A Deal with Demakis

by Tara Pammi

  “Then why the sneering attitude as if your time is more precious than mine? You obviously make more money per minute than I do, but mine pays for my food,” she said, shocked at how angry she was getting. Which was really strange. “Now, the sooner you answer my question, the sooner I’ll be out of your hair.”

  He shifted closer, unblinking and Lexi’s heart pounded faster. A hint of woodsy cologne settled tantalizingly over her skin. She stood her ground, loath to betray how unsettling she found his proximity. “You’re here for your precious Tyler. No one’s forcing you. You can turn around and walk down the stairs the same way you came up.”

  Lexi wanted to do exactly that, but she couldn’t. He had no idea how much it had cost her to come here to his office. “I had a phone call from someone who refused to identify himself that Tyler has been in a car accident along with your sister.” Maybe this was Nikos Demakis’s response to his worry over his sister? Maybe usually, he was a much more human and less-heartless alien? “How is he? Was your sister hurt, too? Are they okay?”

  His brows locked together into a formidable frown, he stared down at her. “You’re asking after the woman who, for all intents and purposes, stole your boyfriend of—” he turned and picked up a file from the desk behind him in a casual movement and thumbed through it “—let me see, eleven years?”

  There was no winning with the infuriating man. “I thought maybe there was a reason you were being a grouchy, arrogant prig—you know, like worry about your sister. But obviously you’re a natural ass...” Her words stuttered to a halt, the bold letters N-E-L-S-O-N written in red on the flap of the file ramming home what she had missed.

  She moved quickly, a lifetime of ducking and evading bred into her muscles, and snatched the file out of his hands. She found little satisfaction that she had surprised him.

  Cold dread in her chest, she thumbed through the file. There were pages and pages of information about her and Tyler, their whole lives laid out in cold bare facts, complete with mug shots of both of them.

  Spent a year in juvenile detention center at sixteen for a household robbery.

  Those words below her picture felt as if they could crawl out of the paper and burn her skin. Sweat trickled down between her shoulder blades even though the office was crisply cool. She dropped the file from her hands. “Those are supposed to be sealed records,” she said, struggling through the waves of shame. She marched right up to him and shoved him with her hands, the crushing unfairness of it all scouring through her. “What’s going on? Why would you collect information on me? I mean, we’ve never even laid eyes on each other until now.”

  “Calm down, Ms. Nelson,” he said, his voice gratingly silky, as he held her wrists with a firm grip.

  The sight of her small, pale hands in his big brown ones sent a kick to her brain. She jerked her hands back. How dare he toy with her?

  “I’ll lose my job if that information gets out.” She clutched her stomach, fear running through her veins. “Do you know what it feels like to live on mere specks of food, Mr. Demakis? To feel as though your stomach will eat itself if you don’t have something to eat soon? To live on the streets, not knowing if you will have a safe place to sleep in? That’s where I will be again.” She looked around herself, at the thick cream carpet, at the million-dollar view out the window, at his designer Italian suit and laughed. The bitter sound pulsed around them. “Of course you don’t. I bet you don’t even know what hunger feels like.”

  His mouth tightened, throwing the cruel, severe lines of his face into sharp focus. For an instant, his gaze glowed with a savage intensity as though there was something very primitive beneath the sophistication. “Don’t be so sure of that, Ms. Nelson. You’ll be surprised at how well I understand the urge to survive.” He bent and picked up the file. “I don’t care if you robbed one house or a whole street to feed yourself. Nothing in the file has any relevance to me except your relationship with Tyler.”

  His smooth mask was back on as he handed the file to her. “Do what you want with it.”

  * * *

  Nikos smiled as the slip of a woman snatched the file from him. Clutching the file to her body, she moved to the high-end shredder, ripped the pages with barely controlled vehemence and pushed them in.

  With his photographic memory, he didn’t need to refer to the file, though. She was twenty-three years old, grew up in foster care, had little to no education, worked as a bartender at Vibe, a high-end club in Manhattan and had had one boyfriend, the charming Tyler.

  Based on the personal history between her and Tyler, and the codependent relationship between them, Nikos had expected someone meek, plain, biddable, easily led, someone with no self-esteem.

  The woman standing in front of the shredder, while small and not really a beauty, didn’t fall into any of those categories. The tight set of her shoulders, the straight spine, even her stance, with her legs apart and hands on her hips, brought a smile to his face. The fact that she wasn’t exactly what he had been expecting—really, though, what kind of a woman would be concerned about her lover’s new girlfriend?—meant he would have to alter his strategy.

  She turned around, dark satisfaction glittering in her gaze. The hum of the shredder died down leaving the air thick with tension.

  He ran his thumb over his jaw. “Are you satisfied now?”

  “No,” she said, her mouth set into a straight, uncompromising line. “Whatever you might have read in that file, it should tell you I’m not an idiot. It was one paper copy I shredded. You and your P.I. still have the soft copy.”

  He raised a brow as she picked up the paperweight from his desk and tossed it into the air and then caught it. “Then what was the point in shredding it?”

