by Tara Pammi
Maybe it was the challenge in her tone. Or the demand in it. But a flicker of warmth shone through the hardness in his expression. “You’re on, pethi mou.”
While Mia digested the consequences of her actions, he undid the rest of the buttons and pulled his shirt off. Then his nimble fingers went to his trousers.
Heat flaring like little pockets on her skin, Mia watched as he tugged the zipper down. The sight of the sculpted V of his groin was an electric shock that spurred her into action. To halt him, she closed her hand over his.
His erection twitched under her hand, a loud hiss falling from his lips.
Dear God, he was so big and he’d been inside her. He’d made such pleasure revel through her. Heat poured from his hardness into her palm, burning her to the core. He nuzzled into the crook of her neck while his hips thrust into her palm. “Damn it all to hell, Mia, you’ve got to at least give me—”
Something he’d said clicked in the lust-soaked recesses of her mind. Mia jerked her hand away and clasped his cheeks. Darkened blue eyes ate her up. “What is Andreas deciding, Nikandros?”
And just like that, every inch of warmth disappeared from his face. “Whether he can truly give up the ropes or not. Whether he wants me here or not.”
“Here, where? In the palace? Are you thinking of moving somewhere else in Drakon?”
Dark emotion flared in his eyes. “No, he has to decide whether he wants me in Drakon at all. Andreas has to decide if he trusts me, if he’s willing to take a risk with me, if he can put Drakon’s economy in my hands. As I expected, the dear Crown Prince still hasn’t learned that it’s all or nothing with me.” He said that so casually that it took Mia a couple of minutes to understand him. “A concept people seem to find incredibly hard to grasp.”
“And if he doesn’t give you carte blanche on Drakon’s economy?”
He didn’t answer but the hard line of his mouth said more than he needed to.
His trousers hanging over the lean curve of his hips, revealing the line of dark hair that disappeared into the seam of his boxers, he said, “The chopper will leave in twenty minutes.”
In the dangerous mood he seemed to be currently in, he would leave without her. And she was not at all prepared to be left behind by Nikandros Drakos anywhere.
Not anymore.
He needed her, even if he was too thickheaded and arrogant to see it. Even if he’d rather coat that need in the guise of sex.
And Nikandros needing her, for sex and anything else, was a drug that seemed to fizz through Mia’s veins. Until she couldn’t even recognize the woman staring at her with big eyes and trembling mouth in the damp mirror.
She had blurted out the first thing that came to her mind, but God, she felt as if she was sixteen. And she was going out on a date with the Prince she’d made googly eyes over from afar.
CHAPTER EIGHT
MIA SHOULD HAVE known that a helicopter tour of Drakon with Nikandros meant that Nikandros would be the one piloting it. He had, however, inquired if she was allowed to go on such a trip in her current condition, and when she’d stared at him blankly, assured her that he wouldn’t take any risks.
And so Mia got her first sight of sky-kissed mountains and white beaches with Nikandros’s expert commentary right in her ear. It was a tour unlike any she’d have gotten if she’d visited as a tourist.
Nikandros spiced up his descriptions with ancient stories of warriors and feuds, colorful and almost unbelievable tales of dragons and treasures. But with every word he said, every tale he told with relish, one thing stood out for Mia.
Drakon was an integral part of him, its history, from its mountainous ranges to the villages struggling to build a sustainable economy—it was all in his blood. A rich heritage that would one day be her child’s too.
And the dark shadow of leaving it again didn’t leave those blue eyes even as he entertained her with such great stories.
He had walked away once. And whatever Andreas was doing today, a part of Nikandros would be ripped from him if he left Drakon again.
He knew of all the backwater cafés and lovely spots that no visitor would ever trample.
They had lunch at a seafood place that reminded Mia of a restaurant back home in Miami. Wherever they went, people recognized him, though most kept a respectful distance too.
But even without the mantle of being their Prince, he attracted attention wherever they went. A startlingly gorgeous man, he turned women’s heads every time he moved. His attention, however, hadn’t wavered from Mia for a single minute.
It was quite possibly the best day Mia had had in a long time.
After lunch, he brought them to a private strip of white sandy beach. The turquoise water surrounded by groves of trees and rocky coves was a slice of paradise. Rolling up his jeans, Nik joined Mia as she waded into the ice-cold water. Finally, they settled on a nice shady spot a little inland, a comfortable silence settling between them.
Mia thought he would kiss her on the deserted beach, if not seduce her, but he did nothing of the sort, even though that flare of awareness between them hadn’t dimmed one bit.
“Tell me what’s going on with the investors.”
She thought he would brush her off again, tell her it was none of her business. Instead, he sighed and looked at her. The blue of the ocean had nothing on the ice blue of Nikandros’s eyes. “Then you’ll have to hear about all the dirty past. About what I’m capable of. Things I have done—”
“You think I haven’t done things I regret? Things that come back to haunt me every day?” She gripped the warm white sand in her hand, as tight and hard as she could.
But the second her fingers twitched, the sand fell through.
So much time wasted, so many regrets. Tears scratched her throat but she held them off. “Things I wish I could take back.”
