by Marian Tee
Seeing that Damen appeared disinclined to talk, Drake decided to proceed and discuss his main intention for visiting. “Tomorrow, you’ll be receiving a package of sensitive data about the Kokinos clan.”
Damen frowned. “What do you have to do with them?”
“Consider it as my way of atoning for the trouble I have caused you and Mairi. The data was obtained illegally, and I of course won’t force you to use it. But if you do, you can be assured that it will significantly level the playing field between you and your enemies.”
Damen drawled, “Let me guess. You had your goons beat the information out of your target.” The words were a jab at how Drake had enlisted law enforcers to physically restrain Damen from getting near Mairi and Drake’s own use of force against Damen.
Drake only responded to the barb with a smile. “I only do that for special cases. After all, when a man hurts the woman who selflessly loves him repeatedly – to the extent of having the woman arrested in front of their own servants – such a person deserves that kind of treatment, don’t you think?”
Curtly, Damen said, “It will never happen again.”
“If you say so—”
“I know so.” Damen looked at Drake straight in the eye. “I love her with every breath of my life. I’d lie for her if I have to. I’d kill for her. I’d go down on my knees if it’s what would keep her at my side.”
Drake knew those last words were costly for someone with such great pride as the ex-billionaire. But he was unimpressed. He had seen a lot of horrors in his life at the battlefield, and one of the greatest horrors was the fact that some people could never change.
Damen Leventis might have convinced himself that he loved Mairi now, but what could a son of someone who had been raised by a cold-hearted bitch like Esther Leventis truly know about love?
“For Mairi’s sake, I hope you do mean it. Because if I find out that you’ve hurt her one last time – if Mairi asks for my help to leave you—” Drake’s face hardened. “You will never see her again.”
Having made his point, Drake saw no point in sticking around. Without another word, he made his way to the door, walked out, and stopped. “Mairi?”
Damen’s head jerked up. A second later, he was walking swiftly out of the study and coming to an abrupt stop next to the other man when he saw his wife standing in the hallway. The look on her face had his chest squeezing painfully hard.
He had seen Mairi this same fucking way once.
Devastation in eyes made glassy with tears, face too pale, and lips that wobbled in an effort to keep her emotions at bay.
He had seen her like this when Damen broke her heart for the first time.
It was the time Damen had told Mairi he only wanted her to be his mistress and not his wife.
She had left him after that.
Damen willed himself to breathe and keep his voice even as he asked, “What’s wrong, Mairi?” She was not going to leave him. She was not. Whatever the trouble was, he would fix it. She was not going to leave him. She was goddamn not.
Drake’s jaw clenched. What the fuck had happened now? What the hell had Damen done? He ignored the fact that Damen had been with him the whole time. Mairi was a strong woman, but she was, had been, and would always be weak where Damen was concerned. “What is it, Mairi?” His voice was harsh with concern.
The two men had spoken at the same time, and they turned to each other as if in challenge. One sized the other’s right to care for Mairi while the other sized the other’s ability to do so. It was clear in both their stances that Mairi only had to say the word and one of them would die fighting for her.
Chapter Four
She said: To wed a Greek billionaire, one must need a bodyguard.
He said: As long as his name isn’t—
She said: Don’t say his name—
He said: Asshole Morrison. There, I didn’t say his name. See how you’ve tamed me so well, sweetheart?
“Her name was Paige.” These were the first words that Drake had written in the letter he had saved in the flash drive, which Mairi guessed he didn’t want Damen to know about.
Both of us joined the Army at the same time. She was a few years younger than I was, and we had different reasons for joining. I had been idealistic then. I wanted to fight for our country. Paige, she wanted to die for it – she said it was better than dying raped in her neighborhood.
We grew…close. We didn’t want this closeness, but it happened.
And I messed up.
I made her think she could depend on me, the way she couldn’t rely on anyone else in her life. But I messed up – we were on a mission when she was injured, and I had to leave her because I needed to bring the people we rescued to a safe place.
That was the last time I saw her.
When I saw your picture, Mairi…you reminded me of her. In so many ways that…it wasn’t right. When I accepted the assignment, I had known right away that it was wrong. That I was the wrong man to look after you and teach you to be strong.
I was the wrong man because I had my own motives.
I saw you as another chance to convince myself that somewhere in this fucked-up world, Paige was still alive. That if I could make someone like you fall for me…that maybe Paige could find it in her heart to love her captor.
But you didn’t.
I did everything I could to make you choose me, but you didn’t. You loved Damen so much that I knew even during that night, it was Damen you were thinking of.
And when you managed to escape the hospital…when I saw the blood on the ground and knew that you didn’t give a shit if you had to die because you wanted to get to Damen so badly—
God help me, Mairi, but a part of me rejoiced in it. I’m sorry that I forced you to do something so drastic, but I don’t want to lie to you anymore. When you did that, I knew that Paige would do the same thing for me.
