Drake began to move his fingers again, his face tense with the effort it took to hold his own passion back. Harder and harder, he thrust his fingers into her, knowing that each thrust would make Mairi’s body want him more even if her heart and mind still struggled.
“Say it, Mairi,” he growled. “Say it—” He withdrew his fingers completely.
The emptiness was painful, reminding her of the days and nights she had solely existed in the darkness, lost and diminished by Damen’s betrayal.
She had not betrayed Damen.
Damen had betrayed her first.
Drake’s fingers found her clitoris.
Pleasure erupted inside her body.
“Drake!” She closed her eyes. “Drake, please.” Her voice turned into a whisper, her words a choice to break free from the man who had so cruelly hurt her countless times. “Please, Drake. Please make me come—”
And then he was sucking on her cl*t as he thrust his fingers into her harder and faster.
Mairi fell apart with a scream, the pleasure pounding into her over and over.
She slept in his arms that night, the first time she ever did. Throughout the night, Drake remained awake. The next time Mairi and Damen met again, Damen would only have to take one look at Mairi and he would know. Someone else had tasted Mairi’s sweetness – and he only had himself to blame for it.
Mairi
~ Two ~
“Relax.” Drake whispered the word into Mairi’s ear deliberately.
She jumped like she had just heard a ghost speak. Her reaction was exactly as he intended and his lips quirked.
Mairi wanted to die when she caught sight of the small smile that flitted over Drake’s lips. But when his eyes met hers, she hastily looked away.
Last night should never have happened, she thought miserably. It just didn’t feel right, and now she felt so cheap and evil for having done what she did.
Overhead, the seatbelt sign lit up and she concentrated on fastening her seatbelt, her stomach somersaulting at the realization that their plane had reached its destination. This was it. She was really going back to Florida...to living…to having the fear that the day would come when she would come face to face with Damen Leventis again.
Beside her, Drake said quietly, “You don’t belong to him anymore, Mairi.”
Her hands shook and she fumbled with the seatbelt. A shadow fell over her, and Mairi stiffened when Drake gently took the belt away from her hands and buckled it for her. This close, she could smell his aftershave, and it smelled…good.
But he wasn’t Damen.
Even last night, she had not been able to fool herself into thinking that he had been Damen Leventis.
Slowly, she made herself look up.
The man beside her was Drake Morrison. Tall, dark, and handsome like Damen, but the similarities ended there. He was not a seductive and silently brooding Mediterranean. He was not a powerful and arrogant billionaire. And he was, most importantly, not a man who made Mairi think he loved her back, only to break her heart over and over again.
The man beside her was not quiet and observant, his friendly charm something she now knew he effectively used to conceal the darkness inside him, the danger that he represented. He was a man who could kill with his bare hands, but for some reason that fact didn’t scare her. Maybe because she was already dead when they met, and Drake was the one who had brought her back to life.
She whispered, “Last night…”
“…will not be repeated unless you want it to happen again.”
It was her choice, always her choice, she thought painfully. It was her choice if she wanted to prove to herself that she would no longer be the same stupid girl who would let Damen sweep her into his arms every time he came back to her side and tell her he was sorry.
Because he would always be sorry.
She understood that now.
He would always love her, always want and need her, but somehow he could not find it in himself to trust her, and love without trust –
It was nothing.
“Mairi?”
She blinked, not realizing that so much time had passed. Most of the passengers had already exited the plane. Drake was on his feet and he was offering her his hand.
Slowly, she took it. His hand was large, making her feel small as her hand was engulfed in his hold. His touch was hot, protective, but there was also no denying the intense awareness that blossomed from their entwined fingers. His touch told her he wanted her still, but it was her choice. It would always be her choice.
They didn’t speak as they walked past immigration and she only nodded when he told her to wait while he got their luggage.
The one small part of Drake that had a conscience told him he was being too hard on Mairi. He was almost a hundred percent sure of how today would play out, and yet here he was, leaving her alone. He stopped midstride, slowly turning around to look at Mairi.
She was a solitary figure in the crowd, her sadness making her pretty face become hauntingly beautiful. The whole time he had spent with her, she had not shed a single tear. It should have made her seem strong, but somehow it only made her look frailer in his eyes – like she was now a vessel of tears, and they were all just waiting for what would make that vessel crack and allow the tears to flood out.
As Mairi waited for Drake to come back with their luggage, she kept her mind blank – it was all she could do not to break down. It was only now that she was beginning to realize that she had really gone and left her haven in Rhode Island, and that she had to face the realities of her life.
The whole world thought of her as Damen Leventis’ gold-digging lover, and soon they would know that Damen believed the same thing, so much so that he had thrown her out in the cold of the night.
She inhaled sharply, the rush of tears in her throat making her want to cry out. For a second, everything was completely black. She was no longer at the airport, no longer one person in a crowd of thousands. For that one second, she was drowning in pain—
“You’re really here.”
That voice.
It lassoed Mairi out of her world of pain and she shook her head, wondering if she had mistakenly heard that voice.
She looked up.
No.
Damen
~ Three ~
Three Months Earlier
Athens, Greece
Rage and despair turned Damen Leventis inside out as he stood alone in his home’s office, waiting for a call that he knew in his heart would not yield good news. Outside his window, Athens’ cityscape glowed like a jewel in the night, a mixture of historic sites and impressively modern structures. Its beauty, however, did not just leave him cold. He was also blind to it for memories of this morning were all he could see. It had started with another call, one he had not expected.