The Art of Wedding a Greek Billionaire (8 page)

His cock ripped into her over and over, but her pussy only seemed to welcome each thrust as her body started to tingle anew. She couldn’t believe she could want him again so quickly, but there was no denying the gradual buildup of wetness in the triangle between her legs. Passion had her body tightening bit by bit, and Mairi’s hips began to meet every thrust as her fingers gripped Damen’s hair with every sucking motion of his lips over her nipple.

Wanting to plunge deeper into her, Damen held her legs and opened them wide. He pulled out, and locking his gaze with Mairi’s, he rose onto his knees and pushed her legs further apart to create a wide V before sinking back in.

A scream rippled out of Mairi as Damen started fucking her again, the new position allowing Damen’s cock to reach deeper into her, enough for the head of his cock to brush against the walls of her womb. It was a shockingly raw possession, and she found herself moving her arms over her so she could grip the headboard to keep her body from twisting away with each thrust.

The hard wet slap of their bodies was unbelievably erotic, making her wetter and taking her closer and closer to another orgasm. Looking at Damen, she managed to choke out, “I’m...so near.”

Squeezing her legs in warning, he commanded, “Don’t come until I tell you to.”
 

His cock pistoned in and out of her even as he spoke, making it harder for Mairi to control the tremors that jolted her body. The need to come became acute, and she whimpered, fingers gripping the headboard more tightly. “Please,” she begged, and the muscles in her body pleaded with her, tightening around Damen’s cock.

Damen cursed, the tightening muscles of Mairi’s pussy too much for him to bear. His movements took a wild turn, his hips jutting furiously. Letting go of all control, he rammed into Mairi hard over and over. As his balls tightened and his body tightened, he gritted out, “
Now
.” His seed gushed out the moment he said the word, and he roared, the sound mingling with Mairi’s keening cry of pleasure as she came for the second time.

He held on to her, never stopping with the thrusts as he filled her with his seed. If he could only have one prayer answered, then it was that this night would create a miracle – a life that would bring him eternal joy and could be the tie that would keep Mairi with him forever.

Sobs of pleasure were torn out of her with each thrust, and when Damen finally rested his weight on top of her body, his pleasure spent, Mairi could only hug him tightly, her body still shaking hard against his in the aftermath of her own release.
 

Unthinkingly, she pressed her lips to one hard shoulder and inhaled his scent. She felt him shift, and then his lips were touching her hair, one tender touch to another.

“I love you, Mairi.” Damen whispered the words to her ear hoarsely.
 

Fresh tears stung her eyes, and she bit her lip hard enough for it to bleed. And that was okay. She could afford to shed some blood. It was words that she could never afford to speak right now. Or ever.

Damen tried not to let the disappointment of Mairi’s silence crush him.
Soon,
he promised to himself grimly. Whatever had to be done, he would do it, just to be the owner of Mairi’s heart once more.

Raising himself up so he could look at her, Damen said harshly, “I will make you love me again.”

Mairi ached painfully at the words, the desperate resolve on his face calling for her to soften. But still she didn’t give herself a chance to speak, instead cupping his face with shaking hands so she could pull Damen down and kiss him.
 

And as their lips met in another kiss that made their hearts both beat and twinge, she sent a little prayer up to the heavens, like she always did when she felt like there was nowhere to go, no one to turn to.

Dear God, if there is no way for me to stop loving him, then when the time comes that I must leave him, please, please, please give me the strength to disappear from his life forever.
 

Chapter Six

He said: If you marry a man like me, you must remember to live your life according to this one simple rule: your enemies’ enemies are your best friends.

She said: I was actually thinking something more like this – if you wed a Greek billionaire, your husband’s enemies’ enemies will also surely be Greek.

He said: I love you, matakia mou, but I must tell you that you made no sense.

She said: You Greeks love to fight. Just sayin’.

“You truly do not need to come with me,” Damen said the next night as he zipped the back of her dress, a sparkling sapphire-blue gown with a low-cut neckline that she had bought a few months ago in preparation for all the parties she had to attend as Damen’s then-fiancée. Mairi had a few misgivings when she had seen that Damen hadn’t touched a single thing in her closet. It didn’t feel right to wear clothes she had bought with his money – and during a time she had believed that he truly loved her.

But with them suddenly needing to go to a party tonight, Mairi decided to be simply practical about it. She would be a greater help to Damen if she was at least dressed to fit the part of his wife.

Seeing the worried frown on Damen’s face on the mirror, Mairi said reassuringly, “They can’t say anything that could hurt me.”

Damen was quiet for a moment. “Can’t they?”

Unbidden, she remembered the last time they had encountered the paparazzi, and Mairi shook her head vehemently even as she forced a smile. “I wasn’t prepared then. I am now.” Stepping away from him, she changed the subject, gazing at him through the mirror as she asked, “Well? Do I look okay?”

As Damen studied her appearance, she couldn’t help doing the same to him. She was no longer surprised, just resigned at the way butterflies fluttered its wings inside her stomach every time she took in Damen’s dazzling good looks. Everything about him was perfect, and strangely, she found him even more dazzling now that he was no longer a billionaire. The hardships he faced now had not weakened him at all. If anything, it had made him stronger, harder – it made him a hundred times more the man he already was, giving him the kind of raw power that money could never buy.

