Chapter 2
She said: When you wed a Greek billionaire, it will feel like the start of a new life.
He said: Technically, you have never wed a Greek billionaire, matakia mou.
She said: I haven’t???
He said: Never. Because when you wed me, I was no longer a billionaire. I was just an ordinary Greek man – but you still married me. It was the most humbling moment of my life.
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C OMING OUT OF THE OFFICE of the private jet Stavros had lent them for their flight back to Greece, Damen espied Mairi asleep in one of the luxurious couch seats, its footpad raised. She had already changed out of her wedding dress and into a practical beige pantsuit. Not the typical going-away outfit for certain, but then, they really weren’t going away for a honeymoon.
Once his battle with Esther and the Kokinos was over, Damen vowed to himself that he would give Mairi the wedding trip she deserved. Anything in the world, anywhere in the world – it would be hers.
For long moments, he allowed himself the luxury of simply staring at her. Even in her sleep, she appeared anxious and tired, and his heart clenched at the sight of it. Slowly, he made his way towards her. He reached out to touch her face only to hesitate mid-air. It was goddamn hard to shake away the feeling that he had lost the right to touch her.
Please don’t let him think I’m awake.
Maybe it was ESP. Maybe it was true love – on her part at least – but whatever it was, it had made Mairi sense Damen the moment he came to her side. She willed herself to keep her breath steady.
If Velvet had been in her place, she would have made a bold seductive pose as she stretched on the seat and maybe even crooked a finger to get her own Greek billionaire husband to come near. And if it had been Mandy, her other friend would have opened her eyes and asked Damen in her practical voice why he was staring at her.
But Mairi was not her friends.
She was...her...and so she continued to pretend that she was asleep.
As Damen crouched down next to her seat, he noticed the way Mairi’s eyes suddenly squeezed shut. Her throat had bobbed silently, too, and Damen’s lips twitched as he realized that his bride was actually pretending to be asleep.
No doubt she, too, had been unable to think of a way to break the ice between them. He was the man who had her thrown into jail, and she had married him. She had admitted to his face that she had allowed another man to touch her, and he had married her. It just wasn’t ice between them – it was a whole glacier the size of Mt. Everest.
He said quietly, “Mairi?”
Now was her time to let him know she was awake, Mairi thought.
But a second later, what she ended up doing was...
“ Yoooooaaaaaarrrrrrr... ”
Damen tried his best to suppress his smile as Mairi let out the most grossest-sounding snore. Aside from knowing for a fact that Mairi did not snore when sleeping, no human female could produce such a sound naturally. It sounded more like a cross between a rhino’s roar and an ogre’s phlegm-filled cough.
Deciding to tease her a little, he said again, “Mairi?”
Now’s the time to let him know she was awake, Mairi thought. But if she did, what would he say? What would she say?
“Mairi?”
Panicking, she ended up flipping to her side as if in deep sleep.
Swallowing back a silent, startled chuckle, Damen deftly swerved away from Mairi’s flying kick as she almost kicked him to the floor while flipping to her side.
He waited for her to “settle” before speaking again. “I guess you’re tired, mm?”
Mairi almost stopped breathing. Oh my God, she knew what was going to happen next. He was going to confess Something Important. It always happened like that in books and movies. Always!
If she squeezed her eyes any harder , Damen thought with amusement, she might end up bursting a blood vessel or something .
Clearing his throat, Damen continued in a grave voice, “I suppose it’s better this way, matakia mou. It would be easier to tell you without you seeing me.” He almost had to bite his tongue to keep himself from reminding Mairi that people still breathed in their sleep.
Mairi was dying of anticipation. Oh my God, the wait was killing her!!!
“I just want to tell you that——”
Thaaaaaaaat?
The pilot’s voice suddenly boomed out of the speakers, cutting Damen off as he announced that the jet would be starting its descent in a few minutes.
Mairi wanted to scream. Nooooooooo!
But there was no going back. The moment was gone, the mood broken, and it was time for her to “wake up”. She tried to channel Sleeping Beauty as she did, thinking she should flutter her lashes several times before she could open her eyes.
So fucking hard , Damen thought, not to laugh out loud when Mairi seemed to be aiming for a Guinness record for the most number of times she could flutter her lashes under one minute .
Mairi finally opened her eyes.
And the first thing she saw was Damen’s dazzlingly handsome face, which was too close for comfort and made her cheeks flush red. The second thing she saw was the gleam of wicked amusement in his silver eyes.
She gasped. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“Knew what?” he asked with complete innocence, but the grin tugging at his beautifully shaped lips ruined it.
Her cheeks turned a darker shade of red. Her voice turned into an embarrassed wail. “ You knew !”
Damen allowed himself a small chuckle. “Yes, I did know you’ve been awake for quite some time.”
She wailed again, but when she started to cover her face, Damen was there to pull her hands away, and just like that the air between them sizzled, the simple contact of their hands generating enough heat for Damen’s smile to disappear and Mairi to swallow audibly.
Awkward.
Hot.
Awkward.
Hot.
She felt like she was picking off petals from a flower to determine the exact nature of her feelings. Damen’s gaze was on hers, intense but unreadable. It made her feel more self-conscious the same time every inch of her body tingled into life.
Awkward.
Hot.
Awkward.
Hot.
This man was her husband.
Oh dear Lord, Damen Leventis was her husband.
The Greek billionaire she had dreamt of had married her, and she was now Mrs. Leventis.
It was the most bittersweet feeling, but underneath it was the unmistakable sense of joy, quiet and deep. Damen Leventis was the only man she could ever love, and no matter what had happened – no matter what the world thought – marrying him felt right.
She just had to remember that he could never love her – could never trust her – the way someone who was truly in love would.