The Art of Forgiving a Greek Billionaire (3 page)

Beside her, Drake said quietly, “You don’t belong to him anymore, Mairi.”

Her hands shook and she fumbled with the seatbelt. A shadow fell over her, and Mairi stiffened when Drake gently took the belt away from her hands and buckled it for her. This close, she could smell his aftershave, and it smelled…good.
 

But he wasn’t Damen.

Even last night, she had not been able to fool herself into thinking that he had been Damen Leventis.

Slowly, she made herself look up.
 

The man beside her was Drake Morrison. Tall, dark, and handsome like Damen, but the similarities ended there. He was not a seductive and silently brooding Mediterranean. He was not a powerful and arrogant billionaire. And he was, most importantly, not a man who made Mairi think he loved her back, only to break her heart over and over again.

The man beside her was not quiet and observant, his friendly charm something she now knew he effectively used to conceal the darkness inside him, the danger that he represented. He was a man who could kill with his bare hands, but for some reason that fact didn’t scare her. Maybe because she was already dead when they met, and Drake was the one who had brought her back to life.

She whispered, “Last night…”

“…will not be repeated unless you want it to happen again.”

It was her choice, always her choice
, she thought painfully. It was her choice if she wanted to prove to herself that she would no longer be the same stupid girl who would let Damen sweep her into his arms every time he came back to her side and tell her he was sorry.
 

Because he would always be sorry.

She understood that now.

He would always love her, always want and need her, but somehow he could not find it in himself to trust her, and love without trust –
 

It was nothing.

“Mairi?”

She blinked, not realizing that so much time had passed. Most of the passengers had already exited the plane. Drake was on his feet and he was offering her his hand.
 

Slowly, she took it. His hand was large, making her feel small as her hand was engulfed in his hold. His touch was hot, protective, but there was also no denying the intense awareness that blossomed from their entwined fingers. His touch told her he wanted her still, but it was her choice. It would always be her choice.

They didn’t speak as they walked past immigration and she only nodded when he told her to wait while he got their luggage.
 

The one small part of Drake that had a conscience told him he was being too hard on Mairi. He was almost a hundred percent sure of how today would play out, and yet here he was, leaving her alone. He stopped midstride, slowly turning around to look at Mairi.
 

She was a solitary figure in the crowd, her sadness making her pretty face become hauntingly beautiful. The whole time he had spent with her, she had not shed a single tear. It should have made her seem strong, but somehow it only made her look frailer in his eyes – like she was now a vessel of tears, and they were all just waiting for what would make that vessel crack and allow the tears to flood out.

As Mairi waited for Drake to come back with their luggage, she kept her mind blank – it was all she could do not to break down. It was only now that she was beginning to realize that she had really gone and left her haven in Rhode Island, and that she had to face the realities of her life.

The whole world thought of her as Damen Leventis’ gold-digging lover, and soon they would know that Damen believed the same thing, so much so that he had thrown her out in the cold of the night.

She inhaled sharply, the rush of tears in her throat making her want to cry out. For a second, everything was completely black. She was no longer at the airport, no longer one person in a crowd of thousands. For that one second, she was drowning in pain—

“
You’re really
here
.”

That voice.

It lassoed Mairi out of her world of pain and she shook her head, wondering if she had mistakenly heard that voice.

She looked up.

No.

Damen

~ Three ~

Three Months Earlier

Athens, Greece

Rage and despair turned Damen Leventis inside out as he stood alone in his home’s office, waiting for a call that he knew in his heart would not yield good news. Outside his window, Athens’ cityscape glowed like a jewel in the night, a mixture of historic sites and impressively modern structures. Its beauty, however, did not just leave him cold. He was also blind to it for memories of this morning were all he could see. It had started with another call, one he had not expected.

His phone had rung, and he had been wary when he saw it was Ioniko Vlahos, someone he never considered a friend and one who had turned into a rival when Ioniko made it plain he also wanted the woman who had captured Damen’s heart.

“Vlahos.” Years of etiquette drummed into Damen forbade him from being discourteous for no reason, although worry over Mairi and sheer jealousy made him want to snarl at the other man.

“I will not make this longer than it should be. I learned that Mairi is missing and that you are unable to find her.” A pause. “I have done my best to search for her as well without any success.”

Damen’s heart had withered a little more at that, but he told himself doggedly that it was nothing to be worried about. Her aunts were just damn good at hiding her, but there was nothing to worry about. Nothing had happened to Mairi Tanner. He would know if something did. He would know, dammit.

“However, in my efforts to look for her, I’ve found out about something that probably everyone indirectly involved had been terrified to tell you.” Vlahos’ voice had turned cold. “I believe that you have the right to decide what to do with…what I have uncovered.”

It had taken Damen only half an hour to meet Ioniko at his meeting place of choice, a newly built shipping yard that belonged to the Vlahos’ business empire. The place was curiously empty, with only a few men around. None of them were yard workers. All of them were part of Ioniko’s own security, and the fact made Damen grim. He did not have a good feeling about this.

