The Art of Catching a Greek Billionaire (9 page)

Damen snatched his fingers away, the tender light in his eyes dying at her words.

Even in her sleep, she still lied.

Love did not exist, and the sooner he could make her realize that she would never fool him into believing it, the better it would be for both of them.

Lesson 7

To catch a Greek billionaire, you must be prepared to fight for him.

He said: With other women you mean?

She said: No, with their mothers.

Mairi woke in Damen’s arms, her body cushioned against his naked chest while they were both snuggled under the covers. When their eyes met, she opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to it.

“Hi.”

She choked on her laughter. “Hi.”

He answered with a devastating smile but didn’t say anything else, content to simply gaze at her as he stroked her hair and caressed her cheek, his fingers occasionally drifting down to draw lazy shapes on the upper swell of her breasts.

She said slowly, “I love you, you know.”

He nodded. “I know.”

Mairi tried not to roll her eyes. Sometimes, he really was too much like the Greek billionaires she read about, the way he kept himself in a state of denial about his feelings for her. She was about to ask him if someone had hurt him in the past, but something interrupted her.

Damen’s fingers stilled.

And then---

There it was again.

Her stomach – growling.

“I’m going to call for room service.”

She caught his arm just before he could start dialing. “There’s no need,” Mairi told him. “I can prepare something for myself as long as the kitchen’s fully stocked.”

“It is.”

She beamed. “Good.” She gently pulled away from Damen. “Would you like me to prepare something for you, too? Maybe a sandwich or salad?”

“Sandwich, I suppose.” He looked at her blandly even as his eyes gleamed wickedly. “I developed an appetite after fucking---”

Mairi nearly stumbled out of the bed in her haste to get away. “I’ll go get the sandwich now.” Dirty talk while making love, she could handle. But dirty talk when they were not making love still easily made her blush.

Slipping into Damen’s shirt after asking for his permission, Mairi rushed downstairs and found the entire floor empty. After playing with several light switches, she finally found the right combination that would light her way to the kitchen.

The doorbell for the main entrance started to ring by the time she finished slicing some bread and cheese. Walking towards it, she tiptoed to look through the peephole and saw a glamorous older woman waiting impatiently outside. She recognized the face immediately. Unlike her son, Esther Leventis was frequently photographed for the society pages.

Mairi’s fingers hovered over the doorknob – should she open the door herself or get Damen to do it? But what if Esther found out that Mairi had made her wait?

The doorbell rang again, making Mairi jump. Oh drat. Here goes nothing, Mairi thought, taking several deep breaths before reaching out to open the door and then hiding immediately behind it. She tried her best to flatten herself against the wall as she heard the sharp clicking of stilettos on the marbled floor.

“
Damen
?” The voice had a very strong Greek accent with an imperious tone to it.
This
was a woman who sounded like she was better suited dressed in Spandex and leather than silks and furs.

The door swung shut, leaving her completely exposed. Shiiii---

Esther Leventis spun around at the sound and immediately saw the young woman positioned against the wall like a scarecrow. In seconds, she zeroed in on several key facts about the stranger in her son’s villa.

She looked exactly the type to attract Damen, she was obviously young, gauche, and innocent, and most importantly, the fact that she was wearing a man’s shirt meant she had just come from Damen’s bed.

Slut,
Esther thought with a lift of her chin.

Mairi felt like shrinking to nothing at the way Damen’s mother gazed at her. She opened her mouth to say something in her defense, but what could she say? Greek mothers were either terribly protective or possessive of their sons. Either way, things just did not look good for her.

“Where is my son?”

“I’ll call him right now---”

Esther raised a hand, stopping Mairi in her tracks. “I appreciate the offer, but no, your assistance is unnecessary. You may go now. I assure you that I have much to talk about with my son regarding his betrothal. He will not have much time for you.”

The woman still did not move.

She raised a brow, demanding impatiently, “
Well
?”

