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Her phone beeped as the crew opened the jet’s main door and she and Damen stood in front of it, waiting for the ground staff to roll the mobile staircase towards them. Checking her phone, Mairi saw that it was from Aunt Norah. You look good on TV.
She automatically forced a smile on her lips, knowing that the message was a subtle reminder from her aunt to stay strong, or at least look strong in public.
“We hope you had a pleasant flight, Mr. Leventis, Ms. Tanner.”
Mairi nodded her thanks, her stomach queasy at the thought of once again coming in close contact with the press. Damen squeezed her hand. “Just stick close to me. Do not look at them, do not talk to them, and it will be fine.”
She nodded. It was all she could manage.
They came down, Damen moving steadily and confidently and Mairi doing her best to keep a calm appearance. Alina Kokinos would have done so much better than Mairi if she was the one in this position, Mairi thought miserably.
The flash coming from the press’ huge camera bulbs was so blindingly bright Mairi had to shield her gaze against them, forgetting the fact that the hand she was using to protect her eyes was—-
Seeing what his fiancée had just done, Damen smirked and pulled Mairi close to him. “You’ve done it,” he told her.
“Done what?”
The shit hit the fan.
As Mairi and Damen got off the last step of the jet’s staircase, everyone started trying to outshout each other with their questions.
“WHEN DID YOU GET ENGAGED?”
“WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE MS. TANNER OVER THE KOKINOS HEIRESS?”
“IS SHE THAT GOOD IN BED?”
“WHAT DOES IONIKO VLAHOS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT YOUR ENGAGEMENT?”
Mairi stumbled at Ioniko’s name and the reporters tried to press forward like hounds sensing a kill, wanting to capture any kind of look on Mairi’s face. But Damen had schooled her well, and she kept her face down, not looking at any of them.
If only, she thought wistfully, she could be as cool as Damen. How did he do it, walking like it was normal to wear dark glasses on a rainy day? It didn’t make sense but he made it look like it was the fashionable thing to do.
As they neared the limousine, one of the reporters shouted, “Do you think your sister approves of your wedding?”
Mairi paled at the question.
“What about your potential brother-in-law, Stavros Manolis—-”
Mairi’s head snapped towards the press at the last question.
Click.
Damen hauled her back to his side. “Ignore them,” he said harshly as he tried to keep pace with Mairi, doing his best not to cause her to run towards the limousine waiting for them at the end of the tarmac. Would he cause another scandal if he simply swept her up in his arms? Probably, Damen thought, but right now he was close to not caring.
When they were inside the limousine, Damen and Mairi sat apart on the same side. He waited for her to say something.
She didn’t.
Stavros Manolis. Mairi was in a daze. Could it be the same man? She turned to Damen, seeking answers to the jumbled questions in her mind, her instincts telling her that if there was something she could not solve, Damen could and would help her with it.
The look of entreaty on Mairi’s face made Damen want to curse. She was silently asking questions he did not want her to ask, but when she looked at him like he was her fucking knight – even after everything – Damen knew he would do whatever she damn asked, even if it meant having his heart on a platter.
“Stavros Manolis was there at the school when I broke my engagement to Alina.”
For once, the name of the girl who once had the right to stand next to Damen did not make her wince, Mairi’s attention completely focused on the name that she hadn’t ever expected to hear again in connection with her.
Gazing unseeingly down at her lap, she said slowly, “I knew of a Stavros Manolis once—-”
“He is the same Stavros that you know of.”
Her head jerked up. “How could you know?”
He shrugged, lying, “I saw him at the school. There was something on his face that told me he knew you.”
He waited for her to continue from there, to let him know about her past with Manolis, but she didn’t. Finally he asked, “What are your plans for today?” The guilty look that darted towards him made Damen’s fists clench. She had been so lost in her thoughts of another man she had fucking forgotten he, Damen Leventis, was here with her.
Mairi mumbled, “I’m going to, umm, work out.” Exercise had become therapeutic, the way things that used to be confusing became suddenly clear by the time she had run herself to the ground. And this time, she was more confused than ever but Damen probably wouldn’t like knowing that.
