The Art of Catching a Greek Billionaire (5 page)

She swallowed.

Damen’s nostrils flared. “When you swallow like that, Ms. Tanner…”

His harsh tone confused her. “Wh-what’s wrong?”

“You make me imagine how you would look like, swallowing
my
cum, your mouth loving my cock.”

Never
had anyone said such words to her.
Never
had she thought she would meet a man who could say something like that with a serious face and
not
make her run the other way, thinking she had just come across a maniac. And never, oh dear, never did she think a man she had just met, saying such words to her, would make Mairi feel like she was drowning in need.

For a man’s body.

For him.

For the Greek billionaire she had always dreamt to meet, fall in love with, and live happily ever after with.

There was a very soft look on Mairi’s beautiful face. It was a look that mesmerized and made Damen wary at the same time. Conscious of how they were attracting a lot of attention, he stepped back to put some distance between them and said carefully, “Ms. Tanner?”

“I love you.” The words just came out and then she turned around and floated away.

For the first time in his life, Damen Leventis was left gaping and speechless.

Had he just heard her say---

And then he saw where she was heading. “Ms. Tanner, wait!”

She looked at him over her shoulder with a still-vague look on her face. “Huh?” She turned around but it was too late.

Bam.

Lesson 3

To catch a Greek billionaire, he must first be made aware of how desirable you are.

She said: Being desirable means being your own woman, being true to yourself---

He said: Again, you overcomplicate things. The fuck of the matter is---

She said: The FUCK of the matter?

He said: Yes. The fuck of the matter is, you had me by the balls when I realized other men found you desirable…and worse – that they could steal you away from me.

There really are birds.
Mairi dizzily counted them as she swayed a little on her feet, mind rattled by the impact of hitting the heavy metal doors of the conference room on her way in.

Are you okay?
That sounded like Diana.

I’m calling a doctor.
That seemed to be Damen Leventis, and he did
not
sound happy.

Everyone, please settle down. Everything is all right.
That was definitely Rose Thorn, and she did
not
sound happy either.

The voices reached her like distant echoes. Mairi couldn’t really pay attention to them. She was still counting the number of chirping yellow birds flying around her head.

“Ms. Tanner, are you okay?”
Snap. Snap.

Her gaze gradually cleared. The first thing she saw was Damen. A smile curved on her lips. “Hi.” Her voice sounded a little drunk even to her ears, but Mairi couldn’t help it. She felt like she had just been woken up by her prince – oh, wait, no, she had been woken up by
the
Greek billionaire of her dreams.

Velvet and Mandy were both on their knees next to Mairi, and they exchanged looks at their friend’s faraway tone. Mandy looked at Rose Thorn, who was frowning suspiciously while Velvet stole a look at Charity, who was scowling.

If Rose Thorn found out about Mairi’s little secret “dream’, she would be fired. And if Charity found out about Mairi’s interest in the Greek billionaire, the bitch would likely create a situation to have Mairi fired.

One way or another, if they didn’t do anything now, Mairi was totally screwed.

They made a snap decision.

“Up you go, Mairi,” Mandy said briskly, pulling her friend up and not-so-subtly pushing Damen Leventis away.

“We’ll take care of her, Ms. Thorn. Please don’t worry about her,” Velvet was saying at the same time, using her hips to push Charity out of the picture. But unlike Mandy, she did not bother trying to be subtle about it.

Before anyone could react, Mandy and Velvet had quickly gotten their friend past the crowd and inside the closest washroom. By the time they were inside, Mairi had started to recover from her little bump. She also started to remember what she had let slip.

A long moan escaped her. “
Oh my God
.”

Velvet jumped at the sound, which was eerily close to how a dying person probably sounded like. “What is it?”

Mairi was completely pale now. “I…I…”

Mandy was tempted to shake her friend. “
What
?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “I…umm…said
I love him
?”

SILENCE.

And then---

Laughter.

The kind that had her friends doubling over, bodies shaking, clutching their sides, the sound of their loud laughter bouncing off the walls.