Mairi couldn’t get any part of her body to work. Her lips felt numb, her heart was crushed, and her mind had totally snapped. Had Esther Leventis said…
betrothal
?

“Mother?” Damen appeared at the foot of the stairs, a stunned look on his gorgeous face. Dressed only in cotton slacks and nothing else, he looked like he had just stepped off an ad for a beach resort.

He also had a raging hard on, patently made obvious by the thinness of his slacks.

Esther’s lips tightened at the sight and turned her head away. “Go and change into something proper.”

Ignoring his mother completely, he strode to Mairi, who was alarmingly pale and vulnerable. “Mairi? Are you okay?” He tipped her face up, and something inside of him twisted painfully at the sight of the unshed tears in her eyes. What the hell had Esther told her to make her want to cry?

Mairi forced a smile. “I’m fine. I think I better dress first.” She didn’t wait for his answer and simply walked towards the stairs, keeping her back straight. She gave Esther a respectful nod, but the older woman didn’t even spare her a glance. Then again, Mairi didn’t expect her to – not if what she said was true.

Betrothal?

Surely it couldn’t be. Or maybe it was – but not anymore and Damen would tell his mother now that he would have to break it off. Mairi had reached the second flight of stairs when she heard it – Esther’s raised voice and Damen’s biting tone.

She stilled, torn between minding her own business – like she should – and risking getting caught eavesdropping to find out the truth – like she also should.

“Don’t talk about her like that!”

Mairi made an about face. She was definitely
not
minding her own business. That was just another term for being selfish and ignorant of other people’s needs anyway. She was just being her caring self by wanting to play mediator between mother and son if their argument escalated.

Tiptoeing her way down the staircase, Mairi peeked from behind the midsection post of the balustrade and saw that Damen and Esther had already moved out of the hallway. She ran down the rest of the stairs and she only heard the muted sounds of their voices by the time she reached Damen’s study.

She pressed her ear to the door.

Esther released a scoffing laugh. “You are seriously reprimanding me for the way I treated your slut?”

A thousand ways to counter her words raced in Damen’s mind. It never failed to amaze and disgust him the way Esther could act like a self-righteous bitch when everyone in Greek society knew the truth about her.

But at the end of it all, Esther was his mother and honor and duty both demanded that he treated her with respect, or at the very least civility. However, although he could not and would not publicly disavow her, that did not mean he would follow the same rule in private.

He was the sole reason their fortune was still intact even after the scandal Esther and his father were embroiled in. It would not do her any good to forget that.

Esther began to feel unnerved at the way her son continued to stare at her so coldly. Why oh why couldn’t he be as biddable and as easily manipulated as his sister? Her life would have been so much more different if he was.

When Damen still did not say anything, she said defensively, “You cannot blame me for thinking she’s your slut! She’s here, alone in a man’s home and wearing your clothes. What do you think the Kokinis would say if the paparazzi manage to take a photo of the two of you and it’s printed for the world to see?”

“I will say this one last time, Mother. You are not to call or think of her as a slut. If you do, then you will regret the consequences.”

Fury made her grip the handles of her designer handbag tightly, the only thing she could do to keep herself from giving Damen a much deserved slap the way she had been able to when he was young. But of course she could not do that anymore. It wasn’t just because he was a grown man. Damen also happened to control the purse strings, and in her world, that man was god.

“Why did you come here?”

“The Kokinis want to meet tonight instead of next week.”

“No.”

Esther swallowed. “I have already accepted the invitation and told them you are eager to meet with them as well.” She tried not to flinch when Damen cursed. “It will be the height of discourtesy if you cancel at such late notice---”

Damen laughed bitterly. “You dare lecture me on manners?”

Esther colored at the pointed barb. Pretending she did not hear his words, she continued, “The Kokinis want to set a date for the wedding and I agree. The girl has waited long enough – she would be a laughingstock if you keep her dangling.”

