by Tara Pammi
It was unsettling as she was used to the noisy din of her apartment complex.
Clutching the sheets to her, she took a deep breath and fell back against the bed.
She was in the Demakis mansion in her own room. On one of the two islands they owned in the Cyclades. Her heart had resumed its normal beat when the maid had said the Demakis family and the patriarch Savas Demakis lived on the other one.
She closed her eyes, but she knew she had slept for way too long already. Stretching her hand, she reached for her cell phone on the nightstand and checked the time. She jumped off the bed when she saw it was half past three.
They had arrived at the private airstrip at four in the morning.
By the time the limo had driven them through the islet, past the electronically manned estate gates, she’d had zero energy left. Nikos’s curt “Tyler can survive a few more hours without you” had put paid to the thought before she uttered it.
Their flight from Paris had been filled with tense silence. She had been so wound up from everything Nikos had said, and her own impulsive decision to continue, she’d been on tenterhooks. Thankfully he had left her alone.
In fact, the chilling silence she had felt from him, the absence of those sarcastic undertones when he had spoken to her, which had been the barest minimum, had meant that she kept casting looks at him.
She had the most gut-twisting notion that he hadn’t bought her easy agreement to his plan. But all she could do was to push on.
She padded barefoot to the bathroom and gasped at the sheer magnificence of it.
Done in gold-piped cream marble tiles, the bathroom was decadent luxury and could house both hers and Ms. Goldman’s apartment next door. She rubbed her feet on the lush cream-colored rug, unwilling to leave dusty footprints on the marble.
The vanity on her left was a silver bowl, wide enough for her to sit in, with gold-edged lining in front of an oval mirror.
She rubbed the glinting metal just to be sure. Yep, pure silver. So everything she had heard about the Demakis wealth was true. And Nikos’s father had walked away from it all.
Ruminating on the thought, she ventured farther. The silver-and-gold theme pervaded the bathroom. Having grown up in homes where shower time had been two minutes spray under cold water, the sheer beauty of the bath stole into her.
A shower stood to her right and the highlight of the bathroom was an oval-shaped, vast sunken tub, also made out of marble.
Laughing, she closed the door behind her and decided to take advantage of it. She was here, and she would do everything within her power to ensure Nikos didn’t do something reckless. But she might as well get a luxurious bath out of it. Checking to see that there were towels aplenty, she stripped and got into the bath. Gold-edged silver taps and small handmade soaps in a variety of scents greeted her.
Turning on the jets, she immersed herself in the water.
* * *
She was sipping a mocktail on the glorious deck of a luxury yacht while a Greek heiress looked at her as though she wanted to reduce her to ash. If looks could throw her overboard, Lexi would have been kissing exotic seaweed on the floor of the sea an hour ago when she had stepped onto the deck by Nikos’s side.
He had watched her with that inscrutable expression of his, accompanied her to the yacht and brought her to Tyler. Tyler had hugged her, his gaze curiously awkward while Venetia had been a sullen, disquieting figure behind him. Contrary to the dramatics Lexi had expected, the heiress had been all too composed, only the blazing emotion in her black gaze betraying her fury.
It hadn’t been more than fifteen minutes before she had interrupted them and tugged Tyler away. Still, it was clear that Tyler had no intention of hurting Venetia by walking away, even if he had no memory of her.
Which was why he had asked for Lexi. Because he had wanted his best friend close by—to help him figure out what to do. Not the ex he had dumped for Venetia, as Nikos assumed. By the time Lexi had realized this, Nikos had disappeared.
She had been prepared to see them together, knew that whatever problems she and Tyler had, had begun before he had met Venetia. But even she, with her wishful thinking, couldn’t miss that whatever Tyler and Venetia had shared was strong. Which was going to make one ruthless Greek very angry.
Lexi shivered even though the sea air was balmy. Tyler and Venetia stood on the far side of the deck surrounded by Venetia’s friends. Venetia wasn’t going to let Tyler even look at her tonight. Probably never, if Nikos wasn’t there to persuade her.
Which made her want to find Nikos and give him a piece of her mind for dragging her into this mess.
Stepping off the deck without another glance, she refused the offer of a buggy from one of the security guards.
The warm breeze from the sea plastered her T-shirt and shorts against her. She clutched the worn-out cotton with her fingers, trying to root herself.
The wealth and the sophistication of the people partying behind her, it overwhelmed her. But that wasn’t the reason for the heavy feeling in her gut.
She would not feel sorry for herself. It was a glorious island the likes of which she would never see again, and she would not let the loneliness inside her mar her enjoyment of it.
* * *
Nikos punched in the code and kicked the heavy garage door back, hot rage fueling his blood.
Once again, Savas had thwarted him. In the three years that Nikos had carved his way into the Demakis empire through sheer hard work and determination, he had brought Savas’s bitterest rival, Theo Katrakis, onto the Demakis board, despite Savas’s vehement refusal, proving that it was time to bring new money and partnerships into the company.
