For a man who had never had a romantic relationship that lasted more than a few hours, having one with someone like Lexi was like sitting on a box of explosives. Because that’s what he was doing. Only a week ago he had asked her to stay, and yet now, he felt the iron lid he kept on his control shake loose, and everything he had ruthlessly wiped from his life creep back in.
It was when he had caught himself panicking in the middle of the night because she hadn’t been in the bed, wondering if she had left him like his mother had done, like his father had done, that was when he had realized he needed to get out of there. Cold sweat had drenched him just as his darkest fear rose to the surface.
If he let himself feel so much, there would only be pain. After everything he had survived to get here in life, he didn’t want pain.
Hearing a sound behind him, he turned around.
Theo walked in, a frown on his craggy, old face. Silver glinted in his hair, the warm smile he wore belying the calculatingly shrewd light in his dark eyes. Shaking Nikos’s hand, he subjected Nikos to a thorough scrutiny. Nikos brought him to the deck and they settled down on opposite sides of the table.
The sun glinted off Theo’s skin, shadowing his expression from Nikos. “I was surprised to learn you wanted to postpone the meeting, Nikos. Your sister, she is safe, yes?”
Gritting his teeth, Nikos nodded. He couldn’t fault the man for the doubts in his eyes.
“You still want to continue this alliance between us then?”
“Of course I do, Theo. Nothing else is more important to me.”
Leaning forward, Theo smiled. “Then I have three more votes on my side. They will support me without doubt. Savas does not control the board anymore.”
Nikos smiled. This was it. His dream was within reach now. He would sit in that chair, claim the prize of his hard work. He shook Theo’s hands, his breath ballooning up in his chest. He wanted to celebrate with Lexi, he wanted to...
“There is one condition, though.”
He had been expecting this. And Nikos was prepared. “Name your price, Theo.”
Theo held his gaze. “Marry my daughter, Nikos. Join the Demakis and Katrakis name forever.”
A buzzing filled Nikos’s ears. He shot up from his seat and grabbed the railing. The sea glimmered endlessly blue in front of him. But he heard nothing of the waves with blood rushing into his ears.
His first instinct was to scream the denial that was struggling to be let out of his throat. Distaste coated his tongue at the very thought of Eleni Katrakis. He would find a different way to the CEO’s chair. He couldn’t even indulge in the idea of looking at any other woman except Lexi, he couldn’t even...
All his thoughts came to a suffocating halt, his gut twisting into a hard knot. A chill broke out over his skin, despite the sun shining down. Was he actually considering walking away from his life’s mission because of one woman? Turning his back on everything he had worked toward? To give in to the unknown, unnamed sensation in his gut that filled him with fear over tangible prize? To follow in the same path his father had trodden, leaving nothing but destruction in his wake.
Nikos did not want that life; he had done everything he could to get away from it.
He had nothing to give Lexi, not the kind of woman she was—kind, generous, affectionate. The sooner they moved on with their lives the better.