Eight
D AMEN LEVENTIS WAS incredulous. "Let me see if I got this straight: you offered to be her boyfriend, keep things private if she wished, and she still turned you down?" At his friend's nod, he said admiringly, "Smart girl."
"Fuck off."
But it had no effect whatsoever as the other billionaire was already laughing his head off.
As the two billionaires continued their conversation in Greek, they remained oblivious to the chaos their unexpected presence at the play center was creating. Nannies had abandoned their young charges, single mothers had taken their eyes off their kids, and trophy girlfriends had left behind their sugar daddies, the result of which was pandemonium. It was one accident after another, with kids running loose, tables and chairs being overturned, and forgotten trays slipping out of people's grasps and crashing to the floor.
"We're back!"
Hearts broke as they saw a brunette heading towards one of the men, and their defeat was all but complete when they saw a tiny, dark-haired four-year-old barreling forward with her arms stretched out. "Papa, I want back up!"
"Yes, ma'am," Damen answered promptly as he swung his daughter back up on the second-floor tunnel entrance into the three-level play structure. It offered all sorts of fun, the kind that even the most imaginative children wouldn't find fault with: airplane cockpits and firefighter poles, hanging bridges and climbing nets, and more slides and tunnels any young adventurer could ask for.
The women waited with bated breath for another woman to claim the other billionaire when none came, they simultaneously sighed in relief, thankful that there was still one left they could all pin their romantic hopes on.
Meanwhile, Damen Leventis' wife was doing her best not to have a heart attack as she watched their daughter fearlessly lunge for a vine-like rope before rappelling out of the kid-sized tower. After landing on both feet, Nala turned to her parents with a big smile. "I did it!"
"Yes, you did," Mairi said with a smile, "and you did fantastic."
"I need to be..." Nala's forehead creased in a frown of concentration. "Papa said I need to be on my feet."
Mairi bit back a grin. "You mean on your toes."
"Yes, that's it! Papa said I need to be on my toes because I need to protect the queen."
"The queen?"
"You're silly, Mama." Nala let out a giggle. " You're the queen."
Seeing his wife turn to him with raised eyebrows, Damen said piously, "You are our queen."
"Ha!" Rising to her feet, Mairi said with a grimace, "You two will never let me forget about the old woman, will you?"
Responding to Acheron's curious look, Damen explained dryly, "A con artist in disguise." Sliding an arm around his wife's waist, he continued, "The woman bumped into Mairi while she was at the hospital for Nala's checkup. She gave Mairi some sob story about not having enough money to pay her husband's medical bills, and my lovely wife had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker."
"But Nala didn't, I'm guessing?"
Nala gave her uncle a solemn shake of her head. "She was a bad lady. She lied to Mama."
Hiding a smile at the little girl's air of gravitas - Nala was fast becoming Damen's mini-me through and through - he asked with equal solemnity, "And you knew that how?"
"The lady didn't have a ring. Not like Mama and Papa."
Acheron was more than impressed. "That's amazing detective work, little one." A crooked smile flitted over his lips as he met his friend's gaze over Nala's head. You lucky bastard. Damen definitely wouldn't need to worry about any idiot turning his daughter's head.
Damen's smirk said it all. She's my child, after all.
A group of kids came to invite Nala to join them in a different interactive zone - one where parents and kids partnered up as they went through an obstacle course. "You guys go ahead," Acheron said swiftly. "I'll, ah, sit this one out." He had finally noticed the way some of the other women were looking at him, and it made him feel like he had a large-ass target on his back.
Retreating to the sidelines, he camped on one of the metal seats while watching Damen and his young family skip over old tires.
Years ago, Damen Leventis had been Europe's most eligible bachelor, infamous for bedding only the most stunning women and throwing the wildest parties in the continent. But then an American schoolteacher entered Damen's life, and everything had changed. There was an air of contentment about Leventis that Acheron once thought only belonged to middle-aged family men trapped in a continuous cycle of suburban mediocrity. Late-night outings were replaced with concocting bedtime stories as they tucked their daughter to sleep, and Friday evenings such as tonight were spent in play zones and kid-friendly restaurants.
