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As Damen drank the rest of his whiskey, the alert waiter standing behind him immediately came forward to pour him another shot the moment he set the glass on the table.
Nodding his thanks, he gazed at the blurry reflection that the cubes of ice inside the glass created. It was not his image he saw, though. All he saw right now – all he saw during the past few days was her.
If he closed his eyes, all he could see was her shining face with its sweet dreamy expression – the one she had every time he surprised her with a kiss. He vividly remembered the way she said ‘hi’ in a breathless daze after each surprising kiss, like he was kissing her for the very first time and she was blown away by it.
Whenever she looked at him like that, whenever she said ‘hi’ like that, he felt like a teenager who had scored his first kiss, too – the sweetest and hottest kiss of his life.
A shadow fell over him, and by the time he looked up Ioniko Vlahos had taken the other leather armchair across him. A new glass was immediately placed before the other man, followed by a shot of vodka. The club’s waiters were not only trained to be courteous and quick to serve, but they were also expected to memorize each and every preference of the club’s esteemed members, from their choice of liquor to their favorite brand of cigar.
“Trouble in paradise this early?” Ioniko asked mockingly and was rewarded with a darkened expression on the other man’s face.
“Fuck you.”
“I would rather fuck—-”
Damen’s fist slammed into the table. “Don’t,” he bit out. “Or I swear to God, I’ll thrash you—-”
Ioniko’s laugh cut him off. “Do you think that scares me?”
“Mairi is mine, Vlahos. Don’t make the mistake of forgetting it.”
He looked at Damen Leventis, whose face was inscrutable. His instincts told him that something had gone wrong between Leventis and Mairi, thus giving him the chance that he had long been waiting for.
With every second that passed and Vlahos still hadn’t spoken, Damen became tenser and tenser. “She’s mine.” Damen felt like he needed to repeat the words.
After a beat, Ioniko only raised a brow as he questioned, “Is she?”
It was clearly meant to goad Damen into a temper, and his teeth clamped together at the effort it took him not to rise to the bait.
“Don’t forget that I, too, have a sister studying in the school she teaches. When you ask the right questions, you get the right answers, Leventis. And I do know what to ask.” Ioniko leaned forward, wanting the other man to see the determination and ruthlessness in his eyes.
“Mairi is no longer yours and this time, I will not take no for an answer.”
“AREN’T YOU GOING TO answer your phone?” Mandy finally demanded in exasperation, her ears already on fire after hearing her friend’s phone ring nonstop during the past hour. It had been a tiring day for the entire faculty, with the requisite meeting with the school board and the interview-slash-interrogation that came with it emotionally draining.
It was only eight in the evening but all Mandy wanted to do was sleep – and she would, right after she figured out how to silence Mairi’s incessantly ringing phone.
The ringing stopped.
Just as Mandy started to sigh with relief, the ringing started again. “Mairi! Answer it!”
“No.”
Mandy blinked at the curt tone, which surprised her enough to make her sit up on the bed. She gazed at Mairi worriedly, who was lying on her back, her eyes on the ceiling. “Are you okay?”
The ringing stopped then resumed again for another series.
“Dammit!” Velvet, whose bed was next to the windows, jumped to her feet and stalked to Mairi’s bed. She grabbed the phone from the bedside table.
Mairi whitened. “Don’t—-”
Velvet’s jaw dropped. “Damen Leventis is calling you?”
“Yes,” she managed to say, fighting back the urge to cover her ears and make Velvet take the words back. The name alone had her swallowing convulsively as she tried to stop the hurtful memories from once again attacking her mind.
“You don’t want to speak to him?”
She shook her head.
“Really don’t want to speak to him?”
She nodded.
“Okay.” And then to her shock, Velvet answered the phone. “Hello?”
It took a moment for Mairi to recover. “Velvet!”
“Oh? You’re looking for Mairi? Well, she’s not here. She’s dead and you fucking killed her by being the world’s greatest asshole. So, Mr. World’s Greatest Asshole, don’t ever call her again!”
She was still gaping by the time Velvet returned the phone on the bedside table with a satisfied look on her face.
“Velvet...” Her voice trailed off. Mairi didn’t know what to say.
Velvet gave her a dry look. “You’re supposed to thank me.”
Mairi flushed. Sometimes, it just wasn’t good to have really smart friends.
“Thank you.”
