The Art of Trusting a Greek Billionaire (4 page)

Even though she knew it was too late, she was not the type to give up so easily and she began, “Damen—”
 

“Do
not
say another word, Mother.” He tried to keep a lid on his temper but after everything that had happened, it was impossible. “You dare say such words about her after what you and Father have done with your lives?”

Color suffused her cheeks. She despised the fact that only Damen, her own flesh and blood, was able to say such things to her face. And because he was her son and he had been there throughout that dark part of her life, she was not able to lie or deny the truth.

She knew the better thing to do was not to say another word, but again affronted pride got the better of her and she demanded shrewishly, “Why do you care what I say about her? She is a nobody – a nobody! And you are engaged to the Kokinos heiress! What would their family say if they learned you are crazy over a lowly teacher—”

“At least I can say she was a virgin when I had her, Mother.”

Sheer shock at the indirect barb had Esther stiffening. But a second later she recovered, completely losing her mind. “You ungrateful son, how dare you speak to me like that?”
 

She started screaming and cursing him.

“Do you think that stupid girl will still have you? You took another woman’s ring in national TV! You slept with her—” Esther tossed him a contemptuous look. “If you are to be believed, you took her innocence even when you had already promised your name to another woman! And you dare speak to me like you are unlike me?”

Her cackle was pure poison. “Oh, my dear boy, you are exactly like me – the way you callously use other people and discard them when they are unneeded. The only difference is that I’ve accepted it and you have not.”

Damen was lost in the darkness after Esther’s words.
 

Unbidden, a memory flitted through his mind, of him when he was still a little boy, learning the truth about his parents’ marriage from a former nanny – and a bitter ex-lover.

He had dropped his toys at the sight of his nanny holding her suitcase. His nannies were always nice, but they also always left, no matter how hard he tried to be a good little boy for them.

“You’re going?” Damen was doing his best not to cry and beg for Bella to stay with him. It was getting lonelier in the house, with Diana hidden away in the nursery by her own nanny, a strict hook-nosed woman who seemed to dislike Damen at first sight.

Bella nodded. “Yes, unfortunately. I’ve fulfilled my duties apparently. But before I go, Little Damen, I want you to know a secret that no one will ever tell you until it’s too late and people will start laughing at you.”

His nanny used to be a pretty and fun-loving woman. Or at least he had thought she was, but the twisted look on her face had Damen terrified of her instead, feeling like he was talking to someone who only looked like a person he used to know.

“Your parents don’t love each other, so stop acting all happy and thinking you have the perfect little family. Open your eyes, you little piece of privileged shit. All your parents care about are themselves – not you or Diana. Do you really think they’re sorry for missing all those award ceremonies in your school or your recitals?”

Instinct had Damen covering his ears, but the older woman only laughed as she forcibly pulled his hands down. “You need to hear this, Damen. It’s for your own good. Remember when I told you that your parents were just too busy working for you and that’s why they didn’t come to give you a hug at night? Your mother’s too busy working, yeah, but she doesn’t give a damn about you. The first time I came to this house, her first words were, ‘Make him believe I love him, but keep him away from me. Do that and you’ll be set for life.’ And your father? Oh, your father barely remembers you exist. During the daytime he fucks me and all the other women in this household, sometimes more than once.”

Bella saw his lips wobbling, and somehow that seemed to enrage her even more. She sneered, “Your parents don’t love each other! Get that through your thick head! She was in love with her driver but her parents caught them fucking and forced her to marry your father. Oh, and he was forced, too. I bet nobody told you that your father’s gambling debts were the reason that made him propose marriage—”

“STOP IT!” he had shouted, knowing he was close to throwing up if Bella kept talking and saying bad things about his parents.

“You don’t believe me? Go to your father’s room. The code to his room is 1213. Go on, open it and you’ll see it for yourself.”

“Why are you doing this to me? What did I do to make you hate me?”

The words had made Bella whiten, as if she was only realizing the magnitude of what she had done. “Damen—”

But it was too late.

He had gone.

He had seen.

And he no longer believed in anything except himself.

When he came back to the present, he realized he was at the helipad, the engine of his copter already running and the pilot waiting for instructions.

“To Diana’s school.”

As the copter took off, he called Diana on her mobile and when she answered in a wary voice, he said in the same tone, “I need you to find a way to have Mairi meet me privately.”

“No! I don’t know what you’ve done to her, but she hasn’t been herself—”

His voice was unstable but determined as he interrupted Diana, saying, “I fucked up.”

Everything else Diana had to say became useless at those words.
 

“She told me…” The words felt like a lie. The past made the words seem like a lie, but Damen refused to listen to the sly voice inside his head. This time he chose to believe.

“Diana, she told me she…loved me…and I want to believe she does.”

Tears struck her eyes when the full impact of her brother’s words sank in.
Why had she ever thought she would be the only one messed up by their parents’ dysfunctional marriage?