That was all well and good for married men like Damen Leventis , Acheron considered broodingly, but why the hell had he ended up starting his weekend in the same fucking manner?
It was when the four of them got together again over dinner that Mairi noticed the frown that seemed permanently etched on Acheron's forehead. "Is everything okay? It's unlike you to look so troubled."
"He's traumatized," Damen quipped before Acheron could answer. "He's had his first taste of defeat in a woman's hands, and he's been losing sleep over it."
Acheron scowled. "Fu—-" Mairi and Damen simultaneously shot him warning glares, and he hastily amended himself, saying awkwardly instead, "Fudge off."
Nala's eyes went wide. "That's Papa's favorite expression, too." And as if to demonstrate, she said in a voice distinctly resembling her billionaire's father when he was in a temper, "Fudge off, Manolis. You're just as pudding-whipped as I am."
There were two full seconds of silence at their table, and then the adults were bursting into laughter while Nala beamed proudly at her handiwork. It always made the little girl feel good when she made other people smile and laugh.
After dinner, the couple invited Acheron for a nightcap at their place and he found himself agreeing without understanding why. He only had to check his phone's inbox, and there'd be scores of events to choose from, all of them promising the best and most salacious kind of entertainment that money could buy.
So why was it he was here again, playing third wheel while on his fifteenth day of involuntary celibacy?
After kissing his daughter good night, Damen checked his emails on his phone as he headed down to rejoin the others, and he ended up almost bumping into his wife at the foot of the stairs. "What the—-" He automatically curved an arm around a sheepish-looking Mairi to keep her from falling.
"Sorry," she whispered. "I didn't think it was right to intrude on Acheron." She nodded towards the balcony, where the other billionaire stood alone, his clasped hands poised over the glass rails. "I could be wrong," she murmured, "but I think I wouldn't be as much help as you'd be with whatever's bothering him."
Damen grimaced. "Are you saying you want us to have some kind of Brokeback moment?"
Mairi sent her husband a chiding glance. "Be serious, will you? Can't you see how troubled the man is?" She pushed him towards the balcony. "Now go and help him." There were things that men would only feel fit to confide to other men, and it was especially true with people like Acheron Simonides, whose rough childhood had kept him from being acquainted with the nurturing touch of the fairer sex.
The sound of footsteps had Acheron turning away from Miami's skyline, and to his surprise, he found Damen alone, holding two cans of beer. He murmured his thanks as the other man handed him one, and as he pulled the tab open, he asked, "Mairi?"
"She'll, err, join us in a bit."
Something about Damen's tone had Acheron arching a brow, and when his friend shrugged in response, it might as well be an admission that his hunch was right. "Do I appear so pathetic," he asked in a mutter of self-disgust, "that your wife thinks I'd need your manly shoulder to cry on?"
"She did express her concern in similar lines, ne ." The acknowledgment had Acheron wincing, and Damen took a sip of his beer as he let a few moments pass for the words to set in. Finally, he said, "What you're experiencing right now - I've been there, you know. Hell, the whole world knows, and anyone else who doesn't can just pick up a book to read all about it."
Acheron didn't answer, but since he didn't say anything either, Damen supposed he could interpret that as his friend's willingness to listen.
"These things...they're usually a lot simpler than what we make them out to be. So if the girl turned you down, and you still want her..."
Acheron was irritated at the way the other man simply let the words hang. "Yes," he practically growled. "I still want her, and I don't even fucking understand why—-" He cut himself off when Damen shook his head.
"If there's one advice you'll take from me," Damen said quietly, "then let it be this. Forget the whys for now." Because you're not ready to face that yet. "And ask yourself this instead: what else can you give or give up to have her back in your life?"