Chapter Thirteen
She said: To wed a Greek billionaire, one should be ready to live a life filled with poignant tenderness.
He said: Are you referring to the poignantly tender way I fucked you, matakia mou?
“Wake up, sweetheart. It’s time.” Damen’s low husky voice drew Mairi out of her slumber the next day, and she found a bare-chested Damen lying on his side, looking down at her with a seductively attractive smile playing on his lips. Add to that his sleep-mussed hair, and he looked so sexy and beautiful it literally made her heart twinge.
Damen bent close to cover her lips with his. “Good morning.” He inched down to place a kiss on Mairi’s silk-covered stomach. “And good morning to you, too, little one.”
The tender gesture brought a lump to her throat, and Mairi had to swallow several times before she could be sure her voice wouldn’t shake when she spoke. “Good morning.”
“You slept early last night…” Damen inched back up, and cupping Mairi’s chin to make her face him, he took careful note of her face, searching for any sign of illness or strain.
“I’m fine. I was just…tired. It’s the pregnancy, no doubt.”
“You slept the whole day yesterday?”
She lied, “Yes.”
Damen’s jaw clenched. “I see.” He knew for a fact that she had not. He had asked the guard deployed at his home and learned that Mairi had left with Morrison just before lunch. He wanted to demand where they had gone, but it was fear and not pride that held him back. He didn’t want to ever hear Mairi say she was happier with another man.
She strove for a casual tone when she asked, “How was your day yesterday? I called your office and you weren’t there.”
“I told you about the meeting, remember?”
“How did it go?”
Damen recalled Willow’s presentation. “It went very well.”
Mairi felt sick to her stomach at the look in Damen’s eyes. “Oh. That’s…great.”
Damen frowned at the catch in her voice. “Something is wrong.”
She shook her head.
“You can lie to me all you want, but I know you, matakia mou. I can feel something is troubling you.” A tear slowly trailed down one soft cheek, and with a silent curse, Damen wiped it away. The sight of it was like acid in his system. Was she crying because she could no longer bear being with him? Was her feelings for Morrison starting to overpower…her pity?
“Mairi…”
His ragged voice made more tears fall. Oh God, she wasn’t ready for this yet. Please God, please just give me a few more hours. Minutes. Let me just be with him until the end and then I’ll let him go.
When Damen started to speak again, she beat him to it by wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. It was rare for her to kiss him first, and Mairi couldn’t blame Damen for stiffening in reaction. She kissed him more deeply, using every trick in the book that Damen himself had taught her.
“Please,” she whispered against his lips. “Please make love—”
With a groan, Damen rolled Mairi on to her back as he settled his weight on top of her. He kissed her deeply, hungrily, Mairi’s surprising overture causing his chest to tighten and his cock to rise fully erect against her belly.
When Mairi sensed Damen trying to gentle his kiss, she felt herself become frantic. She didn’t want him to think, fearing that if he did, he would remember he was about to tell her he was no longer imprisoned by his guilt. She just wanted him to feel, and she did everything she could to keep it that way. She rubbed her body against Damen’s muscular form, her nipples brushing against his chest, her sleek folds nestling his cock.
“Mairi.” Her name ripped out of his throat in an agonized groan.
Writhing in his arms, Mairi begged, “Take me, please—”
His control snapped. His fingers found the hem of her nightgown and with one yank, he ripped it away from her body.
The sound of her clothes being ripped away was erotic, making Mairi gasp in aroused pleasure.
Damen’s lips covered hers once more, his tongue diving into her mouth the same time his cock slid into her pussy in one smooth hard push.
Damen groaned as Mairi’s snug warmth closed around his engorged cock, the sound mingling with Mairi’s cry of pleasure. Incapable of waiting or thinking, he thrust in and out of her, love, passion, and desperation turning him into a rutting animal that only knew two things: the need to fuck, and the need to make his mate fuck him back.