Their shadows separated their bodies and Mia wondered when he’d pulled away from her.
“I seduced the woman Andreas was officially betrothed to,” Nikandros said, not for shock value but because he knew, with her history with Brian, that was the part that would disgust Mia.
Almost a decade later, it disgusted him still.
She stared at him, shock parting her lips. “You did what?”
Nik thrust his hands through his hair roughly, a sort of edginess creeping into him at the thought of that time. “You have to understand the twisted dysfunctional dynamic between Theos and Andreas and me...to comprehend how much I hate being back in the palace.
“For most of my life, my father ignored me, except inquiring every once in a while if his spare was going to make it.”
“Make it?” she said with a distaste that she couldn’t get rid of.
Nikandros shrugged. “Theos hated that I was useless to him. Took it as a personal insult that one of his offspring could be such a sick child.
“He had only time for Andreas—he was obsessed with turning him into the perfect heir. When I remember all the stories they told about his training regimen for Andreas...it’s clear now Theos possessed the streak of madness even then.
“The result is Andreas and I never knew each other. I hero-worshipped him because I grew up listening to tales of the Crown Prince but he...never had any time for me.
“The year I turned nineteen, my health improved. No fainting spells, no blighted fevers, no recurring pneumonia. No watching the world from the prison of my apartments, wishing I could laugh and play and just...live.”
Mia’s chest hurt at the ache she heard in his voice. It was impossible to imagine this vital man as a sick child and, even worse, the longing of a boy to join his brother.
“Suddenly, the entire world was mine for the taking. My mother begged me to leave with her, to travel and see the world. She tried to get me to leave Drakon at any cost. But...for so long, I’d wanted to be my father’s son and Prince of Drakon.
“And Theos...he took me under his wing.
“I wanted to join the army, but he said no. Universi
ty, no. Travel the world, no. But I didn’t care because he was spending all this time with me. Andreas, he said, was taking time away from the palace for the moment. Which should have made all kinds of red flags go up for me.
“Suddenly, I was his favorite son. Slowly, he started pulling my strings, like he’d done for so long with Andreas and I chafed.
“And then I met Isabella Marquez. She and a friend of hers were summering in Drakon and I fell violently in love with her.”
“Violently?” Mia looked like she was nauseated.
“Is there a different kind when you’re twenty and realize you’re not going to die as predicted?” Just talking about that period of his life made his skin crawl. “We sneaked into nightclubs, we went skiing, we partied into all hours with her friends.
“During this time, Theos realized I wasn’t as malleable as Andreas. Still, he tried. Christos, every time there was a public appearance, he read me the riot act on protocol. Security, decorum, conventions to be followed, the unlimited number of people who ran my life, who told me how to sit, stand, look at someone...it became unbearable.
“It was as if I had transferred from one cage at the hospital to another. With even less freedom. And then Andreas returned, and overnight everything changed.”
Eyes big in her face, Mia whispered, “What happened?”
“Apparently, Andreas and my father had been locking horns for the past few months. He’d even talked of giving up the throne. But whatever had happened, by the time I had realized my father had only been using me, the matter between them was resolved.
“The Crown Prince was back in every sense of the word, even more uptight and rigid than before. Theos shoved me aside. He said he was sick and tired of trying to pass off the runt as a purebred. That I had to come to scratch if I was to be Prince of Drakon.”
A self-deprecating smile curved his mouth. Slowly, all the things she’d seen since she’d arrived in Drakon made sense to Mia.
She couldn’t believe how Nik could speak in that dry tone. Couldn’t imagine how keenly that rejection would have scarred a young man. “That’s awful, Nik. My parents loved me and Emmanuela the same. To be so ghastly to your own child...”
“All my life I craved Theos’s attention only to realize what a chokehold it was. I was ready to carve out my own path by then. I told Theos I was done with him.
“And Theos announced that Isabella and Andreas were to be betrothed, that he and her brother had been working out details of an alliance all this while. I couldn’t believe Isabella had known about it.”
A soft gasp left Mia’s mouth and she cringed at what was coming. “Please tell me you told Andreas what she meant to you.” Her words were a whisper against the sound of crashing waves, against the sound of the dark bitterness that seemed to engulf Nikandros.
“I begged him to refuse the alliance, to defy my father’s plans for once. My brother showed as much understanding as the pile of rocks he lives on. He said no woman would choose the spare when she could have the Crown Prince.
“I spent the night full of vitriol, hating him, calling him a thousand foolish names.
“The next week, I went to Isabella and asked her to run away with me. She said while it had been fun and she cared for me, I’d only been a distraction. And I could offer her nothing in comparison to the status of being the next queen of Drakon.
“I could have walked away at that point, ne? Let them all go to hell. But I seduced her again, and weak as she was, she gave in.” Distaste colored his words, his gaze haunted. “In the early hours of dawn, drunk and raving, I sought Andreas and told him I’d taken his future bride’s virginity long ago. That for once, he’d know what it felt to come second.
“He stood there and stared at me, and then in that deep voice of his, asked me if I wanted assistance to get to my suite.
“I woke up hungover and disgusted with myself.
