Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 234281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1171(@200wpm)___ 937(@250wpm)___ 781(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 234281 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1171(@200wpm)___ 937(@250wpm)___ 781(@300wpm)
MAIRI COULDN’T BELIEVE her eyes. It was truly Alina Kokinos. The younger girl was as pretty and polished as she had always seemed, dressed in a plain but elegant short-sleeved cotton dress and flats. Alina looked innocent, Mairi thought with shame, in a way that Mairi no longer had a right to think of herself as.
Before either of them could speak again, Drake was back at her side, his arm curving around her waist. And then he was bending down, his mouth covering hers, every movement of his lips speaking of his desire for her.
There was no time for Mairi to react. She was so stunned by his actions that by the time she recovered from her shock, the kiss was over. Drake had straightened, but he remained at her side, quietly possessive and authoritative.
Alina was trembling in shock and anger. She couldn’t believe it. She just couldn’t believe it. Surely – surely Mairi knew what Damen was going through right now? Surely she was aware of how Damen was slowly going insane in his efforts to find her and yet here she was, clearly in the throes of a romantic tryst with another man?
“You are Alina Kokinos, aren’t you?”
Alina answered coldly, “Yes.”
Drake’s voice, however, was bland as he said, “If you have something to say to Mairi, I suggest we do this privately. We have a car waiting outside. You may speak with freedom there, while here...”
As the man’s voice trailed off, Alina belatedly became aware that they were attracting curious eyes. She didn’t think people recognized her yet, but it was only a matter of time. She nodded stiffly, her gaze carefully averted from Damen’s former fiancée. She was not normally this emotional, but she might just lose it if she looked at Mairi.
Drake stayed in the middle of the two women as they walked out of the airport. He immediately spotted Raymond, a short but stocky man who served with Drake in Afghanistan, leaning against a black Benz.
At the sight of Drake, Raymond moved fast, murmuring a polite greeting as he opened car doors. Alina and Mairi were ushered inside the backseat while Drake took the passenger seat next to Raymond.
The moment the door was slammed shut, Alina burst out fiercely, “How could you?”
Mairi reluctantly met the accusing gaze of the younger girl. The sensible part of her told Mairi she had nothing to be guilty for. But the other part of her, the one that was still numb with pain and love for a man who would never really trust her, that part of Mairi welcomed the anger from Alina. She felt like the accusation, the disgust and contempt in the other girl’s gaze was completely justified. Allowing Drake into her bed might not have been considered a gross mistake, but it had not been her best decision either.
And so to Alina, she said nothing.
How, Alina thought with furious tears rushing to her eyes, could Mairi Tanner make it feel like she was the one in the wrong for attacking when it was the other girl who had been playing around while Damen Leventis was practically existing only to seek her forgiveness?
The older girl perplexed her, and the fact that it did only made Alina more resentful. There was also a regal air about Mairi, something that made her feel untouchable and pure even though Alina had seen with her own eyes that Mairi was anything but. Mairi was only four years older than her twenty, but right now the other girl made Alina feel very much immature for her outburst.
Well, immature or not, she did not have anything to be guilty of at least, Alina thought sullenly. That kiss between Mairi and the stranger had spoken volumes. Something beyond a kiss had happened between the two, and it was something that the man felt very proprietary about.
Alina glared at Mairi. “You didn’t even have the decency to tell Damen that you are over him.”
“I didn’t think there was a need to,” Mairi answered quietly.
Alina’s temper flared. “Don’t make it seem like he’s completely to blame! Maybe he was at the start, but now you’ve done something as bad, taking another lover to your bed—-”
Mairi opened her mouth to protest, but she closed it a second after. She so wanted to tell Alina how wrong she was, that she hadn’t completely crossed the line but if she did...if she did...
A memory intruded in her mind like a slap to the face. Mairi saw herself begging for Damen to listen to her explain, to give her time to make him believe in her love – how she had begged him when she had done nothing wrong, begged him even as he humiliated her in front of people who had once seen them in love and had then been subjected to seeing Damen reduce her to something no better than a beggar after the crumbs of his affection.