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She tensed against him. “Don’t lie to me, Damen—-”
“I’m not.”
“But what about all those calls you took that you never wanted me to hear—-”
Again, Damen groaned, his lips brushing against hers in a silent apology. “It was Willow. My editor. I’ve been talking to her for months about the book. She ghostwrote it for me.” He grabbed her hand, pressing it to his heart. “Feel it. I’m not lying. I’ll never lie to you again,” he said fiercely. “Tomorrow, we’ll go to Willow’s office. We’ll watch the CCTV footage so you’ll see the number of times I’ve been there. I’ll get phone records to show—-”
Mairi pressed one trembling finger against his lips. “I...believe you.” Her voice caught. “But I didn’t know then...you were so good,” she said in a tear-choked laugh, “at keeping your surprise that when I saw you talking on the phone and it was obvious you did not want me to hear you, I thought you were talking to Alina all those times. I thought you had fallen in love with her but couldn’t make yourself leave me because of...the past.”
“Nothing’s ever happened between us, Mairi,” Damen gritted out vehemently. “I swear it.”
“Even...before? Even when I was with Drake?”
His jaw clenched, any mention of the time Mairi had spent with the other man killing him. But that would always be his penance, his cross to bear, and Damen strove to keep his tone level as he answered, “Never. There was no other woman for me the moment I had my engagement ring on your finger.”
Mairi hesitated.
The unspoken questions lurking in her eyes made Damen prod softly, “What is it? You can say anything. Ask anything. I have nothing to hide—-”
She took a deep breath. “Alina...met me at the airport when...when I came back to Miami. She told me that when we were apart, she and you—-”
A sick look crossed his face as Damen realized what Mairi was implying. “Never,” he said flatly. “I don’t understand why she would lie about such a thing, but I never ever touched her. I swear it on my life, Mairi.”
Her chest eased. “I believe you.”
The disappearance of doubt in Mairi’s eyes had his own chest easing as well. But still he said, “We’ll go to Willow’s office tomorrow anyway. I’ll never give you any reason to doubt me again.”
A tremulous smile was his answer, and then Mairi was taking his hand and pressing it to her heart. “That’s good...because I want to promise the same.” Tightening her hold on his hand, she said unevenly, “I want to talk about Drake.”
Damen stiffened. “There isn’t any need—-”
Praying he wouldn’t hate her, Mairi said, “I lied.”
Chapter 24
Damen wanted to close his eyes. If he ever saw a lingering affection in Mairi’s eyes when she talked about the other man, he didn’t know what he would do. Let her go? Kill the other man?
“Look at me—-”
Damen rolled her on top of him and pressed her head to his chest to keep his gaze over hers resolutely. “Don’t push me, Mairi.”
She tried to lift her head. “Damen—-”
Jealousy had him snarling, “No.” He tried to keep his voice level because he knew what had happened wasn’t Mairi’s fault. It wasn’t even Morrison’s fault. It was all his. He fucking knew that, but it didn’t mean he could bear having the knowledge shoved at him like a stick in his ass all the time.
Still, his wife persisted, as if she didn’t think he had paid enough for his sins. When she tried to raise her head again, he let her this time. If Mairi thought he needed to die all over again by making him listen to every single fucking detail about the time she had spent in another man’s goddamned arms—-
So be it.
Because he loved her.
The hard look on Damen’s face made her heart ache painfully. If she had ever needed proof of how much Damen truly loved her, then it was that look.
And she wanted to cry because it was also proof that her long-ago dream of finding her own Greek billionaire to love and be loved by him had really come true.
Lifting herself up, her elbows on his chest, she repeated, “I lied.”
He forced himself to ask. “About what?”
“I can’t...I can’t deny that we’ve been intimate, but he never...we never did it.” She bit her lip, shame engulfing her. “I wasn’t even thinking of hurting you when it happened. I just wanted to give myself a reason not to come back to you. I wanted to prove to myself that I was no longer...yours.” Her head dipped after her confession, a part of her fearing Damen’s reaction. Hearing herself say the words made Mairi realize how wrong she had been. How that shouldn’t have ever happened—-
“Did it work?”
Her head snapped up, and she wasn’t sure if she had heard him correctly. “W-what did you say?”
