by Tara Pammi
“Yes, just like that, Mia mou. Move with me. Trust your body.”
Soft need spread its fingers through her swollen muscles again as she moved in concert with his body, learning his rhythm, learning to trust that primal desire she’d always repressed with a tight fist.
The friction was intense, bone-melting and when he pulled her closer and swirled his hips with an erotic mastery, Mia went flying again.
Her name a mantra on his lips, Nikandros followed her with one last thrust, and then collapsed on top of her with a shudder that racked his entire frame.
A damp sheen coated his skin. Slowly returning to the world around her, Mia pressed her forehead to his shoulder and breathed in the scent that they made.
Every emotion she’d ever felt—pain, anger, fear—everything seemed to fade into colorlessness at the love that filled her.
It was a raging pulse in her throat, an ache in her chest, a helplessness in her gut. And a smile that blossomed on her mouth when he moved to his side, gathered Mia tight in his arms and said, “Team Nikandros, then.”
* * *
Nikandros was standing at the ramparts one evening looking out at Drakon and the harbor beyond. All of Gabriel’s demands had been met. He was arriving in a few days and new ground would be broken for the construction of a resort in less than a week.
The thrill of the chase filled him. In ten years, the face of Drakon would change completely and it would be his name on it.
Not Andreas Drakos.
Not Theos Drakos.
But him.
His little legacy in the annals of history—the runt’s legacy.
Nikandros turned around when he sensed Mia close by.
“Was it a good day at the office, honey?” she called out, tilting her head to the side.
That irreverent wit of hers made him smile. “Come here.”
When she was close enough, he wrapped his arms around her and sighed.
“This used to be my favorite haunt as a child. I’d tell myself I was a knight and would save the castle from enemies.
“I couldn’t wait to join my father and brother and make them proud of me. Make Drakon proud of me.”
“Why him, Nik?” Now, weeks later, when she saw precious little of Nikandros, Mia understood Andreas’s misgivings. Appointments and meetings, everything that wasn’t related to Drakon was pushed back by Nik’s aides, claiming that the Prince didn’t have time. “Don’t tell me he’s the only investor you could find for Drakon.”
“Why not Gabriel? That deal fell through years ago because of what I did. It’s my mess to clean up now. It was another of my failures as far as Theos was concerned.”
She looked up at him, fear wedging in her throat. “Does it matter if you succeed here, Nik? You’ve made a name for yourself in the world. Anything you touched, you’ve made it into gold.
“Isn’t that fierce need satisfied now? I know how passionate you are about Drakon. I just wish... I wish you’d slow down.”
He shrugged, swallowing away his shock. So many things about Mia were a revelation. Her perception, the way she cared for everyone around her even as she carefully guarded herself.
There was something so artless, so real about her that every other relationship he’d ever had, every possession, every success seemed to fade when he looked at Mia.
“I wish I could, Mia. But something happens to me between these walls.”
Exhaling roughly, he looked down at her just as she clasped his unshaven cheek. She was so fragile and fine boned in his hands, and yet the pulse under her fingers pounded in a frantic rhythm.
Soon, she was going to swell with his baby, and here he was, still dwelling on the demons in his past. Still letting its poisonous shadow mar his present.
But there was no future without facing the past, and he’d been driving himself at an insane pace. He’d never been a man who did anything in half measures, never been afraid to leap into the unknown with nothing but a rope in the dark. Right or wrong, weak or strong, he’d lived life by his own rules.
And it meant showing Theos what he was capable of, before his father fell down that final slide into madness.
“Is this more important than what we build, Nik? Does this deal...does success in Drakon matter beyond what it means to us as a family?”
“It is a fresh start, Mia. For you and me, in a Drakon in which I have earned my place.”
Hadn’t he already done that a thousand times over?
Suddenly, Mia realized why he was doing this. Why he had been killing himself, working around the clock chasing Gabriel Marquez, ensuring that every demand of his was met.
He wanted to close this deal before his father was gone. This was, in his mind, the last chance to show his father what he was made of.
Having dealt with Andreas, having heard of all the ways King Theos had abused and played with his children, she was terrified of what he would say to Nikandros. She felt the most overpowering urge to steal him away from Drakon.
To not let the shadow of it mar their future.
A part of Nikandros’s heart would always belong to his country. No one could change it—not Theos, not Andreas, not even Mia. Not all of them together.
It wasn’t Isabella’s hold over him that she had to worry about. It was Drakon’s.
It was having to walk away from Drakon that had made Nikandros so hard and ruthless, that had only left mere traces of the generous man she glimpsed.
What little there was of his heart, it was occupied by Drakon.
The realization pressed against her chest.
But nothing she said could change his mind. And Mia was terrified that telling him even the biggest truth of her life wouldn’t be enough. So she kept quiet, hoping for the best. Hoping that Nikandros, as always, would emerge the victor, and then, he would be free to accept her love. And maybe love her in return too.
As he held her within the circle of his arms, Mia closed her eyes and breathed the scent of him deep into her lungs.
