The Art of Wedding a Greek Billionaire Page 13

  Mairi’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “He was never really with me.”

  Drake didn’t move, torn between indecision. If he stuck with his promise not to interfere, then he could have Mairi out of the house and the country in under an hour. He could help her disappear if she wanted to.

  But was that really how he was supposed to make it up to Mairi?

  Goddammit, playing matchmaker was too fucking complicated.

  “Drake?”

  If it had been Paige…if Paige was here, what would she have asked him to do?

  Put it like that, and the answer was obvious. Fuck not interfering, Drake thought. Sometimes, life made people blind and idiotic, and it was up to people like him to temporarily take control.

  “We’ll take the back exit out of the house. It will be less conspicuous that way.”

  Mairi nodded, seeing the logic in his words. She wanted to tell him thank you, but she was overwhelmingly tired and just the thought of having to speak wearied her as well. She followed Drake mechanically, a part of her only faintly curious at how every room they passed had the lights switched off.

  Drake opened the back door for her, and Mairi, head still lowered, managed to mumble her thanks as she walked out of Damen’s house – and his life.

  “Surprise!”

  Huge powerful beams of light exploded from every corner as Mairi’s head jerked up in shock at the joyous shouts.

  The noise died down as all the lights swiveled towards her. It should have worked like a limelight, but with her eyes wild with panic and her fingers gripping the handle of her luggage tightly, it made Mairi appear like an escaping felon caught by prison lights.

  Her luggage fell from her fingers. Still in shock, she shakily lifted her hand to shield her gaze from the light. Her breath caught. Oh God, everyone was here.

  Reporters, scores and scores of them.

  Mandy and Velvet and Mykolas…

  Stavros and Ioniko…

  Diana and the rest of her class…

  Even her aunts, Norah and Vilma, were here…

  And at the center of it all was Damen, his face white with pain.

  Oh God, she hadn’t wanted it to be like this.

  Knowing that it might have looked like she was eloping with Drake, Mairi choked out, “Damen, I—”

  Damen shook his head. The pain was too much, and it took every bit of his strength to get past it. Every step he took to close the distance between him and Mairi was like trying to carry a fucking mountain, and when he was finally close enough to touch her, Damen said tonelessly, “Surprise…but I guess the surprise is on me.”

  “Oh God, Damen.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say, a piece of Mairi’s heart turning brittle at the sight of Damen’s taut form before falling into oblivion. “I’m so, so sorry.” She shook her head, whispering, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

  “Then…” He looked at her, knowing that by doing so, he was also exposing his every weakness to the world. “Don’t leave.” He spoke the words, even knowing that every bit of it would likely be recorded and broadcasted since he had practically invited the whole damn country to today’s party.

  Mairi stepped back from the words, unable to believe that Damen was asking her to stay even if he and everyone were probably thinking she was about to leave him for another man.

  Damen’s control nearly broke at the effort not to reach for her, and he had to clench his fists against his sides so he wouldn’t be tempted to haul her towards him and stop Mairi from getting closer to Drake.

  The stark pain etched on his face had Mairi covering her lips to keep the sobs at bay. “I’m so sorry.” No other words were safe for her to say.

  “Then stay,” Damen repeated. He no longer had any fucking pride left. Whatever he had to do to keep her from leaving him for Morrison, he would do.

  She shook her head. "I can't pretend anymore."

  Damen turned ashen. "I'll find a way to make it easier for you to pretend until...until you forget you're pretending."

