Total pages in book: 189
Estimated words: 178200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 713(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 178200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 713(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
Where was the Mairi he knew who had been so happy about teaching? Where was the Mairi who had been so adamant about not depending on him for money? Where had that Mairi gone?
Morning came and Damen still did not possess any answers to the questions that continued to torment him. He took a quick shower and when he came out with a small towel wrapped around his body, he saw Mairi rubbing her eyes.
“You didn’t sleep.”
Her pouty voice had him smiling despite everything. It was a cute sound and arousing, too. It made him wish he did not have back-to-back meetings scheduled for the entire day.
Walking to the bed, he bent down and took her lips for a kiss. She tasted sweet and hot, and it took a lot of effort for Damen to pull away. “I’m sorry I did not get to sleep next to you last night.”
“Did you stay up all night working?” she asked worriedly.
He shrugged.
She said hesitantly, “You know I’m willing to help you, right? Just point me in the right direction and I’d do it.”
The hesitation in her voice made Damen wonder if she did truly mean her offer. He said smoothly, “I can deal with my work. It is nothing for you to consider.”
She fell silent, hurt and confused by his constant rebuffs. How had it become like this between them without her knowing it? She used to be able to speak her mind to him but now, she felt like she had to be very careful with everything she said.
“What are your plans for today?”
Pasting a smile on her face, she said airily, “Just stuff.”
“That explains a lot,” he said dryly.
She shrugged. “Just the usual things a billionaire’s girlfriend does.”
“Ah.”
She fluttered her lashes at him. “It includes flirting with you during your lunch break.”
He smirked. “That’s already flirting for you?”
She fluttered her lashes harder.
Even Damen was unable to keep himself from laughing after that. It also made him bend down and kiss her because outrageous and immature it may have been, it did have an effect on his cock, now fully erect.
“You are cruel to tempt me,” he growled against her lips before his tongue swept in, not allowing her to talk while he possessed her mouth.
She was sighing when he lifted his head, and the familiar dreamy expression on her face made his lips curve, and they curved even more when she whispered, “Hi.”
He said with a soft chuckle, “Hi.”
Mairi suddenly felt shy but in a good way this time. “Can’t you spare a few minutes, so we could just talk? I...I miss you.”
“I will do my best to come home early tonight,” he compromised.
She brightened. “That would be nice. How early?”
“Ten.”
“Th-that’s early?”
“I have calls scheduled after midnight with my general managers in Dubai and New York. I will move them a few hours earlier, but it will still not allow me to go home like a normal nine-to-five man.”
“Oh.”
The disappointed look on her face made him shake his head and press a tender kiss on her lips. “I will do my best to come home earlier. That is all I can promise you.”
Feeling guilty at being so selfish, she said, “It’s okay. Don’t mind me. I’m just being a brat.”
“But a sexy brat.” His hand curved around her breast possessively.
She gasped.
Squeezing her breast, he murmured wickedly, “Remember how this feels throughout the day, hmm? It will get you in the mood for tonight.”
She hesitated then slowly, she lifted her hand to grip his cock. When her fingers tightened around him, Damen gritted his teeth in an effort to control his need to ravage her.
“Remember this, too,” she said. Remember this when you meet with Alina.
Chapter 10
“I did not expect you to be so graceful about this but I should have, shouldn’t I?”
Alina Kokinos, the woman whom European tabloids described as the poor little rich girl for being dumped by Damen Leventis for an American gold digger, did not reply right away. Her every movement was dainty, precise, and pretty as she cut herself another slice of her steak. She fed herself a morsel and when she was done, she pressed the napkin lightly to her lips.
Damen was used to this. Alina was like him in many ways, raised in accordance with old customs and traditions and expected at all times to be a model of courtesy and propriety. But what he was not used to at all was Alina apparently speaking her mind for the first time with him when she said quietly, “I can afford to be graceful, Damen. I never wanted to marry you.”
Before he could say anything, she continued softly, “And I have always known that you did not want to marry me – not in the real way.”
The restaurant where they dined now had always been where they enjoyed meals together, just as the people around them were also the same people they saw when they attended functions as a couple. It was how it should be, but Alina was so very tired of doing what she should do and not what she wanted.