Locking her legs around his waist, Mairi ran her hands down Damen’s smooth back. Her fingers dug into his buttocks, using it to anchor herself as she lifted her hips to meet his every thrust. Every instance of his cock plunging into her sent Mairi soaring higher and higher, each lunge causing her to feel more and more breathless—
“I need you to come soon, sweetheart,” Damen grated out. He could barely hear himself, a sensual stupor having taken over his brain. All he could think of at that moment was fucking Mairi hard until she was sobbing his name.
As if responding to his words, Mairi’s inner muscles locked more tightly around his cock. The sensation was pure pleasure, sharpened to the point of pain, and Damen’s mind shut down. “Mairi.” His fingers found her clitoris, and as his cock took full control, he squeezed the sensitive pearl of flesh, again and again.
Mairi’s world spun out of control at Damen’s touch, and she shattered around him with a scream, her cries of pleasure mingling with Damen’s more guttural groans as his fucking became wild and raw, his powerful hips slamming into her hard in an endless cycle of possession.
“Mine,” Damen growled even as his body couldn’t get enough of her, couldn’t stop conquering her with his cock over and over. “Mine, always mine.”
Tears fell down her cheeks as Mairi wrapped her arms around his neck, hiding her face against his shoulder as she whispered, “Yours.” She welcomed his every possession, wanting to be conquered because she knew this was the last time she could be Damen’s. More tears fell, fast and furious, like raindrops of a dying storm, and tightening her arms around him, she whispered, “Always yours. Always.”
****
At eight in the morning, police officers escorted Yehor Kokinos out of his own office. His hands remained unrestrained out of respect for his age and position, but even so every employee in his company knew what was happening. People always knew what an arrest was when they saw one, with or without the cuffs.
“You’re making a mistake,” Yehor said between clenched teeth, but the officers flanking his sides did not respond. When they stepped out of his company’s fifty-story building, Yehor froze at the top of the stairs.
Standing next to the police car was a tall, dark-haired man Yehor had thought dead for many years.
Obviously, he had thought wrong. And just as obviously, Damen Leventis was the cause of this.
Teeth flashed in a predatory smile, and Yehor swallowed in fear at the sight of it.
“Good morning, Uncle.” The voice was cultured but without any trace of accent, power and strength honed in places that would never have names because only the dead were supposed to know about them.
His name was Acheron, and he was the real heir of the Kokinos fortune.
****
At nine in the morning, Esther Leventis walked inside the courtroom, her face expressionless, her back straight, as she claimed the seat next to her solicitor. She was dressed in an expensive white suit, with a rope of pearls around her neck. No one looking at her would have known that Esther was suffocating inside, the feeling of being strangled by an invisible noose never leaving her since her offer of a truce had been rejected by Damen.
Noting the vacant seats where Yehor Kokinos’ own legal team were supposed to sit, she turned to her lawyer, asking in a low voice, “Where are the Kokinos?”
“You don’t know?” Her lawyer shook his head, a harassed expression on his face. “He’s being interrogated by the police. I heard the IMF is also involved. It appears he was not the sole heir when his old man died.”
The invisible noose around her neck tightened by a fraction of an inch, and it took Esther a moment before she could speak. “What does that mean for us?”
“It means possible defeat if we cannot convince the judge that our claim against your son is valid. The judge can call for a vote if he considers your claim questionable. Without Yehor Kokinos’ presence, you would need the entire board to vote to keep you CEO.”
Her frustration subsided at the lawyer’s explanation. She was so giddy with relief she even managed a laugh, the sound drawing the attention of the other people inside the courtroom. “Then this whole thing is over before it’s even started. If Damen thinks he can defeat me by finding some dirt in Yehor’s closet, he doesn’t know me very well. I’ve fired every board member who might side against me in this. Every seat in the board is now under my control.”
Her son had to be taught a lesson. After today, she would make sure to take everything from him. Since he was so stupidly in love with the slut, Esther thought vindictively, then let’s see if he could survive and exist on love alone.