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Alina Kokinos, telling Mairi that she had been sleeping with Damen since he had thrown her out...
Mairi squeezed her eyes shut.
No.
She was going to put everything behind her now.
When she opened her eyes, Damen was gazing at her, his eyes fierce, his jaw clenched hard.
Everything inside Damen demanded that he beg for Mairi to stay with him, to marry him, and to love him. But he held the words back even if doing so almost killed him. He was not as selfish as he had thought, after all.
If she married him, the future ahead of them was anything but rosy.
He was no longer a Greek billionaire.
He was only a man who made too many mistakes, and all he could offer her was his love.
He would not keep her with him if she chose to be smart and run away from this wedding.
And so he waited.
Time passed ever so slowly. Around them were reminders of forces that were for and against them. The documents of Esther’s lawsuit against him on the bedside table, the gift from his sister and her aunts, the men who cared for Mairi enough to give her away to Damen if she so chose...
At that moment, Damen realized none of it mattered.
Whether people stood by them or not didn’t matter.
All he wanted was Mairi to be his wife, and if she said yes, then he would fight to the death to keep her safe, cherished, and loved.
“I do.”
His head jerked up, Damen unable to believe that he had really heard Mairi whisper the words.
Unshed tears shone in her eyes as she whispered again, more fiercely, “I do.”
The rest of what the priest had to say was lost in the applause that followed.
Damen pulled Mairi into his arms, and cupping her face, he took her mouth in a kiss that, for as long as it lasted, obliterated every memory of pain.
As their lips met in that one kiss sealing their union, it was as if the past had never happened, and Damen Leventis and Mairi Tanner were just two people who had always been in love with each other.
But no kiss lasted forever.
When Damen and Mairi parted, everything came back.
Every heartache.
Every teardrop.
And the knowledge that this was a wedding of two broken, beating hearts.
Chapter 2
She said: When you wed a Greek billionaire, it will feel like the start of a new life.
He said: Technically, you have never wed a Greek billionaire, matakia mou.
She said: I haven’t???
He said: Never. Because when you wed me, I was no longer a billionaire. I was just an ordinary Greek man – but you still married me. It was the most humbling moment of my life.
COMING OUT OF THE OFFICE of the private jet Stavros had lent them for their flight back to Greece, Damen espied Mairi asleep in one of the luxurious couch seats, its footpad raised. She had already changed out of her wedding dress and into a practical beige pantsuit. Not the typical going-away outfit for certain, but then, they really weren’t going away for a honeymoon.
Once his battle with Esther and the Kokinos was over, Damen vowed to himself that he would give Mairi the wedding trip she deserved. Anything in the world, anywhere in the world – it would be hers.
For long moments, he allowed himself the luxury of simply staring at her. Even in her sleep, she appeared anxious and tired, and his heart clenched at the sight of it. Slowly, he made his way towards her. He reached out to touch her face only to hesitate mid-air. It was goddamn hard to shake away the feeling that he had lost the right to touch her.
Please don’t let him think I’m awake.
Maybe it was ESP. Maybe it was true love – on her part at least – but whatever it was, it had made Mairi sense Damen the moment he came to her side. She willed herself to keep her breath steady.
If Velvet had been in her place, she would have made a bold seductive pose as she stretched on the seat and maybe even crooked a finger to get her own Greek billionaire husband to come near. And if it had been Mandy, her other friend would have opened her eyes and asked Damen in her practical voice why he was staring at her.
But Mairi was not her friends.
She was...her...and so she continued to pretend that she was asleep.
As Damen crouched down next to her seat, he noticed the way Mairi’s eyes suddenly squeezed shut. Her throat had bobbed silently, too, and Damen’s lips twitched as he realized that his bride was actually pretending to be asleep.
No doubt she, too, had been unable to think of a way to break the ice between them. He was the man who had her thrown into jail, and she had married him. She had admitted to his face that she had allowed another man to touch her, and he had married her. It just wasn’t ice between them – it was a whole glacier the size of Mt. Everest.
