He threw his head back and laughed, the tendons in his neck stretching. “You’re really tempting me, thee mou. So...you didn’t get a chance to talk to Tyler then?”
“Not really. They left the deck. And I...I just didn’t know what to do.”
“You don’t like parties?”
“Less than I like being amongst a sea of people who don’t even know I exist. I could fall into the ocean and no one would even know I was gone.” She felt her face heat as he paused and looked at her. But she couldn’t stop. “She’s not going to let me near him, especially in front of her friends, Nikos. I’d rather not go to any more of these parties in the future unless you’re there.”
The echo of her words surrounded them followed by deafening silence. Of all the people in the world, she had to pour out her stupid fears to him? A man who had no place for emotions and the insecurities they brought.
“Go ahead. Call me a fool.”
“Come here.”
When she didn’t move, he pulled her close to his side. He was all hard, lean, unforgiving muscle. Lexi exhaled on a whoosh, the aching lump in her throat mocking her and yet unable to resist settling against his side.
His arm long enough to wrap around her twice, was a heavy, comforting weight on her shoulders. Her skin tingled where it rasped against hers. She felt him exhale, his big body shuddering in the wake of it. “Fears are not always rational, I know that.”
She pushed away from him and turned around, striving for composure. He didn’t seem unfeeling right then. He sounded as though he had known fear and from everything he had told her, she believed he had.
“I thought you would be living it up at the party,” she said, needing to clutter the silence.
“I’m not one for much partying, either. When I was younger, I didn’t have the time, and now I don’t have the interest. The party scene is nothing but a hunt for sex and I don’t need it.”
No, he didn’t.
She tucked her legs into the couch as he settled down on the other side. He slid into the seat in slow, measured movements, and she knew it was for her. Feeling the silliest idiot ever, she unglued herself from the corner. Okay, so she didn’t want to quite sit in his lap, but there was no reason to insult the man.
He noticed her effort with smiling eyes. “You’re getting used to me.”
The warmth in those eyes, the simple pleasure in his words lit a spark inside her. She sucked in a deep breath. “Why didn’t you have time?”
He shrugged. “Until a few years ago, I worked every hour there was. I had no degree or work experience except the little I learned in my father’s garage. The only way I moved up from being a line man on the manufacturing floor to a board member was by working hard.”
“You didn’t want to study?”
“I didn’t have that choice. If I wanted security for Venetia and me, I had to do everything Savas asked me to do. Those were his conditions.”
“Conditions?” she said, feeling sick to her stomach.
He stood up from the seat, as though he couldn’t sit still. He wiped the immaculate surface of the hood with a rag. It was a comfort thing, Lexi realized with dawning awareness. There was something different about him today, and it was this place. He seemed comfortable here, almost at peace, a striking contrast to the man who had women in every city for sex.