How could she have never realized that their parents had made Damen stop believing in love and happy endings? That he only believed in happy endings he had to pay for, either with his fame, fortune, or even sex?

“Damen…”

Desperation, pure and simple, made Damen speak again, insistently, without any pride left. If Diana refused, if Ioniko Vlahos made his move before Damen did – he did not know what he would do.

“I
need
to see her, Diana, so
please
help me.”

****

I don’t know who else to turn to, Ms. Yay. I don’t want to be expelled. My mother will never forgive me.

“How could she be so stupid?” Mairi muttered to herself even as she hurriedly tied her robe together, slid her feet into her bedroom slippers, and made her way out of the school. It was completely dark outside, which in this case was a good thing since even teachers had to abide by the curfew.
 

Mairi was careful to avoid being seen in the light, walking in the shadows as she quickly made her way to the back gates of the school. The walls at the back were about eight feet tall – fairly easy to climb over but understandably scary to climb down from. It was the latter Diana Leventis needed help with, having snuck outside school to meet her secret boyfriend.

She shook her head at the thought. Who could that secret boyfriend be? The younger girl must love him so much to risk the wrath of her terrifying mother – or even
him.
 

When she reached her designated meeting place with Diana, she sent Diana a text message.
I’m here.

A few seconds later, crackling sounds broke the silence in the air and she whirled around, wondering if Diana had been able to jump down on her own after all.

But it wasn’t Diana.

She started to run, but this time Damen was prepared and in seconds he had pushed her down, trapping Mairi between his hard body and the ground. When he saw her preparing to scream, he immediately covered her mouth with his palm.

“Scream and you’ll get kicked out of this school.”

Realizing that he had a point, she bit him instead.
 

Damen hissed in pain above her, but he still didn’t let go, didn’t even move an inch to give her a fighting chance of escaping.

It felt surreal to be this close to him again, surreal and painfully nostalgic to have his hard body touch hers in this kind of position. She was tempted to cry, but she strove not to. She would rather poke her eyes out than waste her tears on a lying, cheating bastard like Damen Leventis again.

The softness of Mairi’s ripe figure made him remember X-rated versions of the past, and he gritted his teeth in an effort to clamp down on his arousal. It was not the right time to feel like this – yet.

Meeting her dark brown eyes, he said, “I just need you to listen to me – one last time. And if after this, you still want me to go, then…” It went against everything he believed in to say the next words but he forced them out.

“If you still want me to go, then I will.”

She stilled, gazing at him unblinkingly, but she did not say a thing.
 

He decided to take that as a yes and took a deep breath. Making a speech in front of millions of people, in front of royalty and world leaders – all of it was a piece of cake compared to
this
.

Those talks had not promised anything he wanted more than life itself. But this conversation – no, this
revelation
of his – if it did not work, Damen felt like what he’d lose was worth more than his life.

Gazing at Mairi’s sweet beautiful face, seeing the way her dark brown eyes were filled with misery she was doing her best to conceal and the way her lips were trembling in an effort to control the tears—

After so many years of only believing in himself, of thinking that he could only trust himself, Damen decided to take a leap of faith. He decided to believe that, against all odds Mairi Tanner - a girl whose company he enjoyed for only several days – was indeed in love with him.

And because she was, he owed it to her to do this much.

“Mairi.”

His voice was unsteady, so unlike the Greek billionaire she once knew and fell in love with.

“You told me where you were coming from and…I hurt you by not believing you were in love with me.” Damen waited her to correct him – to tell him with her naïve but adorable honesty that she was
still
in love with Damen.

But she did not.

His heart hammered with fear that he was too late, that Ioniko Vlahos had indeed made his move already and there was no one for him to go back to.

Forcing himself to go on even as hopelessness and despair threatened to make Damen falter, he said, “This time, I want to tell you where I’m coming from…and if you understand why I did what I did then I want you…”

She had told herself she would not let herself believe in anything he said. She had told herself she would not let herself weaken, but the moment she saw that haunted look on Damen’s face, she knew it was no use denying the truth – she still loved him.

“What, Damen?” she whispered shakily. “What do you want me to do?”

Damen closed his eyes. “I want…I’m begging you to teach me to believe that you love me.”

Chapter Six

To trust a Greek billionaire, you must remember that doing so is a risk in itself.

“So I’m writing a book,” Mairi lied one week later over the phone to her aunts.

“Oooooooh,” Aunt Norah exclaimed, her tone impressed.

“What’s it about?” Aunt Vilma asked.
 

“Well, a romance, sort of like my own Harlequin,” Mairi said vaguely, crossing her fingers as she did. “And I’m stuck with my plot. Coz you see, there’s this girl, and her, err, Greek billionaire doesn’t believe in love. He’s got issues—”

“You’re on the right track,” Aunt Vilma said approvingly.

“They always do,” Aunt Norah added knowingly.

“—and well, bottom line, he doesn’t believe in love. So when she said she was in love with him, he didn’t believe her at first. But in the end, he’s willing to try.”