“You look perfect.” Damen’s words startled her into turning her head towards him, and that was then she realized he had come to stand right behind her. A gasp escaped Mairi when he bent down to place a soft, warm kiss on her nape, which was exposed by her hair’s upswept do. Her skin tingled at the touch of his lips, and Mairi couldn’t help but sigh and arch her neck when Damen’s lips started to move.

Closing her eyes, Mairi allowed herself the fantasy that they were really just newlyweds in love with each other.

“I love you.”

The fantasy shattered, Damen’s words something she could never really believe in.

Damen watched Mairi’s eyes flutter open, and the bleakness in them made him curse silently. He had known it would be too soon to speak the words, but he didn’t give a damn. He meant to break every damn wall around her heart, and he meant to say the words every day in hopes that there would be a time she could make herself say them back.

One day,
Damen thought determinedly as he watched Mairi carefully move away from him with hooded eyes.
 

“W-we might be late.” Mairi couldn’t meet his eyes as she spoke. “Should we go now?”

He didn’t give her a chance to walk away, instead clasping her by the waist to spin her around. Her gasp was caught in his kiss, and Damen used the kiss to tell her again what she didn’t want to hear.
 

He loved her.

He would not give her up.

Ever.

Mairi was quiet when he finally released her, and she didn’t make any protest when Damen took her hand, keeping her close to him as they made their way downstairs.
 

Damen stilled when he saw Drake Morrison in the living room, dressed in a sleek gray suit. “Who says you’re going with us?”

Drake inclined his head towards Mairi. “I’m her bodyguard, aren’t I? So where she goes, I go.”

Damen’s jaw clenched. “It’s just a party.”

Conscious of Damen’s gaze on her, Mairi said unevenly, “I’d really prefer that D-Drake’s nearby at all times.” Especially after what happened in the bedroom
.
The thought had the faintest hint of hysteria stirring inside her, but Mairi only mentally tightened her grip on her emotions.

She would be – could be strong.
 

She had to be.

It was the only way she could have what she want, and that was to stay forever by Damen’s side without breaking.

****

The party was obviously in full swing by the time Drake, Damen, and Mairi arrived at the venue, an upscale nightclub that had been temporarily closed to the public for the 60
^th
birthday of one of Greece’s most popular politicians, Nelson Athanas. They also appeared to be the only guests who had not arrived in a fancy limo or expensive sports car, judging by the way the waiting attendants and valets standing next to the front doors were gawking at them.

But the next second, the reporters loitering around the area caught on to their presence and everyone immediately surged towards them.

“How are you adjusting to life in the poorhouse now that you only have $4,305 in your bank account?”

“When are you going to leave him for Stavros Manolis or Ioniko Vlahos, Mrs. Leventis?”

“Are you here to beg on your knees for help from Nelson Athanas?”

Damen didn’t answer any of the questions, his face only mirroring icy contempt that would have made Mairi feel small if it had been directed at her. She should be used to the obnoxious questions of the media by now, but she wasn’t. She still found herself furiously hurt by it, and she hated them even more for trying to paint Damen in a weak and pathetic light with all their innuendos.

Only Damen squeezing her hand in warning kept her lips clamped shut, and Mairi did her best to keep her face just as expressionless, gazing resolutely ahead as they made their way to the front doors. Damen furnished his invitation to the receptionist. She had a tense look on her face, and she barely glanced at the invitation before saying in a pained tone, “I’m sorry, Mr. Leventis, but I believe you’re not on the list.”

Loud exclamations of surprise and murmurs rose from the crowd behind them, followed by another bout of flashing camera bulbs.

Since Damen had an invitation, it only meant that Damen had been taken off the list recently. The sheer indignity of it appalled Mairi, and she tightened her hold on Damen, fearing how such a proud man would take this kind of embarrassment. Unable to help it, she stole a look at her husband but was stunned to see an amused smile curving on his lips as his beautiful face took on a contemplative look.

Discovering that Esther would resort to such childish lengths to thwart him did not perturb Damen at all. In the first few weeks that Mairi had been gone and his whole world had crashed around him, Damen had come to realize that nothing really mattered to him except having the woman he loved. Everyone could do their worst to him, and it wouldn’t matter.
 

With Mairi, he was invincible.

Without Mairi, he was broken.

It was that simple.

Damen gave the receptionist a pleasant smile, murmuring, “Perhaps you would like to double-check with Mr. Athanas one last time?”

Visibly relieved at not having to handle any kind of outburst over the slight, the receptionist quickly agreed and made the call.

When he looked down at Mairi, she asked under her breath, “Do we really have to come to this party?”

“Yes.”

She grimaced at the one-word answer. “And you’re not going to say anything more than that?”

Knowing that she only asked out of worry, he stroked her cheek in silent reassurance. “I will tell you everything you want to know at home, I promise.” He was done keeping secrets from her.
Well, except for that one thing
, Damen thought. Uneasiness struck him, but he pushed it away. He had planned everything carefully. Mairi wouldn’t have to know about it until he was good and ready to tell her.

The two of them turned when the doors burst open, and out walked a pair of men in black, flanking each side of their employer, Esther Leventis.

Again, Mairi found herself reluctantly impressed by the woman’s sophistication and elegance. She was about the same height as Mairi, but the way she held herself so proudly made her appear a lot taller. She was really a beautiful woman. It was just too bad Esther’s beauty was only skin deep. She doubted if she’d ever understand how Esther was able to stomach fighting with her own flesh and blood this way.