Mairi was completely pale now. “I…I…”
Mandy was tempted to shake her friend. “What?”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “I…umm…said I love him?”
SILENCE.
And then---
Laughter.
The kind that had her friends doubling over, bodies shaking, clutching their sides, the sound of their loud laughter bouncing off the walls.
Completely recovered now, Mairi scowled. “Way to be supportive, you guys.”
Velvet managed to get her mirth under control long enough to say, “Yay you!” She and Mandy burst into a fresh round of laughter.
Mairi gritted her teeth. “This is not a laughing matter! What if I scared him away? What if he thinks I’m a psycho? What if…what if he doesn’t want me anymore?” She ended up wailing the last words.
Damen Leventis was the Greek billionaire she had been waiting forever for. She was sure of it. Fate, instinct, a message from the Greek gods – Mairi just knew.
The problem was – did he really know that she was the one for him, too?
STOP MOPING AROUND.
Mairi stared grumpily at Mandy’s text message. Easier said than done, she thought. How could she not mope around when Damen Leventis had been MIA for an hour now? Maybe she really had scared him off.
“Kalimera.”
Mairi started, cheeks flushed with guilt as she realized there were people sitting across her and she hadn’t even noticed. The first one she noticed was Katya, a statuesque and perky brunette who was also one of her favorite students from Class E. Seated next to Katya was yet another tall, dark, and handsome Greek with wickedly gleaming green eyes.
Her mind automatically went through her mental database of Greek billionaires, and in the next second she identified the man as Ioniko Vlahos. He was in his late twenties, better known as one of the most famous playboys in the continent, and another heir to a shipping fortune.
Also just as automatically, her mind compared him to Damen Leventis, who was older since he was already in his mid-thirties. And a lot sexier and gorgeous too, Mairi thought wistfully. There was something about Damen, with the way he spoke and looked at her---
“She’s always like that.”
Katya’s words, spoken fondly, had Mairi crashing back down to earth. Oh dear God! She had zoned out again! If Rose had caught her this time, she would be lucky if she still had a job the next day.
Ioniko was smiling devilishly. “Is she now?”
Mairi flushed. “I’m sorry. I’m just really, really sorry.”
“It’s fine. I understand you were in an accident earlier?”
“Umm, yes.” She offered her hand. “I’m Katya’s English teacher, Ms. Tanner.”
“A pleasure.” But instead of shaking her hand, Ioniko brought it to his lips instead.
Mairi quickly withdrew her hand with a gasp.
Katya was frowning. “Ioniko!” She spoke to him rapidly in Greek.
A frown slowly formed on her brother’s forehead as well. When he looked at Mairi, his face was impassive as he said, “I apologize for being too forward. It will not happen again.”
“I told him stuff like that is not allowed in school or you’d get fired,” Katya assured her. She turned to her brother with an unhappy look. “I’m just sorry I didn’t warn him earlier, Ms. Tanner. And please don’t take him seriously. He flirts with women all the time.”
Ioniko said mildly, “You have it the other way around, darling. Women flirt with me all the time. I flirt only with the ones I like.”
Mairi coughed at the innuendo. Deciding it was time to change the subject, she said quickly, “Mr. Vlahos, Katya is one of the top students in my class – or rather, in her entire year actually.”
Ioniko raised a brow. “It must be because of you. Her English used to be appalling.”
“It is,” Katya agreed cheerfully. “English was terribly boring when I was in the other teacher’s class last year.”
Mairi cringed at the indirect reference to Charity. “Sssh!”
Katya shrugged. “It’s true, though.”
She half-begged, half-scolded, “Katya, please. You’re going to get me in trouble.”
“But it’s bad to lie. And I really mean it! When Ms. Fal---”
“Fall is glorious in Greece, isn’t it?” Mairi cut her student off desperately. Charity Fallon was only seated one desk away, and she had no intentions of getting in a fight with the other woman for no good reason.
Both brother and sister looked at her as if questioning her sanity. After all, Greece was not a four-season country.
Ignoring their looks, Mairi took Katya’s packet out of the drawer and handed it to Ioniko. “Please sign the release form, then you can take everything home with you, Mr. Vlahos.”
“Thank you.” Ioniko signed it swiftly, but upon returning the form he suddenly caught hold of her wrist.
Mairi tried to very subtly tug her wrist away, but he was not letting go. A tingling started at the base of her spine, and she turned her head around, heart thumping against her chest.
Her eyes locked with Damen Leventis unerringly, almost as if she instinctively knew where to find him. His gaze was unreadable, his face a mask of indifference.
But for some reason, Mairi was a hundred percent certain her Greek billionaire was anything but indifferent.
Warm fingers squeezed her wrist, and she quickly pulled her gaze away from Damen, gulping when she saw that Ioniko Vlahos was looking at her with a sensual glitter in his eyes. Butterfly wings fluttered faintly in her stomach, but this time Mairi was almost sure it was only because Ioniko was a gorgeous Greek billionaire – the stuff her dreams were made of.
But he was not the one.
This time, Mairi determinedly pulled her hand away, leaving Katya’s brother no choice but to let her go. “They say you speak German?”
It startled her, hearing Ioniko speak the words in the very language he was asking about. She automatically answered in the same language. “Yes.”
Ioniko smiled. “That’s perfect.”
She asked warily, “Perfect?”
His little sister’s teacher was without a doubt one of a kind. She had an innocence to her that almost made him think of her as his little sister. Almost – but not quite. Those magnificent br**sts of hers, something which was sadly lacking in virtually every woman in his circle nowadays – they were abundant enough to make a grown man weep, and certainly those br**sts made it impossible for Ioniko to think of Ms. Mairi Tanner as anything other than the next woman he wanted to taste.