  Up went the paperweight again, her blue gaze, alight with defiance, never wavering from him. “A symbolic act, an outlet because as much as I wish it—” she nodded at the shredder behind her and caught the paperweight in a deft movement “—I can’t do that to you.”

  Nikos reached her in a single step and caught the paperweight midair this time, his hand grazing hers. She jumped back like a nervous kitten. “I mean you no harm, Ms. Nelson.”

  “Yeah, right. And I’m a Victoria’s Secret model.”

  Laughter barreled out of him. Her blue eyes wide, she stared at him.

  She was no model with her boyish body and nonexistent curves. Yet there was something curiously appealing about her even to his refined tastes. “I think you’re a foot shorter—” he let his gaze rove over her small breasts, and her hands tightened around her waist “—and severely lacking in several strategic places.”

  Crimson slashed her cheeks. She lifted her chin, her gaze assessing him, and despite himself, he was impressed. “Why the power play? You didn’t open that file in front of me to double-check your facts. You wanted me to know that you had all that information on me. Is that how you get your kicks? By collecting people’s weaknesses and using them to serve your purpose?”

  “Yes,” he replied, and the color leached from her face. He has no delusions about himself. He was by no means above using any information in his hands to gain the upper edge in business or life. And especially now when it concerned his sister’s well-being, he would do anything. If you didn’t protect the ones who depended on you, what was the point of it all? “I need you to do something for me and I can’t take no for an answer.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  DISBELIEF PINCHING HER mouth, she stared at him. “It didn’t occur to you to just ask nicely?”

  He covered the distance between them, shaking his head. She stepped back instantly, but not before he caught her scent. And racked his brains trying to place it. “Nicely? Which planet are you from? Nothing in this world gets done with please and thank you. Hasn’t your life already taught you that? If you want something, you have to take it, grab it with both
hands or you’ll be left behind with nothing. Isn’t that why you robbed that house?”

  “Just because life gets hard doesn’t mean you lose sight of the good things.” Her hands tightened around the strap of her bag, her skin tugged tight over her cheekbones. “I robbed the house because it was either that or starve for another day. It doesn’t mean I’m proud of my actions, doesn’t mean I don’t wish to this day that I had found another way. Now, please tell me what happened to Tyler.”

  Her words struck Nikos hard, delaying his response. The woman was nothing short of an impossible paradox. “Venetia and he were in a car accident.”

  Her face pale, she flopped onto the leather couch behind her, her knees tucked together. “Physically, there’s not a scratch on him,” Nikos offered, the pregnant silence grating on his nerves.

  She pushed off from the couch again. “The person who called me made it sound like it was much worse. I kept asking for more details but he wouldn’t answer my questions.”

  She walked circles around him, running long fingers over her bare nape. Once again, the boyish cut only brought his attention to her delicate features. Bones jutted out from her neck, the juncture where it met her shoulders infinitely delicate.

  Her knuckles white around her bag, she came to a stop in front of him. Shock danced in her face. “It was your doing. You had one of your minions call me and make it sound like that. Why?”

  He shrugged. “I needed you to be here.”

  “So you manipulated the truth?”

  “A little.”

  Her forehead tied into a delicate little frown, she cast him a sharp look.

  “I don’t have a conscience when it comes to what I want, even more so when it comes to my sister, Ms. Nelson. So if you are waiting for me to feel guilty, it’s just a waste of time. Except for a hitch in his memory, your ex is fine.”

  “A hitch in his memory?”

  “A short-term memory loss.” He leaned against his desk. “To my sister’s eternal distress, he doesn’t remember anything of their meeting, or their plans to marry.”

  He paused, watching her closely, and right on cue, the color leached from her face.

  Her teeth dug into her lower lip. “They are engaged?”

  He nodded.

  She ran a shaking hand over her nape again. “I don’t understand why you are telling me this.”

  “All he remembers is you, and he keeps asking for you. It’s driving Venetia up the wall.”

  He thought he would see triumph, pure female spite. Because whatever else he might think, Venetia had stolen Tyler from this woman. He braced himself for a deluge of tears, OMGs and “why-did-this-happen-to-me?”s. At least, that’s how Venetia had reacted, even though she had been pretty unscathed from the accident. But once the doctors had informed them about the memory loss, it had become worse as though she had taken on the leading role in a Shakespearean tragedy. And contrary to his expectations, that their relationship would lose its appeal, Venetia had only held on harder to Tyler.

  Seconds ticked by. Ms. Nelson stared out through the glass windows, but the tears didn’t fall. She took a deep breath, pressed her fingers to her forehead and turned toward him. “Where is he now, Mr. Demakis?”

  The glimmer of stark pain in her eyes rendered his thought process still. Much as he would detest it, he wanted her to throw a tantrum. That he could handle. This quiet pain of hers, the depth of emotion in her eyes, however, he wanted no part of it.

  It reminded him of another’s pain, another’s grief so much that a chill swept through him. He had worked very hard to keep his father’s face neatly tucked away. And he wanted to leave it that way. “On our island in Greece.”

  “Of course, it is not enough that your sister and you are gorgeous. You have to own an island, too.”