Completely recovered now, Mairi scowled. “Way to be supportive, you guys.”

Velvet managed to get her mirth under control long enough to say, “Yay you!” She and Mandy burst into a fresh round of laughter.

Mairi gritted her teeth. “This is
not
a laughing matter! What if I scared him away? What if he thinks I’m a psycho? What if…what if he doesn’t want me anymore?” She ended up wailing the last words.

Damen Leventis was
the
Greek billionaire she had been waiting forever for. She was sure of it. Fate, instinct, a message from the Greek gods – Mairi just
knew.

The problem was – did
he
really know that she was the one for him, too?

STOP MOPING AROUND.

Mairi stared grumpily at Mandy’s text message.
Easier said than done
, she thought. How could she
not
mope around when Damen Leventis had been MIA for an hour now? Maybe she really had scared him off.

“Kalimera.”

Mairi started, cheeks flushed with guilt as she realized there were people sitting across her and she hadn’t even noticed. The first one she noticed was Katya, a statuesque and perky brunette who was also one of her favorite students from Class E. Seated next to Katya was yet another tall, dark, and handsome Greek with wickedly gleaming green eyes.

Her mind automatically went through her mental database of Greek billionaires, and in the next second she identified the man as
Ioniko Vlahos.
He was in his late twenties, better known as one of the most famous playboys in the continent, and another heir to a shipping fortune.

Also just as automatically, her mind compared him to Damen Leventis, who was older since he was already in his mid-thirties.
And a lot sexier and gorgeous too
, Mairi thought wistfully. There was something about Damen, with the way he spoke and looked at her---

“She’s always like that.”

Katya’s words, spoken fondly, had Mairi crashing back down to earth. Oh dear God! She had zoned out again! If Rose had caught her this time, she would be lucky if she still had a job the next day.

Ioniko was smiling devilishly. “Is she now?”

Mairi flushed. “I’m sorry. I’m just really, really sorry.”

“It’s fine. I understand you were in an accident earlier?”

“Umm, yes.” She offered her hand. “I’m Katya’s English teacher, Ms. Tanner.”

“A pleasure.” But instead of shaking her hand, Ioniko brought it to his lips instead.

Mairi quickly withdrew her hand with a gasp.

Katya was frowning. “Ioniko!” She spoke to him rapidly in Greek.

A frown slowly formed on her brother’s forehead as well. When he looked at Mairi, his face was impassive as he said, “I apologize for being too forward. It will not happen again.”

“I told him stuff like that is not allowed in school or you’d get fired,” Katya assured her. She turned to her brother with an unhappy look. “I’m just sorry I didn’t warn him earlier, Ms. Tanner. And please don’t take him seriously. He flirts with women all the time.”

Ioniko said mildly, “You have it the other way around, darling. Women flirt with me all the time. I flirt only with the ones I like.”

Mairi coughed at the innuendo. Deciding it was time to change the subject, she said quickly, “Mr. Vlahos, Katya is one of the top students in my class – or rather, in her entire year actually.”

Ioniko raised a brow. “It must be because of you. Her English used to be appalling.”

“It is,” Katya agreed cheerfully. “English was terribly boring when I was in the other teacher’s class last year.”

Mairi cringed at the indirect reference to Charity. “Sssh!”

Katya shrugged. “It’s true, though.”

She half-begged, half-scolded, “Katya, please. You’re going to get me in trouble.”

“But it’s bad to lie. And I really mean it! When Ms. Fal---”

“
Fall
is glorious in Greece, isn’t it?” Mairi cut her student off desperately. Charity Fallon was only seated one desk away, and she had no intentions of getting in a fight with the other woman for no good reason.

Both brother and sister looked at her as if questioning her sanity. After all, Greece was not a four-season country.

Ignoring their looks, Mairi took Katya’s packet out of the drawer and handed it to Ioniko. “Please sign the release form, then you can take everything home with you, Mr. Vlahos.”

“Thank you.” Ioniko signed it swiftly, but upon returning the form he suddenly caught hold of her wrist.

