A Deal with Demakis(40)

                His hand on his sister, and his gaze calculatingly blank, Nikos held Venetia there. Probably stopping her from running down the stairs to gouge Lexi’s eyes out.

                Lexi untangled herself from Tyler. Amnesia or not, heartbreaking realization that something between her and Tyler was right or not, she had kissed Venetia’s fiancé.

                Feeling as dirty as Nikos was paying her to be, she walked away.

                * * *

                Nikos stayed on the roof long after Venetia ran down the stairs after Tyler, tears streaming down her face.

                The very tears he had wanted to stop her from shedding. He felt powerless, but he also knew that she needed to shed them now. Better she found the truth now than when it was too late, when her love had an even more powerful grip on her.

                But the powerlessness he felt was nothing compared to the dark cavern of longing that rent him open at the sight of Tyler kissing Lexi.

                Again, it was exactly what Nikos had wanted. He should be elated that, even now, Venetia was kicking Tyler out of her life. And yet all he could hear was the roaring in his ears, a possessive yearning to wipe the taste of that kiss from Lexi’s mouth.

                He wanted that hungry look in her eyes when she looked at him. He wanted to make her mewl with pleasure. He wanted to shower her with every possible decadent gift in the world. He wanted to possess her, he wanted to teach her to be selfish, he wanted to show her every pleasure there was to have in the world.

                He wanted a part of her, that intangible element in her that made her her.

                It took him a few minutes to get himself under control, to fight the urge to trace Tyler’s steps and beat him down to a pulp, to shove the desire that thrummed in his blood into one corner.

                The pleasure he had pursued had only ever been transient, and he had liked it that way. But now he wanted Lexi. And not just for a night. He wanted to understand what made her tick, he wanted to hold her when she cried, he wanted to show her the world.

                And he would have her.

                * * *

                Stepping from under the lukewarm blast of the shower spray, Lexi grabbed a beach towel from the neatly folded stack and wrapped it around herself.

                Wiping herself down in the deafening quiet of the beach house, she pulled on her gym shorts and a pink tank top and threw her damp swimsuit into her bag. Venetia might have an army of servants to pick up after her, but she didn’t feel comfortable leaving her dirty clothes for someone else. Even more so now that she was leaving.

                A hollow pang went through her and she fought the silly sensation. She wasn’t going to mope over a man who had nothing but mockery for her. And even if he did want her, taking on someone like Nikos Demakis, even for one night, wasn’t something she wanted.

                She had hardly handled the fallout with Tyler. Nikos would chew her up and spit her out, leaving her no place to hide, even from herself.

                She pushed her feet into the flip-flops and tugged her beach bag onto her shoulder, looking around for a switch to turn off the lights around the small pool.

                “Leave it on, Lexi,” The words came from somewhere behind her, rendering her frozen for a few seconds.

                She whirled around. “Nikos,” she said stupidly, her heart still racing. “I thought you had left.”

                “And miss the chance to chat with you?”