Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
Naomi
“Giving the family more than a week and a half’s notice that you’re moving across the country would have been nice, Naomi.”
I cringed, hearing my sister Mia’s irritation through my earbuds, and continued my way through the terminal at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Yeah, I’d definitely thrown a monkey wrench in Papa’s plans for my future. But then again, I wouldn’t have accelerated the timetable for my move if it wasn’t for the need to find some stable footing after the disaster I’d left behind in Greece.
Pushing the pain of my personal life away, I said, “Well, you could have waited until I landed on American soil before dropping the bomb about your impending wedding to my business partner. Do you realize how many times the aunties gave me the ‘poor Naomi, your sister stole your man’ look the moment I walked in the door? Or made comments about me one day finding the right man so I wouldn’t become an old maid? ”
That was right. My baby sister planned to marry Tarak, my best friend. The very guy my parents and his believed I’d marry.
Sweat tinged my face as I prayed I wouldn’t miss my connection to Las Vegas. Of course, today, of all days, my flight from New York landed at Terminal A, and the connecting one happened to leave from Terminal D.
“Well, you did say you had some news to share. I thought it was about you finding some guy in Europe or something. So I decided to beat you to the finish line and share my truth bomb.”
I ignored the stab of pain shooting through my heart.
She would have been one hundred percent on the money if only I hadn’t learned what I had before leaving Greece.
“As I said, you could have waited until I landed.”
“I don’t see how this is my fault?” Mia questioned in her typical defensive “I’m not going to let you win any argument” way.
“Are you seriously asking that?”
“No, I only ask questions I don’t want to be answered.”
My father and mother both came from large families with nine siblings between them.
Among them were five women we affectionately called the aunties.
They believed it was their right as elders in the family to remind me of my failure to set a good example as the eldest child out of all my siblings and cousins.
God, I couldn’t wait until I lived far, far away from them and their well-meaning words of love.
The sad part about all of this was that they were right. Even when I believed I’d found the one for me, he turned out to be Mr. Wrong.
I weaved my way around the crowd of travelers with roller bags, strollers, and toddlers making getaway attempts.
Mia’s voice grew somber. “Are you upset about Tarak and me? We wanted to tell you, but we weren’t sure how you’d handle it.”
Adjusting my earbud, I confessed, “I’ve known for the past year and a half that you were together.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep.” I reached my gate, relaxing as I heard the call for pre-boarding. “Hell, I knew the two of you had the hots for each other long before that.”
“And you didn’t say anything?”
“Nope.”
“Why?”
I sighed and said, “Because I’m in no place to judge what you do. Remember, I’m the old maid of the local Indo-American community. If Tarak makes you happy, then I’m happy. Though a little heads-up about your plans would have kept me from dropping my bomb.”
“Yeah, Papa did freak out a bit to hear within the span of hours that both of his daughters were making life-altering decisions.”
“Understatement of the century.” I shook my head, remembering the conversation earlier in the week. “Papa blew his top.”
First, he’d lectured the whole house, my brothers and mother included, about giving his daughters too much freedom and that when he was our age, he had children and a stable home life.
It wasn’t as if we hadn’t heard this particular sermon before, but he’d laced it with a heaping mountain of guilt this time.
Papa wanted his daughters to remain close to home and raise their families near him, and my plan to move across the country threw a giant monkey wrench in his dreams.
Then there was the fact Papa and Tarak’s father, who were best friends, always believed I’d marry Tarak—even going as far as picking out the venue for our wedding. With Mia and Tarak together, our fathers’ fantasies were shattered.
The spark of anything resembling chemistry never existed in the universe Tarak and I shared. We worked well together and took none of each other’s bullshit. We were siblings without a blood relationship.
“At least you got him to calm down. I don’t know how you managed it.”
I smiled to myself. “I promised him a private villa at the resort in Bali for Mum’s birthday. I even told him he could tell her it was all his idea. You know how Papa is about being the first to travel anywhere out of his friends. I just made it happen by pulling a few strings.”
“In other words, you bribed him with your connections.”
The gate attendant called out my section on the overhead speakers, and I made my way to the boarding area.
“I do what I have to do. He’s calm, isn’t he? Besides, I work nonstop when I’m onsite for many of my build-out projects. I barely sleep. I deserve the perks.”
“Well, at least someone uses the perks. Please tell me that you’ve taken some time in the last three years to see the sights when you were on these three-month stints in Mykonos. I worry about you. You’re so focused on work.”
A lump formed in my throat, remembering how everything had imploded before I left.
Pushing down my emotions, I spoke the truth. “You know I love Greece. Believe me when I say I’ve always carved out time to explore. I’m not as big a workaholic as you think.”
“I doubt that. I know you too well.”
“Probably not as well as you believe, little sister.”
In my mind’s eye, a vision appeared of deep blue eyes meant to tempt a woman to all kinds of sin, a mouth designed to make her forget her name, and a body one could only describe as sculpted by the Greek gods.
All belonged to a man who’d lied to me from the moment I met him.
“Why does that response sound suspicious?”
Instead of answering immediately, I pulled out my phone from my handbag and opened the app with my boarding pass. “I have no idea.”
“What are you hiding?’
“According to you, all I do is spend my time supervising construction projects. What do you think I’m hiding?”
“Probably nothing. The wildest thing you’ve ever done is spontaneously decide on this move to Vegas. And the sad part is that it’s to work on a new project. You’d rather make love to resort schematics than a real man.”
“You make me sound boring.”
“You’re boring as fuck. Face it. I’d probably die of shock if you ever cut loose and had a hot affair with a random guy. Then the aunties would really have something to call and bitch at you about.”
Boy, if she only knew the secrets I hid.
