A Fling with the Greek Billionaire (14 page)

She halted midway, unwilling to come any closer. If she did, she had a feeling she would probably expire out of sheer distress.

Despite her state of misery and shock, she couldn’t help observing painfully how the two of them looked good together. The couple had immediately come to their feet the moment she entered. Nik looked dashingly handsome in his black suit, his dark eyes cold and his expression aloof. Beside him, Miranda, in her white lace dress and matching shoes, was still perfectly small, perfectly blond, and perfectly feminine.
 

Daria wanted to hate her, but she tried not to because only bitches hated other women for being perfect. She might be a flirt, but she at least drew the line at being a bitch.

“Ms. Everest, thank you for coming,” Miranda said in a perfectly pleasant voice.
 

She could listen to that voice forever
, Daria thought. Everything about Miranda was just so perfect. It almost gave her a perverse and obsessive kind of pleasure, counting the number of ways she came up short when compared to the other woman.

As Miranda spoke, she closed the distance between them, Nik following shortly behind. Daria tried hard not to stare at Nik the whole time.

Miranda offered her hand, and Daria forced herself to take it. She also made an effort not to crush the other woman’s doll-like fingers. God, those fingers were so thin and tiny. Surely it was impossible those fingers had muscles and real flesh like hers?

When Miranda stepped back, Daria saw her side brush against Nik, and the rollercoaster that carried her heart took a nosedive at the sight.

Her gaze flew up to the ceiling.
Don’t cry. You shouldn’t cry. You don’t deserve to cry.

But when she looked back at the couple, Daria was startled to notice that a good half-foot separated them. Her gaze flickered towards Miranda’s, and that was when she saw the faint apology in the other woman’s blue eyes.
I’m sorry that hurt you. We didn’t mean to.

How perfectly, graciously forgiving of Miranda. Daria wanted to kill herself on the spot after it.

 
“I know you’re surprised to see us.” Miranda’s voice was filled with remorse. “I’m sorry about the little bit of subterfuge I had to use to get you to come here.”

Daria was determined to be as gracious as the other woman was. So she said, “Are you, really?” Her mouth snapped shut.
Shit. So much for gracious.
 

But Miranda didn’t seem bothered by her childish comeback. She only said with quiet dignity, “I know how it looks like, and I’m sorry.”

And with that
, Daria thought miserably,
Miranda had proved who the bitch between the two of them was.

 
“I haven’t stopped thinking about that time in Teleios, and one day, I just realized I couldn’t live with myself anymore until I made everything right with you.”

Miranda squared her dainty shoulders and looked at Daria. “Firstly, I’d like to apologize to you, for everything that I said which had hurt you.”

Daria knew she should officially accept the apology, but she just couldn’t. The three of them knew if anyone was supposed to say sorry, it should be her. But she just couldn’t make herself do that either.

When it was clear Daria wouldn’t speak, Miranda hesitated a moment before continuing, “I know things like this sometimes can’t be controlled.”

Things like this? A perfect understatement,
Daria thought,
to describe what she had with Nik…and lost.

“I just hope that one day, you can find with another man what I have with Nik.”

So, so perfect
. How crazy, how stupid, how hopeless was it that Daria could find it in her to admire Nik’s fiancée while her heart spiraled down into another crash?
 

Miranda belonged to Nik, and Nik belonged to Miranda, and the other woman had been able to get the message across without being bitchy.

Again, Miranda politely waited for her to speak. Again, Daria ungraciously refused.
 

Finally, Miranda said, “I also thought – and I’m offering this as an olive branch of sorts – perhaps you would like to be one of the stylists for our wedding?”

Daria’s jaw dropped.

A polite, questioning smile formed on Miranda’s lips.

This time, she had to speak. “Excuse me?”

“I’d like to ask if you could join the design team for my wedding.” Miranda raised a hand when Daria opened her mouth to say ‘hell no, over my dead body.’

“Please hear me out first. I’ve talked about this with Nik, and he understands my decision. He supports it.”
 

Daria saw Miranda send a loving look to Nik, and she thought again,
Hell no, over my dead body.
Nothing in this world would make her look Nik’s way, too, and risk seeing him return that look with one of his own.

The mere thought tempted her to hysterics. Nik, looking at another woman with love in his eyes?

Hell. No. Over. My. Dead. Body.

“I don’t want to start my married life – our married life – thinking of you as an enemy.” Her cheeks blossomed with heat. “I’m sorry, but yes, that’s how I think of you.”

Was it possible to die in the face of such perfection? If so, Daria might just be its first known victim.

“That’s why I’ve proposed this to Nik. I want to put everything behind me, and to prove to both of us that I truly trust him now, I thought I could invite you to work on our wedding.” Miranda took a deep breath. “If you accept, you’ll also be communicating with Nik the whole time. Just Nik. I won’t be around.”

Daria tried to wrap her head around it. “You won’t be around. As proof that you trust him.”

“And you, of course,” Miranda added. Daria nodded wordlessly, forcing her to wait. Unbidden, Miranda’s gaze darted to Nik, and she saw that no matter how hard he tried to hide it, the truth was there in his eyes.

They were so damn alive, heat glittering so fiercely in his eyes, in a way that they never did…for her.

She forced herself to look away even though she wanted to beg Nik to give her a chance. To try looking at her the way he didn’t want to look at Daria Everest but did.

