A Deal with Demakis(73)

                It was the most precious thing anyone had ever given him and the most dangerous. Words failed him, and the cold dread multiplied a few hundred times. Suddenly, he had the most incredible urge to possess that time portal in his own hands, to turn back everything he had said to her in the past hour, to turn back to the time before Lexi had even entered his world. Before his emotions had been safely under lock and key, before he had begun to look beneath his bitter anger for his father. He fisted his hands and let a curse loose.

                “Nikos?”

                Shaking himself out of it, he looked at Lexi.

                Her lower lip caught between her teeth, she didn’t meet his eyes. She pounced on him, to grab it probably and he tugged his arm out of her reach just in time. “It was just a silly idea.”

                The wariness in her eyes propelled him out of his pensive mood. He would not shatter this moment for her. It was the only reason he was doing this. The thought rang flat and false within him.

                Holding his arm out to ward her off, he pulled off his shirt. Her gaze followed the movement as he pulled the T-shirt on.

                Warmth shone in her blue eyes. And something in him instantly recoiled against it.

                “Perhaps Spike should kill Ms. Havisham,” he said, emotion roiling in his throat. It was a warning, for himself and her. “He is a heartless pirate, isn’t he? He’s not going to miraculously fall in love with her and want to save her.”

                Something flashed in her gaze. “I never said they’ll have a happy ending, Nikos. And as to whether Spike will kill her, I’d say you still underestimate Ms. Havisham. She’s not going to let anyone kill her, least of all Spike.”

                Standing back, she held the edge of the material in her hand and pulled. “It’s too tight, isn’t it? I should have gone for XXXL instead of XXL.” She winked at him and started pulling the T-shirt up. “Now it’s going to be really hard to get it off.”

                He swallowed at the lick of desire in her blue eyes and at the relentless shiver that took hold of his skin. And let his own desire for her mute the warning bells clanging in his head.





                                      CHAPTER TWELVE

                IT WAS A whole week before Nikos had finally untangled himself from Lexi and made it to a meeting aboard his yacht with Theo Katrakis. A meeting that Theo had requested days ago. Nikos had deliberately locked himself out of any business matters but for the most important. Walking over to the glass bar that was the pride of the main deck, he was about to reach for whiskey when he saw an ice bucket with champagne. A note said it was from Theo, which meant he had good news for Nikos.

                But instead of the fierce rush of satisfaction he expected, an image of Lexi, trembling with cold champagne over her skin, little mewls of pleasure falling from her mouth, flashed in front of him. He was instantly hard as rock, the strength of his desire unprecedented. That was the word for it. His desire, this ever-growing unease he felt right under his skin, everything about the situation he created with Lexi was unprecedented. And through each day, Nikos felt the doubts he experienced at night with Lexi solidify into cold, hard truth.

                More than once, he had caught himself, weakening, wavering and shutting out the world and even work. Postponing this meeting with Theo when he had spent more than a year carefully cultivating this association, blocking out Savas instead of finding out what his grandfather was up to even now...when and how had he become this man?

                It was like watching himself exist in a different reality, as vivid as the one in Lexi’s comic book, a happy one, a parallel one that seemed as fragile as it was fantastic. The ruthless life he had carefully built into existence slowly unraveled as Lexi wove herself into the very fabric of his life.