Even if she has to fuck someone and pretend to love another man, Paige would do anything to survive. You made me believe that she would do everything to stay alive and wait for me until I killed every damn man who dared hurt her.
And now you know the kind of man that I am.
I am no better than Damen Leventis.
I’m a lot worse because I don’t care about how many people would bleed just so I can be with Paige again.
It’s because of you that hope burns inside me again, and it’s the kind of debt I can’t ever hope to repay. Even so, I want you to know – whatever you want me to do for you, Mairi – I will do it.
Mairi’s breath was dragged out of her as she slowly closed the Word file and deleted it, knowing that this kind of letter could never be read by anyone else – not even Damen. It was too raw and personal, the love that Paige and Drake shared something that couldn’t be shared with just anyone else.
For long moments, she remained on her dresser, sobbing in her seat. She cried for Paige, for Drake, for Damen…but most of all, she cried for herself. Love had made her unable to see the forest for the trees, but she did now.
Thanks to Drake’s letter, she knew now that—
She inhaled deeply, but still another racking sob escaped Mairi.
She loved Damen to the point of madness, and she would never be able to stop herself from doing so. She’d never stop loving him unless someone else was there to stop her.
It became clear to her what she had to do then, and Mairi forced herself to move even if her body felt like it had turned into stone. She descended the stairs and was in the hallway when Drake came out of the study, immediately stilling at the sight of her.
“Mairi?”
She opened her mouth to speak, but the words didn’t come out, a part of her afraid to speak because if she did say the words, everything would change. Forever.
Damen came out almost immediately after, and he, too, stilled in shock at the sight of her. The sight of Damen, dressed still in the suit he wore for their wedding, pushed Mairi further to the edge. Oh God, he would always be the
most beautiful man in her eyes. The one man she would always love – but shouldn’t.
When Damen asked Mairi what was wrong and Drake spoke at the same time, voicing his concern, Mairi found herself close to being hysterical. Looking at both of them, she only just saw the uncanny similarities between them, both of them tall, dark, and handsome, Drake with his All-American boy-next-door looks and Damen with the refined looks of a classical statue.
It should be so easy for her to replace one with the other, but it wasn’t.
One of them represented the chains that bound her heart, and the other held the key to free her from the self-destructive love she suffered from.
She forced her gaze away from Damen, and her heart broke a little when Damen sucked in his breath audibly at the seeming snub. And because she loved him so much, she was immediately tempted to rush to his side, to throw her arms around him and tell Damen that she would always love him.
But she didn’t.
Be strong, Mairi.
Be strong for those who love you.
Haltingly, she asked Drake, “Do you mean it?”
A frown marred Drake’s forehead at how fragile Mairi appeared right now. Keeping his voice gentle, he asked, “Do I mean what, Mairi?”
“Did you mean what you promised? That you would do anything to make up for what you did to me?”
Ah.
She had read his letter then.
He said simply, “Yes.”
A single tear slipped down her cheek at Drake’s answer. That one word granted Mairi the chance to keep her from losing herself completely in Damen. It also came with the knowledge that she would hurt Damen with it, and that she never wanted to do.
But she had to.
God help her, but she had to.
It was the only way to be strong.
Damen didn’t understand a fucking thing about what Mairi and the other man were talking about. All he knew was what his instincts were telling him, and it was that Mairi was hurting and Drake’s answer had her hurting more.
“Mairi.” He struggled to keep his voice even. “Tell me what’s wrong—”
“I know what I want you to do for me, Drake.”
Damen’s control snapped and he stalked towards Mairi. “Ask me for help, Mairi. Ask me—”
More pieces of her heart broke off at Damen’s words, but she didn’t allow herself to be swayed by it. Keeping her gaze focused on Drake, she whispered, “I want you to be my bodyguard. I want you to live here with us and stick with the job until…the end.”
Shock reverberated in his system at his wife’s words. “A bodyguard?” The rest of her words hit him, and his eyes narrowed. “And what the fuck do you mean with ‘the end’?”
She lied, “Until our troubles with your mother and the Kokinos clan end.”
Something in it didn’t quite ring true, but for once, Mairi’s normally expressive face didn’t give anything away. All Damen could see was the stiff tense way she held her body straight and the strain on her face. He could fight her on this, he knew. He fucking wanted to, the idea of having Drake Morrison too close to Mairi every fucking day enough to have him seething.
But he didn’t.
Because she needed Drake.
It was clear in her eyes there was something she wanted that only the ex-sniper could give. And in the end, what the woman he loved wanted, Damen wanted her to have even if it practically tore his heart in half.
A gasp of surprise escaped Mairi when Damen suddenly hauled her into his arms. When she looked up at him in confusion, Damen responded by kissing her hard. The kiss had Mairi stiffening even more, but Damen didn’t let up, his lips moving aggressively and seductively until with a choked cry, Mairi’s lips parted underneath his.
Damen’s tongue stroked in, and when he deepened the kiss, Mairi found herself forgetting everything. She forgot that Drake was there, forgot that she wasn’t supposed to let herself be swept away by Damen. She forgot that this kiss didn’t mean he loved her. It never did.
