The older girl perplexed her, and the fact that it did only made Alina more resentful. There was also a regal air about Mairi, something that made her feel untouchable and pure even though Alina had seen with her own eyes that Mairi was anything but. Mairi was only four years older than her twenty, but right now the other girl made Alina feel very much immature for her outburst.
Well, immature or not, she did not have anything to be guilty of at least, Alina thought sullenly. That kiss between Mairi and the stranger had spoken volumes. Something beyond a kiss had happened between the two, and it was something that the man felt very proprietary about.
Alina glared at Mairi. “You didn’t even have the decency to tell Damen that you are over him.”
“I didn’t think there was a need to,” Mairi answered quietly.
Alina’s temper flared. “Don’t make it seem like he’s completely to blame! Maybe he was at the start, but now you’ve done something as bad, taking another lover to your bed—”
Mairi opened her mouth to protest, but she closed it a second after. She so wanted to tell Alina how wrong she was, that she hadn’t completely crossed the line but if she did…if she did…
A memory intruded in her mind like a slap to the face. Mairi saw herself begging for Damen to listen to her explain, to give her time to make him believe in her love – how she had begged him when she had done nothing wrong, begged him even as he humiliated her in front of people who had once seen them in love and had then been subjected to seeing Damen reduce her to something no better than a beggar after the crumbs of his affection.
She shuddered. How pathetic she had been!
And when he was gone, leaving her alone as the police dragged her away, that was when she realized that it hadn’t just been people in Damen’s employ that had witnessed her humiliation. Cuffed like a criminal, she had been made to sit in the back of a police car, which then drove past people who had once been their neighbors. All their masks of friendly charm had fallen then.
When it became clear to them that Damen Leventis had abandoned her, none of them had passed up the opportunity to show their supercilious contempt for her, staring at Mairi as the police car slowly drove past them. It had been clear in their expressions they all thought the same thing.
She deserved to be thrown out because she was not one of them.
Mairi tried to block the more painful memories from her mind, but it was impossible. Being sent to jail had been excruciating, but it had been nothing compared to hearing the man she loved – the one man she had always dreamt she’d fall in love with – speak to her like she dirtied his life.
“Please, Damen—”
“I can’t believe I chose you over a real lady like Alina.”
It was just a memory, but with the “real lady” now sitting next to her, making Mairi once again feel like a cheap slut, it was just too much. She wanted to shut the world away, wanted to go back to the past and stay there with her innocence intact, her dreams unbroken.
Alina looked at her with the same eyes as all those onlookers had gazed at her that painfully unforgettable night. Alina made her feel the same way Damen had made her feel, like she was a cheap slut to ever think she meant more to him than just a body to warm a Greek billionaire’s bed.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” Mairi whispered. All thoughts of being strong had disappeared, an unstoppable sea of guilt washing them away. “I just wanted to prove to myself I don’t belong to him.”
The other girl sounded like she was about to break down, but Alina told herself it couldn’t be true. How could Mairi be affected when she had managed to get in bed with another man while Damen Leventis’ whole world consisted of Mairi alone?
“You think too highly of yourself,” Alina heard herself spit out, “if you think you could belong to someone like him.” She wanted to hurt Mairi the way she had seen Damen had hurt in all the days she had lived with him.
Damen Leventis had put this girl on a pedestal, but she didn’t deserve to be there, and Alina would make sure to drag her down even if it was the last thing she did.
“You don’t understand—”
“Don’t bother explaining.”
Mairi stopped, the arrogant tone in Alina Kokinos’ voice making her flinch. It was déjà vu of the worst kind, the way it reminded her of how she had begged another Greek’s understanding.
“You have nothing to be guilty about either. Damen and I have been sharing a bed, too. Only, he has been racked with guilt the whole time, unable to commit to me because he feels guilty about what he has done to you.”
~ Ten ~
Damen Leventis’ face completely lost all color as he sat upright in his seat, his gaze arrested by the news on TV.
Mairi was here.
Mairi was here.
Mairi was here.
A man Damen did not recognize at all had been the first to step out of the car that slowed down in front of the Tanner home. He then held out a hand and a moment later, he was assisting Mairi out. She looked beautiful, dressed simply in a dark red blouse and slacks. A little pale, but she certainly looked better than Damen did, slimmer but stronger.
He could not breathe at the sheer joy and relief that hit him at seeing her again, the feelings so strong it almost brought Damen to his knees.
She was okay.
She was alive.
A second later, he was striding out of his hotel room. Damen didn’t care what he had to do. All he knew was that he would do whatever it took to see Mairi.
****
Dinner was a silent and tense affair in the Tanner home, with both Mairi’s aunts acting strange and almost nervous. They had welcomed her warmly and that was to be expected, but Mairi had also seen the slightest bit of dismay in their gazes. It was as if they wished she hadn’t come home – or at least, not right now.
When they retired to the living room to enjoy coffee, the same uncomfortable atmosphere remained, with Vilma and Norah occasionally looking and frowning at each other as if they were having a silent argument. Someone knocked on their front door, and Norah and Vilma both stiffened.
Mairi finally asked, “What’s bothering you two?”
Surprisingly, it was Drake who answered her. She had been doing her best to ignore him, but it was difficult with the way he made her feel so self-conscious. She knew it was deliberate on his part. She wasn’t stupid. Drake truly did want her, but he did not love her and he wouldn’t care that she didn’t love him either. What she couldn’t figure out was why he was playing the lover card to the hilt, using everything in his undoubtedly extensive sexual repertoire to make Mairi feel hyperaware of his desire for her body.