“She is only twenty.”

“But you have been her betrothed since she was fifteen.”

Lesson 8

To catch a Greek billionaire, you must learn how to forgive.

She said: Because a Greek billionaire does not always a smart man make.

He said: You are too harsh. Haven’t you heard of challenges making victories all the sweeter?

She said: Just consider all Greek billionaires’ wives diabetic then.

“What happened, Mair?” Mandy asked quietly as they settled at their usual table in the faculty cafeteria for lunch.

She shook her head, keeping her smile cheerful. “I had my fling with the Greek billionaire, that’s all.”

That was definitely not all,
Velvet thought. Mairi looked so fragile right now she was seriously scared her friend would shatter at the mere mention of
that person’s
name.

“Maybe you should take the day off and say you’re sick so you can get some rest,” Mandy suggested.

Velvet nodded. “You already look terrible anyway.” Mandy kicked her under the table and she quickly corrected herself, “I mean, you’ve been working hard lately so maybe the stress has finally caught up with you and…” She trailed off lamely. Bedside manners were not her forte.

Mairi tried to up her cheer factor by another notch. “Seriously guys, I’m
okay
.” And she was – or she would be. She had to be. She needed to move on because last night made it so painfully clear.

Damen Leventis was not the man she was supposed to live happily ever after with.

The rest of the day proceeded in a tediously slow manner, with every second ticking by a slow kind of torture. She did her best to keep busy, but there were only so many triple checks on students’ book reports she could do before the words started to swim before her eyes.

She tried to forget, too, but that one was even more difficult. It was as if she was fated to hear the words over and over. Damen Leventis had been betrothed for
years
– and he had taken Mairi’s virginity even when he already belonged to someone else.

Not a single Greek billionaire in her favorite stories was that much of a bastard.

Her phone buzzed and she fumbled in her haste to get to it, her silly heart still stupidly yearning to hear from Damen. Maybe…maybe he had realized he was wrong, had gotten out of the betrothal, and now he wanted her back?

She opened the message.

Oh drat. It was just a reminder that her payment for this month’s usage was due.

Mairi wanted to throw her phone away after reading it.

Afternoon skies darkened into the evening, but she still didn’t hear from him.

“Thank you for taking me out again, but this time you are going to let me pay or I swear I won’t hang out with you anymore.” It had been almost two weeks since she had made Her Greatest Mistake and Mairi was only starting to move on. Mandy and Velvet helped a lot, as did her work and more recently, she even had Ioniko Vlahos helping to keep her occupied.

They were enjoying a meal in his yacht again – the only “safe” and “private” place Ioniko could vouch for as Mairi was adamant about not being seen in public fraternizing with a school patron. It was a beautiful yacht, sleek and white on the outside, luxurious and decorated in plush purple on the inside.

Today, they had decided to enjoy coffee on the deck, lounging in the sun chairs while enjoying the cool breeze fanning their skins.

Ioniko studied the woman next to him intently. She was even lovelier and a hell of a lot sexier than he remembered. She also still had the most amazing breasts, rounded and pert without being too heavy. Even though Mairi liked to dress in loose tops, they were simply too abundant for their size to be properly hidden.

Mairi coughed.

Ioniko grinned as he met her gaze, knowing why she had called his attention.

“You can look at my face, you know,” she said dryly.

“Ditto,” he answered.

“Huh?”

“You look at me, but you do not really see me.”

She tried to make sense of it but couldn’t. “Umm…huh?”

Ioniko suddenly leaned forward, surprising her. Before Mairi could move back, he had already cupped her chin, another arm pulling her closer and closer until she was almost completely out of her chair.

Mairi pressed her lips together tightly. One tiny mistake and they would be…

“Not going to speak?” he whispered wickedly.

She couldn’t even shake her head. All she could do was glare. If she shook her head, they would be…

“Now,” he breathed, “Do you see me?”

Her eyes widened.