And it had paid off. In two years of partnership with Theo, a shrewd businessman with a practical head, Demakis Exports had increased their revenue by almost forty percent. Nikos had no doubt he would succeed in the new real-estate venture, as well.
But Nikos’s success, perversely, made Savas push him a little more.
Why else would he, again and again, deny Nikos what he wanted the most? Another board meeting, another refusal to elect him CEO.
Locking away the scream of rage that fought for outlet, Nikos stripped off his trousers and dress shirt and pulled on old jeans.
He walked back out into the hangar area of his garage and pulled the tarp off the Lamborghini Miura S that he was restoring. He was being tested, he was being punished, he was being denied his rightful place because he was his father’s son.
Because Savas had still not forgiven his son, Nikos’s father. The one thing Savas didn’t understand was how much Nikos hated his father, too. He was nothing like his father and he never would be.
He had only two goals in life. He had hardened himself against everything else. He had driven himself to exhaustion and beyond, forgone any personal relationships, hadn’t forged any bonds with his cousins, all in pursuit of being his own man, of doing what his father had failed to do.
Protecting Venetia and becoming the Demakis CEO. And he would do both at any cost.
Renewed determination pounded through his blood. Switching on his mobile, he placed a call to his assistant and ordered him to arrange a meeting with Theo Katrakis.
* * *
“You will go blind drawing in the dark.”
Lexi gasped and looked up, the growly rumble of Nikos’s words pinged across her skin like sparks of fire. She did it so fast that that the pencil flew from her hand. Her legs ached under her, from their position on the hard concrete floor of the garage.
She had sneaked in, wondering what the structure was, and seeing Nikos, naked from the waist up, working with a furious energy on the car behind him, she had stopped still, feeling the familiar itch in her fingers to reach for her sketch pad. Every time he had crawled under the car, her breath had hitched in her throat.
Obviously, she hadn’t realized how much time had passed.
Nikos’s hand dangled in front of her. The veins in his forearm stood out thickly, his fingers shining with grease. “How long have you been here?”
With a sigh, she gave him her hand and let him tug her up. Her legs, sore from sitting in that position for so long, gave out from under her.
His arm going around her, he steadied her against his chest. Molten heat swathed Lexi inside and out. He smelled of sweat and grease, an incredibly strange combination that cut off her breath effortlessly. Sinuous muscle tightened under her fingers and she jerked back, the warmth of his skin singeing the pads of her fingers.
He looked nothing like the suave businessman that had mocked her that first day. This Nikos was more down-to-earth but no less intense.
Lean muscle covered up by glorious olive-toned skin. Tight, well-worn jeans hanging low on his hips. A chest that could have been carved from marble, despite the sprinkling of hair. Washboard abdomen and Dear God Of All Glorious Things, that line of hair that disappeared into those jeans.
Her breath came hard and fast, a permanent shiver on her skin.
His dark brown eyes glittered with unhidden amusement and something else. Something that sent hot little flares of need into every inch of her. “Would you like me to get completely naked?”
Yes, please...for my art, y’know...
Hot color rose to her cheeks and she looked away. She bent over and picked up the loose paper and pencil. A sharp knot in her right shoulder told her she had been sketching him for far longer than she had planned to. She clutched the spot with her left hand and turned back. “I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
His hands landed on her, gentle and light. He turned her around. And she went, without protest, her skin already singing to be in such close contact with him. “Here?” he whispered near her ear, his fingers tracing the tight knot in her right shoulder.
She nodded, her throat dry.
His warm breath caressed her skin as he rubbed at the sore spot with long, pulling strokes. He was like a furnace of heat behind her. Only it was the pull-you-into-it kind. The pressure was relieved by his fingers, only to flood the rest of her body.
“Relax, agape mou. Remember what we talked about?”
Lexi nodded. Because much as she puzzled about it, there was nothing sexual about the way he rubbed her shoulders. She’d seen him with the other women. He wore his sexuality like a second skin. His being sexy was like...her ability to draw. Only she had no idea how to handle the relentless assault. Her skin prickled with awareness, the rough grooves of his palm rasping against her skin.
She shivered at how much she wanted those fingers to move from her shoulders to the rest of her, how much she wanted to lean back into his body and feel the press of hard muscle.
He plucked the paper from her hand and let her go. Silence had never felt more unnerving. Slowly she turned around, every inch of her trembling.
Finally, he looked at her, turning the sheet in his hand so that she could see the sketch. “You’re extremely talented. But you drew me, not your space pirate.”
Lexi was incapable of muttering even a word. She glanced at the sketch and her gut flopped to her feet. Mortification beat a tattoo in her head. She had meant to draw Spike and yet...there was Nikos in all his glory.
There was physical hunger in his gaze, an elemental longing. The very thing she had imagined seeing.
“Are all your sketches so self-revelatory?”
He whispered the words, but the garage walls seemed to amplify them before sending them back. Unasked questions and unsaid answers pervaded the air.
Nooooo.
She stepped back, desperate to flee. “I shouldn’t have come in here. I was...was just walking around—”
His fingers closed over her wrist. “Then stay,” he said, cutting through all the confusion. “I won’t bite, Lexi.”