Mairi tried to very subtly tug her wrist away, but he was not letting go. A tingling started at the base of her spine, and she turned her head around, heart thumping against her chest.

Her eyes locked with Damen Leventis unerringly, almost as if she instinctively knew where to find him. His gaze was unreadable, his face a mask of indifference.

But for some reason, Mairi was a hundred percent certain her Greek billionaire was anything but indifferent.

Warm fingers squeezed her wrist, and she quickly pulled her gaze away from Damen, gulping when she saw that Ioniko Vlahos was looking at her with a sensual glitter in his eyes. Butterfly wings fluttered faintly in her stomach, but this time Mairi was almost sure it was only because Ioniko
was
a gorgeous Greek billionaire – the stuff
her
dreams were made of.

But he was
not
the one.

This time, Mairi determinedly pulled her hand away, leaving Katya’s brother no choice but to let her go. “They say you speak German?”

It startled her, hearing Ioniko speak the words in the very language he was asking about. She automatically answered in the same language. “Yes.”

Ioniko smiled. “That’s perfect.”

She asked warily, “Perfect?”

His little sister’s teacher was without a doubt one of a kind. She had an innocence to her that
almost
made him think of her as his little sister. Almost – but not quite. Those magnificent breasts of hers, something which was sadly lacking in virtually every woman in his circle nowadays – they were abundant enough to make a grown man weep, and certainly those breasts made it impossible for Ioniko to think of Ms. Mairi Tanner as anything other than the next woman he wanted to taste.

It was a pity that she was an innocent, but that would not stop him from doing his best to seduce her. He wanted her, plain and simple, and he always got what he wanted.

And so he said frankly, “It’s perfect because this way I will not set tongues wagging when I ask you out.”

Mairi sputtered.

His lips twitched. It was Ioniko’s first time to have a woman speechless in such an unattractive way after being asked out by him. “And so, my darling little Mairi, are you free to join me for dinner tonight?”

She still did not answer.

Ioniko leaned back against his chair. “Please do not pretend to be surprised, Ms. Tanner. You should know with just one look that I found you enthralling from the very start.”

Mairi slowly shook her head, having a hard time understanding that something like this was happening. Oh, no, no, no. She squared her shoulders with a frown. Actually, she was
not
going to let this happen. In all the bedtime stories her aunts told her, a love triangle always ended up breaking everyone’s hearts and she so did not want that in her own love story.

When Mairi Tanner looked at him, Ioniko was startled to see a fierce look in her lovely eyes. It was almost as if she was preparing herself for a battle, and yet all he had done was ask her out.

And then she spoke in German, her voice earnest.

“Mr. Vlahos, you are a very handsome man.”

Ioniko did his best not to reveal his astonishment. He had expected her to say anything but that.

“But I have to decline because---” Mairi paused. “I…I…” Velvet would tell her to lie now. Mandy, being practical, would probably tell her the same thing. But…it just wasn’t in her nature to do that.

Ioniko asked sardonically, “Because what, Ms. Tanner?” He refused to acknowledge how crushing his disappointment was, realizing that Mairi Tanner might just be like other women, playing hard to get because they were angling for a better offer.

She smiled and it took Ioniko by surprise, the way the sight of that awkward smile hit him hard, like a fucking arrow aimed straight at his heart.

Mairi mumbled, “Because I think I might have found the man I’m meant to live happily ever after with.”

Lesson 4

To catch a Greek billionaire you must get to know him first.

She said: Find out who he really is – learn who the man is behind the billion-dollar image.

He said: What a beautiful liar you are, matakia mou. You are only ashamed to admit the truth.

She said: I am NOT a liar!

He said: Fine then, my love. You are whitewashing it. You got to know me by using an autograph book.

Goddamn asshole was stealing his woman right under his nose.

While Mairi had been locked away in the washroom, Damen had moved swiftly, issuing instructions left and right to clear his schedule for the remainder of the week. It had been a very long time since he had wanted a woman this much and he was not letting another moment go to waste. The sooner he had Mairi in his bed the better and if he had his way, Damen would not let her leave it until the end of the week.