  But Mairi only kept shaking her head. “I have to let you go—”

  Damen rasped out, “I don’t want you to let me go—”

  She cried out, “I have to!” Mairi’s gaze jerked towards him. “I’m not as weak as you think I am. I can survive without you, so you can stop feeling guilty, okay? I’m going to be fine.” She pressed a shaky hand to her tummy. “My baby and I will be fine. I’m going to be strong again—”

  “But I can’t.” Damen captured Mairi’s wrist when she tried to leave. He spun her around, forcing her to look at him. “Do you understand, Mairi?” he demanded, his voice made savage by the despair gnawing at him. “I’m the one who’s weak. I’m weak without you. I’m without hope, and I’m blind, deaf, dumb without you. So goddammit, take pity on me again.” His voice broke. “Please, take fucking pity on me and stay—”

  “I can’t.” Mairi wept hard at the way Damen was begging, every word causing more pieces of her heart to turn brittle. “I’m not the one you need—”

  “You are. You are, Mairi. The only thing I need.” Damen pressed something in her hands. “Read this, matakia mou. If you could just read this, maybe you’d understand…” Never had it felt harder to speak, the pain in his chest becoming more agonizing with every second that passed and Mairi’s desire to leave him didn’t seem to falter at all.

  “Please.” The whispered word was the best he could do, the pain and fear of losing Mairi crippling. “Please…it’s all there. Please.”

  Slowly, Mairi looked down at what Damen had given to her.

  A book.

  Fingers trembling, she flipped it around to see the cover, and another choked sob rushed out of her throat as she saw the title.

  The Art of Catching a Greek Billionaire.

  Oh God, oh God, oh God.

  Slowly, she opened the book.

  This is dedicated to my wife, a woman I was blessed to have found me.

  She caught me all right, but in truth I couldn’t slow down enough for her to catch me.

  “I don’t understand,” Mairi whispered.

  Damen’s hands closed around hers. “Catch me. Keep me. Make me your Greek billionaire forever.” He started speaking fast. “The outcome of the voting? It doesn’t really matter. I borrowed money from Sallis and Manolis, and I used it to buy a company that I turned around on my own.”

  Around them, the sound of gasps, murmurs, and fingers tapping on phone screens rose, everyone itching to find out what company Damen was talking about.

  Damen’s tone became urgent when Mairi still didn’t speak, only continuing to cry silently. “Do you understand what I’m saying, sweetheart?” He laid out all his cards on the table, uncaring that it made him appear like he was desperate to be caught. Why the fuck would he care when it was the truth?

  He tipped Mairi’s chin up. “I’m a billionaire again, Mairi.” His voice was raw. “So please…please. Catch me again and never let me go.”

  But when no word passed from Mairi’s lips, Damen knew then that he had lost.

  He knew it, but he still tried anyway because having her was the only reason he existed, and he knew that now. He would never forget it again. “Please...” Fear had him choking off, but he forced himself to continue. “I’m begging you…please.”

  Mairi clapped her hands over her mouth, trying her best to keep more sobs from coming out. The urge to give in was overwhelming, but she struggled to resist it.

  The pain etched on Damen’s face forced her to close her eyes. Why was he trying so hard to keep her? Why couldn’t he just forget about his honor and be with Alina?

  She lowered one hand to her stomach, her way of letting her baby know when Mairi was talking to him or her. You understand I’m doing this for you, don’t you, little one? I don’t want you to grow up seeing your mother so weak and your father—

  Her head shot up, her stricken gaze flying to Damen.

  Damen’s affinity and empathy f
or children was one of his little-known traits, something she knew he had developed from having been raised by two self-absorbed parents. It was why he was overly protective with Diana, why he strove to be his sister’s surrogate parent. He hadn’t wanted the young girl to feel the same emptiness that had marked his childhood.

  Damen would never be the type to give up his child. When it came to children, to innocents depending on him like Diana, Damen would stop at nothing to protect them, his honor, his reputation be damned.

  So why wasn’t he stopping her from leaving him, knowing it meant Mairi would be taking their baby away from him? Why was he allowing her to do what would hurt him most terribly?

  Dimly, Damen heard women in the background crying, and he knew it was probably because he was that pathetic. He didn’t give a shit. His eyes never leaving Mairi, he said hoarsely, “You don’t have to come back right away. Just…stay. Let me show you I’m a…” The ache to hold Mairi and keep her from leaving had Damen stumbling all over his words.