He tugged her gently and she followed, feeling divided within. She was pathetic enough to admit that she found him intensely interesting and yet...she was also scared.
Curiosity wiped the floor with her confusion.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked, wiping his large hands with a rag. “I informed the maids to not approach you when you are sleeping.”
Lexi nodded, a hard lump in her throat making it hard to swallow. She wanted to be angry with him for manipulating her, for thinking so little of Tyler’s feelings. And he crumbled it all with one kind thought. She understood his need to protect his sister. Just wished it didn’t come at the cost of Tyler’s happiness.
She followed him to where the vintage car stood and remembered his comments. “So this is like your Bat Cave?”
Turning around, he laughed. “You remembered.”
She forced herself to hold his gaze, knowing that he was waiting for her to drop it, shy away like a blushing virgin. “I like you here.”
He raised a brow.
“You seem nicer, calmer, less manipulative.”
He stared at her without comment, a shadow dimming the amusement. Turning around, he grabbed a wrench. “Did Venetia say something to you?”
Mesmerized by the shift and play of the muscles in his back, she didn’t answer.
He turned around and stepped closer. “Lexi?”
“What?” She colored and met his gaze. “Venetia...Venetia didn’t say a word to me. Just glared at me, you know, like she wanted to reduce me into microparticles with her laser beam.”
“Is that what Spike can do?”
“Naahhh... I think this is a new character—Spike’s demon sister.”
He threw his head back and laughed, the tendons in his neck stretching. “You’re really tempting me, thee mou. So...you didn’t get a chance to talk to Tyler then?”
“Not really. They left the deck. And I...I just didn’t know what to do.”
“You don’t like parties?”
“Less than I like being amongst a sea of people who don’t even know I exist. I could fall into the ocean and no one would even know I was gone.” She felt her face heat as he paused and looked at her. But she couldn’t stop. “She’s not going to let me near him, especially in front of her friends, Nikos. I’d rather not go to any more of these parties in the future unless you’re there.”
The echo of her words surrounded them followed by deafening silence. Of all the people in the world, she had to pour out her stupid fears to him? A man who had no place for emotions and the insecurities they brought.
“Go ahead. Call me a fool.”
“Come here.”
When she didn’t move, he pulled her close to his side. He was all hard, lean, unforgiving muscle. Lexi exhaled on a whoosh, the aching lump in her throat mocking her and yet unable to resist settling against his side.
His arm long enough to wrap around her twice, was a heavy, comforting weight on her shoulders. Her skin tingled where it rasped against hers. She felt him exhale, his big body shuddering in the wake of it. “Fears are not always rational, I know that.”
She pushed away from him and turned around, striving for composure. He didn’t seem unfeeling right then. He sounded as though he had known fear and from everything he had told her, she believed he had.
“I thought you would be living it up at the party,” she said, needing to clutter the silence.
“I’m not one for much partying, either. When I was younger, I didn’t have the time, and now I don’t have the interest. The party scene is nothing but a hunt for sex and I don’t need it.”
No, he didn’t.
She tucked her legs into the couch as he settled down on the other side. He slid into the seat in slow, measured movements, and she knew it was for her. Feeling the silliest idiot ever, she unglued herself from the corner. Okay, so she didn’t w
ant to quite sit in his lap, but there was no reason to insult the man.
He noticed her effort with smiling eyes. “You’re getting used to me.”
The warmth in those eyes, the simple pleasure in his words lit a spark inside her. She sucked in a deep breath. “Why didn’t you have time?”
He shrugged. “Until a few years ago, I worked every hour there was. I had no degree or work experience except the little I learned in my father’s garage. The only way I moved up from being a line man on the manufacturing floor to a board member was by working hard.”
“You didn’t want to study?”
“I didn’t have that choice. If I wanted security for Venetia and me, I had to do everything Savas asked me to do. Those were his conditions.”
“Conditions?” she said, feeling sick to her stomach.
He stood up from the seat, as though he couldn’t sit still. He wiped the immaculate surface of the hood with a rag. It was a comfort thing, Lexi realized with dawning awareness. There was something different about him today, and it was this place. He seemed comfortable here, almost at peace, a striking contrast to the man who had women in every city for sex.
“When Savas came to pick us up, he had specific conditions. If I was to live in his house, if I wanted Venetia to have everything she needed, I had to do anything and everything he asked of me.”
“What did he ask you to do?” Her question was instantaneous.
He leaned against the car, his hands folded. “He told me to never expect anything that I hadn’t earned. That I was his grandson meant nothing in the scheme of things. I was forbidden to mention my father or mother. Within a week, I started in his factory.”
She shot up, his matter-of-fact tone riling her own anger. “But that was...unnecessarily cruel of him.”
“He saved Venetia and me from a life of starvation and desperation. Only he refused to give it to us for free. It was not an unfair condition.”
Holding his gaze took everything Lexi had when she was shaking with fury inside. “Yes, if he was only your employer. But this is your grandfather, your family we are talking about.”