In a million years, she wouldn’t meet a man like Nik. A man who lived life to the fullest, a man who made every minute, every day brighter, a man who cared endlessly. Her heart felt full, bursting to the seams as he kissed her temple and pulled her with him.
He took her to bed and made love to her with a passion that was never ending. Through the days that came next, he laughed with her when they were in bed. He laid his head on her stomach and talked to the baby, even though she told him the baby couldn’t know him yet.
In the darkest time before dawn, he talked of how the future would look once he and Mr. Marquez took on Drakon—how bright it was going to be, how everything was going to be all right.
As if happiness was still a vague concept that had to be achieved.
As if it wasn’t in the here and now, in those wonderful moments he gave her when he’d arranged a greenhouse for her, and then christened it by making love to her there, when he’d stood by her when she’d called her mom to tell her that she was going to get married soon, when he’d screamed his pleasure the time that Mia had gone down on her knees and told him she wanted to make his darkest fantasy true.
As if he wasn’t already the perfect man.
And Mia laughed and listened as if she wasn’t already irrevocably in love with him.
Even as she tried, she knew that the thirst to prove himself to his father consumed him, worse than any addiction, worse than any high he could have chased.
If she lost him, she had no walls to defend herself against the oncoming storm, no way to remake herself, because Nikandros was life itself to her.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“PLEASE, NIK. CAN’T you say your goodbyes from here?”
From the moment Mia had whispered the words against his chest as dawn streaked the sky, Nik knew something was going to go wrong.
His instincts had saved his life more than once. And today they said to leave the past alone where it was. But when had he done the conventional thing?
> He had achieved everything he’d set out to do and he couldn’t rest until he faced his father one more time. He couldn’t look toward the future until he laid his struggles with his father to rest.
So he joined Andreas in the tinted limo.
The vehicle sped away from the palace, leading to the estate where his father had been “convalescing” for the last few years.
And slowly, as they left the city behind and drove the mountainous region dotted with small villages nestled in its foothills, Andreas said, “You will receive quite a shock when you see him, Nik. As will he.
“He becomes agitated quite easily and will not calm down soon.” Hands fisted, knuckles white, Andreas laughed with a bitterness that sent chills down Nik’s spine. “He did not go into convalescence easily, Nik. I forced him. He was destroying peace talks, he wanted to increase taxation, he was talking of marrying again...he was arranging an alliance with one of his cronies—a sixty-year-old man for Eleni.
“I had to stop him.”
“I don’t blame you for what you had to do, Andreas. For God’s sake, you put up with him for long enough. If it’s guilt talking...”
His brother however wasn’t even listening. “So he went kicking and screaming, spewing vitriol at me, at my mother, at anyone he could think of. And then he told me of something he’d done all those years ago.”
Nikandros had never seen his brother like that. So furious and fierce, as if the seams of his control were finally ripping apart. “Andreas?”
“When he sees you today, he’s going to lose it. And I need him sane.”
The limo came to a sudden stop and Nikandros never heard what his brother had been about to say.
Nursing staff was in an uproar around the whitewashed building that was nestled against a small hill. The water from the streams added a continuous swish; the rock faces around the villa were sharp and craggy.
All Nik heard in the chaos was that his father had somehow broken out of his room.
Andreas was yelling for details when Nik saw him. Nikandros patted Andreas on the back to get his attention when he saw the lone figure atop a jagged rock.
Nikandros had never run so fast in his life. He and Andreas circled around to reach Theos from either side.
Silver abundantly threading through his hair, their father looked gaunt and so skinny that his flesh hung in folds over his face. But his eyes, those electric ice-blue eyes that Nik had inherited, were still sharp, looking out from sunken sockets.
“Nikandros?” he heard Theos say in a raspy voice as if he’d quite forgotten how to speak.
“Yes, Father. Take my hand and we will walk down.”
Theos looked at Nik’s hand as if it were a weapon. “Is it true that you brought Gabriel Marquez back into Drakon?”
Nik couldn’t hide his shock. When he looked at Andreas, all he could see was a cold fire of hatred. “I still have my spies, Nikandros. Your brother has done every cruel thing to threaten me but there are still those who are loyal to me. Who’ll protect my secrets even after I’m gone.”
A curse ripped from Andreas and Theos flinched.
“Andreas and I are going to rebuild Drakon with Gabriel’s investment,” Nik said, only to pull Theos’s attention back to him.
There was a murderous rage in his brother’s eyes that sent a ripple of alarm down his spine. All he felt was pity for Theos but it was Andreas Nik wanted to protect in that moment. Andreas whose cold fury seemed bone deep.
“So I did make a good bet on you then.” Vicious satisfaction settled onto his father’s bones.
Nik said, “What do you mean?” the same moment Andreas said, “Leave it alone, Nik.”
“I married your mother because the DNA test proved that you were a boy. Camille was nothing but a royal groupie who gave herself to me. No better than the nanny that had Eleni. She was of common blood. But I needed another heir.
“Except the doctors told me you were of no use to me from the moment you were born.
