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But Nik didn’t do any of those things. A grim look settled on his face instead and he said icily, “I’m tired, Daria. Enough with this. Come back here and we’ll talk.”
Now was a good time to be smart for once. Nik was offering her a gracious way to be done with her charade.
But she couldn’t.
She wanted a grand gesture from him – God’s gift to her, the only man she had loved. Just once in her life, she wanted to know how it felt to be treated like she was more than just a body men obsessed over.
She wanted to know how it was to have a man love her and be proud of it, Daria thought.
Slowly, Daria shook her head. “I’m going to leave you.”
Nik just gazed at her.
“I mean it.” Her voice rose a little. Beg me not to leave. Tell me you love me.
“I’m going to leave, you can’t stop me.” She took a step back to make her point, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. Her heart begged her to put an end to this, her mind telling her she was just making a cake of herself.
But Daria just couldn’t stop. “You won’t stop me. I really mean it.” She took another step back, but this time she almost lost her footing, having backed into a young man who had stepped out of his office at the same time.
“Whoa.” Strong arms held her up. “You...” The guy blinked at Daria’s face. For several seconds, he simply stared at her before he caught himself. “You, umm, okay?”
Swearing under his breath as he saw the scene unfolding – he knew that look on the other guy’s face, knew it because there really wasn’t a time Daria didn’t blow him away at how vibrantly beautiful she was – and Nik found himself moving swiftly, snatching Daria away from the other guy.
When the other guy started to speak, he said coldly, “Back off if you don’t want to get fired.”
The guy visibly debated for a second before apparently deciding that Nik wouldn’t speak of such a threat if he weren’t capable of carrying it out. After giving Daria a look of apology, he quickly went back to his office, errands forgotten.
Nik’s gaze returned to her. “Now, will you stop acting like a kid—-”
His calm tone infuriating and mortifying her at the same time, Daria wrenched her arm away from Nik’s hold. “You can’t frighten everyone here.”
Nik’s voice turned grim. “I’m warning you. Stop it with the theatrics.”
Then beg me, she thought.
But he didn’t, and her heart hardened and broke at the same time.
Dragging her suitcase with her, she stomped towards the first man she saw, a tall, burly-looking man in a suit, determined to show Nik that another man could want her enough to go against the almighty Nik Alexandropoulos. “Sir—-”
Behind her, Nik drawled, “That’s my bodyguard.”
Without a word, she moved past his guard and all other men in suits. They had attracted a crowd by now, but she forced herself to ignore it as she approached the first man in denims she saw. “Sir—-”
“That’s also my bodyguard, incognito.”
Realizing Nik could also be bluffing, she asked the man, “He’s telling the truth?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Teeth gnashing, she whirled around, screaming at Nik, “I’m really leaving you!”
Someone in the background snickered, and Nik’s temper snapped. Closing the distance between them in a few angry strides, he caught her arm and said tightly under his voice, “We will talk about this like adults—-”
She tried pulling away. “Didn’t you hear what I said? I’m leaving—-”
“Goddammit, Daria. Did you really think you could fool me? That’s empty!” He grabbed the suitcase from her, clicked it open to prove his point, and threw it on the floor.
When he faced Daria again, her entire face was white but her eyes were bright with tears. He knew he was hurting her again now, but he could no longer stop himself. “I knew the moment you opened the door, Daria. You were bluffing. You’re not the type to carry just one suitcase, and certainly you wouldn’t be able to lift that suitcase with one hand if it really had stuff inside it.”