  He smiled at the caustic comment, at the glimpse of anger.

  “All the lengths you have gone to get me here, I’m assuming it’s not for the pleasure of giving me bad news. No more games. What is it that you want me to do?”

  “Come with me to Greece...take care of him. Venetia won’t stop turning everyone’s life into a circus until he remembers her.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Her gaze flew to him, shock dancing in its blue depths. “Did I miss the memo on amnesia that says there’s a switch to turn it on and off? An ex’s kiss, maybe? What makes you so sure that I can just make him remember her?”

  “Your ex wants to come back to New York so that he can see you,” he said, joining her in the small sitting area. “Venetia won’t let him out of her sight until he remembers their great love. His confusion and her ongoing drama are driving me insane.”

  “And I care about this why?”

  Her tone was so irreverent that it was like seeing a different woman. “You don’t. That’s why the little twisting of the truth.”

  The moment he stepped into the sitting area, she tensed. Nikos could almost feel her suspended breath as she wondered if he would sit too close. Stifling a curse, he settled onto the coffee table instead. Instantly, her breathing evened out. Never had a woman irritated him so well and so easily.

  “I want her future settled. More than anything else in the world. Which means, the only thing to do is for you to join them. With the long history between you two and your unwavering support now, Tyler will mend soon. He will remember his undying love for Venetia, and they can ride off into the sunset together,” he said, struggling to keep the mockery out of his tone.

  She settled back onto the couch, and crossed her legs. “You’ve got balls asking me to help you.”

  Nikos grinned. There was such a change in her demeanor, in the way she met his gaze head-on from the woman who had timidly followed him in. Because she knew now that he needed her, and she was adjusting her attitude based on that just as he had done. And to his surprise, he liked this gutsy version of her so much better. “My...manhood has nothing to do with the matter at hand. It’s something I need to do for my sister, and I’m doing it.”

  Pink flooded her cheeks and she averted her gaze from him as though she had just realized what she had blurted out. He had a feeling she did that at lot—spoke without thinking it through.

  Scooting to the edge of the couch, she pointed a finger in his direction, her little body shaking. “Just a month ago, you had two giant brutes pick me up like I was a sack of garbage and had them throw me out, and I mean, they literally dropped me on that concrete road outside your estate in the Hamptons.”

  She had no idea how much he regretted that decision. By the time Venetia had dropped her bombshell at that very party, announcing that she and Tyler were engaged, Lexi Nelson had already been thrown out.

  “You somehow bypassed security, broke into my estate and almost ruined the party, Ms. Nelson. It seems your colorful past is not as completely behind you as you would believe,” he said lazily, and her color rose again. “You’re lucky I didn’t have you arrested for trespassing.”

  Her chin tilted up stubbornly. “I meant no harm. All I wanted was to see Tyler, even then.”

  “Ah, yes. The wonderful Tyler. For whom you will risk anything, it seems.” He bent forward, leaning his elbows on his knees. “The fact that he didn’t answer your million calls on his cell phone didn’t alert you that he wanted to have nothing to do with you? Because you don’t strike me as the particularly stupid kind,” he added, more than a whisper of curiosity niggling him.

  A shadow darkened her blue gaze, and he knew she was remembering her conversation with Tyler. “He was angry with me, yes. But I didn’t want him to make a mistake.”

  “You don’t really believe that even now, do you? Because that would make you the most pathetic woman on the planet.”

  Her blue gaze widened. “Wow, you really don’t believe in pulling your punches.”

  “Because
hearing the actual truth instead of your own romantic version sticks in your throat?” he said, a burst of caustic anger filling him. He ran a shaking hand through his hair, annoyed by the strength of his own reaction. Telling this woman that her love for that boy had turned her into a fool was not his responsibility. But making sure his sister didn’t fall into the same mold was. “You’re right. I don’t care why you went to see him. All I care about now is that you take care of him.”

  “Why go there? Why not just bring him back here, back to New York? As you’ve already learned from that file, Tyler and I have lived here our whole lives. I’m sure being in a new country amidst strangers doesn’t help.”

  “The answer to that question is one word, Ms. Nelson. Venetia. Believe me when I say that it’s better for all parties involved if we do this there.”

  She nodded and stood up.

  He studied her, her calm demeanor not sitting well with him. She was ready to abandon the sense she was born with for the man she loved, even if he had kicked her to the curb. Was all that fire he had spied in her just a sham? And why did he care when that’s what he needed to happen? “I have already arranged for you to leave immediately with your boss at Vibe.”

  She met his gaze then, a quick flash of anger in hers. “Of course you have.” She pulled her bag over her head and adjusted it over her breasts.

  Coming to a halt at the door, she tugged it open, and leveled that steady gaze at him again. “I find it really curious. Why would you think you needed all that information on me?”

  Nikos shrugged. “Let’s just say I wanted to make sure you accepted my...proposal.”

  She didn’t even blink. “And yet you were also very confident that I would come. Please tell me.”

  If she wanted to hear what he found so distasteful about her coming here, so be it. “I was standing in the corridor with Venetia when you managed to sneak into the party that night. I heard what he said to you.”