  Mairi held her breath, waiting for him to talk about their baby, to have him throw her selfishness in her face for choosing to raise her child without two parents.

  Damen’s nerves were stretched so taut he had a feeling he would collapse the moment Mairi turned her back on him. But he continued stubbornly because the alternative was far bleaker. “I won’t force you to see me or talk to me. Just let me…just give me time to prove to you I can be a great catch again.”

  Mairi whispered past dry lips, “Why…aren’t you saying anything about me taking our baby away from you?”

  Damen stilled.

  “Why, Damen?”

  Damen didn’t answer.

  And that was when she knew.

  If he had spoken, she might not have believed him. Words came so cheap, and the pain of his betrayal was so great that she had a feeling no words could ever make her believe him again.

  If he had told her now he had not been cheating on her with Alina, she wouldn’t have believed him. Even if he had Alina say the same thing, even if he threatened to kill himself if she didn’t believe him, she would still think he was lying.

  But this…

  Damen, not telling her what they both knew because he didn’t want her to feel guilty.

  Damen, not saying anything about his ability to fight for custody because he knew if he did manage to take their baby away from Mairi, it would kill her.

  And so he had chosen to kill himself instead.

  He had chosen to risk making his child think of him as the one thing he despised the most, and that was an uncaring parent like Esther Leventis.

  For her.

  Because he really loved Mairi.

  “Just catch me one more time, and I won’t ever give you a reason to regret it. Just please make me yours—”

  Mairi threw herself at him.

  Damen’s arms wrapped around her waist instinctively the same time Mairi’s arms curled around his neck.

  So many questions flashed through her mind, but she pushed them away. There was time to have them answered later. Her faith in Damen Leventis was restored, the love she had tried so hard to quell bursting out of her heart like an unstoppable flow.

  Closing her eyes, she hugged Damen tightly, whispering, “Caught.”

  For a moment, Damen was frozen, unable to believe that Mairi was giving him another chance. But when she stayed in his arms, never making any move to go, relief exploded inside him, and his hand shook as he stroked her hair. His voice ragged, he asked, “How long?”

  Mairi’s fingers curled against his nape tensely. She knew that when she said the words, she would be taking the biggest risk of her life – and of her child’s.

  If she was smart, she would leave Damen Leventis and lead a quiet life alone.

  But she didn’t want to be smart.

  She wanted to take a risk like Damen did.

  And so she whispered, “For as long as you love me—”

  The rest of her words was smothered in his kiss.

  “Then consider me caught forever, Mrs. Leventis,” Damen muttered before ravaging his wife’s lips. “There’s nothing in this life that will make me stop loving you.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  She said: To wed a Greek billionaire, one shall be ready for involvement with innovative experiments.

  He said: You mean kinky.

  She said: You said that, not me.

  He said: No more innovative experiments for you if you do not say the K-word.

  She said: K…I can’t say it. But I’m thinking it and it’s the thought that counts, right?

  Hours later, Mandy and Velvet crowded around her, each of them holding copies of Damen’s book. “Pleeeeaaaase sign our copies, Mrs. Leventis,” Velvet begged in an exaggeratedly loud voice as she fluttered her lashes.

  “Shut up,” Mairi said laughingly.

  Mandy forced her friend to take her copy. “Sign it.”

  Velvet handed Mairi a pen. “And don’t forget to sign it with A Greek Billionaire’s Wife.”

  She shook her head, trying to be strong. “No.”

  Her friends looked at her. “You know you want to,” Velvet said slyly.

  “No.” She was a respectable missus now.

  They still just looked at her, their gazes ever knowing.

  Oh, what the heck!

  Velvet and Mandy burst into laughter as they watched Mairi sign their copies with her four most favorite words. When she returned the copies to her friends, she saw them looking at her with expectant expressions.

  Mairi blinked. “What?”

  Mandy grinned. “Go on, say it.”

  Oh, how well they knew her.

  And how terribly lucky she was that they had never abandoned her.

  Tears stinging her eyes, Mairi said, “Yay me!” She threw her arms around them. “Group hug!”

