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Leo got to his feet and buttoned his jacket. “Lead the way.”
Nikos’s eyes flashed with irritation. He turned on his heel and headed to the bar.
“I’ll be right back.” Leo clapped Ben on the shoulder. He hoped this wouldn’t take long. He also hoped he would return with his balls intact.
He followed Nikos to the front of the restaurant and turned right into a busy bar. It was Friday night, and the bar was filled with people waiting for their tables. Nikos pointed to the bartender who raised a hand in greeting. Nikos went to a black lacquered table in a corner and tossed away the reserved sign. He took a seat and motioned for Leo to sit.
Leo pulled out the oxblood leather club chair and sat.
The cocktail waitress, dressed in skin-tight black leather pants and a white shirt, unbuttoned to reveal a substantial amount of cleavage, approached their table. “Would you like anything to—oh my God, you’re Leo Sutton,” she gushed.
Nikos tapped his finger on the table, his obsidian eyes riveted on Leo.
“Nothing for me,” Leo said, glancing at the waitress.
“Oh. Okay.” She turned her attention to Nikos. “And you, sir?”
“Nothing. Leave us,” Nikos said, giving her a dismissive wave of his hand.
After the waitress scurried away, the silence hung heavy in the air. Nikos wanted to talk, so Leo would let him take the lead.
“You’re dating my daughter,” Nikos said, getting straight to the point.
Judging from the amount of anger directed at him, Leo decided his best tactic was to abandon the charm and be direct with Nikos.
“I hope to be.”
“You hope to be? Then why is your picture with Cassie everywhere?”
“Nikos, I’m going to be honest with you. I care about Cassandra. We met while we were in Santorini. We had one date.”
“A one-night stand is probably more like it,” Nikos scoffed.
Leo promised to be honest, but he didn’t want to confirm that a one-night stand is exactly what he’d offered Cassandra. “We didn’t share last names at first.”
Nikos’s glare turned murderous. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It’s hard to explain. I liked Cassandra the moment we met at the Kronos Hotel while I waited for my car. We ran into each other again at the Triton, and I invited her to dinner.”
Nikos remained quiet.
Leo couldn’t gauge Nikos’s silence as a positive or negative thing, so he continued. “When we shared last names, she didn’t know who I was, but I shut it down when I realized she was your daughter. She was angry I didn’t give any details. I regret that now. I saw her in a London restaurant and apologized. I asked Cassandra to give me the opportunity to clarify my reaction to her name.”
Nikos leaned forward on the table and folded his arms. He was waiting for Leo to keep talking.
“She called me two weeks later, and we went out to dinner. That was when the photo was taken. We had a long conversation about my past andI’ve taken full responsibility for my behavior at the awards dinner.She’s agreed to think about dating me.” There. He told the truth, but it didn’t relieve the antagonism that hung in the air between Nikos and him.
The fire had calmed a bit in Nikos’s eyes.
“I’m hopeful Cassandra will agree to date me exclusively. If there’s anything else you’d like to know, I suggest you ask your daughter.”
“I don’t like you.”
“I don’t expect you will ever like me, sir. But people change. I have.”
“I saw how the cocktail waitress reacted to you. I don’t want my daughter to have to deal with that kind of thing. It’s disrespectful to her.”
“I’m not that person anymore. I’ve worked hard to create my own business.”
