewhere to hide out and pretend Perfect Noelle van Buren doesn’t exist for a little while.
The hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
This time, I spot him. Twenty feet away, a man is watching me.
A security guard. The one with the unruly, white-blond hair and a jagged scar over his eye. The one who makes my heart skip every time I catch a glimpse of him on campus.
Beau Grayson.
He’s leaning back against a low brick wall, arms crossed and gaze tracking my every move. Everyone thinks he’s dangerous because of the scar on his face and the tattoos across his knuckles.
But the real danger is in his eyes.
“Hey!”
I jump at Theo’s voice behind me. He chuckles and takes a seat beside me, and I flip my sketchpad closed. My sketches are like a diary, and Theo has long since learned not to ask to see them. “Hey. I figured I’d walk with you to practice before I head home. Family dinner tonight.”
Not looking forward to a second of that.
I glance back at the low brick wall, but Beau is gone. I should be unnerved that he was staring at me like that, yet my stomach dips with disappointment at his absence.
The smile falters on Theo’s face. “Actually, I was kind of hoping we could talk first.”
Theo takes my hand and leads me to a bench beside the pond, the inspiration behind my drawing. He pats the spot next to him before hunching forward, folding his hands between his knees and refusing to make eye contact.
I know exactly where this is going, and hope flutters in my gut as I clutch the sketchpad to my chest.
“This is really hard to say.” He straightens, rubbing his palms down his shorts.
“You want to break up.”
His head whips to me, eyes wide. “Uh . . . yeah. How did you know?”
I smile. “Because I’ve been your girlfriend since we were freshmen in high school. I know you.”
Theo has never really been into me, and my heart has never skipped at the sight of him. Sure, we’re a cute couple on Instagram, but he’s always felt more like a friend I take to school dances and kiss on the cheek. One awkward, failed attempt at sex last semester pretty much sealed the deal, but neither of us has had the guts to end it.
“Honestly, this relationship has always felt more like a friendship,” I admit.
His hand lands on his chest and a heavy sigh rushes out. “Thank god. I mean, I kind of figured you felt the same way, but I would’ve felt like such a dick if you didn’t.”
“Our moms are going to be in mourning for the next month, though.”
He chuckles. “They’re going to hold a memorial for our relationship. You know my mom’s already been calling you Mrs. Theo St. James.”
Our moms have been best friends since high school, and they’ve been planning my and Theo’s wedding since they found out they were pregnant at the same time. We were destined to be together. That’s why Theo asked me to homecoming freshman year. His mom knew I didn’t have a date and told him to ask me. Our families were so happy, we just kept going to dances together and started calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend.
But now we’re in college, and we both deserve more.
“We can still be friends, right?” Theo asks, like he’s actually worried I might say no.
“Of course. You’ve been my friend since we were in diapers. You’re stuck with me.”
He grins and pats my knee before standing. “Awesome. Enjoy your family dinner tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow?” He’s already backing toward the sidewalk, late for practice.
“See you then.”
On my way to the parking lot, I send a message to the group chat with Cassie, Addison, and Piper.
I have news. Video chat tonight after family dinner?
If I tell them over text, I know they’ll all flip out, expecting me to be far more heartbroken than I am. Worse, they may go after Theo with torches and pitchforks while I’m gone.
Home is only a thirty-minute drive away. Mother almost insisted I commute, but when I got accepted into Chi Omega, Dad pushed her to let me live on campus.
My parents aren’t home yet, so Angel, my ancient Labrador, barks when I walk in. I scratch her head and give her a treat before dumping my backpack on the kitchen island and digging in the fridge for an open bottle of wine.
I’m pouring a glass of Merlot when heels click into the kitchen. “Really, Noelle?” Mother’s voice is already icy. My spine goes rigid. “We agreed to a glass on holidays, not drinking like a fish. Being a college student doesn’t make you an adult. You’re still underage.”
She snatches the bottle and pours a glass for herself, marking it with her ruby lipstick.
A daughter who has a normal relationship with her mother would want to spill all the details of her breakup, but my mother is the last person I want to tell.
“Freshen up your makeup before we leave. And for the love of god, fix your hair. Please tell me no one saw you looking like that.”