As Damen pulled her closer, their bodies molding to each other like they had always been born as two perfect halves, Mairi could have wept at the beauty of it. How perfect his kiss tasted. How beautiful his touch felt. So dear God, why couldn’t he love her the way she loved him?
When he lifted his head, the haze of passion in Mairi’s eyes only brought him a small dose of satisfaction. How could he be happy when behind the passion lurked the tears that always seemed in danger of spilling?
Damen knew had a long way to go to making things right between them, and it didn’t fucking help that Mairi wanted her ex-lover tailing them every second. He thought about Whitney Houston falling for Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard. He thought about Princess Diana once being linked to her security detail. Wasn’t there a supermodel who also started dating her bodyguard, someone who had been in her employ when she was still married to someone else?
Over Mairi’s head, his gold-flecked gaze met the ex-sniper’s eyes, Damen not bothering to hide his thoughts from the other man. If Drake Morrison thought being his wife’s bodyguard would give him the chance to steal Mairi away for good, then he should know now that Damen was ready to die just to keep Mairi at his side.
The other man’s face remained expressionless, even though it was clear Drake understood Damen’s silent message.
In his arms, Mairi tried to wriggle away and Damen cupped her chin, leaving her with no choice but to look at him again.
“Why did you kiss me?” Her voice was strained as she asked the question, Mairi still shaken by the ease in which Damen was able to make her forget everything with just one kiss.
“Because I wanted you to remember that you’re mine.” His voice became hard. “It was also my way of letting you know that it’s not going to work.”
Mairi paled, but still she tried to lie, mumbling, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you do, matakia mou,” he murmured. “And again I tell you, it will not work. If you want Morrison to be your bodyguard, so be it. But if you think it’s going to stop me from fucking you whenever and wherever I want—”
“Damen!” Mairi’s cheeks flushed red.
“If you think it’s going to stop me from making you fall in love with me again—” Damen shook his head and said simply, “You might as well ask me to stop breathing. That’s how much your love means to me.” Without warning, he swept her up in his arms, causing Mairi to gasp anew.
Looking at Drake, he drawled, “Now if you could excuse us? You won’t need to guard Mairi for now since it’s our wedding night and it’s my sole intention to have her come for several nights.”
Chapter Five
She said: To wed a Greek billionaire, one must expect the most romantic wedding night—
He said: It was so fucking romantic you couldn’t even make yourself say you love me.
She said: I…I did. I said I…I…I love making love to you?
Tension was palpable in Damen’s lean hard body as he carried Mairi all the way up the stairs. She had hurt him. Her heart ached at the knowledge even though deep inside her she knew her choice had been the only choice she could make. Damen cared for her. She could even go as far as say that Damen had never cared for any other woman as much as he cared for her, but…it was not enough.
Damen was everything to her.
But to him, she was…not.
Even so, Mairi tried to think of something to say that would ease the hurt, but nothing came to mind. Lifting her head and turning to look at her husband, Mairi’s throat clogged at the stoic look on his face. It was as if he was keeping himself from feeling because if he did, he wouldn’t have been able to take it.
The thought distressed Mairi, and she ended up blurting out, “D-do you realize you’re practically carrying me over the threshold?”
Damen stilled halfway to the bedroom. The question had him looking down at his wife, who looked like she wanted to take the words back. He asked gruffly, “Shouldn’t
I have?”
That he had to ask made her swallow, and Mairi said tremulously, “It’s not that. I…like it.” That was the most she could allow herself to admit. “But…I never thought this whole traditional groom thing was you, you know?”
Damen only continued to gaze at her, long enough to make Mairi squirm. Had she said the wrong thing? When he finally spoke, she could have expired in relief—
“Would you rather I just fuck you here?”
—until she realized what he was suggesting and Mairi laughingly choked out, “No! Drake’s downstairs—”
His tone cooled. “You’re only giving me another reason to do it.”
“I’m serious.” Her voice and laughter were muffled as she hid her face in the crook of his neck while tightening her arms around his neck.
Her laughter was a sweet sound, and he treasured it because for a very long time, Damen had thought he would never have the ability to make Mairi laugh again. Having reached their room, he balanced his wife in his arms so he could open the door. After kicking it shut, he slowly lowered Mairi to her feet. When she looked up at him, a smile was still playing on her lips.
At that moment, never had a woman looked so beautiful in Damen’s eyes.
It wasn’t because of what she wore or how she looked tonight.
It was that smile.
That smile alone could bring him to life. Mairi was his life, what could be more beautiful than life itself?
Bemused at the way Damen was gazing at her, Mairi asked, “What is it?”
Damen said simply, “I love you.”
Mairi froze.
“I know you don’t believe me now, but I’ll find a way to earn back your love and trust. I did it before, and you know – Mairi, deep inside you know – that the reason you love me so much is because you know I’m the only man for you.”