“I’m not what you think I am.”
“Okay. If you say so. I’m coming to Vegas in three months. Five thousand dollars says you will be the same tame Naomi Kumar as you were when you left New York.”
“Fine. You’re on, Mia Kumar. I hope poor law students have money saved up to pay on bets they’ve lost.”
“Not happening. This one is in the bag. You’re the one who’s going to shell out some money on a nice designer purse for my graduation gift.”
“Mia, you do realize I spend months at a time in Europe, and one of my favorite places is Ibiza? I have memberships to some of the most exclusive nightclubs there. And I didn’t get access to them through my connections. I got them by meeting the right people at the right time.”
I ignored the memories saying those words conjured up.
“What exactly do you mean by right people at the right time?”
“What do you think I mean?”
“Let me get this straight. You’re a party girl who keeps it under wraps when you come back to the states?”
“Party girl is a bit extreme. I’ll say I have fun when I’m with the right person. Otherwise, I work as usual.”
“Excuse me. Say that again.” The shock in her tone was almost comical and helped with the melancholy I’d learned to live with for the last two weeks.
“You heard me.”
“Then, does that mean you have someone you’re seeing over there, and you’re single by choice?”
I remained quiet, letting her come to all the wrong conclusions.
No, my singlehood wasn’t a choice, but those were the cards dealt in my direction. And after the disaster of my three-month stints in Greece over the past three years, I’d keep to my original way of operating.
Simple, uncomplicated relationships or no relationships at all.
This way, I wouldn’t have to relive this pain.
“Are you kidding me, Naomi? How could you keep this from me?” Mia’s outrage brought my focus back to her.
“Calm down. It wasn’t that serious.”
Not for him, anyway.
“I got that part. Let me put it this way. Are you or are you not in a no-strings, hook-up situation with a hot guy in Spain?”
Okay, then. Maybe the lawyer in her caught on faster than I expected.
“Are you cross-examining me, Miss Kumar?”
“Maybe I should. Apparently, I don’t know my sister at all.”
“Really? You’re making a big deal out of nothing.”
“Your refusal to answer my question points to your guilt on the charges brought forth against you.”
Well, shit. Who was the big sister, and who was the little sister?
“Fine, I’ll answer your question.”
“I’m waiting.”
“He’s in Greece, not Spain.”
“Are you fuckin—”
I hung up the phone before she continued her expletive-laced reprimand.
In the next second, my phone pinged with a series of text messages that I happily ignored.
I moved through the boarding line, scanned my boarding pass, and went down the jetway. Once I entered the airplane, the flight attendant directed me to the first-class cabin, where I took my assigned seat and settled in for the five-and-a-half-hour flight.
I couldn’t believe Mia thought of me as boring. I just kept my exploits quiet and on international soil.
Umm, maybe not exploits. I’d had one real one with the same guy over a three-year period.
I shouldn’t have gotten attached or expected anything out of it.
Cassius Dimitri—no, correction. Cassius Dimitri Lykaios lived in Mykonos, and I lived in the USA. Whenever I flew to the island, we’d carve out time in our busy schedules to meet up.
There were no commitments, no expectations. We were in the ultimate friends-with-benefits situation.
I’d met him while he tended the bar at one of the famous clubs in the party district. The half-Greek, half-Russian bar manager with penetrating blue eyes had drawn me toward him as if he were a snake charmer.
However, he’d taken my order and chatted me up instead of coming on to me. We’d met again at other bars and clubs in the area over the next few weeks, and I learned he managed all of them.
For six months, we’d followed the same pattern. We talked, had fun, then went our separate ways, never once acting on the heavy undercurrent of attraction that laced every one of our interactions.
One day, I’d decided to attend a poker game at an underground venue.
There he was, sitting at a table, holding court as if he owned the place.
Women milled all around him, but the second his eyes connected with mine and heated, something shifted between us, and I had no doubt we’d fuck that night.
We played against each other, and I’d won, something I later learned rarely happened.
After that, the no-strings, best-sex-of-my-life hookup cycle started. Three months in Greece, three months back home.
Easy, no complications, the way I liked my life.
Eventually, it became apparent we were in a relationship, not what we’d originally intended. We shared and learned things about each other. We’d formed a bond, something I’d never had with another person. He’d become vital to me.
But it was all a lie.
On the day of the grand opening of the Lykaios Mykonos Resort, I’d arrived early to meet with my boss, Henna Lykaios, to discuss her next build-out project in Vegas. Just as I entered her suite, Cassius, wearing a suit, walked out with Henna.
Henna introduced him as Cass Lykaios, not Cassius Dimitri, as he’d told me.
My fucking boss. The man who’d financed the Mykonos project. Henna’s illusive nephew, who worked in the background on all of the projects and kept a low profile.
I’d pretended I hadn’t known him and kept my professional demeanor.
After that, I stopped any and all communication with him.
Releasing a sigh, I picked up my drink and downed the contents, letting the cool liquid soothe my parched throat.
Now, my destiny lay in Las Vegas. Well, at least for the next few years with the build-out of the Lykaios Incognito Casino, Resort, and Spa.
I’d have time to regroup, set my head on straight, and definitely never, ever get in a situation as I had in Greece.
Maybe I was running from my problems, but I couldn’t think of another solution, and work kept my mind off the pain.
Plus, immersing myself in all things Las Vegas could provide the best distraction when not on the job site.
I smiled to myself.
Good thing one of my newest girlfriends happened to be not only a resident mob princess but also a club owner and expert on Sin City nightlife.
She had to have some ideas to help me emerge from this well of self-pity.
If all else failed, she’d find me a quick rebound guy from the plethora of hot men who visited her establishments.