Total pages in book: 189
Estimated words: 178200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 713(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 178200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 713(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
Seeing her legs bare was enough to have Damen hard. It used to surprise him, the way his body was so quickly aroused by almost anything that had to do with Mairi. He had never felt like this with any woman – and he had bedded so many. But then, he had never fallen in love with any of them.
Only Mairi had captured his heart. It was thus no longer so strange that she owned his body, too.
Damen spread thick blankets over her, and Mairi immediately huddled under it like a child. The unconscious action had Damen smiling. All the women he had dated had been calculating, always wanting to have their wares on display, even in their sleep.
Kissing her on the forehead, Damen quietly left their bedroom and went to his study, wanting to check his emails before joining Mairi in bed.
He worked through his emails steadily and only one of them made him pause. It was a report from the private investigator he had hired, succinctly written and pointing to one clear fact: Ioniko Vlahos still wasn’t seen dating any other woman.
Considering the fact that Ioniko was one of Greece’s most notorious playboys, the report was ultimately displeasing.
First Stavros, and then now Ioniko appeared to still be in the picture.
Sometimes, he could not help but consider how life would be a lot simpler if he had fallen for a gold digger. At least with gold diggers, he could be sure that his wealth alone, should it surpass Manolis’ and Vlahos’ fortunes, would keep a woman loyal. But with Mairi?
Damen was just not at all sure his love would be enough to prevent her from realizing that she deserved a far better man than him.
Chapter 1
A week later
For a moment, she stood arrested behind the sliding glass doors, her heart hopelessly entranced by the man who worked behind the desk. Dark-haired and olive skinned, his stunning Mediterranean features were made more prominent by the whiteness of his shirt, its unbuttoned state revealing the wide muscular expanse of his chest.
The frown on his face made her own chest twinge. Even without him saying a word, she knew what was going on behind closed doors. There wasn’t one article printed about the struggles that Damen Leventis now faced but she knew those problems existed, and it hurt that he was suffering for choosing to love her.
He had turned his back on the Kokinos family, who owned one of the most powerful and largest shipping empires in the world. And he had made an enemy out of them when he broke his engagement to the Kokinos heiress the same night he had declared his love for an American schoolteacher, a nobody who—-
The gorgeous Greek billionaire seated behind the impressive looking mahogany desk looked up, his dark eyes unerringly finding her.
The nobody who loved him with all her heart.
If there was one thing in the world she could ask God for, Mairi thought wistfully, then it would be that Damen would always know she loved him more than anything else in the world. It was the silliest wish, but she wished it with all her heart.
He waved for her to come in, a small gesture that was commanding all the same because it came from a man who was completely used to being in power.
She quickly stepped forward within the range of the motion sensors and the glass doors slid open. By the time she had crossed the room, Mairi had already slipped into the role that was expected of her – or at least a role that she expected of herself.
This man had sacrificed so much for her.
The least she could do was be everything a woman in love should be.
Damen watched his lover gracefully walk towards him, carrying a tray that bore a cup of his favorite kind of coffee and a plate of Greek delicacies that he knew she had personally prepared for him as well.
She carefully placed the tray down on the coffee table, asking lightly, “Still busy?”
Damen closed the folder of the files he had been studying, all of them reflecting the downward trend of his company’s stocks. “I’m never too busy for you,” he said, beckoning for her to come close with one arm. When she was close enough, he pulled her swiftly towards him and captured her lips with a kiss.
Her arms went around his neck. His tension communicated itself to her, and wanting to relieve Damen of his stress, she pulled away, tiptoed, and whispered in his ear, “I have a request then.” She was already red-faced by the time she finished speaking, the thought of what she was about to ask making her feel faint.
Sensing her embarrassment, he gazed down at her in puzzlement. “Whatever you want, I will give it to you.” As he spoke the words, an insidious thought made its way to his mind, something so vile that he quickly pushed it away.