  “Ewww,” Velvet automatically protested, always the one uncomfortable with emotional displays.

  “Oh, hush. You should be used to PDA by now after what you’ve been doing with your own Greek billionaire.”

  Mandy said promptly, “I’m not married to a Greek billionaire, so you can let go of me anytime.” The ever practical sort, Mandy also saw no valid reason why affectionate displays should be made in public.

  Grinning, Mairi hugged her friends more tightly. “Yay me!”

  Mandy and Velvet groaned. “We’ve created a monster.”

  This made Mairi laugh out loud, the sound drawing the attention of her husband who stood a few feet away, surrounded by his own circle of acquaintances. She sensed the very moment Damen looked at her, and when their gazes met, a devastatingly sexy smile curved on his lips.

  Come here.

  Mairi let go of her friends. “Excuse me. My Greek billionaire husband is calling me.”

  Mandy smacked her forehead. “This is your fault, Velvet. Now she’s going to call Damen that forever.”

  Mairi didn’t mind her friend’s words. She was mentally floating as she made her way to Damen. Yay me, yay me, yay me!

  Damen captured her by the waist as he pulled her to his side. “I love you.”

  Mairi melted. “I love you more, my Greek billionaire husband.”

  Behind her, Velvet and Mandy groaned loudly, having heard perfectly what Mairi had said with such gushing happiness.

  Mykolas’ lips twitched. “I believe I have to rescue my wife and her friend.” Velvet and Mandy were making slow slashing motions against their necks.

  When Mykolas left the group, Damen motioned for Mairi to face him, and that was when she saw the unfamiliar-looking man standing next to her husband. “Mairi, I’d like you to meet Acheron. He is Yehor Kokinos’ nephew and the true heir of the family.”

  The introduction had Mairi blinking, but she automatically offered her hand and blushed when instead of shaking it, the man bent down and kissed her fingers.

  Damen swiftly snatched his wife’s hand away from the other man’s grasp. “Dammit, Acheron. I don’t
want to be kicking your ass on the first day we meet.”

  Acheron didn’t appear worried at all by the threat. There was something uncivilized and lethal about him, Mairi thought curiously. He was a Greek billionaire like the rest of the men around him were, but he was also a man apart – a man who hadn’t grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth.

  “You should thank your lucky stars that I had not met your lovely wife first. If I had…” Acheron’s voice trailed off, allowing his seductive smile to finish the rest of his sentence.

  Despite knowing that the other man was only saying such things because he wanted to irritate Damen, Mairi blushed at the look Acheron gave her.

  “Leventis is fortunate,” Ioniko agreed. “I had always thought he was unbelievably lucky to have talked to Mairi first when both of us went to GAYL.”

  For some reason, the memory of meeting Ioniko the first time made her blush, too. Or maybe it was because of the naked admiration in the Greek billionaire’s eyes as he, too, smiled at her.

  “I think the same,” Stavros murmured in that quiet, calm way of his. “It’s Leventis’ infinite luck that I had not found Mairi’s whereabouts—”

  “Lucky or not, none of that matters now,” Damen snapped, irritated at the way the other men dared to flirt with his wife. Pulling Mairi towards him possessively, he stated in clear concise terms, “Mairi is mine.” After a beat, he added generously, “But you are all welcome to form a club of course.”

  Mairi blinked in confusion. “A club?”

  He grinned down at her before lifting his wine glass in the air. “I propose a toast, gentlemen.” When the other men had lifted their glasses, Damen said, “To the men who were and might have been dumped by Mairi.”

  The men laughed even as Mairi wailed in embarrassment. “Damen!”

  The party ended at a riotous note, with most of the guests blissfully tipsy as they trooped out of Damen’s house at five in the morning.

  When Damen caught sight of Mairi yawning for the second time in five minutes, he muttered, “That’s it.” Without a word of warning, he swung her up in his arms and took the stairs.

  “But there are still guests,” Mairi protested.