“Fighting with Theos, resenting Andreas for everything he was and I was not... I couldn’t face what I became between those walls. Isabella and Andreas and my father taught me an invaluable lesson, stripped the blinders from the naive youth I’d been.”
Swallowing the ache in the back of her throat, Mia asked the question she desperately didn’t want an answer to—what was the lesson? Suddenly, she felt as if she were standing outside a solid door behind which lay Nikandros’s heart. “That to care about anyone is to give them power over me, to let them decide what I’m worth.
“And I’ve fought for life too much for that to be decided by anyone else.
“I left Drakon two days later.”
Mia’s throat felt parched. She couldn’t even process the scars his past must have left on him. Still, he hadn’t dwelled in the past. He’d lived life by his own rules.
What is left when you run from yourself, he’d asked her that day. Because, he’d found that, despite everything, his brother and father had had a place in his life still.
“But you still came back. You’ve forgiven each other. Why would Andreas want you to leave now?”
“The investor I found for Drakon’s new economy, the company belongs to Gabriel Marquez.”
“Jesus, Isabella’s brother?”
“Yes. Gabriel is renowned for his ruthless investments. He wants a piece of Drakon and he and I together can change the way the world sees us. But, of course, Andreas is smarting at giving up the reins. Tax reform, new banking policies, he recited a hundred obstacles to my face, but it’s clear what the problem is.”
Mia was only half listening, all her thoughts on the woman. Nikandros had been in love with Isabella. Had she utterly broken his heart? How could he ever trust again when she’d made him doubt his very identity? When she’d shoved him aside as easily as his father had done? “What happened to Ms. Marquez?”
“She married a member of the extended branch of the Dutch royal family. She got what she wanted. And Gabriel pulled his company out of the huge deal father had been about to make with him.”
“And you don’t understand Andreas’s concern? You...might have ruined his sister’s life, together. Why take a risk in inviting such a man into Drakon? I don’t understand anything of investments and economies, and even to me, it seems like it’s full of risks.
“Christ, Nik. Couldn’t you have found a different investor?”
With a sudden movement, he stood up and reached out a hand to her. “I trust that Gabriel is ready to let bygones be bygones. Andreas should trust my judgment.”
“After you both trampled it so thoroughly between yourselves? When you admit that Andreas and you never even had a chance to learn each other?
“Trust has to be earned, Nikandros.”
His head reared back, as if she had struck him. A shutter fell over his eyes, pushing Mia away, as violently as if he’d slammed a door in her face. “No!
“Trust is given freely. Trust is not a set of calculations you use to make a decision. It’s a gut instinct. Don’t tell me you never made a call on the field in the middle of a game based on what your gut said and not statistics or a player’s technique.
“Andreas needs to trust that I would not do anything that would jeopardize Drakon. That it is a part of me as much as it is of him. That I...know what I’m talking about.
“He either gives me this chance or he doesn’t. I will not play in the parameters he sets for me as if I were another member of his bloody staff. As if I were his puppet.
“Just as I will not wait forever for you to make a decision, Mia.
“Do not mistake my patience to be my weakness. We marry or we face each other in a custody battle in the court and in the media. But I won’t let anyone take away what should be mine ever again.
“Not you and not Andreas.”
* * *
Mia was on tenterhooks all through the next two days, as Nikandros waited for Andreas’s decision. Nikandros’s drive to turn around Drakon’s economy, to have a place in Drakon after all these years—it was another side of him she’d never
expected.
It was as if being back in the palace had brought out his ruthlessness. But even she couldn’t shrug off the history seeped in the palace walls, the isolation Nikandros must have felt when, again and again, he’d been told he didn’t measure up in ways he couldn’t control.
The Crown Prince had been holed up in discussions with his financial advisors and members of the Crown Council, all of whom were against changing the decades-old investment policy in Drakon. The last bit of information had been supplied by Eleni when Mia had pestered her about it.
Not only was Marquez Holdings Inc. reputed to be ruthless in taking hold of international markets, but the highest criticism of the corporation was that it had taken over controlling interest of the companies it had saved from the brink of disaster. In Nik’s defense—Mia had stayed up reading up everything she could—neither had MHI ever lost on a risk it had made.
Nikandros, however, didn’t join Andreas in any of those meetings, even though he’d been invited to. Neither did he seek her out again in the following days. He closeted himself in his office for hours on end, she knew, making alternative plans. His frustration and fury, it was a wall she couldn’t scale between them.
She knew that he was consumed by this stillness that Andreas had brought him to, but the few times they looked at each other, she also sensed his retreat from her.
A polite distance in his smile, a cool, almost stranger-like quality in his gaze made her long for his open, even if sometimes eviscerating, honesty.
Strangely, she was not worried about losing their child to him in a custody battle as much as she was of losing him.
There were so many things Mia understood about him now.
Why he’d been determined to be a part of their child’s life, the fury in his eyes when she’d dismissed him as a sperm donor, his hair-raising lifestyle...
No one had ever believed in him all his life.
Not his father then and not his brother now, it would seem.
And yet, even after the treatment he’d received at the hands of them both, even after he’d spent so much of his life isolated from everyone, he had come back to Drakon.