Mairi stumbled at Ioniko’s name and the reporters tried to press forward like hounds sensing a kill, wanting to capture any kind of look on Mairi’s face. But Damen had schooled her well, and she kept her face down, not looking at any of them.
If only, she thought wistfully, she could be as cool as Damen. How did he do it, walking like it was normal to wear dark glasses on a rainy day? It didn’t make sense but he made it look like it was the fashionable thing to do.
As they neared the limousine, one of the reporters shouted, “Do you think your sister approves of your wedding?”
Mairi paled at the question.
“What about your potential brother-in-law, Stavros Manolis—”
Mairi’s head snapped towards the press at the last question.
Click.
Damen hauled her back to his side. “Ignore them,” he said harshly as he tried to keep pace with Mairi, doing his best not to cause her to run towards the limousine waiting for them at the end of the tarmac. Would he cause another scandal if he simply swept her up in his arms? Probably, Damen thought, but right now he was close to not caring.
When they were inside the limousine, Damen and Mairi sat apart on the same side. He waited for her to say something.
She didn’t.
Stavros Manolis. Mairi was in a daze. Could it be the same man? She turned to Damen, seeking answers to the jumbled questions in her mind, her instincts telling her that if there was something she could not solve, Damen could and would help her with it.
The look of entreaty on Mairi’s face made Damen want to curse. She was silently asking questions he did not want her to ask, but when she looked at him like he was her f**king knight – even after everything – Damen knew he would do whatever she damn asked, even if it meant having his heart on a platter.
“Stavros Manolis was there at the school when I broke my engagement to Alina.”
For once, the name of the girl who once had the right to stand next to Damen did not make her wince, Mairi’s attention completely focused on the name that she hadn’t ever expected to hear again in connection with her.
Gazing unseeingly down at her lap, she said slowly, “I knew of a Stavros Manolis once—”
“He is the same Stavros that you know of.”
Her head jerked up. “How could you know?”
He shrugged, lying, “I saw him at the school. There was something on his face that told me he knew you.”
He waited for her to continue from there, to let him know about her past with Manolis, but she didn’t. Finally he asked, “What are your plans for today?” The guilty look that darted towards him made Damen’s fists clench. She had been so lost in her thoughts of another man she had f**king forgotten he, Damen Leventis, was here with her.
Mairi mumbled, “I’m going to, umm, work out.” Exercise had become therapeutic, the way things that used to be confusing became suddenly clear by the time she had run herself to the ground. And this time, she was more confused than ever but Damen probably wouldn’t like knowing that.
She was trying to hide her thoughts from him. Damen knew her too well for it to work, but it was a fact Mairi would not likely believe because of their short and pain-filled past.
He heard himself saying, “I’ll work out with you.”
Her surprised gaze flew to him. “Y-you will?”
Damen answered with a careless shrug, “I don’t see why not. I do not have anything scheduled for the day.”
She blurted out, “But you hate working out with me.”
Color stained his hard high-boned cheeks. “I did not exactly say that—”
“You practically did then,” she said, still bemused at Damen’s unexpected announcement. “The last time we jogged, you told me I was slower than a turtle.”
“I meant it like an endearment—”
“And the last time we went to the gym and I was on the treadmill, you told me that I didn’t know how to run properly—”
“Your br**sts shook too much—”
Mairi threw her hands up. “How can I stop them from shaking?”
Knowing full well he had been and was still being unreasonable about the topic concerning her br**sts – which really shook too much, making the sight exceptionally arousing for any man – Damen said flatly instead, “Just tell me if you do not care for my company.”
At the words, Mairi snapped her mouth shut with a sigh.
He was so sly.
“You know I always want to be with you,” Mairi mumbled.
And again, he was disarmed.
She was so sly.
Wordlessly, Damen closed the distance between them and his hand clasped her nape. When she turned towards him, his lips took hers in a kiss that soothed whatever had to be soothed. For once, passion didn’t flare up, the kiss remaining sweet and tender between them.
Even so, when Damen lifted his head, her eyes were wide with wonder and she said dreamily, “Hi.”
He laughed.
She really was so sly, the way she got under his skin all the time, but he was not complaining.
“Hi,” he said huskily. “We’re okay now, matakia mou?”
She nodded, a dreamy expression still on her face.
“Good. We’ll work out as you planned.” She nodded in the same obedient manner, making him laugh. “It will not be a problem to appreciate this submissive part of you.”
“Anything you want,” she told him.
His gaze became hooded, Damen being ruthless enough not to let that promise slip by. “Anything?”
She nodded dutifully.
“Good. Then you will tell me about Stavros, won’t you?”
Chapter Four
“So we were in high school…” Her voice bounced off the walls of the vast basement gym, its décor and range of state-of-the-art exercise equipment at par with the world’s most popular fitness centers.
The words caused a rather inelegant snort to come out from Damen Leventis, a Greek billionaire who used to be famous for his irreproachable manners.
Seated on the floor, knees pulled up, Mairi shook her head in exasperation at the sound, her ponytail bouncing as she did. “I haven’t even said anything about him!”
Damen’s broad shoulders moved in an arrogant shrug. Crouching down on one knee, he said with a grunt, “Just get on with the story.” Positioning himself to assist Mairi with her sit-ups, he placed his hands on her feet, applying a small amount of pressure.
This close, she couldn’t help but gape. He wore nothing but jersey shorts and trainers, making him a mouthwateringly sexy sight that even now kept Mairi’s throat dry. All those rippling muscles and golden skin…