Reaching for Daria’s hand, she held it tightly, saying, “I know I have no right to ask you this but please – could you find it in your heart to be friends with us and we can all start anew?”

****

Nik only allowed himself to take a look at Daria when he heard her reply.
 

Yes.

He refused to name the emotion that crowded his heart at hearing her say that one word, refused to acknowledge the reason he had only been able to stop holding his breath now.

His gaze moving towards her, he ignored the way Daria visibly stiffened when their eyes met, ignored the way her face paled and her throat worked convulsively.

One second to see her—

Her hair had grown longer, and her gray eyes appeared larger with the way the angles of her face were more defined now. Her body was thinner, too, making her curves even more prominent, her breasts – well, it was impossible not to stare at them now.

One damn second.

That was all it took to realize that he had not succeeded in getting rid of her presence in his heart.

Nodding curtly at Daria, he turned his attention back to Miranda, and she immediately acted on cue, making excuses for both of them.
 

He waited for Daria’s footsteps to recede and the door to swing shut behind her before speaking. “Do you still think this is a good idea?” He sure as hell didn’t. One damn second, and he already wanted to haul Daria into his arms, rediscover the taste of her kiss, and remember the feel of her body.
 

Miranda nodded. “I’m doing this for you, darling.” She gazed at him searchingly. “Have you changed your mind about love?”

His jaw clenched. “You know my answer to that.”

“And yet you keep thinking of her. I’m neither blind nor stupid, Nik. She’s still in your mind.” She pressed a hand on his chest, right above his heart. “Maybe she’s still in here—”

He flung her arm away as soon as she spoke the words. “Don’t be ridiculous.” His voice was ominously soft, a warning in itself for Miranda to tread carefully because she was now skating on very thin ice.

“Then do this,” she pressed. “Prove it to yourself that you won’t let
love –
something that we both know isn’t real – destroy our chance of a peaceful future.”
 

Tiptoeing, she placed her lips on his. “Use this chance, Nik,” she whispered against his mouth. “Seduce her, fuck her, hurt her as much as you want to – and then get rid of her once you’re back to your old self and the obsession’s worn off.”

Chapter Four

“Get the hell out of there now, Daria.” Alyx’s voice was grim with foreboding. “It’s a trap.” Daria’s iPad showed her friend in her nightgown and glaring at her through a facial mask.

“It’s not a trap. They told me what they wanted to happen and I said yes.” Daria placed the iPad on the dining table before taking her seat. Her new apartment was a one-bedroom unit on the twenty-second floor, with its own balcony and in the same building as Miranda and Nik’s offices. She loved how the apartment looked, but the last fact made her queasy. Somehow, it didn’t feel right.

From the iPad, she heard Alyx release a sigh of frustration. “Yanna, tell her you think the same thing, too.”

On the other half of the screen, Yanna, still in her office, looked up from her laptop. “Huh? What?”

“Daria says she’s going to say ‘yes’ to working on Nik’s wedding—”

Yanna’s eyes widened. “
No!
”
 

Daria grimaced. “But it’s really not something to worry about.”

“You really think that? You’re going to see him
every day
, with
another
woman. You really think that’s not going to hurt you?”

Daria studiously avoided Yanna’s wide-eyed gaze. “Uh…”
How did she explain to them that what wouldn’t make sense to them made a lot of sense to her?

She had loved Nik, and he had loved her. But she had lied to him, hurt him, and he had left her.
This
– even if it did mean having to see Nik and his perfect fiancée be perfect together every day – was her only chance to make things right.

“Daria?” Yanna asked worriedly from the iPad.

She cleared her throat. “Yeah?” She heard the doorbell ring and seized it as an excuse to change the subject. “Hold on, someone’s at the door…”

Leaving the table, Daria padded towards the door and opened it, not bothering to check the peephole.

She regretted the decision a second later.

“Nik!” She was so shocked she ended up saying his name a little too loudly, enough for her friends to hear her. Their feminine gasps echoed in the room, and in front of her, Nik frowned, apparently hearing it, too.

“You have company?” Nik’s voice was stiff with formality.

Terrified that he would leave, she denied it right away, “No!” Okay, that came out too loudly, Daria wincing at the shrillness of her own voice. She cleared her throat, but it did nothing to ease her shock. “I mean, I’m talking to my friends on my iPad, and…” She stopped herself the moment she realized she was babbling.
 

Up, down, up, down, up, down—

Then she remembered that Alyx and Yanna could
still
hear them, and she told Nik breathlessly, “Excuse me.” She ran back to the table, ended the call, and ran back to Nik. “Sorry.”

He gave her an odd look.

That was fine.
As long as it meant he’d only be looking at her
, she thought, that was fine. As soon as the thought formed, Daria cringed, realizing how stupid it was. Oh God, but it was just so hard to think with her heart set to explode. She could only stare dumbly at Nik as she tried to decide what to ask first.
What was he doing here? Where was Miranda? Why was he so gorgeous?

The tense silence between them grew, but Daria didn’t mind. It gave her more time to stare at Nik. It was so much easier to do so now, with Miranda no longer at his side.

He had changed out of his suit and was now dressed in a dark gray V-necked shirt and a casual pair of trousers. He looked elegant, powerful, and so achingly beautiful, she wasn’t surprised that the sight of him led to a sudden, terrible urge to cry.