Unlike Damen, who had been dressed in a business suit, Ioniko had been dressed much more casually. He was wearing faded jeans and a gray shirt that had specks of blood on it. It made his stomach churn in fear, but again Damen told himself it did not mean anything had happened to Mairi. He would know if something had gone wrong and Mairi was not in a good place. He would know.

Ioniko said without preamble, “I have taken certain precautions to ensure that the person inside the warehouse would not be thought of as missing by his family and colleagues. However, that excuse will only last until tomorrow.”

Damen only nodded.

The warehouse was just as abandoned as the rest of the shipyard, with only one utilitarian-styled pendant light switched on. Yellow light beamed down from it, centered on a fat middle-aged man, blindfolded and tied to a chair. More of Ioniko’s security surrounded the man, all their faces impassive.

At the sound of footsteps coming towards him, the man started to snivel. “Please let me go—”

“Shut up,” Ioniko said in a cold voice that had the man snapping his mouth closed even as his body trembled. He was covered in his own sweat, his clothes dirty and torn in some places. He also smelled distinctly of piss and fear.

Ioniko said contemptuously, “His name is Cleon Frangos. He works as a dean in one of the schools here. Mairi was unfortunate enough to have tried applying for a post in his school.”

Damen stiffened, finally realizing the connection between this despicable man…and Mairi. He could feel himself shaking, his fists clenching in hapless rage as he waited for Ioniko to speak.

Ioniko looked at Cleon with distaste. “Now Frangos, I want you to repeat exactly what you told me about what happened when Ms. Tanner applied.” When Cleon refused to speak, he calmly moved forward and gave the other man a swift but hard punch to his guts.

Cleon groaned in pain. “I-I’ll speak. Please d-don’t hurt me anymore.”

Ioniko moved back. “I won’t ask nicely again.”

Cleon struggled to speak past the pain. “W-when I learned that Mairi Tanner was a-applying, I t-thought she was fair game…”

The words had Damen whitening. His first thought was of Mairi. He was surely the reason, Damen thought in sickening realization, Mairi had been forced to apply for a post in Cleon Frangos’ school, a situation that had made her so damn vulnerable – and she had not even known it.

“She was supposedly Damen Leventis’ fiancée, but I thought it couldn’t be true if she was looking for a job. Like everyone, I knew that Esther Leventis and the Kokinos clan had it out against her. So I thought sh-she would not protest…” Cleon paused, his body shaking harder. The last time he talked about this part, he had gotten beaten. Badly. Enough to knock out a couple of teeth.

Fear made Cleon stop with his narration. Instead, he whined, “I would never have done anything to her if I had known—”

Ioniko stepped forward. In the next second, his fist connected with Cleon’s face. “Stick with the story,” he said harshly.

Cleon’s face felt like it had been turned into a painful mass of flesh. He had to swallow convulsively and spit out blood before he could speak again. His voice hoarse, he mumbled, “I made h-her wait. I t-thought if she was willing to wait for hours for her interview, it meant she was desperate.”

Damen closed his eyes, knowing what the man’s next words would be.

“And she waited.”

And it meant that Mairi had been desperate.

In his mind, he saw her again. Young, beautiful, so full of love for him that she was willing to do everything to prevent him from worrying about how her life had been ripped apart the moment she chose to stand by his side.

She had loved him so goddamn much, and in return all he had done was hurt her, over and over.

“I locked the door. I knew…my s-secretary would not interfere because she did the same thing for me. She knew I’d f-fire her if she interfered.”

Damen did not want to hear any more. He only wanted to kill Cleon Frangos because this man before him – this pitiful excuse for a human – had dared to hurt what was his. Rage flared inside him, and the urge to snap the man’s neck was intense, but Damen made himself ignore it. Refusing the urge was his own way of inflicting punishment on himself.

He did not deserve to kill Cleon Frangos because he knew he had hurt Mairi even more.

And so now, he continued to listen, another form of self-punishment he welcomed because he deserved it.

“Sh-she was wearing a blouse and a tight skirt. Th-the skirt showed a l-lot of her legs.” Cleon bit his lip hard.

But Ioniko would not allow Cleon to withhold anything. He said coldly, “Don’t stop now.”

The silent threat that followed made Cleon swallow. Why did this man want him to repeat every damn thing he had said? Why the focus on the details? Was their conversation being recorded and would it be used as a confession – evidence submitted to the police for his arrest?

“I’m getting impatient.”

The sound of cracking fists had Cleon mumbling hurriedly, “I saw her and I wanted to fuck her.”

Something in Damen died with those words.

This man. This bully. This sex maniac.
 

This asshole had wanted to fuck Mairi when he had seen her, and in that situation this man had been the one holding all the cards and Mairi…Mairi had none.

Mairi. God, Mairi. If only he could shout her name and have it heard throughout the world – if only there was something he could do that would ensure she would hear him.
 

I’m so damn sorry, Mairi. I’m so damn sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me.

“I asked her if she was Damen Leventis’ fiancée.”