“In the end, my genes did win out. You have made me proud, Nikandros. You have earned your place in the House of Drakos.”
Barely had his father’s words registered in his brain when Andreas reached him. “Come away from the edge, Father. We have unfinished business.”
Theos sent a pleading glance toward Nik. “I still can declare you the Crown Prince, Nik. All I ask is you keep your brother away from me.”
Andreas did no more than growl, but his father panicked, backed away. And then slipped on one of the mossy rocks. Before either of his sons could reach him, King Theos fell to his death with a sob and a scream, a manic glitter in his eyes.
* * *
Hours later, Nikandros stood in his brother’s office, waiting for Andreas, the specter of his father’s death still looming large in his mind. He rubbed a shaking hand over his face, the truth of this afternoon a huge boulder on his chest.
Of course, everything made sense now. His mother and father had never quite stayed together, even married, and she’d left as soon as she’d known Nik was well. He could just imagine Theos taunting her for her supposed cheating of him, and giving him a runt.
All these years, Nik knew, she’d only sought to protect him from the bitter truth. Andreas was right. His ill health had been his salvation.
And yet that nagging ache persisted. He’d stayed at the estate the rest of the day, arranging people to transport his father’s body to the state hospital. There would be an autopsy, a statement from the doctors. While Eleni and Andreas worked with their PR teams to come up with a statement to release to the people.
Theos had been bitter, poisonous to the end, still pitting his sons against each other. That he could still mourn that man shocked him.
“Did you get the answer you came for?” Andreas said, walking into the room.
“Yes. I wanted him to know what I had achieved for Drakon. And I wanted to know why he had always been so cruel to me.”
“You had a mother who adored you. And now you have more with Mia. You have escaped the same fate as me.”
Theos had cost him his brother—a brother he’d only learned recently was far from the cold bastard Nik had called him on so many occasions.
Hands shoved in the pockets of his trousers, Andreas said, “I’ll be leaving immediately after the funeral. I need time away from the palace.”
“What about Drakon?”
“I wish he had been alive longer if only to see Drakon’s economy shine like a jewel under your leadership. Drakon has you.”
Nikandros had barely whispered yes and his brother walked away, leaving Nikandros with everything he had wanted once and yet nothing. Andreas had reduced his achievements into a neat little summary.
There were a million matters to attend to, and he gave them his attention.
But in the days that followed, he couldn’t seem to shake off his father’s words, nor the chill that came with them. When his mother came to the palace, he held her diminutive form tight against him, breathing in the scent of her.
He felt like that sick, young boy who had clung to her, wishing for his father’s presence. He hadn’t been enough; nothing he’d done would ever have been enough for Theos.
But to discover that he’d still loved his father, that his love and his need for Theos’s approval had brought him to this grief, it was like a festering wound.
And Mia... He couldn’t look her in the eye without betraying the emotion that flooded him every time she came near.
He couldn’t stand her pity. She’d begged him not to see his father. But, she said nothing either, giving herself to him when he needed her.
A dizzy joy flooded him every time he smelled the rose scent of her; emotion clutched his throat.
He had the eerie feeling that he was following in Theos’s footsteps. The only reason Mia and he were marrying was for the child. No, he would never be so calculatingly cruel like his father; he would never neglect his child so much. And still, was he not repeating history, jus
t for a different reason?
Was he not tying himself to another person who had never wanted to be married in the first place? Would she have chosen him if not for the baby, if not for his insistence?
Would that taunt him for the rest of his life like Theos’s lack of approval had, taint his relationship with Mia forever?
Because, after everything that had happened, contrary to his father’s final words, Nikandros found out he was weak after all.
He would always crave what he was denied. He would always crave love of the deepest level, because that’s what he did.
He loved fiercely. He didn’t know any other way.
Maybe being shielded from the cruelties of the world for so many years had changed his makeup forever.
And he loved Mia with every breath in him.
And soon, he knew now, he would resent Mia for having that power over him, for not returning it the same way, for always being out of his reach forever.
Christos, he couldn’t spend his life like that. He would ruin both their lives and their child’s.
And as for Drakon crying for heirs, they could all go to hell.
Only an environment of love would offset the bloody sacrifices it demanded. The thought of sending her away almost was unbearable but he had to do it.
Andreas was leaving; Gabriel was waiting to begin.
In the days that followed, with Eleni on his side, he worked with the palace media team. His approval ratings went up when Gabriel and he released a statement heralding the new era in Drakon’s history, the new image Drakon was going to achieve in the world’s eyes as its number one luxury destination.
Critics that had before called him the Reckless Prince, a stain on the proud House of Drakon, now called him its salvation.
Nikandros, it seemed, finally had everything he had ever wanted and yet, in the blink of a day had lost everything too. For what he wanted most was love, and he’d realized too late that he couldn’t force it.
* * *
Every fear that Mia had felt came true in the following weeks, starting with the news of King Theos’s death.
Nikandros worked around the clock with Eleni and the palace staff, taking on more and more of the central duties expected of the Crown Prince, even more feverish and ruthless in driving the staff.