AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It certainly wasn’t the first time it’d happened to Nico. The memories continued to cloud him, sucking the air out of his lungs and making the earth feel like hot coals beneath his feet. He remembered that day well, the only person who’d ever felt like family to him. The father he’d always wanted and never had. He’d dragged Nico by the arm all the way to the front door.
Then he was homeless. Alone, again. Abandoned…and worse.
“What?” She shook her head. “My plan? What plan are you talking about?”
So that’s how she was going to play it, by sticking to the whole innocent act? His chest rose and fell as panic took its grip. “Don’t insult me, Marianna.”
Her eyes widened so much he thought they might pop right out of her head. “W-what?”
“You heard me,” he growled. “If you think you fooled me even for a second with your fake name, then you’re wrong.”
“Oh my god.” She pressed a hand to her chest, as if trying to still her heartbeat. “You know my name.”
“I saw you walk out of the café with your brother.” He shook his head. “I was curious, so I played along. But if Daniel thinks that he can change my mind by shoving his sister into my lap, then he’s got another thing coming. I will not be manipulated into a business deal. People have tried it before and failed. You and your brother are no different.”
“I’m not…” She shook her head, her breath tripping. “We’re not doing that. That’s not what this is.”
“You must have a reason to lose your virginity to the guy who turned your brother down. There’s got to be an ulterior motive—why else do it?”
Nico realized then that he was having this argument with her while totally naked. Growling in frustration, he reached down and grabbed a towel to cover himself. Logically he knew that this thing with Marianna shouldn’t have shaken him. After all, it made no difference. They could play whatever tricks they wanted, but he wouldn’t be giving the Halsey family his money or his support. He owed them nothing. And sleeping with her didn’t change that.
You can act like it didn’t have any meaning, but that doesn’t change the fact that you felt it. She got to you.
But he couldn’t dwell on that. This situation smacked of the past. It burrowed under his skin like a needle, painful and sharp, rousing the memories he’d tried so hard to bury.
“I didn’t know who you were,” she said. Now her eyes were shimmering with tears, and she’d wrapped her arms around herself, rolling her shoulders in as if hoping it might make her disappear. “You came up to me.”
“To stop you from getting robbed. That could have been the end of it.”
“I invited you for a drink because I thought you were handsome. That’s it.”
“And you wanted your first time to be with a stranger?” He shook his head. “I’m not buying it.”
“Excuse me?” She glared at him. “You make it sound like I’m a liar.”
“Are you, Bianca?”
“That’s different!”
“This whole thing sounds fishy as hell, and it wouldn’t be the first time a woman had tried to use sex to get something out of me.”
Marianna was practically vibrating now; her tear-filled eyes had turned hard. Her mouth pressed into a thin line as the hot, pulsating anger poured off her like a pheromone. It only made her look even more regal. Like a furious and vengeful queen.
“You want to know what I was after, Nico?” His name was spat out like it caused a bad taste in her mouth. “I wanted to have sex. That’s all. I wanted to let my hair down and have a hot time with a stranger while I was here in Greece. Now, you can make up whatever nefarious stories you like, but that’s the truth of it.”
She sounded sincere. But Nico had heard plenty of “sincerity” in his time. She’d certainly seemed attracted to him. All that adorable fumbling, that sweet clumsiness had allowed him to let his guard down. What if it was all part of her plan? Then she’d had him eating out of the palm of her hand.
Shame burned bright and hot, giving a jittery edge to his racing heart. “Well, if that’s what you came for, then you got it,” he said. “But that means we’re done.”
“Fine,” she gritted out.
Some strange inner voice urged him to stay, to find out more about her. Because today hadn’t been nothing to him, despite how it was ending.
But he smothered the voice until there was nothing but cold silence. “I’ll call my driver to take you back to your hotel. You can wait here until he’s ready.”
And with that, Nico stalked into the house, trying to shake off the feeling that he’d just made a very big mistake.
